Infection Intervention

Mmm. Health needs on a holiday. Spent the day with the colds and flu set in the Emergency Room. WHY are there not regular urgent care places in the Bay Area? Argh. We usually go over to the ER in SF that is faster to get into than any of the East Bay ones that are only good if you are stabbed shot or having a heart attack. It was 1.5 hours in the waiting room and then we were in curtains for hours. Laying around...

So there is no 'aggressive action' in the ER. My back was looking a bit better today anywho, but don't wanna risk anything being able to migrate into my back further so ER it was. They did IV antibiotics (Ancef) and gave me a week worth of Bactrim & Keflex. Flora balance? Nope. None here in the near future.

Gonna see my primary doctor tomorrow. We'll see if she can't hook me up with a wound specialist.

That's what I know.

Doing better, but stress

Ahhhhh. There is nothing as stressful as having things look a bit icky around the last of the scabs on the surgical incision & sending a pic of it to your neurosurgeon to make sure that it isn't anything serious and getting a message back from him say I should find an aggressive doctor to cut out the entire area and re-stitch it.

Eek. Well, I guess I know what I will be doing tomorrow. Probably better safe than sorry. Frightening none the less.

Otherwise I'm doing pretty well. Not instant, but I've started physical therapy and the pain is starting to lessen. I'm doing a little bit around the house, but still finding if I do something one day, the next day I'm really worn out.

I'll drop another note when I know what is goin on with the scar healing.

Healing at Home.

Been home for...geez 26 dayz already. Initially pain pain pain was all I can remember. Up'd pain meds a bit w/ help of local neuro and then my brain kicked in...gimped up by the pain meds, but more able to function than before. We HAD to get a new bed. The 6 year old wavy/lumpy futon is not doin it. I have way too much pain at the top of the incision. It feels like something is wrong with the vertebrae there...it is realistically probably the hematoma thing. Just in the last couple of days it feels like it is absorbing. I got an MRI last Friday, so we'll see what New York has to say about it. Saw one of my Rheumatologists here today. She's just really kind of blown over by the whole thing and amazed about a) me having figured it out enough to find the right doctors & b) How much is able to be done that NONE of the doctors could figure out here in the Bay Area. Of course everyone is in a holding pattern on resolving any other issues until I'm fully recovered from surgery. I agree with that idea in general. I just want everything to go faster. It is kindof sinking in how much the epidural I had when I had a hysterectomy in 1994 probably had to do with my health situation worsening (part of the tethered cord issue and the level of harshitude on my lower limbs was due to arachnoiditis (scarring & adhesions) in my lower back that was squashing the cauda equina area and squishing/choking the nerves and making it so there was less than no room for proper communication between the ole brain and the nerves passing that info on to my lower half. I am really glad I did this surgery. I feel like I'm having the best chance of getting my health to the best point possible. I'm looking forward to starting physical therapy next week as well! Spending a lot of time by myself. To some extent I'm enjoying it, but it is lonely too. Eliot is so busy with school, it is more ridiculous than last semester even.