Another Trip to the E.R.

So, the weekend was pretty good overall, but my left calf muscle was still really tight. It felt like a constant charlie horse. The doctor's offices are closed because it was Memorial Day weekend, so I had to wait until today to call and make an appointment. I call my new PCP's office and they can get me in at 1:30. I come in and explain the systems and she tells me she can see 2 possible things it could be. 1 - it could be that I have a blood clot, which would be weird because I have been up and walking around and moving my legs, 2 - it could be that the nerves in my calf are dying because the ones they are linked to in my spine were compressed for too long, and they just can't recover. She sends me for an ultra sound at a place right behind the E.R., she said if they say it is blood clots, I have to go to the E.R. to get the first dose of blood thinner, and they'll send me home. I get in right away, and sure enough, I have 2 blood clots in my left calf that are not completely obstructing blood flow (otherwise they would have been way more painful)! Cody and I head over to the E.R., Cody has to work tonight, so he's going to have to leave me at the ER and Donna will come and wait with me. Cody comes and gets me checked in, and there are A LOT of people, way more than the previous 2 times I was here. I get checked in and he has to leave. I put in a call to the neurosurgeon, because he is at this hospital today today, and maybe he can get me in earlier, but I have to leave a message. Donna arrives a little while later, she tells the check in lady that my neurosurgeon is at the hospital today, but there isn't much they can do at check in. We get to triage, I'm not sure if the lady was new or what, but I was like, my neurosurgeon is here today, can you please let him know. She's like, uh I'll check on that. I explain that my ultrasound results should have been sent right over, she can't find them, I tell her that I have 2 confirmed blood clots. I call my PCP's office, who said they have them and will fax them right over. Donna insists that I get a wheelchair and as soon as we get out of triage they are calling me to be seen by a doctor. My PCP's office calls back to see if they have been received, I say they must because I'm getting ready to be examined again. A nurse comes back and says that I will be admitted, which really upsets me because I don't like spending time in the hospital, and that they will have to put in an i.v. I do NOT like needles... I talked them out of the i.v. the day after my surgery was complete because they are so very uncomfortable, but they insist I have to have one. Donna calls my mom to let her know that I am back in the hospital for blood clots. An EMT (or so I thought until she turned around and I read her t-shirt that says Pima EMT Trainee) comes and puts in an i.v. then another nurse comes and gives me my first blood thinning injection in my stomach. I'm not having a good time at all. I'm not sure if I've had a bowel accident, and they won't let me walk to the bathroom to check (they'll bring me a bedside toilet, uh no thank you), they tell me they are working on getting me a room. Finally about, 45 minutes later someone comes to take me to my room. They're wheeling the bed and we get to the room, but it isn't big enough for them to roll the bed I'm on into so they can transfer. The orderly asks if I can walk, and I say that I walked into the hospital, Donna doesn't want me to walk. But, I do and while I'm up, my first stop is the bathroom!! Luckily, no accident, but my bladder sure was full!! I'd gone about 6 hours without peeing which is like, a post-surgery all time best while awake! I get into bed and then there is just waiting. The day nurse comes through, but she'll be leaving in just a bit because of the change in shifts. She informs me that I've missed the dinner cut off, so Donna agrees to go get me something to eat, she doesn't want to leave me alone, but she hasn't eaten either. She brings us back some dinner and we eat. It's about 8 o’clock and Cody should be getting off of work soon, so he should be here about 9, I tell her to go home and see Gordon and Tiffany, I'll try and get some sleep, she reluctantly agrees. I let Cody know what I'd like from home since he has to go there first and give Castro his insulin and food (more Depends, some wipes, iPad, library book, fuzzy socks, birth control) and he brings everything except the birth control (I forgot to include it, even though I was thinking of it). We visit for a bit, he eats some dinner. We talk, I don't want to leave the cat alone, and I should be getting out tomorrow, so I think he should sleep at home. He doesn't want to leave me, but knows he won't get much sleep in the chair. He leaves around midnight. I do manage to get some sleep between poking and prodding.

First Post Op Follow-up

The weekend was pretty uneventful, I had a visit from Cammy on Saturday because she was dropping off pictures from water day so I can add it to a cd full of pictures from the year.

Today I had my first post-op with the neurosurgeon. He is pleased that my bladder has pretty much come back, but a little disappointed that the bowels didn't come back with them. Usually the recovery of the bladder and bowels goes hand in hand, but not always. He lets me know that if we hit the 3 month mark and things still haven't come back that we will start to consider it a permanent thing. He checks out my incision and says that it is looking good. He also says that the numbness in my left leg is normal, and we're looking at the same time frame for the bladder and bowels. Cody asks how different my current situation could be if we'd gotten in sooner. The neurosurgeon thinks we got the surgery relatively early (he thinks the disc ruptured on Wednesday, so surgery on Friday was an early reaction). He also said that I need to start walking around more, trying to get back to normal. The only thing with this is that the numbness on the bottom of my left foot makes it a little uncomfortable and my feet are still pretty swollen. I tell him that my calves (even my right one) are numb and that I noticed it when I was shaving my legs the day before. He squeezes my leg and says that if there was a blood clot I would be jumping off the table in pain. He suggests that I just give it more time. I ask about paperwork that I need filled out for work. He says it will cost $25 and they can mail it out when it is done (The Tempe Doctor's Office was going to charge $25/page!). We leave the office and head to the library to drop off my library books that were due. Then we head to school so that I can turn in my signed contract. I get to stop in and see Lynn, and she is happy to see me up and around. When I get into some detail about what happened she is insistent that I don't go back to the Tempe Doctor's Office, since they dropped the ball. She suggests that I send an email out to the staff for recommendations. I'm not ready to see the kids yet because I'm afraid they'll try and hug me and they're incision height. I get to see some other teachers that I have been missing as well. We grab some McDs for lunch, then head home. Even that little bit has me pretty exhausted. We relax and watch some t.v. and I send out the email to the staff getting some recommendations for a new doctor's office.