mid week

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

I know I sent my last blog out on Saturday, but funny things happen here.  I was in my room eating my lunch, Darcy wasn’t here so a “student” nurse set me up.  I am in my wheelchair eating my lunch and she hung my pee bag on the bed.  I do wear a condom catheter (I’ll let you figure out what that is) but I had to be at OT at 1 o’clock so I finished my lunch and drove away with my bag still attached to the bed.  As soon as the tube got tight, I stopped immediately.  A nurse was going by and I said I need some help.  She asked if it was an emergency, and of course I thought it was, because I had rolled over the tubing with my wheelchair and the bag was still attached to the bed.  We managed to untangle it, the tube from the wheels, and I was on my way.  It was funny after but not at the time.

My roommate has had 5 surgeries on his neck since June and he had his last surgery in the middle of November and was back in here but unfortunately they changed his pain medication and he was unable to sleep for 4 or 5 nights.  He finally convinced the doctor that he needed his medication increased.  He knows what he is talking about when it comes to pain control as he broke his neck in 1987 and was in here for 5 months and walked out.  He is now rehabbing and hopefully with his pain under control he will be able to get some sleep and head down the road to recovery.  He is an inspiration to me because he says he just never ever gives up.

My physio is going quite well.   As I probably mentioned I am sitting on the side of a bench and I can almost touch the ground with my finger, not quite but almost.  It seems that my lower back is getting stronger and I can sit up by myself on the bench for quite a while.  Instead of using the lift to move me from the bench to my wheelchair, they use a slider board which is a piece of plywood about a half inch thick, 8 inches wide and about 2 feet long.  And this is how it works – I lift up one side and they shove the board under my butt, I lean forward, a physio in front of me and one behind.  On a count of three, I push with my right leg and my right arm and they slide me out on the board.  I have learned that I need to wear gotchies when sliding on the board because bare skin doesn’t slide very well.  Now I have a really boney butt so I certainly know when I am sitting on a board.  There are three moves, first they slide me onto the board, second they slide me half way across and third they move me into my chair.  The hard part is when they jam the board under my butt and when they take it out.  So now what I have to learn to do is to do it by myself. 

At the present time, with only one arm working well, I can lift about 20% of my weight so to transfer from a chair to whatever, I will need at least two people to assist.  I can’t use a slider board to transfer to my bed because I have an air mattress and the board would just sink down into it.

I have reduced my pain killers a great deal.  I take 9 mg of longlasting Dilaudid at 8 am and 6 mg at 8 pm and I am allowed to have 2 mg every two hours if I need it.  I haven’t taken any additional for two weeks.  What I think is happening is, I was having acupuncture on my left leg and they were putting at least five needles in it and one of the physios suggested that I get tacks put in.  I immediately thought of carpet tacks and was a little apprehensive.  When they explained to me that it is just a small circular band-aid about 3/8” across with a millimeter long needle in it that they stick into your skin, I now have three tacks – one on my foot which is called the liver spot, and two just below my kneecap which is called the eyes of the knee.  I cannot believe the pain relief that I am getting because two weeks ago they had to be very careful touching my leg and now they can pick it up and move it around with relatively little pain.  I was never a believer in acupuncture, but something has to have helped the pain in my knee.  The constant motion machine that I use 1-2 hours daily is now flexing my knee from about 15 degrees stretched out up to 90 degrees.  The surgeon who is replacing my knee says I need it as straight as I can get it and up to 100 or 110 degrees flexion.  I will be working on that.  I only have another 20 degrees to go…..yikes!  But if I move it up slowly, I think I will be able to get it there.

Perhaps in my next blog I’ll have a list of all the meds I am taking.  For somebody who has never taken any pills, I have sure made up for it.

Catch ya later, Glen