Bump

Sunday morning is special around here. We used to get the paper daily but now just don't have time to read it. So the Sunday paper is special. I get to spread it out and read as much as I want. We also tend to make a nice breakfast to eat together.

But this Sunday was a bit different. I was still in my pajamas and barefoot and headed back to our room to get something. As I stepped into our room and stepped on a piece of tulle from one of my craft projects. That was a bit slippery and my feet went one way and I went the other.

The resulting damage was from the fact that I landed on my hip, elbow, knee, and shoulder.... I took the ice packs my husband got me and went back to bed to read the paper. I took it easy for a few hours. Later we went out to dinner with my family until my back started complaining and I decided I really didn't feel that well.

Of course I didn't want to go to the doctor about a fall because they would add it to my record as a fall. If you are a fall risk in the hospital, they give you bright orange or yellow wrist bands and make you stay in bed until someone can walk you ten feet to the bathroom. I hate going to the hospital because of a fall. I don't want that label.

After thinking about it, I decided that I also probably hit my head, either on the floor or the door. Monday morning, I decided I needed to take it easy and skipped the gym. I did go to physical therapy for my neck. I told the therapist about my fall and he asked me if I lost consciousness or not. I said no and he told me if I didn't feel well again today I should go to the doctor.

So I went to the hospital and saw a nurse practitioner. She sent me for a CT scan to make sure there was no bleeding on my brain. (Of course being a cancer person, my real fear was that there was a bad thingie up there.)

I am fine and there is no lasting damage. But even though it technically it isn't a concussion, I should treat it as one. This means no gym. No PT. Just rest and take care of myself. All from a little fall and bump on my head.

I Haven't Been Blogging

I haven't been blogging recently and I haven't figured out why. Well I do have some thoughts on the subject.

Originally I started this blog as a way of communicating my medical disasters, especially with breast cancer. That is what I told everyone. It was also my way of venting. Sort of journaling. It was very helpful to me in both ways.

Over the years (9.5 to be exact) the topics have added and changed, as my health has continued to decline. My blog has been so helpful to me.

But I have hit a major wall, writer's block so to speak, in recent months. Its not like I haven't had medical issues to deal with. I just haven't been very good at writing about everything.

I did have some major distractions because I did some travelling. But I haven't been able to write. I also have had some fun and its getting to be craft show season for me.

I think I just need a break for a bit and will be blogging again.... So my blog may be intermittent for a bit but I'll be here and blogging regularly again.

Thoughts on Coping

I was talking with a friend today. She is having a nudgy little problem that is driving her crazy. She doesn't like nudgy little problems that drive her crazy. She asked me how I do it and cope with everything.

My reply after that, with some deep thought, is:

• Exercise
• Whining
• Prescriptions
• Bitching
• Ice packs
• Complaining
• Chocolate (preferably dark with cashews or pecans)
• Over eating
• Heating pads
• Under eating
• Substance abuse (just kidding)

I admit I haven't had the best week but I'm still here. Monday I was exhausted and in pain. Tuesday I was in pain. Wednesday I was okay but sore after PT. Thursday, its still morning but I feel okay, so far. 

Pain is no fun and its been way too popular this week. One of my many doctor appointments on Monday changed around some of my pain meds. But its still too early to see if that is helping me. So I will refer to my list of options above on how I will cope. But in the meantime, I might need an ice pack and/or a pain pill. 

Alternative Medicine and Naturopathy

I have always been a fan of alternative and holistic medicine and naturopathy as well as Eastern medicine. I believe that modern Western medicine works fairly well but there is no reason not to look at other established types of medicine. Tell me Chinese people didn't develop their own type of medicine to survive and grow for thousands of years.

I think there are many things that are involved in good health care and an antibiotic isn't going to cure everything. I mean what about drinking hot lemonade with whiskey for a bad cold? Its a dose of vitamin C and the whiskey might help you take a nap. Rest and vitamins will help a lot to cure a cold. Or steaming out congestion with a pan of warm water and a towel instead of taking a decongestant? Or acupuncture for knee pain?

Anyway, I have always thought there was a lot of benefit to these types of medicine. Then I read this article. A former naturopath is taking on her whole field of medicine saying it isn't anything more than witchcraft. I read the article and then read parts of her blog.  I found it fascinating.

The way I read it is she believed in naturopathy and then she studied it in college before beginning practicing. Then she decided that it wasn't helping people.

“I’m trying to contextualize and call out the false and exaggerated claims,” she said. “They want to be able to do everything an MD wants to do — but they also want to practice essentially witchcraft.”

In contrast other naturopaths are lobbying to get their practices more legitimatized. So the question arises, why? As a practitioner, Britt Hermes didn't feel she had the education to help people:

"Hermes has railed against the Bastyr curriculum as wholly inadequate to train practicing clinicians. She says she never learned about the medical standard of care for most illnesses and had minimal experience working directly with ill patients."

So she thought she got enough training but then realized she didn't. She was smart and decided that she needed to do something else. And now she is working to raise awareness that naturopathy isn't going to cure very much. It can help with conventional medicine but isn't going to cure anyone alone.

If you use naturopathy to help you, you might want to go read her blog and the article to get a better sense of the short comings of ignoring hard evidence.

A Long Day At Doctors

After all my traveling, I realized that my body was not being very cooperative. I have increased knee pain (in the new bad knee, as opposed to the old bad knee), I have new back pain higher up than previously (it came and went for a few years but is not more there than not), and my neck and right shoulder have been giving me lots of problems.

So after waiting around for a few weeks, it became time for all my appointments. I had three different medical appointments, in two different facilities 30 minutes apart, yesterday. I started at physical therapy about my neck and shoulder. After speaking to the therapist, he did some stretching on my neck and gave me a  whole bunch of exercises. I will go back and see him twice a week for the next six to eight weeks. And its not that convenient a location.

Next I saw the nurse practitioner of my pain management doctor. She talked to me and pressed all sorts of painful places on my body. She upped my medications and sent me for x-rays. I am supposed to go see her again in three week to see where we are and see if I need an MRI or other imaging. I haven't had a spine MRI since around January 2009 and the question will be if my insurance will pay for it, if I really need it. 

I am kind of fed up with this doctor. He has said to me that even though he has been treating me for nearly 7 years, he does not think there is a need for any new imaging. Any new pains are only caused by my existing conditions. If I don't get anywhere with this NP and doctor this one last time, I will probably find a new one. A friend of mine also saw him for  years and then went to a back surgeon who told her she should have had surgery a long time before. This does nothing to my comfort level with him..

Then I went to X-ray for five pictures of my knee, four pictures of my thoracic spine, and three pictures of my lumbar spine. That was lots of fun. I am not good with the contortions required for some x-rays.

Finally I saw my orthopedic surgeon. My knee was back to its throbbing at night that I had experienced last winter and spring before he injected my knee. I hoped for a new injection which is what I got. But it made my knee really sore and I hobbled out to my car. I went home and took a 2.5 hour nap. I think I was a little tired.

Overall it was a good day, just very long for me. I am not sure I am up for a long day like that again. 

This is just a bit of my life with millions of doctors. At least I didn't see any oncologists. That part makes me happy.

Ignoring Pinktober

I have been doing a pretty good job of ignoring Pinktober this year. I know I went to a breast cancer friends meet-up recently and everyone (but me because I forgot to order one) wore their pink shirt for the event. I don't consider that a Pinktober event because it doesn't matter what time of year it is that we get together. The get together is the most important part.

I have seen pink ribbons everywhere. I went shopping at a mall this weekend where every store in it had a pink ribbon on its front to promote something about Pinktober. I can't even remember what it said because I didn't really stop to read one. I know there are a lot of other pinkification events but I have put my blinders on and ignored them.

I am okay with this. I don't need pinkification in my life. I can live with it. I think the worst of it has subsided due to the backlash in recent years. Some women like wearing pink and don't really care what month it is that they wear pink. I certainly don't need a pink ribbon on everything.

Some people really embrace these 'cancer' months. How many men grow a beard in whatever month it is that is for prostate cancer awareness? (I had to look that up because I couldn't remember what cancer it was.) Or is it an excuse not to shave for a month? I don't know but they do it because they want to.

I think if we all wear our blinders as it suits each of us, we will do fine. For example, if you put your election blinders on you will make it through to November 9 when we will know who our next president is. You might be less stressed if you do.

I will survive Pinktober as I plan Halloween at our house. I have a hidden candy stash. I have to talk to our new neighbors about our willingness to participate in trick-or-treating. And I will wear pink when I want.

The Hospital Space for Relaxation

As you go through cancer treatment you need a place to sit quietly with friends and family. Every hospital has a space where families of patients can come together and relax with the hospital patient. There are little areas tucked away. Every hospital has one.

At the hospital I go to there is a little quiet space tucked away down by the chemotherapy infusion rooms which is comfortable and has a small lending library for patients and their family members.

At Children's Hospital in Boston, they have the Prouty Gardens. It has been there for sixty years and was donated for that specific purpose. Mrs. Prouty was told by the then hospital president, that it would stay until 'all children were well'. She then hired professionals to design and create the garden using her own money. On a plaque in the garden it says: “Because of Mrs. Prouty’s vision, this garden will exist as long as Children’s Hospital has patients, families, and staff to enjoy it’’. The value of this garden to patients and their families can not be measured.

Many families have spent time there with their children in their last days. They have even spread the ashes of their children there and have gone back to remember then there. Its a cemetery in some respects, even if its use as one was not intentional. Its a place of remembrance.

Now Children's Hospital is going to dig up Prouty Garden for the purpose of expansion. The claim is they need the space for more private rooms, a neonatal intensive care unit, and a heart center. Big business interests have taken over the wishes and desires of patients, former patients, deceased patients, and their family members.

On one level I can understand the need for the hospital to expand and add more space to treat more patients. All businesses run into the need to expand. They find more space where they could then expand. Children's Hospital has multiple campuses where they could expand elsewhere.

The idea of taking a space which has been used for contemplation and remembrance for so many for so long to build a huge building is very unjust. This whole idea just upsets me. The hospital went back on their word that has stood for decades. The only hope is that a judge will step in and rule to protect the garden.