shreddies update
Oct. 19th, 2008 07:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
realthogLet me offer you a sneak preview of the latest episode of the medical soap opera my life seems to have become. I'm hoping the series will be canceled at the end of the current season so I can get on with living normally!
In our last episode, which in fact didn't air (for reasons that'll become obvious), I was sitting around in my robe yesterday morning, checking my e-mail and generally doing not very much while I waited for my brain to wake up so my day could begin, when suddenly a funny itch began in my eye. By the end of an hour or so, this had become something 'way beyond a mere irritation; it felt as if I'd managed to get some of the wasabi from the previous night's sushi in there. The eye was watering to Niagaratic levels, and my nose was in reflex doing very much the same. Pam took one look into the bloodshot morass that had once been her husband's eye and whipped straight round to the doc's, in whose waiting room I sat for a further hour or ninety minutes clutching a hankie to my eye and a succession of others to my nose while whining unconvincingly that the pain was receding really quite a lot and could we possibly GO HOME NOW before the doc started pouring toxic chemicals into my eye?
Pam displayed that unruffled obduracy that qualifies her so well to be my wife, and in due course the doc did indeed pour toxic chemicals into my eye. For good measure, once he'd finished his nurse appeared for her own bout of toxic-chemical pouring. Satisfied at last, she clamped down onto the roiling sludge of arcane compounds the bandaid version of an eyepatch, designed to look girly, be uncomfortable, and cause the maximum amount of hair-uprooting agony when pulled off -- which I was finally allowed to do today. Getting the patch's sticky stuff off my skin was more difficult; I expect by the time I go to bed tonight there'll be a little areola of trapped fruit flies around my eye.
The biggest problem was that the affected eye was the one that dominates reading and other close-up work, such as sitting at the computer and writing. I have very odd eyesight -- have had since birth. One eye is good only for close stuff, the other only for distance. Depth perception involves my brain performing complicated tricks I'd rather not think about. With my right eye patched over, writing was next to impossible, even with the use of a lens for my "distance" eye. So much for my effing deadline . . .
And deadlines are going to be jostled for the next two days as well. Tomorrow morning we have to go into the hospital for pre-admission testing, just to check I haven't picked up any STDs or whatever since I was there a few weeks ago.
Then on Tuesday morning I'm scheduled for another angiogram, which involves the surgeon assailing my groin with sharp instruments so he can push his little camera around inside my circulatory system, taking snapshots as he goes and encouraging me to watch the whole travelogue on the screen hung specially for this purpose over my bed of trauma. Why the docs think I should want to do this is anyone's guess. Me and my circulatory system get along just fine so long as I can trick myself into believing I don't have one, that it's just other people who do.
The purpose of this latest probe is to examine my carotid arteries. These were to be given the Dynorod treatment back at the beginning of June at the same time as my bypasses were being done, but at the last minute the carotid surgeon announced he wasn't sure it was necessary after all and besides he'd got the golf course booked, so it was left off the day's schedule. Now my cardiologist, bless him, is thinking it might be a good idea to get a second opinion about my carotids -- hence this latest procedure.
And, as soon as my life subsides back to routine after the chaos these two interruptions will inevitably cause, it'll be time to get the long-delayed triple-stenting done -- that's sure to lay me up for a couple of days, if not more. After that, perhaps there'll be the delights of having my carotid arteries reamed, which I imagine will generate even more of a disruption.
As some who are close to me might detect, I am getting profoundly pissed off by all this artery fartery. What was the title of that biography of Henry Miller? Ah, yes, Always Merry and Bright -- meaning that he wasn't.
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Date: 2008-10-20 12:56 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-10-20 01:33 am (UTC)Well, with luck they'll decide that yes, really, my carotids are fine the way they are, so I'll not need to spend another few days in hospital. The angiogram is just a day trip, and likewise the stenting.
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Date: 2008-10-20 01:27 am (UTC)However, I'm with Pam. You should have a plumy pirate's hat.
Your eye has stopped hurting and watering, right?
Love, C.
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Date: 2008-10-20 01:31 am (UTC)"Your eye has stopped hurting and watering, right?"
Oh yes -- a strictly temporary thing, no matter how debilitating it was for a while!
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Date: 2008-10-20 01:44 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-10-20 02:35 am (UTC)Oops, sorry! -- in my previous (now deleted) response I was getting "sartorias" mixed with "sarcobatus" (who's recently been going through medical horrors). It's an error I've just stopped myself from making several times in the past!
Anyway, thanks for the kind thoughts!
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Date: 2008-10-20 02:43 am (UTC)May that person be out soon, too!
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Date: 2008-10-20 03:35 am (UTC)Oh, I'm so sorry to hear about your sister-in-law -- please do pass on my sympathies.
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Date: 2008-10-20 07:04 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-10-20 12:46 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-10-20 01:50 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-10-20 02:35 am (UTC)Thanks. I think.
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Date: 2008-10-20 02:43 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-10-20 02:27 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-10-20 02:39 am (UTC)Thanks, Mike! What's left of me will try to do exactly that . . .
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Date: 2008-10-20 02:51 am (UTC)Good luck with the angiogram and stenting prove to be quick/simple/painless procedures.
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Date: 2008-10-20 03:03 am (UTC)"Did you ever figure out how the eye got the way it was/is?"
Nope. The doc found the little trauma spot on the cornea and reckoned I must have got a bit of grit or something into the eye, gone by the time he got there. But I've had grit in my eyes lots of times and it's never felt the way this did. A few months ago in the car a little ember blew off one of Pam's cigarettes into my eye and even that, though it hurt like absolute hell for a while, didn't feel like this did -- as if there were something caustic in there. I still wonder if a speck of the wasabi from the night before might somehow have lodged in my beard and then been transferred to my eye during my general sleep morning face- and eye-rubbing. Who knows?
The angiogram's unpleasant and a bit freaking-out, but really the most painful part is when the nurses take two or three rootles around with the needle to try to find one of my elusive veins for the IV port. I gather the stenting hurts little more, if at all, than the angiogramming. The carotid op, if they decide they need to do it, I imagine will be altogether less jolly.
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Date: 2008-10-20 03:14 am (UTC)ick ick ick--even sorrier.
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Date: 2008-10-20 04:05 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-10-20 12:00 pm (UTC)"that the docs let you drink single malt until you do"
It's nil by mouth this morning, alas -- I'm not even allowed a gulp of Laphroaig to get my morning pills down.
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Date: 2008-10-20 12:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-10-20 06:26 pm (UTC)"It's Glenfiddich for morning pills."
Oh, what an awful whisky . . .
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Date: 2008-10-20 07:03 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-10-20 03:25 pm (UTC)Healing hugs,
Jean Marie
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Date: 2008-10-20 12:45 pm (UTC)Good luck with the stenting!
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Date: 2008-10-20 06:25 pm (UTC)"Good luck with the stenting!"
Many thanks! That should really, thoigh, be "Good luck with the Texas catheter!"
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Date: 2008-10-20 07:03 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-10-20 07:04 pm (UTC)What the devil do you mean, reminding me of the Texas catheter? Sadistic, I say -- sadistic!
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Date: 2008-10-20 07:09 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-10-20 01:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-10-20 06:28 pm (UTC)To be honest, I'd rather they gave me the jabs than go into the operation without any anesthesia . . .
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Date: 2008-10-20 04:17 pm (UTC)Sorry I'm tardy commenting, but I've had a stupidly annoying weekend my own darn self. Zilla got into it with an Irish setter up at Red Rock State Park Sunday and dragged me five feet across the parking lot after yanking me off my feet with her leash, sending me soaring about six feet through the air. I took a swan dive onto the gravel: Then she dragged me across the gravel. It all happened so fast it took me a second to get my breath, just so I could scream, "STOP!" -- which she did. The woman and her Irish setter felt sorry for me, since I was bleeding everywhere from head to toe. My new nickname is "Road Rash".
My husband informed me later that the setter had snarled at Zilla, which she took to be a direct threat to me. Ironic.
Whatever happened to your eye? Did Pam take swipe at you with one of her knitting needles?
Take care care of yourself, guy. And stay away from anything with the word Texas attached to it.
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Date: 2008-10-20 06:31 pm (UTC)Aargh! I'm so sorry to hear you've been in the wars too -- and, by the sound of it, getting more comprehensively roughed up than I have. All sympathies, Sweet Thing.
"Whatever happened to your eye? Did Pam take swipe at you with one of her knitting needles?"
It's still a mystery. The doc said grit, but I've had grit in my eyes a million times before and it's never felt remotely like this did.
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Date: 2008-10-20 11:46 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-10-21 02:13 am (UTC)It's okay. I'm jus' truckin' along, like one does.
If you'd like me to do you a bootleg of the video CD they make of Beyond Paul's Carotid Artery With Gun & Camera I'll do so! A vid to separate out the True Goths from the phoneys, I'd've thought!
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Date: 2008-10-22 08:14 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-10-22 12:43 pm (UTC)Unfortunately, they didn't give us a CD this time -- it seems they only do so if it has to be passed on to a relevant surgeon. Since the verdict this time is that no surgery is needed . . .
Unfortunately for you and your vampiristic pals, Pam forgot to make a copy of the CD we got after the last angiogram.
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Date: 2008-10-21 01:09 am (UTC)Just know there's lots of us who care about you and are pulling for you. (Pulling what I have no idea!)
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Date: 2008-10-21 01:38 am (UTC)"(Pulling what I have no idea!)"
Oh no. The Texas catheter jokes have started again already . . .
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Date: 2008-10-21 01:29 am (UTC)Yes, let's do turn the channel on this lousy medical drama, ASAP.
If you feel a warm rosy, wave wash over you unexpectedly tonight, don't panic, it's just me sending you a massive amount of positive thoughts.
Feel better, my friend.
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Date: 2008-10-21 02:21 am (UTC)Effing LJ saved my reply before I'd finished it, and also put it as a Comment rather than Reply so you'll probably not get an e-mail. Here's (any codings lost) what I said:
=====
"If you feel a warm rosy, wave wash over you unexpectedly tonight, don't panic, it's just me sending you a massive amount of positive thoughts."
Either that or it'll be the discovery that one of te cats has peed in my slippers . . .
"I've a friend who went through that, and although the initial recovery was not pleasant, once he got through it he reported feeling better than he had in many years."
Thanks for the good wishes! I'm told that stenting around the heart can be pretty uncomfortable, but these stents are to go into the legs (one artery apiece) and a renal artery, and I'm told recovery is really next to nothing to worry about. If they decide to stent rather than ream (rather than do nothing to) the carotid arteries, I imagine I'll be less fuckin' suave about the whole thing.
I'm glad to hear your friend's feeling better! Give him my regards/accolades.
=====
What I was just about to add was that, yes, I know I owe you an e-mail: mea culpa in all directions at once. I wanted to check out the other author you mentioned, and I've just not had the chance.
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Date: 2008-10-21 05:26 am (UTC)Never worry about "owing" me an email, or any such thing. I know you've got a lot on your plate, and hearing from you is always a happy surprise when and if it happens.
take care, pal,
L
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Date: 2008-10-22 12:57 pm (UTC)"If you feel a warm rosy, wave wash over you unexpectedly tonight"
One of the facets of the angiogramming process that can cause alarm (though, when you know it's coming, it's actually rather pleasant) is that, as the contrast fluid is injected, you get that "warm, rosy wave" you describe first in the relevant area, then washing down through the body.
"positive thoughts in your direction will continue"
Many thanks!
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Date: 2008-10-21 02:17 am (UTC)"If you feel a warm rosy, wave wash over you unexpectedly tonight, don't panic, it's just me sending you a massive amount of positive thoughts."
Either that or it'll be the discovery that one of te cats has peed in my slippers . . .
"I've a friend who went through that, and although the initial recovery was not pleasant, once he got through it he reported feeling better than he had in many years."
Thanks for the good wishes! I'm told that stenting around the heart can be pretty uncomfortable, but these stents are to go into the legs (one artery apiece) and a renal artery, and I'm told recovery is really next to nothing to worry about. If they decide to stent rather than ream (rather than do nothing to) the carotid arteries, I imagine I'll be less fuckin' suave about the whole thing.
I'm glad to hear your friend's feeling better! Give him my regards/accolades.