So a new adventure started Saturday…and just so you know I am well known as a klutz which will become very apparent as I share this Saturday night adventure.
I have been feeling pretty confident lately, not wearing my brace and just using my cane. I had even been thinking of moving back into my rocking chair since I thought I was progressing as needed. Although to be honest, I have not been the best at doing my PT exercises at home, I will still feeling “spicy” (a word my kids use) about my progression and probably…not just probably but definitely over confident.
I decided to meet the dog walker for the 6 pm walk at the front door. It was a great day out and thought I could lounge on the front porch patio chair. I opened the door….and here is where the stupidity, along with klutziness came in to play…and I stepped out the door putting all my weight on my bad leg!!! What in the heck was I thinking!!??!! Quickly my knee went out on me and I fell to the cement floor of the porch. I knew I could not get up and quickly yelled for David who thankfully was right nearby in the office. I am sure his first thought was…well that klutziness has finally taken control and we don’t have a Bob the Blob, Ted the Tumor, Larry the Lymph Node or Peter the Pesky Pelvic Lymph Node to blame…it was all ME!! Believe me I keep thinking this over and over in my mind and what I should have done differently.
So there we were on the front porch trying to decide how in the heck will I get back into the house!! My ankle hurt like the dickens so I know something was not right. Using the cane and walker and brut strength, we got down the steps to hobble into the garage and go up the 3 steps to get into the house. I put some weight on that foot but it really hurt. Now what do we do. Thankfully we have some nurses in the neighborhood and I first called Connie but she was at her granddaughter’s dance recital. Then I called Donna to get a couple of other numbers…and Donna quickly sprung into action and called Denise…who by the way Connie had already called. Within 5 minutes Denise came down. Now really what did we think Denise would be able to do, obviously she did not have a pocket x-ray machine to use. At this point, the pain was crazy so I took one of the oxy pills that I had from the surgery. I could see the swelling was well on its way, and thankfully the oxy kicked in quickly. After Denise looked it over she really felt we should go to the ER….and the thought of trying to get down the steps was so overwhelming we all thought an ambulance would be a better option.
So I called 911 and told them what was going on and I needed an ambulance to get to the ER, but quickly said they don’t need their lights or sirens! LOL. Me…worried that the neighbors would hear all the commotion! Great EMTs came and they used a cool chair to get me down the steps to the waiting stretcher. They did say the ER was somewhat busy, but usually coming in via ambulance gives you a little jump in the line…now remember I said “usually”!! The EMT did start an IV and gave me some more pain meds which really helped…not sure if it was shock or what….maybe more disbelief on what a klutz I am….but I really started to shake.
So trying to make a real long story short…we got to the ER at Mercy about 7 and we ended up getting back home at 4am!! LOL…so I don’t think coming in by ambulance helped that much…but honestly, I didn’t have any limbs hanging off or blood spurting out so I can see why it took a good amount of time to finally get in a room.
They ended up taking one set of x-rays and about 30 minutes later went back for another set focusing mainly on the foot. After those results came back, the doctor put in an order for a CT scan because she just felt there was more to see in the foot area that was not picked up by the x-rays. And of course, I had a few broken bones in the foot. They put on a cast/splint kind of thing that is fiberglass and sets firm after a few minutes. And they said I would need to follow up with an ortho. I preferred to go back to Park Nicollet for this since all my records were easily accessible there.
Thankfully the ER doc gave me a oxy/acetaminophen prescription to get filled in the morning because really the pain was crazy. I don’t think the sarcoma surgery hurt as much.
So this morning I am trying to get in to an ortho…called and Maple Grove is maybe later this week and St. Louis Park is in to next week. The other option is there is a specific urgent care for orthopedic..Tria Urgent Care at Maple Grove which is where we will be heading later this morning. It would be nice to get the process started and if delayed hopefully some more help for the pain before I run out. 🙂
An ER is really an interesting place to be especially on a Saturday night. I remember in Drivers Ed we had to go to an ER on a Saturday night just to see the car crashes that came in and try to instill the fact that seat belts are important. And of course we had to go to the Hennepin County Medical Center the most trauma of all ER’s at the time. In some ways, the Mercy ER reminded me of that experience. No blood really, but yelling on the phone, crying and just a slight level of chaos. At one point when we had been waiting in the room for awhile, I told David maybe I should start screaming or crying and I might get some quicker service. Not really because I know there were people in there much worse off than me, but when the doctor says I am going to get you something for pain and you wait….and wait….and wait…you get a little crazy for that pain relief.
Well hopefully this little bump in the road will be assessed quickly. I cannot put any weight on that foot so we have one of the computer room chairs that is on wheels that we are using to get me mobile at least to the bathroom and back. Actually works pretty good. If, after seeing a doctor, I still cannot put any weight on there, a rental scooter may be a better solution.
You know getting back in the house at 4am was really quite comical when we look back on it. But I think we finally on the last step found a good solution. So now going to the Tria Urgent Care we will have to do that all again. So hopefully that goes seamlessly and no more falling.
And this craziness while also waiting for the results of the needle biopsy of last Thursday!!!
Will keep you posted!
Smile??? Not sure I have that in me anymore, but the pain pills do help generate a little grin! 🙂
Dandy Ventures 