Before you know it, you're the crazy cat lady in the scary house

This Sucks

October 15, 2004 ... 10:08 p.m.

Oscar: “Good morning, I have no clean underwear and my washer is broken, so I’m washing them in my dishwasher.”

Well. We have the hip problem figured out. And I am not happy. At all.

When I was 14, I had most of my spine fused due to severe scoliosis. My hip had been bothering me, off and on, for a while now. It has been near-constant for almost six weeks, so I made an appointment for 9:15 a.m. for this morning.

Bootsie and I left for the U of Iowa Hospital a little earlier than normal, anticipating the streets would be even more crowded, with tomorrow being game day and all. The traffic wasn’t too bad, but we ended up having to park on the top of the parkade. It was 51°. And it was raining.

Once we made it inside -- shivering, teeth chattering and wet -- we had to make our way down one floor, to elevator “I”, down 3 more floors, to reception for directions, back to elevator “I”, down another floor and down about 32 miles of corridor and then we were directed to the third check in window. After I caught my breath, I told the receptionist “I’m Eibisch Surname, S-U-R-N-A-M-E, and I have an appointment with Dr. D.” The receptionist did a triple take and directed me to the waiting room.

9:23 a.m.

The waiting room was full of people with casts, including one pungent fellow with a green and orange one. Ah, I remember my casts ... my hip-to-toe one was black and gold (GO HAWKS!), my first knee-high cast was sky blue, my second knee-high cast was navy and my third knee-high cast was fluorescent ... Tangent. Sorry.

10:00 a.m.

There are two tvs in the waiting room. There is a large plasma playing various nature scenes to calm our frazzled nerves, I assume. I only watched when it showed sharks and kittens. Not sharks AND kittens, sharks OR kittens. I don’t suppose having the two in the same space would be very soothing. The other, much smaller, tv was showing “Price Is Right”. I have seen that show a lot, but I have never seen someone spin the wheel, land on the dollar, win a grand AND have her bonus spin land on the dollar, winning $10,000. I could’ve been at home, doing some algebra home work but, boy, am I glad I saw that.

10:47 a.m.

The relaxing nature scenes were featuring barracudas and I was beginning to feel nauseous, though not from the barracudas. I think it was because I was hungry. I hadn’t had anything to eat since Thursday, when I had ... uh ... revisited my lunch. And still we sat.

11:02 a.m.

The intercom finally directed me to “Clinic C”. I checked in at the clinic, got another Look and Bootsie and I were shown to a room. Bootsie helped me up onto the table just as nurse came in and did the usual check-up stuff. When she went to check my blood pressure, she had to get a bigger cuff and I suddenly realized why I was getting all those Looks. I’m 27. Dr. D. is a pediatric orthopedist, in a children’s clinic. Yay me. Actually, he adores me (and, really, who doesn’t) and, apparently, wants to keep me as a patient until one or both of us dies.

A knock at the door announced the arrival of Dr. P. He’s hot. I mean, like, woah. Really. Rawr. Anyway, I explained my troubles and he felt my back, where it hurt. Then I laid on my back --PAIN -- and he moved my leg several different ways, which did nothing. He basically said he thought it was a tendon that he could pop but, after moving my leg, didn’t think that anymore and that he was going to talk to Dr. D. Yeah, good, you do that. I had an appointment with him.

11:57

I had just dozed off when Dr. P came back and said I needed to go to “X-ray”, that they wanted some pictures of my spine. That worried me a bit, because I went for “hip” not “spine”.

12:42 p.m.

I finally get called back for x-rays. First I had to lay on my left side -- PAIN --, then flat on my back -- PAIN -- and then I had to wait for them to develop and to make sure they didn’t need more. And, of course, they did. Flat on my back again, only this time they need to contort me -- PAIN, DEAR GOD THE PAIN -- and, to top it off, the tech started moving the table and caught my finger in it. I lost it. I just burst into tears. Really, my finger did not hurt that much but with the way I was laying and I was a little scared and a lot cold and quite hungry -- I just lost it. Only for a minute, but still. I was so embarrassed.

Finally, we went back to the ortho room for several minutes, until Dr. P. sent me back to x-ray for a few more specific pictures. Did that and came back to the room. Dr. D. makes his entrance and says “Well, what we didn’t want to see wasn’t there.” Mm-hmm, makes sense. He had been afraid of a tumor or that on of the rods in my spine had slipped, but it was neither.

What is my problem? Well, my fusion ends a few vertebrae above my pelvis and these vertebrae have been taking the brunt of 13 years of movement and are now wearing/rubbing and eroding because of this. The upshot of this is that I have an appointment, after Thanksgiving, with the surgeon who did my back surgery. He wants to fuse the bottom of my spine, too.

I don’t want another surgery. I really don’t. So many things went wrong the first time. I remember it hurts so bad, I threw up constantly. The incision broke open several times and got infected. I’m just so upset right now..

Let me tell you how much I hurt now -- Dr. D. wrote me three prescriptions, one for an anti-inflammatory pill, one for a sleeping pill and one for pain. He wanted to give me Vic0din. Vic0din! Unfortunately, I cannot take that or the one for sleeping because of my liver. Nor can I take the anti-inflammatory because it contains glucosamine -- a no-no for someone with an allergy to shellfish.

You know, I have just about had it. I’m in a bad place right now.

I’m tired so I’m going to bed and, since little JD’s toddler bed is in my room, I’m going to watch him sleep and try to get into a better place.

Currently Reading: Six Questions of Socrates by Christopher Phillips

Listening To: Tommy James & the Shondells Anthology
......

Have a happy day!

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