"Enjoy Your Book. Folks Will Be in to Abuse You in a Minute" OR My Day at Baptist

Yes, it was a day. I started with PT at 11:30, then grabbed lunch at Five Guys and went to work to get my paycheck. Then I went to the bank and bested Skank of America with my persuasive logic and tears. Then I went to the doctor, who came into the room long enough to insist I go to the ER about my chest pain.

They wheeled me through the labyrinth of Baptist to the ER, where they immediately did an EKG that was normal, as I suspected it would be. Then they drew some blood to rule out a clot. Blood did not do that. It was abnormal. Apparently something that sounded like "D-Dimers" was high, and that has to do with clotting. They did a CT and that was normal (hooray for my lungs), and they sent me home. But that was around 10 p.m.

I was asked three times if I had taken blood thinners or if I had a blood disorder. Now, with all those steroids, I wasn't allowed blood thinners or alcohol for six weeks. There is no reason my blood shouldn't clot. I have suspected for a while I may have a vitamin K deficiency, but I've been unable to find a supplement. The nurse, Rhonda, who was really cool, said that was because it can make blood too thick. So I ate a salad. It was nasty. I will probably not do that again for a while.

My doctor was cool. He said, "Enjoy your book. Folks will be in to abuse you in a minute."

Back at the Summit ER

Yesterday was very bad. Friday was shockingly good, but yesterday was very bad. Had to go to the ER, got some morphine, more pills, normal scans, normal blood, normal urine. Pretty much a normal ER visit for me. Then I got home and had some pretty pain sharp pains in the left side of my chest. I'm also quite certain I stopped breathing twice - not for long, just long enough for me to gasp for air. But it happened twice in a row and I was so freaked out I couldn't sleep until after 4 a.m. because everyone is camping and there's no one to find me if something happens. Still having chest pains today. Called my doctor, but no one called back. Sigh.

Billie Jean Is Not My Doctor

I had more injections today. First off, the woman who did my IV gave me a shot to numb my arm first. HA! I was all, "That really isn't necessary." Naturally, it didn't numb my arm, but I'm so used to needles at this point that I'm not phased regardless.

I woke up from the procedure AWAKE - I was wide the hell awake. After I told the nurse that all three of her had nice skin, I then said, "I'm way too cognizant." Also, I didn't slur the word "cognizant" - weird. I asked the doctor about it later, and he said they gave me some fentanyl, but the also gave me propofol, or as he called it, "the Michael Jackson drug." Apparently, this drug is sometimes called "milk of amnesia," which is funny because I usually forget the first hour or so after waking up, but not this.

The last two times I woke up after the procedure without my usual pain until about 6-8 hours later. Not this time. This time I felt it immediately. This freaks me out. They gave me more fentanyl in my IV before I left the hospital, but it didn't work. It's about 100 times stronger than morphine, so this is disturbing. I told them not to bother with morphine because it doesn't work.

So what happens now? The doctor wants to see me again in three weeks. If this doesn't work, they can try different injections or platelet enriched plasma. Oh good. I can't wait to be tortured some more. Oh, and my pain meds are WEAKER than last time. WTF, doctor?! I already have to chew them to get them to work fast enough, and, you know, that's disgusting, but when I'm at work and the pain gets worse, I don't have an hour or so to kill to wait for stuff to kick in, and I sure as hell can't go sit down. EVER.

Side note: I talked to my dad afterward. Laura's daughter is an NP, and she and Laura had been talking and said that at some point they won't be able to put me under anymore. Dr. Wasudev said they used the different drug this time because last time they had to keep giving me so much that if they used it again I could stop breathing, and they don't intubate for this procedure. But I've dealt with this so long that if surgery would actually help me, I'd let them do it even if they couldn't put me under. Which I know is really messed up but I just want this to be over already.

Something Is Horribly Wrong

I am lying in bed under an excruciating pain I can't even describe, but I'll try to. I worked a double today. On the way, I had to get hamburger meat, so I was lifting 20 pounds. Worked seemed to go OK, but I didn't really get a lot of breaks. Around 9 I started feeling really bad, and I couldn't stop crying. I almost called my psychiatrist - I probably should have. I took half of a pain pill. When I got home, I put an ice pack on, but after about 30 minutes I could feel the pain pill starting to wear off. Now I'm in bed with heat, and I had to take a Dilaudid. It feels like an epic battle is happening in my insides. It's a sharp, intense pain, but it feels some fucked up combination of cramping and getting stabbed. And it won't stop hurting. I also had some bleeding. This isn't going to end well.

POPSS Goes the Weasel

I had my second POPSS procedure Thursday, and I somehow made it through work tonight. Seriously, I was on so many drugs I'm impressed I was able to function. Late last night I started getting deep stabbing sensations at some of the injection sites.

Oh, here's some fun news: I WOKE UP DURING THE PROCEDURE! HOLY SHIT! I thought I had, but I wasn't sure. I asked, and Jeff confirmed that they said I did wake up. It hurt like a bitch, too. I remember feeling intense pain that must have been some of the injections. Yikes. I hope that doesn't happen again.

Pain Level 1

Pain level 1! Just got home from my POPSS procedure, and I'm at a 1! WOOT! Also, the concussion yesterday didn't interfere with the anesthesia, so that's good. They had a lot more places to inject because of the accident aggravating everything, but the fentanyl is still in my system, so I'm not really in pain. I'm expecting tomorrow to be a form of torture beyond words, but for now, I'm good. Until it wears off.