Kitty’s Place

Monday I was to Danderyd. I had an 0930 appointment and had arranged to miss my first class of the day. I missed them all. It was 1330 by the time I was done with my xrays and doctor visit. The doctor said he was going to give me a prescription for something with codiene in it and told me my arm was not healing, it was actually worse and I am not to move it at all except to change clothes. He mumbled something about the sling and working but I wasn’t sure if it was that it was working or not working. Then he said make an appointment for a repeat xray and visit next week.

After I left his office I sobbed for a bit. I had taken tylenol before I left home at 0800 but didn’t have anything with to take after that and I was in pain. I have to say now that the pain I was having was excruciating. Added to the underlying pain were constant severe spasms in my upper arm and then the achiness of not used joints on top of that. I was not sleeping more than 2 hours at a stretch, had at least one time a day when I was hanging over the toilet retching from the pain, it was awful. I had been to the district nurse on the 4th, she took out my stitches and she suggested I try Voltaren since it is now available over the counter. I did try it and helped reduce the swelling in my arm which eased the pain for a bit, but then it came back full force and voltaren every 8 hours with tylenol halfway between the voltaren doses just kept me at a level where I could funtion but not concentrate for any length of time. But there was a light at the end of the tunnel, the doctor was going to give me something more effective for pain.

I stopped at the pharmacy when I got back here at 1530, there was no prescription (they are all sent electronically these days). I checked again after I got LL from school … no script. I went back tuesday morning, nothing. So I called to the hospital and heard back from them Tuesday afternoon. The nurse said there were no notes written from my visit the day before but she would speak to the doctor and he would send in my prescription. I asked about the sling and she suggested I speak with their physiotherapist. So I called her and surprise, she answered directly and was so pleasant and helpful it restored my faith in our health care system immediately.

So the story is this: I have a crack in the bone of my right arm and an entire muscle group is stretched and torn. The sling I am using is the type that is best for this type of injury. She was surprised I had only been given tylenol for pain, said that I was likely having very much pain (understatement of the year *laugh*) and that she could see on the computer that my prescription had been sent to the pharmacy. She also said she would see me in a couple weeks and gave me some hints to make things easier with the sling. Mostly what was good to hear was that once I got the new pain sedation, it would relieve the underlying pain, which would let me relax, which would stop the spasming. which would help the underlying pain ease up. *laugh*

So Tuesday I got my pills, the swedish equivalent of Tylenol #3. I took two at bedtime, since they are to be taken “2 pills, 4 times a day, for pain relief”. I slept the entire night, it was wonderful. I took two more when I got up around 0700 and by the time we dropped LL off at 0800, I was nauseated, sweaty, dizzy and feeling like I was in clouds. So I came home, threw up, let the school know I was not coming in and fell asleep. At 1100 the phone rang and woke me, it was a friend who I had arranged to meet at school. So she came here instead, we had lunch and a visit and that was nice. I realized once I was no longer drugged up that 60 mg of codeine is a bit of a whopping dose for someone who is not used to taking strong medications. This is what I took when I had the big kidney stone and then it was only one at a time, not two. So I cut back to taking only one pill but I am taking them every 4 hours and it is helping the pain. I am still not functioning though, 20 or so minutes after I take one, I am so light headed I have to lie down and then I sleep for a couple hours. On the good side, the pain is less, if I am sleeping I am resting my arm and my body is getting to use it’s resources towards healing. On the bad is that I have missed school this week because I am not in any shape to be there. I have two tests to write tomorrow and I postponed a third to next Friday and there is a fourth that needs to be written before fall break. I honestly don’t know how I am going to do it, at this point my swedish is failing me as a result of the sedation, but I need my arm to heal properly, I can’t nurse if I have a shoulder joint that dislocates easily. I will just have to have faith it will work out.

In other news, my fellow is going away for 2 days, so I guess I will be sleeping in my clothes, since he helps me with my bra and tying up things. *laugh* The kidlet is also going away to a sleepover at the Scout hall. He is excited about that. The optical place just called and the new lenses are in for my glasses. Rusty is eating better, Susan is frisky and I have offered my fellow’s sister Majong, since she is catless and missing hers. Even LL said “yeah that would be ok if she borrowed Majong”, when I mentioned it …. I don’t think he knew I was joking. *laugh*

Here we are a month later. What has happened the past month? School, homework, politics, the kidlet turned 9 and I fell last weekend and did some major damage to me. *laugh*

School and homework take up a lot of time and I am feeling overwhelmed some days. It seems to be going well though if test results are any indication. The kidlet is enjoying school as well. My fellow is back in the swing of things politically after a fairly quiet summer. I was at a couple meetings and am back in the swing as well.

LL turned 9! Imagine! He had a party at home and it was fun. I was wishing I had a video camera to record the kids sticking their faces in the whipped cream part of the birthday cake. It would have been fun to show them all when they are 19. *grin*

Majong is at home, thinks he is a dog and attempts to go with when we take them out but when we actually take him out he is still overwhelmed with the big outdoors. Susan has put on weight from snacking in the cat’s bowl and from Rusty’s as well. So she is back on a strict diet and the other bowls are out of her reach now. Rusty is not eating so well, he would prefer our food and begs or steals every chance he gets. So we are going to try changing his food again. There are pictures up on the Applegrove site of Rusty’s half siblings that were born in August. They are just too cute and if we had the room and the time I would love one more. I will not say that to my fellow though, he would go white with fright. *laugh*
So what did I do to myself last weekend? It was a lovely Saturday, we went to the bus garage where there was an open house. We toured the building, rode in an old bus and went through the bus wash. Chatted with our neighbour who is a bus driver and LL explained to the man conducting the tour that he had been in a bus garage before in Canada where his uncle is the boss. *laugh* It was overcast and misting rain when we came home. My fellow headed out at once to a meeting and I took Rusty for a walk. We were on our way home, maybe 20 meters from the door when I ended up flat on my face on the asphalt path. I heard a thunking noise and thought “crap, I have broken my nose”. I still can’t say for sure what happened, it was raining fairly steady and there were wet leaves and berries where I fell, so I have to assume I slipped on those. Poor Rusty ran ahead about 5 meters and when I called him he would come just out of arms reach and then run away again. He was so spooked from the blood and there was a lot of it. Finally he came close enough for me to catch up his leash and get him to stand beside me so I could hug him and get up to my knees. It was then I discovered that I had hurt my right arm. I got up to my feet with Rusty’s help and walked home sobbing, covered in blood with my right arm clutched to my chest. I had to ring the bell to get in, my phone and keys were in my right hand pocket and I could not get to them. The kidlet did what he is supposed to do, looked out before unlocking the door and what a shock it must have been for him. He opened the door just as I rang a second time, asked what happened and then said “ok, what do I need to do”. He was so brave and level headed I was amazed and very proud of him. I told to call his dad and when he had done that, I asked for a wet cloth to wipe my face. Then I went and looked in the mirror and it was not a pretty sight. My fellow came directly home and drove me to the ER where I was attended to in record time. I did break my nose, but it was a small fracture that the doctor manipulated manually last week and set. I had 2 lacerations on my forehead above my right eye that eventually required 11 stitches. Because they were so deep, I had a CT of my skull and face that showed I had not fractured my skull and there was no bleeding or swelling in my brain. (and here I was thinking there was nothing up there *laugh*) The worst injury however was the arm. By the time Ibo was home I had had time to assess the injuries myself and I knew it was a dislocated shoulder, not a fracture. I also knew it would have to be fixed without sedation because of the head injury. So I was not a happy girl, very scared. The first orthopod looked at me and was smart enough to go and get someone who had dealt with dislocations before. The second orthopod tried two methods of getting the shoulder joint back into place with no success. So they used the bedsheet method, just like I knew they would. I have done it myself when I worked in the ER but always on people who had had sedation. It worked like a charm, a little counter pressure, a twist of the arm and an audible pop when the shoulder went back into the socket. The absence of pain when it was done was amazing. *laugh* As soon as they had the shoulder in place my fellows came back in and the kidlet saw that I was ok. Then his dad took him to a birthday party he had been looking forward to. It was a long time in the ER, 8 hours before I had all the xrays, ct scan and suturing done. So the arm is in a sling, I am not supposed to use it at all at the moment and it is extremely painful because it spasms so much. I go back to Danderyd (hospital) tomorrow to see and orthopedic surgeon and have another set of xrays done. I am going to ask about some type of medicine for the spasms. At the moment the only thing prescribed for me is Tylenol and it is not cutting it.

So there is the excitement in our house. My fellow has not gone to Amsterdam since my fall and he has taken out the dogs morning and night. Thank goodness he is home because I have discovered something. It is really really really hard to do up your bra when you have one arm incapacitated. *laugh*