- Just because you wrote it, doesn’t mean anybody read it.
- Just because they read it, doesn’t mean they understood it.
- Just because they understood it, doesn’t mean they agree with it.
- Just because they agree with it, doesn’t mean they are going to do anything about it.
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A Step in the Dark
My hopes of recuperating at home for a few more days were dashed last week when I had to make an outpatient visit to the Emerson lab for a routine blood draw. I was transferring from the car to a wheelchair and pivoting on my good left leg when I heard a crack and felt intense pain. I fainted for a brief moment. The world turned bright white! From having only one good leg I was left with none. The health lab declined to do the blood draw and called a doctor to check me out. It was obvious by now that I would not be going home and would need to be admitted to Emergency. Rather than wheel me there they ordered an ambulance to take me the 100 yards up the road. Must be the shortest ambulance ride ever, but I’m sure that’ll make no difference as to how much I’m billed! I spent a couple of nights at Emerson before being discharged back to MGH. I had surgery on my left leg three days ago and now have a titanium alloy rod taking up most of the internal portion of my left femur, plus a few #14 screws to attach it to the bone. PT was here yesterday and I’m healing well. The story doesn’t end there, however, because I have also been diagnosed with osteosarcoma. While it has not metastasized and the surgeon removed all the infected bone, I’m still facing several months of chemotherapy. Oh well, I still have a lot of books to read, music to listen to, and time to work on my blog at https://onedarnthing.blog/ Feel free to browse.
Day 71: Tuesday, July 21
Tagged as: MGH
Stayed up late working on my blog, then watched two episodes of “The Expanse.” As a result I’m a bit sleep deprived this morning. I checked the results of my morning CBC blood test following my blood transfusion yesterday. Although RBC and Hæmoglobin are up a bit, it’s not a significant amount and they’re still below normal. WBC is still high.
Day 69: Sunday, July 19
Tagged as: Emerson
5:30 am: I woke up a couple of hours ago and couldn’t get back to sleep. Played my games, except I got stuck on the last two groups in Connections. Read some more from my book “Being Mortal” by Atul Gawande. Dumb scrolled Threads and Facebook. Got more icepacks to put on the incision. Still not sleepy but put on ambient sounds on Apple music and tried again to relax. Woke up an hour or so later and completed the last two groups on Connections. It’s funny how the mind gets stuck on connections you’ve already tried and is incapable of seeing others.
Called nurse for more pain meds. Oral Dilaudid and liquid Dilaudid in the IV. No hallucinations so far! The ortho NP Liz and another guy I hadn’t met before who introduced himself but I promptly forgot what he said. Liz says that I can put full weight on the left leg but I’m nervous about doing that. Will wait until I see the x-rays to see exactly what they did, and PT can stop by to walk me though it. In the evening, Liz stopped by again and said that I should at least sit up on the side of the bed. She said it would hurt, surgical pain, but I want to make sure I have pain killers available before I do that.
I watched the last game of the World Cup, the final between Spain and Argentina. In Martin’s honor I was rooting for Spain, as was Martha who texted me after the game was over. It was a great game – Spain dominated and had multiple unsuccessful shots on goal before finally getting one in in extra time to win the match 1-0.
SLC had earlier mentioned that he wanted x-rays of the left leg, and around 6 pm I saw on the portal that I was booked for 7 pm. 7 pm came and went, and I called the nurse so that I could be loaded up with pain killers before they took me. 7 pm, of course, is shift change , so it wasn’t until after 8 pm until my nurse, Megan, showed up. She didn’t know that I was scheduled for x-rays, but explained that they often put in the order as soon as they knew about it, and that the actual time would be later. She gave me my meds, including Dilaudid and a new one, Toradol, which is a powerful NSAID. When the stretcher showed up around 9 pm she called in another nurse to use the Hoyer lift to transfer me. It was a relatively quick session in imaging, and I was back in my room around 9:30.
Day 68: Saturday, July 18
Tagged as: Emerson
10:30 am: Good news! Nurse Madison stopped by to tell me that they are going to be taking me to the OR soon. Got everything unplugged, and handed over my wedding ring and Fitbit for safekeeping. Called Maureen to let her know and to not come in until they called from the PAC. I don’t know how long the surgery will take, but it’s got to be shorter than the last one. Eventually, at about 12:30, I got taken into surgery. It took about two hours. Recovery was painful. Maureen decided to stay home. It was raining and she didn’t want to drive in the dark. Got back to my room just in time to hear the end of the England-France game. I listened to a couple of Bob Marley live albums.