Friday, April 03, 2009

My Brain Is Numb

I’m incredibly bored. Almost to the point where I want to do something to cause trouble. But I won’t do that – I have a couple of things I have to do before I go to bed tonight.

Part of the reason for my boredom is that Martha is working tonight until 11:30PM. I did get to see her, though, as I brought her dinner. And it was nice to spend a few minutes with her. Made the evening a little less difficult.

I saw the surgeon this afternoon. It was the visit before surgery. He had another look at the wound, and we talked at length about rehab versus skilled nursing. And he went for it – I wasn’t sure he would, but Martha went with me to the appointment and she did most of the talking. She is much better at selling ideas like this than I am; I likely would have tried to stuff it down his throat, and I would have lost. But she was able to convince him that this is the right thing to do. At the very least I should be able to keep from becoming de-conditioned, and I’ll be able to do this by going to the gym in the rehab facility every day to work my upper body.

That is what I would like to do. Whether or not this all flies remains to be seen.

Now for the things I have to do… I have to wash the kitchen floor and vacuum the carpet in the living room. It shouldn’t take long, but I’ve been putting it off. Procrastinating. Something I am really good at sometimes.

Tomorrow I have to replace our mailbox. It was a victim of the snow plows during the winter. So it gets replaced.

Oh, joy.

2 comments:

TOTWTYTR said...

I think procrastination is unfairly maligned, sometimes it's better to wait a bit.

As to the doctor, I've found that often you have to give them some, uh, direction. Yeah, that's it. I'm not talking about professionally, I'm talking about when you or a family member are patients.

For example, the cardiologist wanted to send my 85 y/o mother directly home after her cardiac cath. "No can do.", said my sister and I. After re-evaluating her, he decided that a rehab was in fact indicated.

Rehab doctor wasn't interested in coordinating with Mom's PCP. Sis and I said, "This you will do.", and like magic all specialty referrals now go through said PCP.

I won't go into the heart to heart chat I had with the nursing manager. Suffice it to say that PT was increased, mobility is increased, outlook on life is much better.

You are not just a patient, you are an informed consumer of medical services.

You have to be your own patient advocate, because other than Martha, there is no one to do it for you.

Good luck Monday.

Unknown said...

Well said indeed.

For the most part I do okay when it comes down to advocating for myself. But for some reason, the people who I needed to hear me were looking at me like I was an 87 year-old female with stasis ulcers due to diabetes rather than a healthy, active 47 year-old male who is dealing with something that should never have happened in the first place. And Martha is much better at being persuasive than I am sometimes. This was one of those instances where I needed her soft touch.

Thanks for the good word - I plan to be writing while I'm wherever I end up.