Days You Don't Need

[sunday]

2 hours ago, Harold Jones said:

My wife popped her achilles while doing the low impact option at a fitness class.  When she asked the orthopedic surgeon (who looked like he was about 14) what could have caused it he said "Oh you're just at that age" I don't think he realized how close he came to death.

 

🤣🤣

[RETAC21]

2 hours ago, Steven P Allen said:

Oh, I used the phrase directly at her (it's not like she can chase me down at the moment).  I also told her I hoped the doc puts in a Zerk fitting this time* so I can keep the chassis greased.

 

*Long-running joke:  she is currently on her 7th right hip replacement.

Good luck!

[Stargrunt6]

1 hour ago, sunday said:

🤣🤣

Seriously, lol.

Medical training comes at the expense of people skills.

[BansheeOne]

4 hours ago, Harold Jones said:

When she asked the orthopedic surgeon (who looked like he was about 14)

It's even more fun when the anesthesist who dutifully explains to you what all could go wrong in surgery, and hands you forms with boxes to check like "are you an organ donor?" and "do you consent to an autopsy for quality control?“ looks like he's fresh out of high school ... 

Admittance tomorrow at 0630. Argh. I guess that's the price for the quick appointment. At least I can sleep in the OR. 😁

[Leo Niehorster]

Goof luck.

I'm due in 17.11.2020.

(You don't want to know.)😬

--

Leo

[Stargrunt6]

best sleep ever is under anesthesia.   

[Ivanhoe]

44 minutes ago, Stargrunt6 said:

best sleep ever is under anesthesia.   

I didn't enjoy the fat lip from whatever tubes they stuck down my throat. 

[Rick]

On 10/20/2020 at 6:21 AM, DougRichards said:

Years ago, playing football of the American variety, we taped our ankles before games and training, went through a lot of tape.  It seems that when you have an ankle injury the muscles / tendons etc can heal, but the nerves that provide warning of injury takes up to a year to heal.  Good taping - like a stirrup from one side to another, or even from the outside of the ankle to curl around the instep - gives hints to the ankle when you are about to be injured by tugging on the skin, which provides a second set of messages that you should either stabilise or indeed fall over rather than re-damaging the ankle.

My own experience of muscle damage.  20 years ago I was the on call person for an elderly neighbour.  When he pushed a device around his neck when he fell over I was contacted to attend to him.  One Christmas eve, after virtually carrying my wife in from our car, so my muscles were already tense, the neighbour had a fall.  I got him on his feet ready to sit him down in a stable position when he fell sideways, and I caught him with my right arm.  I did not know it for months, I was just thinking that my arm was a little sore, but I had ripped one head of by right bicep...   Orthopedic vet said I was the second youngest person that he had seen this, and it was too late to do anything about it.

And then, always an and then.  I kept doing strength and weight training as I had done for years.  My right shoulder started hurting a little, well, sort of.  Vet sent me off for a scan of the right shoulder which disclosed that I had torn both major tendons in my right shoulder.  Too late to do anything about it except some physiotherapy management and to make sure that I didn't place anything above shoulder height at home.

My physiotherapist looked at the scans and asked me to lift my right arm about my head; which I did.  Her next question was 'How can you do that?' as the injury was such that I should not have been able to raise my arm above shoulder level.  Well I guess the body compensates when it had to.  I took anti inflammatories for a long while to help me sleep..............

then, last year - deep vein thrombosis in right leg.  Had to take blood thinners and no anti-inflamatory drugs.  Paracetamol and sometimes codeine only.  Things got better, was able to take anti-inflamatories once I went off blood thinners.  BUT this year I got another deep vein thrombosis in the left leg.  I will be on blood thinners for the rest of my life.  Add to that arthritic knees from too much sport early on..... 

Such is life.  Meanwhile my wife is in hospital at the moment (she being 69 years old) and may not return home.  As I said, such is life.

Sincerely pray your wife, and you, are doing better now.

[Ivanhoe]

I wonder what frequency band the listening device going into Banshee's arm will transmit on?

[BansheeOne]

Well I was first on the ward's surgery list, so right after showing up this morning, I got handed some kinky garb and one and a half pills to make all my worries go away, then got rolled off by a yellowshirt bedpusher - they have an aircraft carrier-like color code system here. Last I remember was being transferred from the bed to the table, before even the IV access laid. Next thing I know I'm in the waking room and a nurse asks how I feel, and I say okay (they seemed not so satisfied with a patient on the oppposite side whom they somewhat insistently asked to talk to them). 

Then I'm gone again and wake in my room, but really sleep until shortly before 1600 (though my roommate tells me in some exasperation that I signed not having any known drug allergies after surgery, which I can't remember 😄 ). No pain due to a nerve block administered post-op, just a coarse voice from intubation, which goes away half a liter of water. Some sensation beginning only now, so I'll take the provided painkillers for the night.

Nice room, mostly nice staff, rather chatty roommate with a wrist broken by a couple aggressive drunks of his remote acquantance, and a slight conspiratory bend, good for much talking. He was terribly sorry for telling me before surgery that he kept twitching during his own procedure despite anesthesia, so they increased the load to the point he stopped breathing for a moment. He blamed it on his own drug aftereffects. The thread title should probably be amended by "and information you don't need". 😁

Edited October 22, 2020 by BansheeOne

[Stuart Galbraith]

I'm very glad for you that they were jumping the gun organizing the autopsy arrangements.

 

Any word how long you are staying in?

[Harold Jones]

22 hours ago, Ivanhoe said:

I wonder what frequency band the listening device going into Banshee's arm will transmit on?

Hopefully the pen he bought at the NSA gift shop will be backwards compatible whatever it is.

[BansheeOne]

Nah, it was an NSA t-shirt. It's the credit card I bought it with I used to worry about, but I have fortunately since lost it and changed banks. 😁

The nerve block wore off during the night, and I really felt the surgery despite the painkillers. At about four in the morning both my roommate and I asked for something stronger. I got some liquid stuff after which I slept for another two hours, quite sufficient since I had slept through half the previous day, and woke with basically no pain again. He got oxicodon, his second that night, and was out until breakfast was served. He later got his bandages changed, headed for his final x-ray, got a flexible splint and was discharged, so I currently have the room to myself.

The same guy who supplied the splint also fitted me with an orthesis holding the arm slightly off the body with a cushion. Which caused it to protest a little after having hung down straight for a week, but well, no pain, no gain. Have been marching around the room pumping the little ball attached at the front of the contraption. Let's see how I sleep with that thing. May be discharged tomorrow, though the ward physician said I could stay till Monday if necessary. 

[Ivanhoe]

Good that you're pumping that ball, that powers the surveillance device in your splint.

 

[BansheeOne]

Slept well for a total of about nine hours and could actually have done with more when the nurse woke me - guess I still ran up a deficit from the first night, or it's all the pain killers. Arm is still annoyed from the new position, but got the surgery dressing changed and the stitches were pronounced good. X-ray control has been ordered, and we're looking at discharge tomorrow. 

[seahawk]

All the best.

[sunday]

Good news.

[Rick]

Sincere wishes on a quick and easy recovery.

[Stargrunt6]

Get well soon.

[Leo Niehorster]

@BansheeOne

How was the patient protected at night/while sleeping in the hospital? How was the face mask issue handled?

--

Leo

[Stuart Galbraith]

Knowing German efficiency, im guessing something like this....

 

Get well soon Banshee.

[BansheeOne]

Protected as in medically, or physically? There's the usual call button at each bed, plus at the table in the room, and a string next to the toilet. The ward's duty station is right across from my room; ward has 30 double- and four single-bed rooms, and a shift seems to be four nurses at day, at least one at night. While I lay awake last night, I noticed my door being opened for a moment, but don't know if somebody thought they heard something from my room (I had trouble sleeping and went out of and into bed) or it was a general welfare check; didn't note this the previous nights though. I'm not hooked to any telemetry, too.

Brought my CPAP and even was advised to take it to be OR so they could put it on while I was recovering in the waking room, but from what I can recall they didn't - it's kinda hazy though. I had it in my nightstand with the mask hung over the bed's overhead gripping bar by day. Probably its only use for me, since the bar is marked "75 kg". 😁 I advised my roommate it might make some noise, and he got himself some earplugs from staff. 

Got the x-ray this morning, and the duty ward physician was just in to tell me it looks okay. She's going to finish the paperwork, and then I'm off. 

 

[Stefan Fredriksson]

On 10/20/2020 at 12:21 PM, DougRichards said:

Years ago, playing football of the American variety, we taped our ankles before games and training, went through a lot of tape.  It seems that when you have an ankle injury the muscles / tendons etc can heal, but the nerves that provide warning of injury takes up to a year to heal.  Good taping - like a stirrup from one side to another, or even from the outside of the ankle to curl around the instep - gives hints to the ankle when you are about to be injured by tugging on the skin, which provides a second set of messages that you should either stabilise or indeed fall over rather than re-damaging the ankle.

My own experience of muscle damage.  20 years ago I was the on call person for an elderly neighbour.  When he pushed a device around his neck when he fell over I was contacted to attend to him.  One Christmas eve, after virtually carrying my wife in from our car, so my muscles were already tense, the neighbour had a fall.  I got him on his feet ready to sit him down in a stable position when he fell sideways, and I caught him with my right arm.  I did not know it for months, I was just thinking that my arm was a little sore, but I had ripped one head of by right bicep...   Orthopedic vet said I was the second youngest person that he had seen this, and it was too late to do anything about it.

And then, always an and then.  I kept doing strength and weight training as I had done for years.  My right shoulder started hurting a little, well, sort of.  Vet sent me off for a scan of the right shoulder which disclosed that I had torn both major tendons in my right shoulder.  Too late to do anything about it except some physiotherapy management and to make sure that I didn't place anything above shoulder height at home.

My physiotherapist looked at the scans and asked me to lift my right arm about my head; which I did.  Her next question was 'How can you do that?' as the injury was such that I should not have been able to raise my arm above shoulder level.  Well I guess the body compensates when it had to.  I took anti inflammatories for a long while to help me sleep..............

then, last year - deep vein thrombosis in right leg.  Had to take blood thinners and no anti-inflamatory drugs.  Paracetamol and sometimes codeine only.  Things got better, was able to take anti-inflamatories once I went off blood thinners.  BUT this year I got another deep vein thrombosis in the left leg.  I will be on blood thinners for the rest of my life.  Add to that arthritic knees from too much sport early on..... 

Such is life.  Meanwhile my wife is in hospital at the moment (she being 69 years old) and may not return home.  As I said, such is life.

My deepest sympathies. Can you at least visit her?

[DougRichards]

51 minutes ago, Stefan Fredriksson said:

My deepest sympathies. Can you at least visit her?

Hello Stefan.  Yes I visit her nearly every day, except when she is having a procedure under anesthetic.  She is suffering from recurring infections, her kidneys and liver are in very poor shape.  The doctors have said that they will make her as comfortable as possible, but the infections mean that she is not always aware of just how unwell she is.  We pray together when we can.  Other days she is just so in the grip of delirium that I cannot stay and talk with her, she is just too demanding.  The doctors have advised that if she stops breathing resuscitation will not be attempted. 

And today I get a call (Sunday - so regular doctors are not on the ward) to talk about an albumin infusion.  Yes, she needs blood products infusions just to delay the inevitable.

I am planning her funeral already, a simple cremation and then a remembrance  at our normal Sunday service.  In the Anglican Church in Australia we regularly have baptisms to greet the newly born into the faith.  Our minister has agreed to have a short commemoration of my wife's life as part of our normal Sunday service.

My wife's name is Dagmar, yes, northern European in origin.  Her 'father' was British, part of the occupation forces in Austria at the end of WW2.  Her mother was Austrian, at a time when there were few young Austrian men left in the vicinity so she sought a suitable partner.  Her father and mother (well, the person she knew as her father) came to Australia so that he could serve with the Australian army in Korea and after.  Unfortunately the 'father' and mother were both deeply damaged people, and Dagmar's childhood was not a happy one.   She and her siblings suffered emotional, physical and sexual abuse.  She was once thrown across the room (when she was five) into a wall so that she broke her collarbone.  An army medic treated her so that the authorities would not know about it.

Her 'father' (she was actually the result of an affair of her mother's to get pregnant) was sent to Maralinga, to work where the British government tested atomic weapons back in the 1950s.  So much dysfunction.

I can only be grateful that I may have lead her to Christ, as there have been times when she has been sorely oppressed. 

We do not have children but I am closer to my wife's nieces than their own mother, who suffers from schizophrenia as a result of abuse (the nieces' father passed a few years ago so I am the older responsible male they know that they can call upon) and their uncle who has a couple of acquired brain injuries (a screwdriver embed in his skull for example).  So even when my wife passes I will be close to two wonderful women (40 and 42 years old ) and their children as family.  I have already let them know that I will be available for them and their children if needed).

Yes, that is how it is. 

 

Edited October 25, 2020 by DougRichards
corrections

[Stefan Fredriksson]

6 hours ago, DougRichards said:

Hello Stefan.  Yes I visit her nearly every day, except when she is having a procedure under anesthetic.  She is suffering from recurring infections, her kidneys and liver are in very poor shape.  The doctors have said that they will make her as comfortable as possible, but the infections mean that she is not always aware of just how unwell she is.  We pray together when we can.  Other days she is just so in the grip of delirium that I cannot stay and talk with her, she is just too demanding.  The doctors have advised that if she stops breathing resuscitation will not be attempted. 

And today I get a call (Sunday - so regular doctors are not on the ward) to talk about an albumin infusion.  Yes, she needs blood products infusions just to delay the inevitable.

I am planning her funeral already, a simple cremation and then a remembrance  at our normal Sunday service.  In the Anglican Church in Australia we regularly have baptisms to greet the newly born into the faith.  Our minister has agreed to have a short commemoration of my wife's life as part of our normal Sunday service.

My wife's name is Dagmar, yes, northern European in origin.  Her 'father' was British, part of the occupation forces in Austria at the end of WW2.  Her mother was Austrian, at a time when there were few young Austrian men left in the vicinity so she sought a suitable partner.  Her father and mother (well, the person she knew as her father) came to Australia so that he could serve with the Australian army in Korea and after.  Unfortunately the 'father' and mother were both deeply damaged people, and Dagmar's childhood was not a happy one.   She and her siblings suffered emotional, physical and sexual abuse.  She was once thrown across the room (when she was five) into a wall so that she broke her collarbone.  An army medic treated her so that the authorities would not know about it.

Her 'father' (she was actually the result of an affair of her mother's to get pregnant) was sent to Maralinga, to work where the British government tested atomic weapons back in the 1950s.  So much dysfunction.

I can only be grateful that I may have lead her to Christ, as there have been times when she has been sorely oppressed. 

We do not have children but I am closer to my wife's nieces than their own mother, who suffers from schizophrenia as a result of abuse (the nieces' father passed a few years ago so I am the older responsible male they know that they can call upon) and their uncle who has a couple of acquired brain injuries (a screwdriver embed in his skull for example).  So even when my wife passes I will be close to two wonderful women (40 and 42 years old ) and their children as family.  I have already let them know that I will be available for them and their children if needed).

Yes, that is how it is. 

 

I wish I could say something intelligent, or encouraging. I can not.

I hope that her passing is as painless as possible. Take care.