Tag Archives: MGH
Protected: Day 72: Wednesday, July 22
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 66: Thursday, July 16
Had a decent sleep, interrupted of course by nurses bringing meds, taking vitals, and drawing blood. Also, they moved a new patient, Jim, next to me late at night. He’s 91 and seems to have multiple problems. I haven’t talked to him. Despite the interruptions, I put on my headphones and listened to ambient sleep sounds and slept soundly till 8 am. Fitbit gave me a 78.
I was not moved to MGH yesterday, obviously. Still waiting for beds to open up.
Sat in on the final MMGA Helpline Training class in the evening. Partway through the nurse stopped in to tell me that a bed had opened up at MGH and that an ambulance had been ordered. I asked if it could be put off until after the class at 8 pm, and she said she’d ask. Came back to say they were ok with that.
Ambulance to MGH: Drove down Memorial Drive and I could see out if the back some of my old haunts from when I worked in Kendall Square. Seems like an age ago. We checked in at MGH and set off for Ellison. It has 23 floors and I was hoping for a high one, but I’m back on the 6th floor which is where I was before. I’m in room 618a – no window, but probably nothing to see anyway! A nice nurse, Caitlin, helped me settle in.
Dr Ratnasamy from orthopedics stopped by. He told me that my femur was fractured, alongside the plate. I’m surprised that the doctors at Emerson didn’t catch it. Anyway, it’s going to be a CAT scan and an X-ray, probably tonight, followed by surgery tomorrow. After discharge from MGH it’ll be a minimum of six weeks in rehab. Will try to catch my case manager to see if we can get into Whittier this time.