Category: health
jesus is just alright with me
on friday night, we decided to go out to dinner near the ballston metro stop. we were walking to the restaurant through the massive bus stop area, me on a crutch; because while i can walk fine without a crutch, i usually take it along when i am walking more outside of the house. i get tired, ya see.
anyway, so i’m walking on my crutch when we come upon a lady. she’s clutching her bible and shouting out to her Lord. she takes one look at me and starts shaking and rocking and screaming: “Lord Jesus, you must HEAL this lady, I call upon you to HEAL this lady NOW! she needs you, Lord, so please, PLEASE, heal her.”
i was tempted to throw down my crutch and walk right then and there, but i was afraid that this poor woman would have heart failure. so i lumbered on.
another reason to stay healthy
apparently, crocs might be hazardous to your health.
[note to self: should i end up back in the hospital, i should write a note that indicates that a) i am allergic to most antibiotics, b) i wear contacts, and c) for G-d’s sake, someone needs to remove my daughter’s footwear.]
i'm ba'ack (sort of)
knee surgery. ah, the fun. it’s astonishing, really, that after a whole day ordeal, i am left with three bandaids. no lie. three. little. bandaids. they had to do general anesthesia on me (a first for me) because they didn’t have an up-to-date platelet count and the gas-passer didn’t want a bleeder on his hands should he have chosen a spinal instead. i woke up poorly from general, very cold and thrashing about. the nurse said she was trying to understand what i was saying; i’m grateful she could not or else they probably would have put some ivory soap in my mouth. i was quite hungry, so i had some crackers and cranberry juice, which now leads me to another first that day: throwing up on my front lawn. thank goodness it was undigested stuff. maybe it will help the plants.
ah, the glamor of being so dependent. i hate it.
i also have the pic-a-nic basket of fun, AKA my magical cooler that keeps my knee from hurting. see, you fill it up with ice and water, wrap the pad around your knee, and VOILA! joy reigneth. skwigg put it best: you feel like a (non)walking aquarium. jools wanted to fill it up with food and toys. that would have been an experience, though while on percocet, i probably wouldn’t have cared. much. (unfortunately, no one checked to see that it was actually ON when they put it on my knee after surgery. i asked BS, “why doesn’t it feel cold?” he said, “well, maybe you’re numb?” three hours later, when they were letting me out, i asked the nurse the same question. she said, “oh, no, it hasn’t been ON?” yep. i missed three hours of chilling goodness post surgery. oh well. spilled milk.
anyway, i can put some weight on my foot now. i am working on bending my knee and not screaming simultaneously. today, i am going to try two very exciting things. one is a shower. (i have not showered since tuesday morning, and, in short, i smell like a bus.) the next thing i’m going to try are STAIRS. yes. i want to see my room, my bathroom, my clean clothes for the first time in days. i can’t wait.
because i believe in maximizing my angst, i visited the hematologist as well as the physical therapist yesterday. my platelets are down a little (185) but not in a scary place. the problem is, now that i need IVIG, they can’t seem to find any. if anyone out there knows where i might start scoring some IVIG, let me know. apparently, area hospitals have none 🙁
the physical therapist is a hoot. she put me in something called GAME READY that essentially squeezed the living shit out of my entire leg while cooling it down. the PT told me that it was a very expensive treatment. i wonder if they have these sorts of things in S&M parlors. i like the fact that there’s a version for horses as well, although it does seem crueler than just shooting the nags. nay.
anyway, thanks for the well wishes, the cookies, the flowers, the fruit, and all the kindness. i appreciate it more than my percocet-addled mind can express.
(and today — i am off percocet. really.)
nervous night
just a note to anyone out there in tv-land. on tuesday, i am having knee surgery, so i probably won’t have the ability to write much. (well, i’m SURE i’ll have the ability to write plenty, but considering i will probably be a bit medicated, i think it’d be safer if i self-censor. otherwise, i’m liable to say things far grosser or scarier or more incriminating than usual.)
thanks for all the kind wishes out there. this isn’t a major surgery; but considering the conditions i have, i am a bit terrified about little things, like infections, that can really cause me some problems.
of course, when i’m nervous, i self-medicate eat. fortunately, my buddy maren sent me an edible fruit basket, (i would have taken a picture of it before i tore it apart, but the battery on my camera went completely kaput.) so at least i have some healthy things to inhale. [thanks, m2k!]
anyway, hopefully, we’ll catch up real soon.
peace, love, and donny osmond,
wreke
xoxo
my next gig…
…is this.
seriously, in two weeks, i’m going for arthroscopic surgery. while ice skating last week, i fell and managed to tear my meniscus AND my PCL. apparently, 90% of people tear their ACL; i managed to be in that great 10% for the PCL, which the dr. said takes a little longer for surgery and for repair. of course. so i don’t want to hear anyone talking about how i step in shit and up comes a daisy (and you two know who you are). i step in shit and a few thousand dollars later, i am the semi-bionic woman 😉
it’s outpatient, no big deal, at least from the surgical perspective.
i am the very model of a modern medical miracle.
my hero
in case anyone ever wonders why i can’t lapse too long into self-pity, it’s because of this little dude. mason is the son of my friend danielle, and he is one of the toughest people i have ever met. to be 4 and to have been battling brain cancer for a long time, well, i can’t even begin to say i would handle it well. but mason is a cool little dude. i’m so excited to see his peach fuzz hair and lashes growing in. he has an MRI tomorrow. i know i’m throwing him in my prayers tonight. i hope everyone else sends good vibes or prayers out there for him as well.
preliminary verdict
i heard from my doctor in philly yesterday. she can’t say definitively yet — she wants to wait for my post-test, and she also wants to consult with some colleagues — but the signs are pointing toward treatment. apparently, my sinus scan showed i am quite the veteran with sinusitis (i wonder how they can tell that!), and only 3 out of 14 pneumococcal IGG Types were in the protective range (they usually hope for 7 or 8). my chest scan showed little thingies (yes, a medical term) lymph nodes, but as they are smaller than (i think she said) 4 cm, they aren’t considered significant. people with CVID usually show definite signs of never-ending sinusitis and/or some broncheo-something. (basically, lots of bronchial issues/pneumonia/that sort of thing. sorry. my brother could probably speak about this in more intelligent terms since he is both a doctor and a person with CVID.) i have been congested so long in my life, i don’t even realize i have sinus issues. so it looks like i’ll be hooked up to an IV every 4 weeks for the “foreseeable future” (which must be the euphemism doctors use instead of saying “for the rest of your life.”)
it sucks, but there’s a treatment, so it’s not as bad as something without a treatment. i’m not thrilled with the treatment, as it is expensive, has some risks, and is not the sort of thing i want to have to do every 4 weeks. but you gotta do what you gotta do, and i’m thankful i have health insurance and the ability to get treatment, as there are probably zillions of people who aren’t as fortunate.
still, i’m bummed.
donuts. is there nothing they can't do?
krispy kreme has just introduced a new, whole-wheat donut. hold onto your pants, homer: these 180 calorie pups have 4 or 5 grams of trans fats. i’m just waiting for BC, the world’s second most fervent donut lover (second only to her dad, BS) to petition me for a crate of these, pleading that they’re whole wheat so they’re GOOD FOR YOU, MAMA.
yeah. i hear leeches do wonders, too.