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Updating Me


SassyBetsy

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I missed my radiofrequency ablation appointmenton August 1st because I have been ill for all this time. I was told it is a virus back in early July. I took 2 rounds of Z pak, cough syrup, an inhaler, logenzes, steamy showers on shower days, and whatever other thing I could do such as order from a local ethnic restaurant because I cannot get chicken soup from our kitchen in the nursing home. I hope to get some canned foods to keep in a drawer. So this virus and any bacteria seem to either be lingering or reinvading and as time goes by I am discouraged and anxious to be well again and get on the way toward recovery work. I hope visiting with an ENT will prove no other explanation besides a virus is going on. My PCP was most unhappy to do medicine this way and wrote on the referral that patient refused to leave without a referral. Sheesh made it sound like I handcuffed my walker to a chair. I am sort of freaking out about not being able to get this second RFA because I feel that the first one helped and that it may wear off or something needing a second zapping to keep away pain. Plus I tired of feeling like I have a sore baseball in my throat. I know it is viral but I am not kidding when I say this a two month thing here.

 

In the meantime there is more about the updating me than spending the majority of the summer ill. I am completely off Effexor. I weaned off without a hitch. The pain never increased even though this was supposed to be part of a super cocktail. Opana is working well now with using a long acting plus an immediate release booster. This seems to be the opiate puzzle piece of choice to my pain receptors. Unfortunatly I continue to suffer from hand tremors but I fear I need Lyrica or Gabba. I never figured out which is better at lifting the fog while stopping that electrical style pain. I changed one BP med thanks to an insurance sudden refusal to fund the old med. I wonder if these new changes could help me get back some mind along with health and relief. So far at the end of the 2 year long opiate trial that my now fired pain doc sweared the insurance company insisted upon, Opana is the one providing relief. That pain doc was pessimistic that higher dose of opana would help and insisted I get the RFA otherwise be left without pain relief. Hence my anxiety that round two may be put off even longer due to illness which I warned could land me in the ICU if I do not take the precaution to get a doctor's clearance plus wait 7 days from the day I feel absolutely back to normal fine to call to schedule the procedure. That means at least another week before I will be in like

Flynn. If I have a virus to wait out any longer then I may discover if Opana is any good alone with Lyrica.

 

I also was discharged my my vestibular physical therapist until a reevaluation at the end of the year. My PT went off to her wedding and honeymoon while I went off to my neurologist who ordered my PT to ask him if he agreed I would benefit from a homestudy plan doing assigned tasks until the end of the year. He asked if there was an insurance problem and I said I did not know what my PT records were all about and he simplified it by saying well lets order some more PT. I was given another 7 sessions and one session was a reevaluation. The usual so apparently the insurance is not bucking. I asked my therapist if I could benefit from working more with some visual stuff PT while I am on this time will tell sort of thing she wants me to do and she got me in with her associate. wow. I mean did I almost miss this opportunity? This other therapist has checkerboards and stripes in high contrast black and while all over the wall. I also used to have this one exercise at the outpatient rehap hospital immediately after stroke that used a bouy on rope and I stretched the rope out and shot the bouy out and watched it tracking it back. So I need these things.

I am really lucky to have a neurologist that agrees more is more and that all a break would be is a break. I also get out the day of an appointment which is therapy itself. So what if insurance does not look at that. Someone should. I wondered why my therapist was so gungho for me to disappear. She always says never let someone tell you how much you will recover but she did not think I would not let someone tell me how much therapy I need. So I will put on my gym clothes and go off to the rehab at the hospital and enjoy a day out too. Lucky me that my nursing home decided I did not need therapy and so I go get it from the hospital rehab. This is logical because I get so much more. Other residents have asked me about it. Well this time I want to get those wall things to have to do my homework.Some new project for me to work on.

 

I will be a grandma anytime now. I ache with longing and emotion at this version of grandma me. My ideal version bakes, drives, rocks,babysits and does everything I do not do. In fact with my history of nodding off and falling off a chair on my head, I will only hold a baby with supervision and spotting. Now that is another loss but all I do is remind me I am here alive. I can no longer do but I can be. There is still value in that.

 

My friend and roommate passed away. I do not have a new roommate yet but she is due to arrive here soon. I miss my friend and there is not any support here for death of roommates. This is a new life for me all this death and loss

and being supportive of those in their 80s. I have a friend and we are into coloring books and work together spend time together.

 

 

I have not felt like blogging much but I feel better now that I spoke of new changes and challenges.

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Pam, blogging is therapeutic.  Somehow getting  all your feelings down in black and white also brings some peace.  You have had a bad summer which is a pity as summer can be such a delight. Try to get outside as much as you can, I know what a difference that makes to the ladies I visit in the nursing home.  They tell me of the birds they saw or what new flowers are out, topics of conversation other than aches and pains makes the visit happier for them and the conversation more sustainable for me so I stay with them longer I guess. Congratulations on the soon to be grandchild.

 

You have had a lot of help with rehab through your asking for more.  You have never given up despite what you have been through and now that is working for you.  I have heard of the rope and buoy exercise as one of my nephews did that one.  I think you can do some others using the computer now too.As a woman I understand about the dressing up and going out too, it is the change of scenery that lifts your spirits and reminds you that you are part of a wider world.

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