Thinking I was
turning into a pain weenie and because the pain and swelling was
increasing day by day, I went back to the orthopedic doc last Friday. The real source of my pain is not so much from the broken bone, but from a skin infection that goes from my toes
to my knee, the area covered by the orthopedic boot. It is very much like the continuous searing
pain one endures with shingles. On a
1-10 pain chart I'd have to give it an 8.
It could easily claim the 9 or 10
spot, however I reserve 10 for the birth of a child or the death of one's
child. I save number 9 out of respect
for the intensity of pain that a man feels when getting kicked in the
balls. Of course not having this
equipment, I have no first hand experience, but what I witnessed when being the
kicker appeared intense, although short-lived.
Now that I think about it, maybe ball kickees shouldn't get the 9 spot
after all since the pain is so ephemeral.
Sorry guys, this means I have to trump your 9 and give you the 8.
I'm supposed to keep
my damaged leg elevated at night and from time to time during the day. The doctor tripled the dose of the pain med but it
sill doesn’t do much to numb anything during those times when I lower my foot from
an elevated position. I'm taking an anti
nausea med along with the pain med. So far it's doing a good job of curtailing
this side effect, however the two meds are causing me to spend more hours
sleeping than awake each day. I'm
looking forward to the antibiotic kicking this infection, so my body can focus
solely on healing my broken ankle
bone.
Meds: Coumadin,
Amiodarone, Cardizem, Promethazine, Percocet, Kelex, Vayacog, L-Carnitine,
Vitamin D, I-Caps, Flax seed oil, Multivitamin, B-12, L-Arginine, DHEA,
Calcium, Glucosamine
5 comments:
Seems like you can't win for losing. I guess I should just forget my cut pinky, it's nothing next to your pain.
Have you ever seen Brian Regan? You should watch his emergency room routine. I think you would not only laugh but it would help your pain some.
Prayers continue. Please get well.
A good friend of mine fell down some steps recently and hit his shoulder on the ground. According to the x-ray, it shattered into many little pieces at the top of his arm and shoulder. We prayed healing. Had to wait for swelling to go down to decide to operate or not. When he went back, the doctor said it looked like the pieces were moving back together on their own. Doc said probably 3 month recovery with surgery, 6 month recovery without surgery. But risk of infection during surgery. My friend said, "I'll recover in 3 months without surgery." We prayed healing. Doc said to wait two more weeks before operation decision. After two weeks, doctor says, "I don't know what you are doing, but all the little bone pieces are melding back together just like they need to. Not sure how they're doing it on their own."
So bones do heal. And surprise doctors!
I continue to pray miraculous healing in your leg and throughout your body, my friend! We need you crossing the road again soon!!! :)
Aunti- OMG, Brian Regan is so tears-rolling-down-your-cheeks funny. I really should put his youtube postings on speed dial for those emergency times when I need a good laugh. I love stand-up and when someone can pull it off like he does without resorting to profanity and off-color humor, it shows real talent. Although he's done shows in Asheville and Charlotte NC I've never seen him live. Think I'll add it to my bucket list.
Here's my take on the emergency room taken from my old blog, TIME LAPSES.
Monday, February 25, 2008
AILING AND WAILING
A satellite ER is closer to us, but several weeks ago when I suddenly became ill, my husband, the second smartest man on Earth, and I, headed to the emergency room at the big hospital downtown. We wanted to avoid the expense of being transported from one facility to another by ambulance as happened a few years ago.
For what that cold miserable ambulance ride cost us we could have hired a fleet of limos with a police escort and I could have ridden in comfort with some style thrown in. The ER personnel insisted upon ambulance transport then because I was under observation due to possible heart attack symptoms. Under observation, my buns!!!! I remained alone in the back of that dark, frigid, noisy ambulance while the attendant rode shotgun with the driver. I was frickin’ freezing back there trying to make do with the thin sheet they tossed over me. My weak voice, pleading for warmth couldn't be heard above the roar and no one came to my rescue during my 20-minute ride for life.
My traitor of a mind started playing tricks like trying to convince me that I had already died. "Of course it's cold in here. Corpses are always kept cold so they don't start stinking. Why would the attendant waste her time giving you any attention since you’re already dead." I became obsessed with trying to remember if that sheet they'd thrown over me had initially covered my face. If only I could remember that key fact, then I would know for sure if I were dead or alive.
I figure that being dead is akin to childbirth or something momentous that you've never personally experienced. But unlike childbirth and most other stuff, with death you don't get the chance to build on your experience. As my ambulance skidded into the entryway of the big hospital's admittance center, I realized I hadn't given up the ghost just yet, because I knew that medical personnel would never hustle like that if I was already a goner.
There was one observation from that experience a few years ago that should have made us wiser, but obviously didn't register right away during this recent trek for medical care. Second Smartest Man On Earth and I waited five hours in the standing-room-only ER to be told at midnight that the wait would be at least three more hours.
Thankfully, early on a security guard brought me a wheel chair and a throw-up pan when he sensed that I was probably going to slide off the counter I had draped myself across. But with the pain in my chest, the skull splitting headache and pressure, the nausea and the violent coughing, I wanted nothing more than to be horizontal. The cold hard floor looked so inviting except then I’d surely have more ailments from people stepping on me.
It finally occurred to us that the only way to be seen in a timely lifesaving manner at this place was to arrive by helicopter - the heliport was so busy it reminded me of O'Hare Airport on a Friday afternoon - or by ambulance. If you got there by your own transportation, there had to be blood and lots of it. We struck out on all accounts and since so many hours had passed, we made our own medical decision that since I was still alive, I probably wasn't having a heart attack or a stroke like my husband feared, so we returned home.
I’ve seen three different doctors over the past weeks. The first one said it was the flu, patted me on the back and sent me on my way. The second hit me up with antibiotics for bronchitis and the third gave me a stronger and longer round of antibiotics for a sinus and ear infection. I returned to the last doctor again last week. He took another stab at it and prescribed allergy meds and steroids and sent me for sinus and chest x-rays. He said he may need to refer me to the ENT specialist. He wants to see me again tomorrow.
Well, this is far too much whining about my ailments. I hope you and yours are managing to keep healthy during this time of high susceptibility to the winter crud.
Sandy, our bodies are amazing machines that were designed to heal themselves. Have you seen the Body Works Exhibit that's roaming around the country? We saw it at the Science Museum in Richmond VA this summer. Amazing, truly amazing. Here's another miraculous story from today's news:
A miraculous thing happened the day Michael Crowe was set to receive a potentially life-saving heart transplant. Doctors had determined the surgery would be ineffective - but his heart suddenly started beating again. Crowe, a 23-year-old pharmacy student from Omaha, had been diagnosed with acute myocarditis, or inflammation of the heart muscle, likely caused by a viral infection. When his mother brought him to the emergency room at his local hospital on Aug. 14, doctors found his heart was only functioning at about 25 percent efficiency. The hospital referred him to the Nebraska Medical Center, and by the time he was admitted to the intensive care unit there, his heart's efficiency had dropped below 10 percent.
"If he had come to us any later, his heart would have just stopped," Dr. John Um, Surgical Director of Heart Transplantation at Nebraska Medical Center told ABC News.
Doctors hooked Crowe up to a heart-lung machine that would essentially act as his heart for him, pumping blood throughout his body.
"When the heart stops, that's defined as clinical death," Dr. Um said. "In this case, his body only stayed alive because the machine was pumping his blood for him." Crowe was immediately placed on a list for an emergency heart transplant, and remained on the heart-lung machine in a medically induced coma until an appropriate donor heart became available.
After nearly three weeks, a heart was found. The good news was followed by bad, though: tests revealed he had contracted a blood infection. Doctors said he probably would not survive the transplant surgery.
About an hour later, one of his doctors noticed something strange - his blood pressure was going up, something that would be impossible if his body was only receiving blood through the machine.
"His heart started working again on its own," Dr. Um told ABC. "The left side of his heart was pumping blood again. The right side was still weak, so we slowly eased him off the machine. At this point, he was in pretty good shape." Dr. Um said this was the first time one of his patients has been on an external heart-lung machine for this long before his heart started beating again. "He's home now, doing great," Dr. Um said. "He's really, really lucky."
Um said doctors seem to be seeing more cases similar to this, in which a failing heart heals itself. "The interesting thing is that if he had gotten a transplant right away, we would have never known if he could have recovered on his own," Um said. "Now that we have technology that allows people to remain on external heart machines longer, we could see this more."
In the simplest terms, Dr. Um explained, the heart got sick, triggering an immune response that shut the heart down to fight the infection, and eventually healed itself. Technology kept Crowe's body alive while his heart healed.
Although there could be effects on his heart in the future, Dr. Um said young people who suffer from acute heart problems like Crowe's tend to make a full recovery, healing fully.
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