Old Folks At Home Addendum--Sept. 25, 2006

I am adding and addendum on Sept. 25. I just wanted you to know that I am, officially, one beat up person. I was helping Dad, Shawn, Dane and Toren put up the trusses on Dad’s shed on Saturday afternoon. Dad accidentally knocked a 2X4 and it fell with some force and smashed my right pointer finger. It is PURPLE and has been bleeding quite a bit. Dr. George said it looked as if it were broken on the tip but it will grow back. It is covered with a few layers of protective bandage. Then on Monday, I was scheduled for another procedure, called a sacroiliac joint injection. By placing numbing medicine into the joint, the amount of immediate pain relief helps confirm or deny the joint as a source of pain. Also, time release cortisone (steroid) helps to reduce any inflammation that may exist within the joint. The patient is placed on the X-ray table on their stomach so that the physician can best visualize these joints in the back using x-ray guidance. The skin on the low back is scrubbed using 2 types of sterile scrub. Next, the physician numbs a small area of skin with numbing medicine. This medicine stings for several seconds. After the numbing medicine has been given time to be effective, the physician directs a very small needle, using x-ray guidance into the joint. A small amount of contrast (dye) is injected to insure proper needle position inside the joint space. Then, a small mixture of numbing medicine (anesthetic) and anti-inflammatory (cortisone/steroid) is injected. One or several joints may be injected depending on location of the patient’s usual pain. The legs may feel weak or numb for a few hours. This is fairly uncommon, but does occasionally happen. Well, they did my left side and today, all day, I have had to have Dad help me walk, Dr. Gordon Petty George said to find a place to park and stay there. But I have had to use the bathroom from time to time. I have had a completely dead left leg. It should have feeling by morning and I am counting on it. But, because I had rheumatic fever as a child, I had to have an intravenous antibiotic. The nurse nicked the vein in my hand, left side, and so the back of my hand is swollen and bruised. Yes that is a smashed finger on the right and a swollen hand on the left—oh, joy! Besides that, I cut my thumb on the left with a knife the other day, and, at the campout, caught my pointer finger on the left in the trailer door. It has been a FUN weekend. I will no longer complain. I am done. Now I will smile and be pleasant.