Hello!
Warning:
This will be a lengthy newsletter as my New Year
really arrived with an unexpected bang.
I've
told you about all the pain I've had for eight months now with my left hip
trying to keep my pain level down, walking with two canes, and living in the
recliner.
Annette,
Curtis, and little Ellie came over the New Year for our family Christmas. On
the night of January 2nd, when I went to bed and rolled over on my right side a
sharp pain hit me in my hip & spine.
I spent the night in the recliner with icepacks. By morning, my hip
& spine were still hurting, and I had a headache, so figured my blood
pressure was up. Dwight called a nurse, she came, checked my BP which was
110/90, and immediately called for an ambulance. Just being jolted over the rough
gravel in our driveway getting to the ambulance, on the stretcher, raised my
pain level even more. You know your BP is high when they take it twice in the
same arm, switch to the other arm, and then take your BP manually. By then I
was having a horrible headache. I knew
things were bad as the siren was going and we were racing around the curves
fast. Then I heard the guy beside me holler to the one driving that I was
stroking and to call for a helicopter. They couldn't get a helicopter so rushed
me to the local ER. The staff rolled me
on my left side, even though I kept telling them my left hip & spine hurt
to get x-rays, ruling out that I didn't have a broken hip, and the joint was
still in place, leaving me in terrible agony.
I
was transported to Vanderbilt that afternoon. When the ambulance arrived at the
ER, we had to go through security. The guard ripped off the blanket covering
me, leaving my chest exposed from where they put cardio strips, waving a wand
over the entire stretcher. That was my first time having a strip search. I don't know it they thought we were trying
to smuggle guns into the hospital or what. When he yanked the basin out of my
arms, even the EMT protested. As soon as I was wheeled inside, I was surrounded
by staff digging in my stomach and poking me everywhere. A young girl, who said
she was the neuro specialist, began examining me too. After shining a light in
both eyes and asking questions, she took a mallet and began hitting my right
side. I told her not to touch my left side. Didn't she go and hit my left
ankle? I started crying asking her to stop but she kept hitting it saying,
"It isn't your hip, so it doesn't hurt." Then didn't the crazy girl
begin hitting my left knee with the mallet! My pain immediately spiked, and I
started screaming in pain. I heard them say, "Let's leave her to rest a
bit." and they all walked out of the side room, with the monitor screeching
loudly without any call button to push for help. My head was killing me, and I began throwing
up again. Several people walked by, looked in, and kept going- even though I
called for help. Finally, a colored maintenance guy appeared, looked at me, and
ran for a nurse. A nurse came running, yelled for a doctor saying, “She’s
stroking and giving the room number” as she began pushing, running my stretcher
down the hallway. The left side of my face had dropped again, and my left side
was weak. I finally got through that Annette was there. After the ambulance
took me, Annette packed some stuff for me and stopped by the local ER to see me
telling me that she’d meet me at the Vanderbilt ER, on their way back home to
Madison. Annette stayed with me through the long rough night as I was NPO and
kept throwing up- even with the meds they gave me for nausea- so was dehydrated
as due to my high blood pressure they wouldn’t give me IV fluids. Early
Sat
morning they wheeled me down the hall for a C-scan, but I was so nauseous that
they couldn’t do the scan. A young girl popped in the ER room and said she
needed to do an echocardiogram and wanted me to lie on my left side or back,
which I couldn’t tolerate because of my pain. She left and someone else came
and took me back to do the C-Scan again. This time I kept my eyes shut as they
ran my stretcher down the hallway. I was flat on my back in the machine so was
hurting when it finally got over. There was a group that looked like college
kids doing the scan. I could hear them talking and laughing over the mike
sounding like they were having a party as I waved and hollered trying to get their
attention that the scan was finished. They finally all came rushing back to me
and I was whizzed back to the ER room again. I was at last allowed to have
something to drink. A nurse brought me some packs of plain crackers as I told
them I could feel my sugar dropping. The
crackers were quite stale- who knows how old. My mouth was so dry; I choked
trying to eat the cracker. So, I dipped the cracker into my ginger ale until it
was soggy but when I’d bit it and tried to chew it, it was like chewing
cardboard. Knowing I had to get something in me before I passed out, I dipped
and chewed up several packs of those stale crackers.
A
little latter, a friendly woman about my age came into the room and said she
would do the echocardiogram. I told her that I couldn’t lie on my back or left
side because of the pain in my hip & spine.
She said, “Don’t you worry, dear, I can do it however you are.” She then proceeded to set everything up with
the equipment, muttering to herself as she moved stuff around saying, “Now
where did I put that?” When the regular gram was over and she had to do it
again with dye, she apologized for the taste saying she didn’t know why they
couldn’t have something better tasting like bubblegum or something. We were
laughing and talking having a lovely time together. All too soon it was all
done. She put all her equipment back and wheeled the cart around the side to
the bottom of my stretcher when she remembered that she had left some trash on
the counter. She turned back to get the trash leaving her cart. For some reason
my floor in the ER room was slanted. Every time someone would unlock the wheels
of my stretcher to take me somewhere and turn around to get something, the
stretcher would roll across the room sideways, and I’d find myself lying partway
underneath the computer the nurses used.
As soon as the staff person would turn back and see me, they would pull
the stretcher out and apologize. So, lo and behold, didn’t the electrocardiogram
cart begin rolling across the room heading right towards the doorway while she,
with her back turned to it, was throwing the trash away. I started laughing.
When the lady turned, she looked around and asked, “Where on earth did my cart
go too?” Thankfully, the cart had stopped sideways at the door. I told her it
was like the gingerbread man running away.
My
breakfast tray had arrived earlier. I was so hungry but agreed to do the
electrocardiogram first. So, at last I could eat. I was starving! I sat up and eagerly picked
up a fork to eat the scrambled eggs. I
had only taken three bites when I started throwing up again. I was so
disappointed.
I
had been told halfway in the night that an MRI was scheduled where I’d be put
under. I thought, great, I could finally get an MRI done instead of waiting
until April. When the new shift nurse came in to talk to me about the MRI, I
found out that for the MRI would only be sedated but I’d still be wake. I
panicked as I’m very claustrophobic- even the fifteen minute open scan that morning
had me stressed out until it was over. I
knew I could never go through being put inside a machine awake. I started
crying. By then Dwight had arrived. He had taken care of the animals, packed
up, and started out for Nashville the night before and was partway when he
remembered that he had forgotten to get his factor. So, he turned back and called Annette, who
told him to wait until the morning to come as she was staying with me so he
could get a good night’s rest as Dwight was so stressed and worn out. Annette had texted Dawn, and they all wanted
me, since I was already at Vanderbilt to go ahead and do the MRI. Dwight tried to calm me down too. The nurse
came back and told me she had checked to see what sedation they were planning
on using as her mother was the same way hating MRI’s having bad arthritis and
being claustrophobic. She told me that the sedation scheduled was the best, I’d
not even know what was happening, and as soon as I said to “stop” if I couldn’t
take anymore, they would immediately stop.
If I refused, I’d end up being discharged. She told me that I really
needed to have the MRI of my brain to check for bleeding before I left. When I found out it would only take ten
minutes, I agreed feeling dumb that I had put up such a fuss thinking it would
be my hip and take a least an hour. The nurse called ahead to tell them to be
sure and give the sedation to me as soon as I got back there. The sweet nurse
also checked and worked it out where I could also get the hip MRI done as well
that afternoon. The last thing I remember was being raced down the hallway and
getting to the room only to wake up back in the ER room again with everything
done.
I
was transferred to another room- still part of the ER- after the second MRI. It
was so good to get out of the main noisy ER section. The neurologist specialist
and team came by and then the spinal surgeon to let me know that everything was
clear and ruled out. For supper, I ate a dry roll and sipped on ginger ale as
Dwight tried to a spoonful of mashed potatoes into me. He slept on a chair that
night beside my bed.
Sunday
morning, we were wakened really early by someone coming to draw blood. Dwight
tried to get me to eat and drink something every little bit throughout the day
as I was so weak. I’d get dizzy if I tried to sit up or lay down too
quickly. That night sitting up, talking
and laughing with my pain under control, the monitor suddenly went off. The
nurse raced in, checked me, and raced out to call a doctor. My blood pressure had spiked at 127/100 for
no reason. She injected me with something and said if it didn’t come down
within fifteen minutes, she’d call the dr again. Thankfully, it came down but the
dr ordered another brain MRI and then a spinal MRI was added too. I didn’t get
back to the room until midnight quite stressed out as they had changed the
sedation, and I wasn’t completely under.
We
had dozed off for only a couple of hrs when the neurologist and then the
surgeon came by to tell us that everything was clear again on the MRI’s. Another
hour and a girl came to get blood. About six am, after being interrupted all
night, the door opened, the bright lights were turned on, and four people
appeared in my room telling me that they were taking me for x-rays! Thankfully,
my face was back to normal, and I was able to go to the bathroom using a
walker. Since all the tests came back OK- none of the specialists could figure
out what was causing my intense pain- I was discharged. I had to have two
pillows and sedated to make the trip back home.
Tues,
the home health came to set me up. I had lost seven pounds from being so dehydrated.
Early Wed morning, I woke up, needed to use the bathroom, didn’t realize my
sugar had dropped, and using my walker fell in-between the toilet and tub. I
had to crawl on my stomach to the bedroom where Dwight could hear me calling.
It gave him quite the scare. The nurse came later that day to check my BP. Thurs
morning, Dwight called the nurse again as my nose had started bleeding the night
before, I was having severe bouts of diarrhea, and was so nauseous I could
hardly keep anything down. Here I was having a bad reaction to the antibiotic I
had been put on for a UTI. Nothing like going from bad to worse!
All
of Jan, I was propped up in bed with pillows too weak to go up and down the
couple of steps to the recliner. The first week, Dwight had to help me just get
from the bed to the bathroom with the walker. I have slowly gained my strength
and weight back and am now able to go to the bathroom by myself. The home health nurse comes once a week. My
hip flares up easier than before- I’m sure from all the trauma of tests done
and doctors poking around on me.
Dwight
hauled the recliner up to my bedroom, so I can sit in it which is easiest on my
hip & spine, which has helped. The most frustrating thing about going
through all those tests is that I’m still trying to find an answer to what is
causing the horrible hip pain. My rheumatologist at Vanderbilt read all the
MRI’s and said that my pain has to be coming from the deteriorated part of my
hip that joins the spine as it is markedly worse than before. He referred me to
an orthopedist with whom I’ve made an appointment.
Whew!
I shall close this lengthy epistle.
Dorcas
