Wednesday, June 09, 2010

The Crip Files: Well, At Least It's Not Broken edition, Plus: Musings.

Got a call from the happy doctor people yesterday. Doc Pedro reviewed my X-rays and determined that I have degenerative changes in my spine, specifically in the areas C5, C6, C7 (what a shocker that was), but no obvious subluxation or fractures or aliens.

At least no aliens that are radio-opaque.

That was good to know, especially as my assigned light duty turned into heavy duty quite quickly yesterday afternoon. There's something about having three stat CT scans and no transporters that makes "light duty" into "take this immensely heavy bed on which the drive has gone out down this stretch of carpet, down seven floors, and oh, by the way, you'll have to push the damn thing aaaaalllll the way down here, to where we've built the new radiology department."

I hate not having enough bodies around to do the work. I've been training heavier so that I could do more on my own, and that, combined with the fact that I have to do more on my own, is what led to this injury. I'm backing off the heavy weight. My new goal is to look like Christina Hendricks, but with definition.

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As a follow-up to my last post, I have to point out: I had a patient have multiple TIAs during my shift the other day. The nurse practitioner came in and immediately dropped the head of his bed and raised his legs.

I've worked so long with *hemorrhagic* strokes that that didn't even occur to me. With hemorrhages, you keep the head of the bed 30 degrees or *more*. With occlusive strokes, it's 30 degrees or *less*.

This is going to be a really steep learning curve.

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What I want, she thinks, is to be outside on the deck, drinking a dry sparkling wine and eating stinky cheese and fruit. Instead, it's been raining off and on all day (more like HOLY SHIT THE WORLD IS COMING TO AN END pouring off and on all day; so much for the dusty plains of central Texas) and it's just humid enough to require gills for breathing. Plus, the flies and mosquitoes are out in force. So I'm sitting indoors, eating Auntie Jo's Special Refried Leftover Ramen Concoction and drinking the Scotch that Nurse Ames brought me from the duty-free.

Perhaps I will hit the farmers' market tomorrow and buy blueberries blackberries strawberries buffalo mozzarella cheese tiny ornate vegetables home-made whole-grain crackers and a bottle of something drinkable from Becker. Then I will sit out, rain or shine, and watch the bats and the satellites.

4 comments:

Moose said...

Glad to hear the spine isn't majorly whacked up. But beware of those aliens. They're sneaky, crafty beasties, they are!

painting with fire said...

Glad there are no breaks or other dire things happening. You must be feeling better since you're back at work - hope that continues!

Allison said...

I have the degenerative thing and a lot of muscle spasms. Botox will help that.

Rat said...

Congradulations on The c-5 thru c-7 probs. Now I don't feel so alone. Going back to work in a clinic full time is probably going to kill that, but hey, they have insurance so, who knows, maybe some kind of miracle surgery...technique will pop up that does not require Michael Jackson doses of Propofol ever 6 weeks for another epidural, facet injections bilateraly from c-3 thru c-7, or my special favorite, the "hey let's wake you up 8 times during the proceedure to see if this hurts" rosotomy.