and so went another day...
Well, I am blessed with friends... I am so grateful to you all. Wont name you here but I LOVE the meatloaf...it was breakfast. Lasagna will be dinner. And thanx, too, for picking up my Rx at HEB as they don't much fit my schedule right now.
I missed Dr Stovall AGAIN! ARGH. Apparently he works too freaking much so I keep missing him. He was here right before 7pm. I was looking for a parking space at that time. When I finally got my butt up to the 3rd floor with a change of clothes for Spirit, flowers (from Energy & spouse) and some CDs & DVDs (laptop is a useful thing), he had vanished off the wing. However, another wonderful friend, who had sat with Spirit ALL DAY, was here and gave me the rundown.
So, a really rough night ... the flex test last night at 9:30pm was a bit of an ordeal. Bend forward, take an Xray. Bend backward, take another Xray. And repeat. Oh, and, get left standing against the Xray machine because the tech gets so involved in the film that he forgets he left you leaning there. Not to mention, forgets that you are incapable of standing, much less standing alone & for minutes on end. Not to mention, Spirit is plastered with YELLOW, the color set aside for FALL RISK patients. From the yellow wristband all the way down to the Big Bird sock footies, yellow! Sigh...good help is so hard to find.
Came back to the room, finally got the pain from flex test under control 12 hours later. Only to have to pee, which means getting out of bed. Speaking of, Spirit actually made it to the restroom TWICE. Not the bedside potty but the actual bathroom!! 1st trip not too bad. 2nd trip was a doozie. Back to bed, back to the dilaudid. Lunch erased some of the horrors. Did I mention the food here rocks?
Lauren was on the floor again :-) Removed the dilaudid drip and Spirit is now doing on-demand only and they've added morphine in pill form.
So, concerned about one disc in particular-L5/S1. Congenital defect has become a hairline fracture. As it is showing to be stable (that was what the flex test was for) they will concentrate on getting swelling down (epidural & ibuprofen). Next step will be managing pain level. Once they wrestle those under control it will be off to physical therapy with Dr Stovall, here in same area as St Davids. Timeline? Eh, 72 hours, give or take for the epidural to take effect. Pain control, hopefully done simultaneously. Physical therapy....a bit longer.
BRIGHT NOTE!! Dr Stovall has agreed to accept Spirit as his patient since her doc (Dr Volpe) will no longer be covered under her insurance after 10/31/2009. ADC has decided not to renew their contract with TriCare. Darn. And I LIKE Dr Volpe... Wont mind losing Dr. Nemawarker. Her I could do without...bedside manner of a porcupine. Not that I don't LIKE porcupines...they are just not well suited for the medical profession. And that is about all I will say about that. Oh, except that you should always be wary of a doc that says to you (when you ask if she needs to know your other medications in case they interact) "Yes, they might interact but I don't need to know them." WTF??? Yeah, okay... I'm done.
So, dinner eaten, meds taken, more friends gathering for some bedside chat...see ya tomorrow.
I missed Dr Stovall AGAIN! ARGH. Apparently he works too freaking much so I keep missing him. He was here right before 7pm. I was looking for a parking space at that time. When I finally got my butt up to the 3rd floor with a change of clothes for Spirit, flowers (from Energy & spouse) and some CDs & DVDs (laptop is a useful thing), he had vanished off the wing. However, another wonderful friend, who had sat with Spirit ALL DAY, was here and gave me the rundown.
So, a really rough night ... the flex test last night at 9:30pm was a bit of an ordeal. Bend forward, take an Xray. Bend backward, take another Xray. And repeat. Oh, and, get left standing against the Xray machine because the tech gets so involved in the film that he forgets he left you leaning there. Not to mention, forgets that you are incapable of standing, much less standing alone & for minutes on end. Not to mention, Spirit is plastered with YELLOW, the color set aside for FALL RISK patients. From the yellow wristband all the way down to the Big Bird sock footies, yellow! Sigh...good help is so hard to find.
Came back to the room, finally got the pain from flex test under control 12 hours later. Only to have to pee, which means getting out of bed. Speaking of, Spirit actually made it to the restroom TWICE. Not the bedside potty but the actual bathroom!! 1st trip not too bad. 2nd trip was a doozie. Back to bed, back to the dilaudid. Lunch erased some of the horrors. Did I mention the food here rocks?
Lauren was on the floor again :-) Removed the dilaudid drip and Spirit is now doing on-demand only and they've added morphine in pill form.
So, concerned about one disc in particular-L5/S1. Congenital defect has become a hairline fracture. As it is showing to be stable (that was what the flex test was for) they will concentrate on getting swelling down (epidural & ibuprofen). Next step will be managing pain level. Once they wrestle those under control it will be off to physical therapy with Dr Stovall, here in same area as St Davids. Timeline? Eh, 72 hours, give or take for the epidural to take effect. Pain control, hopefully done simultaneously. Physical therapy....a bit longer.
BRIGHT NOTE!! Dr Stovall has agreed to accept Spirit as his patient since her doc (Dr Volpe) will no longer be covered under her insurance after 10/31/2009. ADC has decided not to renew their contract with TriCare. Darn. And I LIKE Dr Volpe... Wont mind losing Dr. Nemawarker. Her I could do without...bedside manner of a porcupine. Not that I don't LIKE porcupines...they are just not well suited for the medical profession. And that is about all I will say about that. Oh, except that you should always be wary of a doc that says to you (when you ask if she needs to know your other medications in case they interact) "Yes, they might interact but I don't need to know them." WTF??? Yeah, okay... I'm done.
So, dinner eaten, meds taken, more friends gathering for some bedside chat...see ya tomorrow.
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