My hardware and a green light.
Here is my actual hardware (go ahead, make an airport security joke now, everyone seems to have an uncontrollable need to do so when they hear about screws and plates, its a fascinating universal phenomenon I'm newly aware of)! Wild, isn't it? I mean, it blows my mind to think that that is inside of me, that those are my bones. I find it both gross and fascinating. I'm extremely glad that I live in 2012.
I had my in home physical therapy visit yesterday. I got cleared to start exercising. Wait, what's that?
I GOT CLEARED TO START EXERCISING!!
What does this mean? Hardly the heart pounding cardio boot camp style high impact long distance workouts of the life-before-the-break......but, I can start doing, like, leg lifts and shit! Wow! If you had told me three weeks ago that I would be excited to do leg lifts and abs I would have laughed in your face :) But, it is what it is and we are where we are and when a new normal becomes the reality you find yourself grateful for whatever you can get. So. I got cleared to start swimming, lifting weights with my arms, and doing non weight bearing leg work. No standing or leg work on my right leg, and no lower body weights. Keep my pelvis fixed and my hip only moving in flexion/extension and abduction/ adduction, staying away from any internal or external rotation at this point. I had told myself that I was taking this entire week of "bedrest", and I'm sticking to it, however. I just don't want to rush things, I feel sore just from the little bit of exercise I did with her yesterday, I'm only 11 days post surgery, and I have the rest of my life to recover. It's 9:15 and I'm laying in bed, Jake is still sleeping, Luke and Julia are off to the Reed's and Nate is on an airplane somewhere.......and I'm cleared to exercise. Her exact words were "At this point you can really focus on two things, just some exercise, and rest.". Uh, exercise....and rest. Okay. Got it. In fact, that pretty much sounds like my dream life?
I think that this morning might mean some bathing suit shopping, as aqua jogging is in my very near future! Since I can't drive it means I might have to wake up this 2 year old of mine who thinks that he is a teenager and have my first excursion out of the house (with Brooke as my driver) since returning home from the hospital last Thursday! This, a full week, is like three times as long as I was ever housebound after birthing any of my children. Today, my friend, may well be a big day.
Wow. Quite humbling.
ReplyDeleteThat's a lot of hardware. I have three screws and several pins in my knee and I never set off airport security, but I don't have quite that much metal. ;)
ReplyDeleteI am thrilled that you got the all clear to exercise. I think it will help your healing more than you realize.
Woot for the exercise! XO
ReplyDeleteCool Hardware! It's amazing to think that your hip is still flexible with all the (steel? titanium?) screws and plates that now complete your hip!
ReplyDeleteYay for sleeping in! Yay for exercise! Yay for getting out! Gosh, I sound like that dude from that show "Crank Yankers"! Yay!
Science and medicine are amazing. I am glad you got to the right doctors to put the pieces back together. I am still really angry over how you were treated by that PA. Imagine if you were elderly with that injury and shuffled around like that? I mean, I understand how fit and athletic you are, but not to do a simple xray before kicking you back home infuriates me.
ReplyDeleteCongrats on the great exercise news. Will be good for body and mind. Here's to moving forward and sleeping in! :)
Karly, I'm still angry about it too. Furious, in fact. I've already reported him to the State licensing board in Harrisburg and filed an official complaint. Our official complaint is on record with the hospital as well, they have already agreed to cover our second ambulance fees (as that trip ought never to have had to happen, and essentially an admission of guilt, to me) and have promised me more info as to what is being done as far as the PA goes (His Name is Chad Jeffrey, I've tried to google him but have not come up with much) by the end of the week. If I do not hear from her tomorrow I will be calling again, then going directly to legal action. If I am not pleased with the hospitals response concerning Mr. Jeffrey I already have contacted several lawyers. No one should have to suffer under the care of health care provider like him. It was flat out wrong.
ReplyDelete:-D on the exercise AND on taking action against that doctor. No one else should have to suffer like that! Happy resting and exercising and resting and.... ;-)
ReplyDeleteLove your fiery spirit, Melis. xo!
ReplyDeleteMeg it was Chester County Hospital. It would not have been my first choice, but that was where my original xrays had been taken, and where my Ortho was. When I called my (PT) uncle that terrible morning of pain and fear and tears and knowing my leg was broken and confessed that I was terrified of going back there, he told me that I could go to another (admittedly better) hospital, Paoli, but that do do so could cause confusion and non linear care as they would not have access to all of my prior and very recent films/diagnostic tests etc.
ReplyDeleteThe more people I talk to about this, specifically the more people I talk to in the medical field about this, the more I am considering actually taking legal action. NOT because of the theoretical money involved, but because this is an actual case of true malpractice, a case of a patient being overlooked and mistreated because I didn't fit into a specific "profile" as I presented as a fit, otherwise healthy 30something, which automatically dismisses me from the profile of people presenting with a broken hip. The more people I talk to, the more people say that clearly something is wrong with the hospitals "profiling" in that despite my extreme pain, my own innate (correct) diagnosis of my injury, and my visually shortened and externally rotated leg an x-ray is an AUTOMATIC and instant decision. I'm really struggling with what to do, as I am NOT the litigious type, but the thought of this happening to someone who was not lucky enough to have two strong able bodied men available to carry them into their home, or people intelligent enough to encourage or demand that they RETURN to the hospital via ambulance hours later (and perhaps end up losing a leg due to lack of treatment and suffering at home) or worse, simply makes me ill. I know that human error happens, but that such egregious error could happen to a patient as adamant (and vocal) in advocating for their desires) as I was makes me wonder what other sort of misdeeds are happening for those unwilling or unable to advocate for their own care in that hospital. If it takes a lawsuit to call attention to their practices, and improve them, then I am willing to go that route. The more time passes, and the more people who are simply appalled at my story, and the more I wake up from my post surgical/medicinal haze, the more I wonder just how this happened to me, and the more and more outraged I get about it. We shall see just how this all plays out. I have a lot of phone calls to make tomorrow.
Yes, nurses were advocating for me, which interests me as I await the hospital review boards report to me tomorrow morning. I have letters drafted to both the president of the hospital, several newspapers, and have received the paperwork to file official complaints with the licensing boards with our state. I am not one to go looking for trouble, and I am one to graciously understand small mistakes, and appreciate when people apologize or make right, and I myself make mistakes. However, those 10 minutes spent weeping in my driveway, at 4 am, unable to move my leg an inch, unable to move, utterly unable to get into my own home, after leaving the place that is charged with HELPING me, has truly changed me, and it has changed me in a way that makes me want to enact change for anyone else who has suffered at the hands of either that PA, or that hospital in general.
Again, stay tuned.
Well we all know what happened in the ER wasn't a mistake. It was negligence. I was curious about the nurses, being a nurse myself, I could never send a patient home in your condition. Didn't you say it took like 30 minutes to get you into the car when your Dad came to take you home? I wonder if they aren't able or allowed to go over Dr. Asshole and page the ortho or someone else? Everything about this is so awful on so many levels! I'll be anxious to hear what the hospital has to say.
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