Oct 1: Foot, etc
Meant to post more, really did, but forgot how damn long it takes to do everything when you can't walk. Have a scooter, which helps a lot, but a bunch of sore muscles, and get fatigued and short of breath with it as well.
The ortho doc was a bust. Wouldn't listen to the history of my prior foot fractures, waved off concern about being on prednisone, never asked for specifics when I responded 'Yes' to the following questions: chest pain, shortness of breath, fatigue, palpitations, easy bruising or bleeding.... He noted the boot, said 'you really should be using crutches', but never asked why when my response was that I couldn't due to repeated chest surgeries. Wow. Really played into the stereotype of ortho docs being morons. (Quick aside: my surgical rotation in D.C., specialized in trauma. Saw c-spine X-ray of guy with bullet lodged about C2-3 and asked the attending if he'd survived and what his functioning would be. Her response: 'Yeah, he's alive. Best he'll ever be is an ortho resident.' That was when I found out the phrase was medicine shorthand for brain dead. True story!)
Went back to my fabulous podiatrist, who is also a surgeon, and got me through the bad one 3 years ago. She agreed with me that there was most likely re-fracturing of the 3rd & 4th metatarsal bases. Pain there, swelling and bruising typical. Have since gotten a CT scan which didn't show anything, but not surprising since not the best test for stress fractures. The best test is a MRI, which I can't have due to my chest full of metal. Still in the boot and back to using the bone stimulator, which still worked after being in the basement for three years.
So, again, grateful for many things: not working so able to stay in and stay off of, few more people in the area to help me, and a couple people from BuxMont have come over for several hours to drive me around, do errands, go down to the basement and back, with a few more who are coming over in the next week or two. But not happy about another set-back, and really not happy at all the things I'm having to cancel.
Haven't been writing or doing my beading as much as anticipated, because the swelling is still pretty significant, and it feels worse when down. While yes, I can sit with the leg up, after a couple hours my hip really hurts. Try it some time--not the most comfortable position. On the up side is that I've been really working at decreasing my food intake to accommodate decreased activity, and with giving all my grocery orders to other people and not seeing sales my food bill for September was at an all time low. It's the little things......
The 10 year anniversary of #1 is next week, and that has already been a 'red letter day' for me; not sure why? It wasn't the 'beginning', since Feb 16 was diagnosis, and then worsened in August, maybe because it was the absolutely worst day of my life thus far? My plan was to go to England again and climb the Tor, but wasn't quite as excited about it as I would have thought. Trying to figure out how to mark without being able to walk now. I will plan on a blow-out for the 10 year anniversary of #3, but that's not until 2017.
Watching yet another bunch of stuff about breast cancer, brought on by Joan Lunden's diagnosis. I don't want to minimize the impact of the disease, or take anything away from those who have had to deal with the disease, but I am so sick of everything being about breast cancer, and virtually no attention put on women and heart disease. Heart disease will kill almost 1 out of every 2 women, versus breast cancer which will kill 1 out of 39 women. Why is it that breast cancer patients are considered 'brave' and 'survivors' but no one uses those terms to describe those of us who are dealing with heart disease? Why are there so few walks or ribbons or lights or anything else for us? I've been occasionally called brave, but don't remember anyone congratulating me on being a survivor, or having overcome the disease to the extent I have. And never heard it applied to any other person with heart disease. Why? Is my struggle less than someone with breast cancer? Has my life been affected less? Were my three surgeries somehow less traumatic than having a mastectomy? Obviously these are rhetorical questions, and anyone who reads this blog already knows the answers. But, as said before, it's my blog and I get to say and vent as I want.
Thanks for checking in, Laurie--a Survivor
The ortho doc was a bust. Wouldn't listen to the history of my prior foot fractures, waved off concern about being on prednisone, never asked for specifics when I responded 'Yes' to the following questions: chest pain, shortness of breath, fatigue, palpitations, easy bruising or bleeding.... He noted the boot, said 'you really should be using crutches', but never asked why when my response was that I couldn't due to repeated chest surgeries. Wow. Really played into the stereotype of ortho docs being morons. (Quick aside: my surgical rotation in D.C., specialized in trauma. Saw c-spine X-ray of guy with bullet lodged about C2-3 and asked the attending if he'd survived and what his functioning would be. Her response: 'Yeah, he's alive. Best he'll ever be is an ortho resident.' That was when I found out the phrase was medicine shorthand for brain dead. True story!)
Went back to my fabulous podiatrist, who is also a surgeon, and got me through the bad one 3 years ago. She agreed with me that there was most likely re-fracturing of the 3rd & 4th metatarsal bases. Pain there, swelling and bruising typical. Have since gotten a CT scan which didn't show anything, but not surprising since not the best test for stress fractures. The best test is a MRI, which I can't have due to my chest full of metal. Still in the boot and back to using the bone stimulator, which still worked after being in the basement for three years.
So, again, grateful for many things: not working so able to stay in and stay off of, few more people in the area to help me, and a couple people from BuxMont have come over for several hours to drive me around, do errands, go down to the basement and back, with a few more who are coming over in the next week or two. But not happy about another set-back, and really not happy at all the things I'm having to cancel.
Haven't been writing or doing my beading as much as anticipated, because the swelling is still pretty significant, and it feels worse when down. While yes, I can sit with the leg up, after a couple hours my hip really hurts. Try it some time--not the most comfortable position. On the up side is that I've been really working at decreasing my food intake to accommodate decreased activity, and with giving all my grocery orders to other people and not seeing sales my food bill for September was at an all time low. It's the little things......
The 10 year anniversary of #1 is next week, and that has already been a 'red letter day' for me; not sure why? It wasn't the 'beginning', since Feb 16 was diagnosis, and then worsened in August, maybe because it was the absolutely worst day of my life thus far? My plan was to go to England again and climb the Tor, but wasn't quite as excited about it as I would have thought. Trying to figure out how to mark without being able to walk now. I will plan on a blow-out for the 10 year anniversary of #3, but that's not until 2017.
Watching yet another bunch of stuff about breast cancer, brought on by Joan Lunden's diagnosis. I don't want to minimize the impact of the disease, or take anything away from those who have had to deal with the disease, but I am so sick of everything being about breast cancer, and virtually no attention put on women and heart disease. Heart disease will kill almost 1 out of every 2 women, versus breast cancer which will kill 1 out of 39 women. Why is it that breast cancer patients are considered 'brave' and 'survivors' but no one uses those terms to describe those of us who are dealing with heart disease? Why are there so few walks or ribbons or lights or anything else for us? I've been occasionally called brave, but don't remember anyone congratulating me on being a survivor, or having overcome the disease to the extent I have. And never heard it applied to any other person with heart disease. Why? Is my struggle less than someone with breast cancer? Has my life been affected less? Were my three surgeries somehow less traumatic than having a mastectomy? Obviously these are rhetorical questions, and anyone who reads this blog already knows the answers. But, as said before, it's my blog and I get to say and vent as I want.
Thanks for checking in, Laurie--a Survivor
posted by Laurie @ 7:58 PM
1 Comments:
At 10:01 PM,
Anonymous said…
Laurie,
Always in my thoughts and prayers Deneen
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