Friday, March 29, 2013

Surgery on Tuesday?

Well S and I met with the surgeon yesterday to talk about treatment for my herniated disc.  He went over the MRI with us and even with no medical training you could tell there was something wrong.  He also had me do a few tests- bend this way, walk over here, etc. that I thought were pretty pointless considering he could see on the MRI how bad things were and knew how much pain it put me in to do these tests.  But oh well, I have found that people do not know how to deal with people who are in pain.  There is just no accommodation at all.  For example, for my most recent appointment at my Pain Specialist I knew that sometimes there can be a bit of a wait to see a doctor and that the waiting room doesn’t have any couches or anything you could lay down on and wait.  And as it brings me to tears even on Percocct to sit or stand for more than a minute, literally, I knew that this wasn’t going to be good. So I called the day before to see if they could some how accommodate me with having some place ready for me to lay down and wait to see the doctor.  And this request just blew their minds, they didn’t have any idea how they could possibly make that happen for me, even when I told them, look it is either you find something for me or I just lay down on the floor of the lobby and weird everyone out.  Finally the solution that I came up with is for S to go in and check me in and I stay in the car laying down until she calls me to tell me they are ready for me.  Geez, it is a freaking Pain Specialist, am I really in more pain then anyone else they ever see?  Must be.   Same thing at the Spinal Specialist, S goes and checks me in while I stay in the car.  They get a room ready for me so I come in and they want me to take my picture and sign a Hippa paper.  There is a tiny couch in there and so I lay down.  The lady calls me up but there is an old man doing whatever at the desk and I have to wait for him to finish, with tears in my eyes.  Really?  You couldn’t let me lay down for 2 minutes longer and call me up when you are really ready for me.  Made me so mad.

Anyway, back to the surgeon.  He said that surgery was pretty much my only option at this point, which we knew going into the appointment.  The operation will take about two hours, I’ll be in recovery for about two hours and then I’ll be able to go home that same day.  Crazy.  And it sounds like afterwards I will feel some immediate pain relief and  within a week or two be pretty darn normal, just taking it easy so I don’t hurt myself.  And we are possibly doing the surgery as soon as Tuesday of next week.  But we won’t know for sure until Monday because of the offices and such being closed for Good Friday.  I hope we can do Tuesday, I’m going crazy just sitting here.  I miss being able to take showers, sleep through the night, pick up and hold my baby, cook dinner, all of the little stuff.  I want to be better so badly.  Fingers crossed that this happens soon and that it is the answer I hope it will be.
-Liz

3 comments:

  1. So hopeful that the surgery happens soon, goes well, and you get the needed relief.

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  2. Wow! That's quick! Hope things go well. Keep us updated.

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  3. I work for a hospital and I have to same I am floored by the lack of problem solving skills doctors, nurses and receptionists have. As an interpreter I'm not supposed to get involved. I'm supposed to let stupidity just happen. Sometimes it goes beyond my threshold and I have to ask, "So you mean you can't make a phone call for them?" or "So you mean the patient has to fill out the release form?" because the two people are just miscommunicating so badly. Ugh! Good luck surviving the doctors. They're more of a pain than your pain sometimes.

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