its been three weeks since the pain became so severe in
my right buttocks down my right leg that i coudnt walk
somehow i got into my old beat up black pickup truck
that looked like it was from the samford and sons tv show
and drove the 25 miles home
all i could think was i sure wish i had an automatic transmission
it was hard to drive with just the left leg
you know shifting clutching and pressing on the accelerator
luckily there werent many stops i had to make
i made it to the house
crawled up stairs like a 3 year old might
and fumbled through my medicine cabinet and found
that 3 year hydrocodone from my wisdom teeth removal
note dont get your wisdom teeth removed when you
are 60 years old cause it hurts like hell afterwards
at least i thought it was the worst pain until i got this disk thing
i took it like it said 1-2 every 4 hours
if i did that when i was not having pain i think i would have slept
for days
interesting sometimes with the pain medications when you hurt
bad with pain it doesnt knock you out
i was sure i was having triplets that day
eventually after not getting better as the night went on
i went to the er and got more pain medication and he
talked me into some valium for muscle spasm
my sister and her family came to visit me that weekend
i didnt tell her i was injured since i was afraid they would
not come to visit
the valium i never usually ordered for people as it is a
drug that people can become addicted to with long time use
when it first came out years ago it was given out like xanax
or ambien is today
a lot of people were hooked on it and its a medicine thats
real hard to wean people off of it
almost impossible
so i didnt want to take it but the doc talked me into it
so this week my wife she had this coffee cup that was new
that someone gave her
i presumed it was from an end of school gift
i have sort of taken it over for my morning coffee
its got a wide bottom to it and its just the right size for
the amount of coffee i drink at a time
so this week i told my wife she i sure like this cup
can i keep using it
where did you get this
she just looked at me funny
she said turn the cup over and look at the bottom
there was the engraving from the state park where my sister lives
she gave it to her along with other things in a bag
all of which i have no recollection of seeing them before
in fact i have little recollection of their visit with us
i was one stoned organicgreen doctor
after a week i got off that stuff
this has all been a humbling experience for me
being a patient
really like a disabled patient
having to rely on my wife she and others for all my care
not something i enjoyed
it did make me think as i tried to shower shave and get dressed
that there are people who do this everyday of their lives
and have for years
i do have a lot of respect for those people who are disabled this way
i had a mri which showed a ruptured disk pressing on the L5S1 nerve
and yes i definitely know the path the nerve takes
i had a 2nd week of false improvement since i was on high dose steroids
and pain meds
when the steroids kicked in good i was able to at least do the
landscape project at the last habitat house
boy did i pay for those two long days working there
then the next week the steroids began to wear off
i almost got back to where i was at the beginning
well maybe just 1 baby instead of triplets
i thought this is not going to be a good thing i have
now on my third week i have been able to completely
taper off my crutches as of yesterday
take only one pain pill a day along with prescription strength
naprosyn full time for pain and lyrica for nerve pain
i think im on to the road to recovery
i have to make myself not overdo since i look around my ten acres
and see all this stuff i need to get done
and the future landscape projects i will need to do at habitat
and i realize i gotta take this slow
again like with having to see the neurologist and doing the
alzheimers research study its humbling to be a patient
and again i think all doctors should have to be patients sometimes
it makes them more patient friendly
then when i look at all the bills that come in like for my mri
my er visit my primary care visit i think a lot about how expensive
our medical care system is
no wonder the insurance companies dont want you to use the er
but luckily for me i guess i was always interested in insurance coding
and billing so digging through everything and figuring out what
i really owe on each bill is probably easier for me to figure out
than most people
pity those people who dont have insurance since they pay full price
and dont get the big discounted rates that the insurance pays
my total cost so far would pay my insurance premiums for 6 months
without insurance the cost would be 12 months premiums
since they get no discount
there does seem something wrong with all that
someone without insurance probably would have returned to the
er for followup instead of using a clinic
which is many fold more expensive
so in summary
it is humbling to be a patient
our healthcare system is expensive
having a ruptured disk hurts like hell
im sorry for not being more sympathetic
i dont ever want to take valium again
i hate crutches
i wish i didnt have an upstairs to my house
i wish all my vehicles were automatic
i can see why people with chronic pain not relieved with
medication like naprosyn or tylenol need pain management
i wouldnt hesitate if i were in that situation
if i was in practice now i would be more freer with giving out
pain medication
and definitely be much better at managing someone with a
ruptured disk or bugling disk with its resulting sciatic pain
i today seem to be crutch free and hydrocodone free
i will have to hold myself back from overdoing
and a special thank you to my wife she for taking care of me
HE MEANT 2013
the george orwell novel 1984 has had a surge in sells on amazon
and barnes and nobles and at most book sites and stores
all since the nsa stuff came out about them looking at all our
emails and cell phone calls and text
so yes big brother is watching us
my plan is to reread this book again since its been years since ive
read it
maybe we all should reread and think more about 2013
the organicgreen doctor
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