Dedicated Dad Needs Help

[rightisright]

You are in my thoughts, DD. Hang tough.

[308Mike]

DD, if you can tolerate the pain and discomfort during the day, see if they'll give you something to help you sleep through the night. After all, that's the time when your body takes to heal itself, so you NEED to get good sleep (even if not at night, you NEED to sleep).

If I get a chance, I might try and call you at the hospital later.

[Baja boy]

Hang in there Guy !!!!!! With my double replacement, I was living alone after two weeks --had to do everything . You can do it, just pace yourself.

[308Mike]

DD, I just called the hospital and whatever room they transferred me to just let the phone ring, and ring, and ring, etc.............. so I gave up after a few minutes of ringing.

Hopefully, you're either in PT or getting some sleep and the phone was turned down real low (or ringer turned off) so you can get some sleep.

[Dedicated_Dad]

Mike: sorry about the phone thing - they wanted $25 to use their phone, or I could use my cell... No brainer... It surprises me, though, that the switchboard put a call through when I had declined their phone service... I don't think it was even plugged in, which would explain why you heard it ringing forever but I never did.

Sorry for not getting back here sooner... I just wasn't feeling up to it...

That place does not mess around. You're out of bed by 7AM, walking the hall. You're going to two PT sessions per day, at least one OT ("occupational" - dressing yourself, etc) session... When you get to your bed all you want is some drugs and some SLEEP.

As usual, I was unable to get enough of either. Though they switched me to Dilaudid, it was at a very low dose - so low that I did a calculation on a website a bit ago and found it was the same dose-level as I had been taking before my surgery. Not good...

Since getting home, I have had to take care of myself most of the time, so I've been in a good bit of pain from overdoing it a bit... Starting to settle down now, for the first time I felt like digging out the 'puter and getting online...

I'm still 100% convinced things are going to be better. I've been a bit concerned because this thing has done a fair bit of clicking... If I move the right (wrong) way I can make it click over and over... Still, it isn't clicking with every step as it did - hopefully I'll be able to get around without pain...

The home PT/Nurse folk were in today, she had my surgical notes and they talk about all the crap he cut out. Lots of "calcified scar tissue" noted/removed, and notes that my fat-pad was also heavily calcified and removed...

In sum, it's less clunky, less sloppy/loose... Lots of RAWNESS - feels like a big "ring of fire" under/around my kneecap, but I'm still sure I did the right thing...

Don't worry if I don't get online often - I'm still not feeling well enough to fool with it all the time...

Thanks again for everything!!

DD

[308Mike]

For $25, I'm glad you declined their phone service. Although they haven't given you much for the pain, did they give you something to help you get some good sleep so your body will heal quicker?

Hang in there, I'm sure it'll start getting better soon!

[Dedicated_Dad]

I have some ambien CR, need to start taking it...

Just got some GREAT news!!

Got a check from the Disability insurer, paying me from 5/15-6/2. This would be the last couple weeks of the "short term" stuff. Then I found an e-mail from employer, fwd of message rec'd from the insurer.

The message said I still hadn't filed the appeal (true) but didn't need to - they'd paid me the balance of short-term, and sent case over to long-term, expecting a determination in a few days.

I don't think it's going to be a problem - I know it ain't over but I am about as sure as I can possibly be that they're going to pay me.

I don' t know what happened, but things seem to be moving!!

Still need the prayers, though -

Thanks!!

DD

[308Mike]

Most EXCELLENT news!!! I've got some other info that might help you feel better too, so I'll either be calling or sending it in an email but it's something you should follow-up on.

[blackeagle603]

That really encouraging news.

We'll keep on praying (YHWH Jireh).

[308Mike]

I talked to him last evening and he's not stressing so much over the money now. But paying people back for the loans he was forced to get is unpleasant and should have been unnecessary if they had done what they should have in the first place. At least now THEY'RE asking him, "what can we do for you?"

They're not even close to being out of the woods financially, but things are looking better and once he heals enough, he should be able to get back to work (somewhere).

I gave him a tip regarding long-term pain medication users and what it can do to your blood chemistry. He said it could explain a lot, so he's going to talk to his doctor about having his blood checked, hopefully today. It's a easy fix but it's easily overlooked by MANY doctors.