From Bad to Worse
When I woke up Friday morning I had actually slept and was comfortable. I called Ardia from bed and told her I wanted to take another day, but was feeling better. Then I tried to get up.
My right leg was almost useless and the left was weak. Both were in pain. I called the Dr. to see if I should go to the ER but they wanted me to come in for a visit. Somehow I stupidly managed to drive myself there, using the cane to get to the car. Once I headed for the exam room I just broke down. The nurse got me a wheel chair and some tissues and then Dr. Resnick took a look at me. He prescribed steroids, perkiset, an MRI and seeing an orthopedist and said if it got any worse to head to the ER. They wheeled me back to the car where I headed to giant to get the prescriptions filled. The pharmacist was sad to see me. While waiting I made the appointment for the MRI. They couldn’t see me until Thursday and the orthopedist couldn’t see me until the 18th. I’m not sure what part of I can’t walk isn’t an emergency, but there you go. I got home, had some bread and apple sauce since I couldn’t stand to make anything and started my meds. Then I called Aly for some support.
Aly lit into me about doing too much and said she and Greg would be over that night. I said the house was a mess, at which point she told me she’d clean and Greg would do laundry. She offered their spare room and told me I had to suck it up and lean on friends. If it wasn’t for Aly I probably would have stayed stubborn. But I called Lydia and asked if I could stay with her for a bit. She came over, took out my trash, set up the animals, helped me pack and got my laundry. After Ralph commented that if I was that bad why wasn’t I going to the ER we decided he was right. As we left the phone rang. It was Tom. He was calling to see if I wanted to see a movie Sunday, so I told him I was heading to the ER and we’d have to play it b ear. That got a shocked silence. Lydia and I got BK and ate it in the Barnes and Noble parking lot. I called Monie to fill her in. She met us at the ER. When we pulled in the valet asked if I wanted a wheel chair and after I said yes the rest was no waiting.
Steve the ER nurse was great. He tried a bunch of pain meds but nothing even made me groggy so I can only guess how high my adrenalin was. The attending did a rather startling rectal exam then I was turned over to ortho and Lydia left me in Monie’s care. The ortho resident was a great woman whose name I need to get. She sent me for the MRI, which was quite a squeeze but I found that listening to NPR really helped. The Orderly of Doom said he saw the images and I’d be having surgery. Such the optimist. I was returned to Nurse Steve who lobbied for more pain meds for me and gave me a choice of percocet, Toridol or morphine. I asked for a recommendation and he suggested the Toridol and I vaguely remembered having gotten it for a migraine incident so we went with that. Didn’t help unfortunately.
So the lovely ortho resident returned with the news that I had a bulging disc which explained the pain and numbness. Odd thing was it was on the left, but the most pain and weakness was on my right. Ah well, only me. So I was admitted and Monie stayed with me until I got in my room and saw the attending, Dr. Star. He came in around 4 and said that the bulge was a contre coup injury, meaning that it displaced the nerve on the other side of the disk, which explained why my right hip hurt when my left leg went up. He told us that these things can heal themselves and since I was already showing improvement the outlook was pretty good. Monie got me tucked in and left around 5 AM. What a trouper!
My right leg was almost useless and the left was weak. Both were in pain. I called the Dr. to see if I should go to the ER but they wanted me to come in for a visit. Somehow I stupidly managed to drive myself there, using the cane to get to the car. Once I headed for the exam room I just broke down. The nurse got me a wheel chair and some tissues and then Dr. Resnick took a look at me. He prescribed steroids, perkiset, an MRI and seeing an orthopedist and said if it got any worse to head to the ER. They wheeled me back to the car where I headed to giant to get the prescriptions filled. The pharmacist was sad to see me. While waiting I made the appointment for the MRI. They couldn’t see me until Thursday and the orthopedist couldn’t see me until the 18th. I’m not sure what part of I can’t walk isn’t an emergency, but there you go. I got home, had some bread and apple sauce since I couldn’t stand to make anything and started my meds. Then I called Aly for some support.
Aly lit into me about doing too much and said she and Greg would be over that night. I said the house was a mess, at which point she told me she’d clean and Greg would do laundry. She offered their spare room and told me I had to suck it up and lean on friends. If it wasn’t for Aly I probably would have stayed stubborn. But I called Lydia and asked if I could stay with her for a bit. She came over, took out my trash, set up the animals, helped me pack and got my laundry. After Ralph commented that if I was that bad why wasn’t I going to the ER we decided he was right. As we left the phone rang. It was Tom. He was calling to see if I wanted to see a movie Sunday, so I told him I was heading to the ER and we’d have to play it b ear. That got a shocked silence. Lydia and I got BK and ate it in the Barnes and Noble parking lot. I called Monie to fill her in. She met us at the ER. When we pulled in the valet asked if I wanted a wheel chair and after I said yes the rest was no waiting.
Steve the ER nurse was great. He tried a bunch of pain meds but nothing even made me groggy so I can only guess how high my adrenalin was. The attending did a rather startling rectal exam then I was turned over to ortho and Lydia left me in Monie’s care. The ortho resident was a great woman whose name I need to get. She sent me for the MRI, which was quite a squeeze but I found that listening to NPR really helped. The Orderly of Doom said he saw the images and I’d be having surgery. Such the optimist. I was returned to Nurse Steve who lobbied for more pain meds for me and gave me a choice of percocet, Toridol or morphine. I asked for a recommendation and he suggested the Toridol and I vaguely remembered having gotten it for a migraine incident so we went with that. Didn’t help unfortunately.
So the lovely ortho resident returned with the news that I had a bulging disc which explained the pain and numbness. Odd thing was it was on the left, but the most pain and weakness was on my right. Ah well, only me. So I was admitted and Monie stayed with me until I got in my room and saw the attending, Dr. Star. He came in around 4 and said that the bulge was a contre coup injury, meaning that it displaced the nerve on the other side of the disk, which explained why my right hip hurt when my left leg went up. He told us that these things can heal themselves and since I was already showing improvement the outlook was pretty good. Monie got me tucked in and left around 5 AM. What a trouper!
posted by Liz @ 11:46 PM
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