Hi
Just thought i would let you all know how things are progressing.
Well it's now 4 days since the op and the pain levels are variable.
Last Friday when the femur actually fractured the pain came on quite rapidly,
volumes of pain, the kind that made me cry, whince and swear profusely but I
kept taking the breakthrough morphine doses and eventually got the pain under
control. My local hospital x-rayed me and down came the ortho bodies to discuss
my immediate admission for surgery later that night but and a big but.... that
hospital had an outbreak of gastroenteritis and were closing wards to new
admissions, restricted visiting on all wards and even the local paper had a
story about staff and many patients being infected, I think it was called
Norusvirus so when I mentioned that I had only just completed my chemo course 4
days ago and that there was a likelihood my bloods would be low I said I
couldn't possibly come in to stay until I had some oncological input on this.
The Registrar from the ortho unit told me I didn't have to have my femur pinned
at all, that it would mend on it's own in 6 weeks anyway so
I was surprised as one minute I needed to be admitted for immediate surgery,
then the next minute I am told it doesn't have to be done at all. Are you
confused? I certainly was!
I went home, had to get out of the place as everyone in the waiting room
coughing and spluttering, and why don't the younger generation put their
hand/tissue over their mouth when coughing, is it me but as a child if I coughed
and didn't put my hand over my mouth I would be given a hiding ~ well, is it
me..... getting grouchy in my old age or is it what any decent people would do?(
think I am getting grouchy~ truth to tell!)
Saturday morning that hospital rang to say they could operate later that day,
was I coming in or not? I said that I told you the night before that I will be
waiting till Monday to get hold of my onc, would not proceed until I had spoken
with him or a member of his team that I was concerned about being admitted into
a hospital with a known outbreak of gastroenteritis, my onc was on his way back
from San Antonio from a breast cancer conference, that I was being sensible,
resting, had family support etc. then he said well, you don't actually need it
pinning at all, it will knit together on it's own in about 6 weeks ~ are you
confused again?
He went on about all the pain I must be in etc. and I said I have no pain at
all, it's completey resolved by taking morphine regularly.
By Monday and after the local Sunday paper with headlines 'hospital closed due
to gastroenteritis outbreak' I was speaking to my team at my cancer unit who
rang back and said I must have the femur pinned, it won't mend on it's own
because of the cancer, can they do anything to help me get taken to another
hospital (they no longer do ortho work there ~ have to arrange it at another
London hospital.) I asked what to do to get taken at another and the one I had
in mind is Milton Keynes some 20 miles away but better than 2-4 hours in
pre-Christmas traffic getting into London some 70-80 miles away. All my local
had to do was fax a copy of the report from the emergency department (from the
Friday evening)to whichever hospital I chose. I rang the fracture consultants
secretary to ask her to do this having spoken to MK , got named person, fax
number etc. I rang at about 10 00, by 11 00 Mk had received nothing so I rang
local again, yes she was doing it but it may be Wednesday
before she got round to it, no this is urgent, now please ~ yes she would.
After 11 phone calls and by 2 o'clock still not done. By this time I had
clearly explained what was required 7 times, not a very difficult task.
I rang the receptionist at accident and emergency and asked if my notes could
be faxed over to MK hospital, this lady said she would do it this very minute
and ring me back to let me know the fax had gone through, which she did,
followed by a call from MK to say come in we have everything. When I got home on
Friday the consultants secretary had left two messages, one on the Wednesday a
day after the op and one again on Friday 3 days after the op, asking 'what was
it I wanted?'
How can a receptionist be more effective at this ( and getting payed a whole
lot less) than a hospital's doctor's secretary who is doing this kind of thing
on a daily basis is quite beyond me. It was so simple my name is... my address
is.... my hospital number is.... the A and E report copy from 17 Dec to be sent
to so and so number FAO named person. I guess it took me longer to type that
than doing the actual task.
Likewise a message from the ortho body I had seen that first night saying we
could operate etc. but it will mend if you just leave it. Don't worry about the
hospital bug and the hospital closure we can still do you. Obviously the
consultants secretary had not passed on a message to him telling him I was
having the surgery done at MK hospital. Inept, incompetent and utterley useless
come to mind. I guess he will be on the phone tomorrow, I bet you would like to
be a fly on the wall listening to my response!!!! There will be too much bad
language to reproduce it here!!!
And so to the op Tuesday morning, I saw a lovely lady anaesthetist, raised my
concerns about many cancer sites in long bones ribs, spine, skull, pelvis, had
taken a photocpoy of a scan, said I was concerned about being moved under
anaesthesia and the possibility of other fractures, she wrote her own notes
checked me over and down I went to theatre. When I got there she had the whole
theatre team in the anaesthesia room and was discussing moving techniques with
them and about my concerns re further fractures if moved badly, so I felt very
reassured. I also saw in my notes some of the cancer hospital's headed paper so
I know MK had been in touch. She had all my blood tests for the last year aswell
as other paperwork.
But strangely the whole episode was like re-living the BC scenario again, I
felt fine going in but coming out after the treatment you feel like crap. You
know when you are told you have BC and in the main we aren't alerted by any ill
effects, no pain, just a lump we have discovered and feel really quite well
physically (mentally is another issue) but having cancer is Ok until the
treatment starts (Not Ok but you know what I mean)......... then all Hell breaks
loose, painful this, painful that and painful everything. And so I woke after
the op in tremendous pain, not having got that under control and physio team are
there less than 16 hours later to get you up and walking, and not one or two
steps but up there, along there and back again. Completely daunted by this I
just went with it, went through the pain barriers, whinced a lot, cried, had a
good swear to myself, estimated the time in seconds back to my bed, counted
every one and wasn't far wrong. I understand that
there are dangers with clots and the need to get the circulation going but it
didn't help one iota. Then I got back in bed and the physio team suggesting
exercises I can do in bed. Yes I listened and did them, but it is about getting
in and out of bed that is so difficult, getting up and down from a chair. Then
my son was talking today about visiting me on the Wednesday evening and how I
kept rolling my eyes back and how he had dared to ask the ward Sister if it was
some prelude to me passing over to the other side....
Nightmare it was and nightmare at times it still is. I have never broken a
bone before or one that I knew about but when I was first diagnosed with mets
and had a full bone scan I was asked when I had broken my leg. I said I never
have. No you're wrong I was told you definitely have many years ago. Well if i
did I was never told I had, never was in plaster but was told children can break
bones and they heal but the break leaves scarring on the bone, so I guess that
must have happened in my childhood. And looking at old photos I certainly have
normal looking legs up till about the age of five and then a sticky-out leg
after that and I can remember limping for perhaps as long as two or more years,
even got bullied at school because I couldn't run like the others. But if I did
break a bone and it seems like that is so then no wonder i have no recall off
pain because it never got treated. Sometimes the cure is worse than the disease
well, initally that is.
So I am bored to tears almost, wanting to do things but every step has to
calculated. I am trying to walk so many steps each hour and continue doing my
exercises, the stitches look clean and the skin around the three incisions is
pale and normal and not overly sore but my knee and hip are something else. My
sons got my bed downstairs the dining table is dismantled and I am just so
grateful I didn't suggest doing the Christmas meal and family get together, plus
we usually have a week in the sun this time of year, I pay for it all as my main
Christmas present to my sons and d-i-law but fortune was that we went beginning
of October this year, otherwise my femur would have fractured some great many
miles away somewhere in Europe. As I am downstairs my dear little cat Babe has
been close, she senses something is wrong, where she would scratch at the door
glass to come in she sits and meows and waits, she has learned I don't get to
the door in two seconds. She has been allowed
on my bed, snuggled up on the end and pinned my feet down with her bodyweight
for a while and something she never has done before she comes into the kitchen
when I am in there and just sits on the rug. She doesn't normally like it in the
kitchen because the dishwasher scared her once, timid little thing she is, but
it's almost like she is keeping her eye on me. (Babe is a rescue cat, so her
past is unknown but I guess it wasn't too kindly)
Anyhow i shall continue with my whincing, few tears aswell, no doubt, as I do
my exercises
regulary, surely some one can tell me if you have had this type of op, how
long it takes before the excessive pain reduces, I know it's early days and can
hear myself saying it to others right now but has anyone any idea of how long it
will be before things get easier, a week, a month, two or three?
Love to you all, Velvet xxx (UK)