Yeeowtch part duex

Woodsman

I really have to find  a better exclamation to suit my condition.
I'm home 3 days from abdominal surgery removing a malignant tumor from my Colon. Now it is my misfortune to not be unfamiliar with the Surgical Arena but now I'm starting to get a tad worried. The RR Zipper track running from under my neck to 2" into my Sternum(Called the High Line.) from my By Pass Surgeryhas now been joined by a Spur Line running from my Navel waay down into Terra Incognita and then left. At this point I have to get up and move around and have acquired a Cold (From guess where?) so it starts with a cough(Yeeowtch!!!) Stand up and grab my cane(Yeeowtch) and shuffle into the kitchen, cough(Yeeowtch!!!)  and sit (Yeeowtch!!!) . Push yourself back up and repeat(Yeeowtch!!!) X 5. I now have grown very tired and am designating a new more inclusive interjection. Ready? (YEEOWEEOWEEOWTCH!!!!!) Next, Green Light.
Waddaya think?

mfresa

Hang in there it should improve with time.

Londy3

@Woodsman, sorry you have to go through this. Not sure if I have a better exclamation except maybe...

Ooouuucch,sonofab!tch#&@$!#motherof@&#$+!damn#&$@!&#JesusMary&Joseph!!

ghostsofpompeii

I've always been partial to Ratfu*k and Dogdi*k. Always seems to do the trick.

xDutchx

Sounds like you could use a nurse, that has the ability to pick you up and carry you where ever you need to go!

thebadgerpiper

Hope you feel better! That doesn't sound fun at all. In July, my wife had to get surgery, and she wasn't a happy camper for a bit. Hopefully it all heals up nicely and you can move around like normal again.

motie2

Totally empathize with you @Woodsman.
My sciatica is a trifle compared to your surgery, but we share a portion of agony. I remember the horror of coughing, or God forbid sneezing in the weeks following having my sternum cracked in 2000 for a complete resection of a thymoma (cancer of the thymus gland).
In this season especially, "God bless us, everyone."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSyx6DaUwxA

Londy3

Yes, may God bless us and have mercy on us all. We are all sinners and need forgiveness. 

motie2

How often do we remind ourselves and our loved ones that we are shining? That no matter how dark the world is we are always reaching up?
We're entering a dark season, and light is what we need. It's why lights are part of all winter holiday rituals.
We need this reminder, because it's so easy to forget.
Because the darkness in the world is real, but so is our inner light, our own worth and power.

ghostsofpompeii

Seems like more people leave the hospital sick - then cured. I hate sitting in the Emergency Room because I know I'll end up leaving there with some sort of virus by the time I leave. When my wife or I go to the Emergency Room it's for an actual emergency ... life or death, blood pumping from a wound, or vital organs shutting down ... something like that. But once we get there we notice a majority of the people in the waiting room are coughing, sneezing, or hacking up in a bucket - something that could be treated at a doctor's office. Instead they go to the emergency room and end up infecting all the other poor saps sitting around them. You may come in needing stitches - but leave with the onset of Ebola.

motie2

I have to be dragged to my primary care physician, who practices medicine as if the lawyers and actuaries were running the show. (In fact, they are.....).

Monday I'm going to try to get an appointment with an in network pain management doctor. I'm after the same drugs that worked in 2000, the last time I had sciatica (although the docs then called it "post surgical neuropathy." I figure if Elavil and Neurontin worked then, it'll work now.

AnantaAndroscoggin

It can be quite disquieting, especially when one considers the fact that "Medical Mistakes" is the third leading cause of death in the USA these days.

Charles

@ghostsofpompeii - ever wonder why people leave the hospital sicker then they were when they arrived?  Simple.  Hospitals today are not as clean and sterilized as they once were.  How can this be possible in  today's world which is more sophisticated the decades past.  The hard truth is the people in the service industry are unionized, foreign, and are not concerned with performance.  They punch a clock, do the job, and leave when their shift is over.  Sounds a bit bias or ignorant?  Not really as these facts are true and quite evident in this and the restaurant industry.  

Also,  anyone who is out and about in public, whether riding public transportation or walking about in the city streets, take notice of the people wearing "scrubs."  Who are these people?  Usually the color of the scrubs tell what job those folks preform.  Red or burgundy usually designates a phlebotomist while blue designates nurses.  Sea green are usually worn by doctors followed with a white lab coat.  Maintenance or household staff, these are the people who clean, tend to wear tan, brown, or black scrubs.

So what does any of this have to do with people getting sick?  Those hospital staff wear their uniforms from home to work then back again.  They carry dirt, bacteria, and germs into the hospital and contaminate the alleged sterilized environment.   This was NEVER permitted practice years ago.  Nurse wore white uniforms, doctors wore suits, maintenance personnel wore whatever they wore.  Scrubs were changed into and out of in the hospital.  Doctors left their lab coats in the hospital and maintenance staff changed in and out of uniforms.

Hospitals were constantly being cleaned and sterilized.  Equipment was always cleaned and sterilized then properly stored in a sterilized environment.  Recall the smell of whitecap or Lysol?  All of the changes in policy have contributed to why going to the hospital is an excellent place to get sick.         
           

motie2

Let's face it folks, our country is sick. and those entrusted with its care only care for themselves.... and money.... and power.

ghostsofpompeii

I sat in the waiting room while my wife was getting stitches and it took us over 8 hours. I sat in that chair as sick people came through the door coughing and sneezing - and yes - vomiting in buckets. Each chair had arm rests, which these sick people were holding on to, and when that person left another took his or her place on the same chair - with the same arm rests and what-ever germs may have been on their hands as they coughed into them. And not once in that eight hour period did I see a nurse or housekeeping come around and disinfect the chair arms.

Woodsman

Update: Went to get the Staples removed and they told me the cancer was confined and hadn't metastasized. (Yay Me!)
Update on update: Upon arrival home from Dr.'s office I discovered that the incision had split open, I'm now held together with glue and strapping tape. (Ready to be shipped via UPS.)

ghostsofpompeii

@Woodsman Great news and the best Christmas present you could ask for. By the way I just watched the movie "Dog Soldiers" about a pack of werewolves that attack a group of British soldiers on a training mission, and the Sargent leading the platoon gets his belly ripped open by a werewolf and is disemboweled. So one of the men in the unit patches him up with Super Glue as well. Seemed to work on him and I imagine his gash was a bit more jagged than your scar, so you'll probably be okay with glue and strapping tape. Since it was a surgeon that did the cutting on you don't imagine you're in any danger of changing into a werewolf, so that's one less thing to worry about. 

KA9FFJ

@Woodsman I can't tell you how happy I am! Get well soon... I'm getting tired of praying for you...

Londy3

@Woodsman, YaY! So happy for you! Congratulations, see prayer works! 

piperdave

@Woodsman Congrats on your good news. Sorry to hear about the split, if you do get shipped just make sure you use a lot of "Fragile" stickers.  All the best in your recovery, sending prayers and good thoughts.

Woodsman

Thank you all. I really appreciate your kindnesses.

ghostsofpompeii

@Woodsman When my Dad was around 40 years old he had major surgery on a stomach ulcer and had a bit of his stomach removed. Dad's 94 and doing well for his age, so that operation was a success. But the one thing I'll always remember is after 40 he started putting on weight - mostly in his gut - like me and a lot of middle aged guys - and as his it got larger it seemed he's eventually rip open that scar that ran the length of his belly. The scar tissue was looking paper thin the larger he got. Eventually as with most people who hit their eighties and nineties he started getting thinner and he no longer looks like a tic about to explode. I can't help but marvel at the healing powers of the human body. In one respect we seem to be put together with inferior parts ... but those parts are pretty durable.   

AnantaAndroscoggin

The VA doc tells me that shoulder joints are only rated for about 45 years of use. Mine's been aching pretty massively for a good 9 months so far, and after an MRI I'll be seeing their surgeon who does that kind of thing next month.

Woodsman

Split open again. now stitched and glued, much better and less painful. I can't drive yet, my major problem is my weight when I move the torque of the belly area shifts at a slightly different velocity causing twist. Nice thing is I'm showing good weight loss and flexibility and I should be good before New Years.

motie2

Last Tues  tunes day I got to ride in an ambulance with the siren on. SWMBO could take no more of my screaming when the sciatica pain reaches out from the lumbar area and the shoots down my right leg... like a lighten bolt. The ER doctors has Xrays and the Doppler/ultrasound taken. Neither test could show what's happening. Couldn't have the MRI until Dec 24. Docs gave me a muscle relaxant and said I could take double the dose of ibuprofen. By the end of the week they gave me Tramadol, a synthetic opioid. No relief from any of that . Last Fri SWMBO talked the Docs into giving me what the pain docs gave me when this happened the last time. So I'm on Elavil/amitriptyline and Neurontin/gabapentin. This morning I was able to shower. Took a half hour to get up the stairs. Pain iia dow to a 9. The next week is going to be purest hell. @Woodsman, I feel your pain. God help us both.....

ghostsofpompeii

Sounds to me that we're all falling apart. I have an MRI scheduled for Friday at 5:15 PM (thankfully it's not a.m.) I asked the doctor if he could schedule an MRI to go from the base of my skull to the crack of my ass but he said it couldn't because it would cost about $10,000. so we'll be doing a little at a time starting with my neck. I too got a prescription for muscle relaxants. I hope we're all feeling better by Christmas - a hospital is not a nice place to be on Christmas Day. Being a movie fanatic, when ever the pain gets to be too much I shout out in my best imitation of the Elephant Man the phrase uttered by the residents of "The Island Of Dr. Moreau" ... "No more house of pain!"