MY day, spent being poked, prodded and twisted (prodded in the eyeballs, no less) has yielded nothing but good news, although I left town kind of wishing I’d taken the time to shop for a left-handed holster.
First the current news, as far as anybody can tell the shoulder damage is just a bunch of bad bruising. Nothing broken, torn or dislocated, and in fact (although extending my right arm is still largely impossible) I’m getting a little mobility back and the pain has backed off substantially. I’m the proud owner of a new sling, which I’m supposed to use. And really did for a few hours this afternoon but it’s impossible to work in it.
Second, the best possible news on my eyes is that nothing is worse…and that’s exactly the news I received after lengthy and expensive testing that took up all the morning. In fact even though my visual field test results for the right eye continue to slowly deteriorate (that eye was pretty much trashed by glaucoma before I ever went to a doctor) I still have corrected 20/20 in the left and 20/25 in the right – which I never came close to before all that terrifying surgery. I’ve been very faithful with the glaucoma meds and the interocular pressure remains on the high side of acceptable. He has stopped talking about boring holes in my eyeballs with frickin’ laser beams.
That scary situation from a year and a half ago hasn’t cleared up – I still have spells when everything goes out of focus and I have to blink and shake my head to clear my vision – but shows no sign of deteriorating. I’m still supposed to be on guard against detached retinas, but there’s no sign that it’s happening. Just no sign that it’s less likely than it was in May ’15. So when you get older, things break down. I have begun to look upon strapping young men, with their bulging muscles and empty heads, with just a bit more kneejerk hostility that was previously my wont.
And speaking of those guys…If you see this in the parking lot of a Wal-Mart…
…you might be in a redneck town.
So I take it you went to the ER? How was it? How did the, “I’m broke but please treat me, anyway?” part go? (Sorry to be nosy, but knowing how much you dreaded this, I’d like to hear how dreadful it really was or wasn’t).
Good news — or as good as can be — on the eyes. Hope you don’t have to do any of this again any time soon.
It was humiliating but a lot more painless than it deserved to be. I gather that they (especially the people in this town, with its oversized-for-the-town hospital in a very poor county) give away a lot of physical examinations. Once I told them I was essentially a charity case they stopped bugging me for my Blue Cross number and just got me in and out.
Nice to hear Joel, I must have a very boring life because you just made my day.
“He has stopped talking about boring holes in my eyeballs with frickin’ laser beams.”
But it’s a really simple procedure, Joel.
Glad you are better. Hope you had an xray with that physical exam.
Glad to hear it’s just bruising. That’ll all clear up, though it’ll be unpleasant for a spell. And a downstairs place to sleep is for sure a good idea.
This is good to hear, eyes and shoulder!
Wear the sling as much as possible. Your shoulder really will heal faster when you do; if watching Hubby get over some of his mishaps are any indication.
I’ll second the “use the sling” recommendation.
Being male, I used mine only grudgingly after the surgery, and was really slack about doing the suggested physio exercises. I just favoured that arm, and did as much as possible left-handed.
It was only a couple of months later, when I was forced to move that shoulder extensively (and painfully) when painting the house, that I really recovered full use of the arm.
Glad things weren’t worse! Use that sling and heal up soon!
Good to hear that things weren’t as dire as could be feared– as others have said, use the sling, take it as easy as you can, and heal up. Take care of yourself, Little Bear needs his human.
Yep, what everyone else said, use the sling, use the aspirin, let everything quietly heal, so glad it wasn’t worse. If they gave you exercises and a schedule to do them after a period of healing, hope you will follow the schedule. If you have a gel pack that you can heat in a pot of water that will help too. Really really good news about your eyes. Wonderful that you prepared your winter wood supply early, before this happened, got the floor finished, and have a supply of food. Hope you solved your slippery floor issues. Maybe anti-slip tape on the floor at the bottom of the ladder to the loft, inside the door and in the bathroom would help? It can be replaced as needed. Sticky bottom slippers?
What a great way to start my day with your good news report! Like Zelda, I’m glad that your winter preps are basically ready for the season and hope you can(and will) take some healing time. Thanks for the update!
YAY for the good news. 🙂
I will try not to turn this into a lecture, but instead ask you to take the difficult (but ever-so-manly) step of facing one difficult reality: “From now on, the biggest threat to your life (as you know it) is injury from falls.” No, not a gun-toting jealous husband, but a simple unglamorous, dorky, slip-and-fall.
For most of us, that reality starts around 70 or 75. But for you it’s much sooner. Sooner because of the previous damage to your body, the fragile condition of your eyes, and especially because of where you live. The fact is that a significant proportion of the human population dies as at least an indirect result of falls (typically a broken hip or head injury).
Your biggest fears should be a broken hip or a detached retina caused by a fall.
If you want to continue your independent and semi-solitary life in your (finally) cozy Lair for the next several decades, then fall prevention should become your central moment-to-moment concern.
Lotta good advice here, particularly about the sling. Brief observation . . .
When I had my broken collarbone surgically repaired (involving a titanium bar and a half-dozen stainless screws) I was issued a quite complicated sling arrangement and given strict instructions on it use. I followed those instructions.
Then about four days later I began physical therapy and that guy did everything but rip my arm off. I tolerated it, but the forehead sweat and tears gave me away. He said “You know, you could take a pain med just before coming in here!” Really, really good advice.
Take care.
Glad to see you are essentially ok.
Ben, standing up and cheering you for your post. All of us who are older (What!!!???? I’m not 16 any more???) and live alone are, like Joel, one fall or one mishap from losing the independent lifestyle we worked so long and hard for. No matter what adaptations we have to implement or how silly they look, it’s worth it (and not un-manly or wimpy). A fall prevention and recovery walk-around of our homes and properties is always useful.
Good news for sure. Reality is,we are all pretty fragile–we just don’t want to admit it to ourselves. The sling can only help,even if it on and off again through out the day….
Ben is correct. You do not want to end up as feed stock for those packrats. Not to mention what that bull would probably do to your corpse…
}:-]
I did the holes in the eyeballs with the laser beams thing pre-op. It was the worst part of the whole experience. I had a bad reaction to the eye drops and my eyeballs cramped up really, really badly. It was some of the worst cramping I’ve experienced in my life (And this from someone who experienced unmedicated childbirth) and in my eyes, no less. Truly awful. After a few hours it chilled out, though, and I got narcotics, so it was all good.