The Crash and The Journey Back

This piece needs to go backwards Monday came and just like any Monday I was dreading the day. Nonetheless this was the hand I was dealt. We arrived at the clinic. Waited our turn. Soon we were in our room to wait some more. My poor stomach was in knots. My best recollection of the visit is that Jesse was an unhappy as us with what we were seeing on the CT scan.  In fact he looked mad. As he suspected the top part of my hip (femoral head and neck) was anteriorly rotated so the bone fragments indeed were not aligned. There was over 1.5cm of difference in them, and their best guess was maybe I had 20% bone to bone contact. Without more bone touching healing would be delayed tremendously and might not ever occur.  In that case, I might not ever walk again. In order for me to make the most well informed decision J sent Dr. S in to talk to me. I was truly on the fence about what to do until Dr. S came in. I’ve known of Dr. S for a really long time, I’ve seen him put some...

It helps to have friends. Fortunately in my career at CarilionClinic I was the support person for Accreditation for ambulatory sites and I spent hours (and I mean hours) in orthopedics. I think it is fair to say they were one of my favorite sites despite the size, number of people, etc. I love Mindy, Carrie, Kim (dude) and their VP Don. In fact when I left Carilion, Don sent me one of the nicest emails. It meant the world to me to know I made a difference for them and that they truly appreciated me. So when I was laying in the hospital in TN, I thought I wonder if Mindy will answer this text message? I had previously called in a favor (while still working with them) to get in with them when I broke my hand a few years ago (mountain bike crash). Sure enough. Not long after I texted she replied and said Carrie would be calling me. Carrie was able to get me in to see Jesse as an add-on. I was thinking it will be good to have a young, home-grown surgeon for follow up. I remember ...

If you’ve ever been in the hospital for an ortho issue or know anything about some hospital admissions, there are certain things besides going to the potty you have to do in order to get out. It’s like working parole. So my first attempts at physical therapy were miserable failures. I was taught how to do butt crunches (yea it’s a real thing), straight leg raises (really relatively speaking), heel slides (sure can’t bend my knee but if you say so) and I think there was one more but I can’t remember. My first attempt to get out of bed and walk was met with lightheaded and decreased BP. My second attempt was a rapid response. Third time was the charm. Hands on walker, right foot on the floor let’s go. Man that was hard, but getting out of that room was nice. Now I could see the hallway and the elevators/exits. I would soon be liberated from BMH. The therapist and her student were fantastic. The walker had wheels on the front, and the back walker feet sliding on the floor made a ma...

So once it was decided I could get up and to the bedside commode or to a chair I was happier. I wasn’t a fan of bedpans- it was a struggle then I’d pee too much. Yea I think my first NA (Brooke) was over me. I was so sorry!!! It sucks as a healthcare provider to know sort of what they were thinking. She constantly joked about having to change my sheets so much. I decided humor was the best thing I could do. I can say we probably laughed too much and inappropriately at times. I’d like to think I wasn’t a pain in the ass. Brooke quickly got used to me and my OCD need to wash my hands. Each time she would exit she would do her hand hygiene then grab a glove and squirt hand sanitizer in it for me. She was wonderful about doing anything for me. She helped make sure my phone and iPad stayed charged, that I always had ice water (girl that's why I pee'd so much), but she wasn’t there 24/7. My nurses were all young, and they enjoyed a laugh too. I called them my drug dealers. Mi...

So I woke up from a fog around 7pm feeling like I got hit by a truck. I reach down to my right leg because something is stuck to it. Ugh, Foley catheter holder. Well at least I don’t have to worry about how to pee for a while. I gently move my left leg. It’s there. A tad painful, but not nearly what it was earlier in the day. Mom was beside the bed. We talked for a short while before she left to make the 20 or so minute drive back to the campground. I drifted back to sleep. Rubber chicken!!!! Between the Dilaudid PCA, the scheduled Norco, Toradol, etc my pain was well controlled. Upon waking to the blood fairy Sunday morning it was time to start planning how everything was going to work to get home, but first there were goals to getting out of the hospital. The foley was taken out early in the day. That was weird. A first that I really could have went a lifetime without. I managed to eat some pretty decent food. And I laughed as I looked at the dry erase board on the wa...