Nature Songs ~~~~
NOVEMBER, 2001 ~ continued
November 26, 2001 - Life is full of change reactions. The toe bone’s connected to the foot bone. The foot bone’s connected to the ankle bone. The ankle bone’s connected to the leg - knee- thigh-hip- back---- and so it goes. What better way to be reminded of the intricacies of life than the wallop the toes! Boy, will that ever remind you of how things work together ... or at times pull against each other.
After trying several of my walking shoes last night, I found one that seemed to support my toes better than the others. Once it seemed to ease up the pain, I was not about to take it off. I slept with it on and saved myself from some painful bumps in the night. Come morning I had to take the dogs to be groomed since it was too late the cancel the appointments. The workers there are great to help me, so I knew I would not have to carry the dogs up the steps into the shop.
I had to shake my head and smile from within when the groomer’s helper came out with , “Well, bless your heart!” upon hearing what I did last night. It brought back the reminder of the speaker’s comment on the South’s usage of that comment and it’s “real” meaning. Yes, I had indeed done a very stupid thing by ramming my foot in to the leg of that chair. Now the chain reaction of having to balance myself differently is making me feel the effects on each and every joint.
This has to be one of those days when things are not meant to turn out right. Tbird called me about lunchtime to report on her events of the morning. She got a call at school before ten o’clock informing her that Little Miss Giggles was running in the classroom at daycare. She fell and struck her head on the corner of a table. It was evident that stitches would be required! In fact, the head of daycare brought Giggles across town and met Tbird at Holiday Inn which is about half way between the daycare and Tbird’s school. Neither one of the boys ever got hurt like this at daycare.
Dad met Tbird and Giggles at the doctor’s office. It wasn’t until the doctor came in and removed the bandage that they knew the seriousness of the cut. The bleeding was controlled and no one wanted to mess with the place until they had to. Turned out that there had to be a stitch inside the cut before the outside could be closed. Now she is sporting seven stitches over one eyebrow for all to see. At least the doctor gave her a shot to relax her before beginning to stitch up the cut that also would erase any memory of going through getting it sewed together.
I had to report that I would be unable to keep her tomorrow because of my own injury. Little did I know at that time that I had another problem worse than my toes working on me. I knew that my finger with the cyst on it was very sore. As I was returning to pick to the puppies about mid afternoon, I also noted that it was swollen and very painful to try bending it. As I was talking on the phone with Mother and explaining that I would not attempt to walk in to see her today, I took off the band-aid covering my finger.
Ouch! It looked awful and felt awful. As the air touched it there was more throbbing. My finger is badly infected - open and running. It is almost five o’clock and too late to call the doctor. There is a red line running part way up the inside of my arm. That is not a good sign. It is hot, too. Time to go to work on my finger. First to soak it in warm salt water, followed by some betadine. Then some antibiotic ointment and a new band-aid. I have some capsules left from the last sinus infection and begin taking them.
My doctor’s day off is tomorrow, but I have no choice but call the office. Besides, a red spot is showing up back on my foot behind the toes that are swollen ....
November 27, 2001 - Eleven o’clock in the evening and Tbird returns my earlier message left on her answering machine. Hubby and the boys are in Florida enjoying a few days of togetherness for them. Giggles is doing okay, but she saw her boo-boo for the first time this evening and the sight of it with the stitches seemed to upset her somewhat. I learned that it is arched directly above her left eyebrow.
Memories flooded back to when Tbird was about the same age as Giggles and she got her very own stitches. She was coming into the house following Allan and the storm door came shut just as she sat down as she tripped. At that time we had one step up to get into the house at the door. The corner of the metal storm door caught her along the left eyebrow. The trip to the hospital with her way back then left Tbird with five stitches ... like Mother; like daughter! No, that doesn’t include me.
My own day was long and drawn out. Several times during the day I was tempted to go to the emergency room because my finger bothered me so much, but I held out and waited .... and waited ... waited ... the day was long ....
The day’s progression:
Nine a.m.: I call the doctor’s office. I’m put on hold a short time before being told that the doctor-on-call-for-my-doctor’s nurse would give me a call-back.
Around midday: The nurse calls to question me about what I need from the doctor. It will be 4:30 before he will be able to work me into his schedule.
4:10: I arrive a bit early to the office with hopes of seeing him a bit earlier.
4:50: The nurse calls me back. She informs me that the doctor is running way behind and would I mind seeing yet another doctor. I didn’t care which one saw me as long as I got something to help me.
Around five, the doctor comes in and doesn’t like the condition of the finger. He has these fancy words describing what may have happened. Sometimes the bone will slip at the joint and an infection from the inside is present. Bottom line in his words, “If you have chills, fever, get sick or have any sign of a red line running out from your finger toward the wrist - get your butt up here immediately and I’ll pop you in the hospital a few days .”
5:23 I arrive at the drug store to find they are backed up with bunches of people ahead of me. I leave my prescription to be filled and decide to go on out to see Mother while waiting for the medicine that should help my finger.
6:30 After making a few phone calls from Mother’s room and spending a little time with her, I have to back track to the drug store to pick up my prescriptions. I have several more waiting for me to pick up as well.
7:11 p.m. Finally, I’m home and ready to take the medicine that should help my finger to begin healing. It’s been an awfully long day. Who would have ever thought it would take so long to find help for my ailing index finger? It throbs with every heartbeat. All I want to do is go to bed ...
I find that a big plastic cup is just right for filling with warm water and drops of betadine for soaking my right hand. Moving to type can be felt, but I realize quickly how to use my other fingers for typing without touching the sick one. Another helper for me is wrapping my sore finger with a damp towel. For some reason it keeps it from throbbing quite as much.
November 28, 2001 - Sleep is not a real option for the night. Two pain pills didn’t faze the throbs pulsating from the finger. After several hours, I take two ore pain pills which help no more than the first ones. An hour later I take Arthritis Strength Tylenol to see if it does any good. As it turns out there is only one thought that keeps demanding attention all through the night. Solitude was not to be found.
Before I left home to get back into the water routine, there was a phone call, Allan came in for a while and someone parked in the drive behind my car preventing me from leaving for a spell. Bonnie and I were late getting into the water. I found I did best when I stayed in the deeper water and kept my feet off the bottom. Working out was anything but a joy this day. I spent twenty minutes in the steam room to give my aching parts a chance to soak in some of the heat. Getting dressed, I had a problem with getting my shoe back on the foot with the injured toe.
What a relief to get back home. The rest of the day I spent on the bed with the foot elevated. The finger - no matter how many ways I tried - would not subside its pulsing, stabbing throbs. I tend to feel that perchance it could be broken as well as infected. Who knows what may be going on within the tightly swelling drum referred to as a finger! My poor puppies have had to endure my complaints throughout the days, as well as parts of songs I keep bursting out with to counter the pressing pain!!
Tbird treated me to supper at the Coffee House close to the nursing center this evening. Giggles and I compared our boo-boos. Neither of them are things to brag about. Her experience has not slowed her down any. She was in high gear the whole time we spent in the coffee shop. Thank goodness only a few other customers were there as she ran all around the place.
The three of us visited with Mother for a short time before Tbird headed home to give Giggles a bath and wash her hair for the first time since the stitches above her eye. I stayed a bit longer with Mother before heading home to soak my finger again and stoke myself up with pain pills and other goodies to carry me through the night.
Here it is midnight and instead of sleep, I feel - pain ... Already I am tiring of this. There are better things to do. I’ve not even touched the computer today ... Oh, well!
November 29, 2001 - I shall be glad when all this episode of my life is taken care of and left to the past. First Tbird makes me promise to go back to the doctor today. I promised her last night that if my finger was not looking and feeling better, that yes, I would go see the doctor today. Allan talks to me on the phone last night and told me to call my regular nurse at 8:30 this morning. That I couldn’t do and take part in the water class. This morning when returning Bonnie to her abode after our workout ... and her being a nurse ... she told me to get back to the doctor and then call her to let her know what happened.
I called and left a message for the doctor. They called back to say that if my finger was getting worse, as it sounded .. then the medicine wasn’t helping and that they needed to send me on to an orthopedic surgeon. The nurse called back shortly to tell me that Dr. D would see me at 3:40 this afternoon at his new office out in Mountain View. No matter what may happen through out my life, I keep having to return to him for first one thing or another. We go way back to the early eighties. He had a big hug for Tbird when he came into the examining room as well as one for me. (He offered to take out Giggles stitches tomorrow if we would bring her back.)
He took one look at my finger and made two quick decisions. 1. The antibiotic was not working. 2. It was not to a stage for it to be lanced yet. Goody, goody - just to think that someone would dare to touch my finger, let along cut on it!! After taking x-rays, he made another statement. The problem was actually in the larger joint of the finger. Arthritis has taken its toll and the joint is gone. Therefore, more pressure has been placed on the first and smaller joint causing it to become inflamed. Somewhere along the way, it not only became inflamed, but a bit of bacteria decided to take it on for a battleground.
He gave me samples to take of some really high powered antibiotic tonight and in the morning. I’m to take a double dose of my pain medicine before returning tomorrow at one o’clock just in case he needs to open up my finger which he thinks he can do in the office. With the weekend ahead, he doesn’t want to chance waiting another day if there is not a noticeable improvement when he sees my finger tomorrow.
Tomorrow evening is our Russian ballet of the Nutcracker at the Civic Center. Something keeps gnawing in the back of my mind telling me that I more than likely will not feel like sitting through several hours of music. I do hate the thoughts of maybe missing it. ... Ah! Tomorrow ...
November 30, 2001 - Rest seemed to be the best choice for me this morning. Things were going to be rushed if I chose to do my water exercises and get to the doctor in Hickory on time. I decided to take three of my pain pills before leaving home instead of two as the doctor suggested. Wendy, a load of school books in hand, drove me down for the appointment.
Wendy is working on a term paper that she has to turn in next week and thought she might get some writing done while she waited with me. She did write about a page and a half, but I promised her that it was all right for her to watch is my finger was worked on. First we went to a regular room and the nurse laid out some equipment in case the doctor wanted to lance the finger. He looked at how things had progress with it and decided he would work on it in the surgery room.. So ... we traversed the maze of hallways to the surgery. This is a large new facility with a host of doctors and a therapy unit to hide along the mazes.
First came the shots for numbing. They should numb before numbing!!! Three of them were placed around the base of my index finger. Even some numbness crept into the middle finger. However by the time Dr. D returned to begin his works of wonder, it took only a moment to know that all of the index finger was not numb. He had to put more shots into the middle joint area. Well .. I’m sorry to report that all was not numb in my finger. I felt far more than I would wish to have felt. In his words, “You’re a strong lady. You can take it.” He also apologized that sometimes the fingers are hard to numb. Tell me about it!! I have teeth on that same side that don’t care to be numbed ... Maybe there is a connection ....
First he took a culture from the bone before beginning work on my finger. Wendy had rolled over closer to the table so as not to miss any of the work done - but stayed out of the way. He proceeded to make a pathway from one side to the other of my finger and inserted a drain through it so that the abscessed matter could get out. Using a cute spring-like instrument, Dr. D quickly wrapped my finger in layers of tubed gauze.
I was sent home with instructions to soak my finger in warm water, gauze and all several times a day; don’t unwrap it; return on Monday. I got more of the pills to last me through Monday morning. The hardest instruction of all was to keep my hand elevated above my heart at all times. That’s hard to do unless you let the arm slip down and the throbbing finger reminds you to lift it up. Here I am propped up on the bed with a pillow under the laptop to bring it up higher. This typing without the use of the one finger isn’t as much of a handicap as one would think.
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©2001 by Stormy Jeanne
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