during that first month, while staying at the hotel, i also was dealing with trying to get a power chair, finalizing the purchase of my mobile home and the modifications on it and moving in, getting paratransit arranged and attending my first outpatient medical and therapy appointments... all on zero food and zero sleep (will get to the why of no sleep in next post, promise...) i had been surprised when i was discharged and saw how many appoints they'd made for me: primary care physician, physical medicine and rehabilitation dr., endochronologist, protime clinic, pulmonary clinic, ent surgeon, pt and ot.... i used to joke that i was at the hospital more often as an outpatient than an inpatient (used to love people's puzzled looks at that one....) i had no idea what to expect from most of the appointments, prior to my stroke i hadn't been to a dr in about 25 years.... (i know, i know;but i did mention that i have ptsd, right ?) anyway, heres how the appointments went:

pcp: i loved her!!! not a single lecture about having not been in so long, immediately noticed the ptsd notation on my records and said we'd avoid a gyn referral, that i could do without most of the standard stuff due to my history and the critical stuff shed do herself rather than subjecting me to someone else, she explained the reason behind all the other appointments and said rather than overwhelm me with tests and exams wed do them a few at a time and shed see me in 3 months for more - of course she gave me a sheaf of lab slips (between the tests she ordered and all the others from the other clinics, i was seriously considering changing my name to pincushion.....) one thing that was annoying was the thickness of the carpet i was trying to roll on, trying to open a door and propel myself through it at the same time with only one working hand... and why do nurses who see you in a wheelchair with an obviously non-working foot/leg, think you can stand up, walk 6 ft down a thin corridor, turn a tight corner, and then step up to a scale ???

protime: this one amused me, the appointment consisted of them giving me all the dos,den'ts and warnings of being on coumadin.... of course id already been on it for 2 months and had been told when started on it that id only be on it for 3-4 months, when i mentioned that i got told "oh, it doesn't matter what the dr said, stroke patients stay on it for the rest of their lives " "um, i'm not on it for my stroke, i had a bleed, i'm on it for the leg clot i developed lying imimmobilen the hospital for over a month" "oh, well, we like to keep leg clots on it for at least a year" ah, i was no longer a person, i was now both a bleed and a leg clot, lol... basically the deal was to get a ptt test every 1-3 weeks based on the previous results etc, and if you fall go to the er and tell them yoyou'ren coumadin, if you have more than 2 quarter sized bruises call or go to er (oh yeah, i'm going to measure my bruises...) also got the no nsaids, ginger,ginko, be careful of vvitamink veggies, etc lecture, took my first blood test and was on my way

p,m +r: basically just had the "ddon'tlet me straighten your xyz" test and general left/right comparision testing, and asking how my therapies were going and was my chair appropriate, had i tried walking, etc,

pulmonary - was basically just to monitor the apnea - they finally gave me my test results, seems like my o2 ddropsfrom 98% to 54% when i sleep, and i stop breathing 66 times every hour... ooops

endocrine: tthey'ddecided in the hospital that i was both hypothyroid and had pcos, so the word of the dadayn this clinic was... more blood tests, pincushion rides again....

ent: the growth tthey'ddone a biopsy on in the hospital was a tumor on my parotid gland, 80% of them are benign;but they can convert so they wanted to remove it, and mine was already pretty large;but they ccouldn'tdo surgery until at least 6 months after the stroke so come back in march....

pt: "we cant try walking till we get you a new afo...." so we did mostly excercises and more practice transferring, gee, get a new pt and she hates my "pivot plop" too....

ot: " lots more arm and finger strength tests, lots more excercises, surprise that i used my hand as much as i did, sensation and proprioception tests and surprise that i had so little of both yet so much motion...

all in all, they went well - one cool thing was that out=patient therapies are on the first floor of the building that houses the rehab unit on the second floor and the med unit i was in on the third floor, so while i was waiting a whole bunch of therapists,nurses and aids i knew walked by - never had so many people greet me by name in such a sort time before, was fun

anyway, i'm exhausted just thinking about it, lol, enough for now....