sturmbird
Full Member
Member since: June 2012
Posts: 1,406
Jun 21, 2012 13:51:45 GMT -5
Jun 21, 2012 13:51:45 GMT -5
|
Post by sturmbird on Dec 23, 2017 4:47:35 GMT -5
for about ten days after Thanksgiving I had a sinus infection that I thought was going to make my head explode. Got over it, and was finally feeling good. Monday afternoon I dropped a ceramic bowl on the kitchen floor. Cleaned it all up right away, only to see blood all over the place. I had cuts all over the place. I cleaned myself up, and went on with business. Lots of bandaids! Later that night I was setting on a bar stool at the VFW, and something hit me like a good case of the flue. Chills and stomach cramps. Went home and took 600 mille grains of Ibuprofen, and went to bed thinking tomorrow will be ugly. Get up about noon, and my left hand is throbbing. I cleaned up the two cuts on my little finger as best I could. I went on with things and by seven that night my finger was black and blue and nearly twice the size. Cleaned up again and a bunch of crude came out. Gave it a good soak in hydrogen peroxide. Took some for pills and went to bed. Wednesday was even worse. Plus I missed the Devine Ms G's birthday, even though everything was laying there for her. All the while the phone had not rang in four days (wonderful). The ringer was somehow turned off. Didn't care anyway as I knew I needed a doctor by now, but couldn't bring myself to go see him. Thursday I knew I was gonna have to break down and go, but planned on Friday. I wake up Friday to beating and banging on my door. It was Gloria and her daughter in a panic. I answered the door kinda dizzy, but functional. Told there would be no nooner! Then she started giving me hell about not calling her during the week. Then I picked up the phone to see she had tried to call me 24 times. Her daughter looked at my hand and got sick. Went to the emergency room at the VA, and the doctor said I was 48 hours from gangrene. He decided to have Xrays, and then clean the one finger up as best he could. Offered a local on the finger, and I told him I'd been shot and had many combat wounds much worse than this little cut. Boy was that a mistake!! I liked to died when he started, and he wanted to stop. I said keep going son. After three times (he had a grip like a gorilla) he leaves and comes back with two prescriptions. Gloria is crying because I'm in so much pain. On the way over my daughter calls me to lecture me about be stubborn. Turns out Gloria and her have a dialog, and I'm stuck in the middle. I finally get home about ten in the evening, and start taking antibiotics and some super duper pain killer (got a real good buzz). More lectures, and now half the buddies of mine are calling.
I never knew I had so many people keeping an eye on me! gary
|
|
|
Post by Tojo72 on Dec 23, 2017 12:43:11 GMT -5
Sounds like a tough week,hopefully things will improve and you will feel better
|
|
sturmbird
Full Member
Member since: June 2012
Posts: 1,406
Jun 21, 2012 13:51:45 GMT -5
Jun 21, 2012 13:51:45 GMT -5
|
Post by sturmbird on Dec 23, 2017 14:58:26 GMT -5
Sounds like a tough week,hopefully things will improve and you will feel better it's a little better today, just looking at my left two or three fingers. Pain medicine is almost worthless, but does give you a good buzz. May stay off it for a day or two to see what happens. The doctor was the size of a nose tackle, and had a grip that was almost dangerous. Gloria and my oldest daughter were in the panic mode. I wasn't gary
|
|
joelsmith
Full Member
Member since: July 2012
There no winners in war, only survivors.
Posts: 1,404
Jul 5, 2012 22:33:58 GMT -5
Jul 5, 2012 22:33:58 GMT -5
|
Post by joelsmith on Dec 23, 2017 16:08:52 GMT -5
Bubba, dinosaurs like us ain't 10 feet tall and bullet proof any more. Go to the damn doctor/VA no matter what! It's not the price you pay when the bill comes in, it's the price you paid to be eligible!
|
|
fhvn4d
Full Member
Member since: October 2012
Posts: 439
Oct 1, 2012 6:30:09 GMT -5
Oct 1, 2012 6:30:09 GMT -5
|
Post by fhvn4d on Dec 23, 2017 19:45:04 GMT -5
word to the wise... dont fr around next time ! Had a sort of kind of thing like this with my wife after the birth of our second child... she had this flank pain that would take her breath away and it would go away... Me being the smart paramedic I am I just told her it was post partum soreness. Well, four weeks later when it didnt go away I agreed maybe she should go to the walk in for something like the flu. She did, they didnt find anything and home she came. A week later and she is in real pain so I said go to the ER. I stay home with the kids. She goes, they xray her and say oh yeah you got a little pneumonia lookin at your lung... heres some meds go home and rest..... another week goes by and I get a call at midnight at the Fire station.... its my house number but no one on the other end of the phone... wife cant breath and is just panting into the phone. So I send the guys down there with the ambulance... she goes to the ER AGAIN... they say ya, Pneumonias a bitch... go home. Another week... more pain... finally she goes to the walk in AGAIN and they do this test.... 7 weeks after it started , they find out shes got freakin pulmonary embolisms in BOTH lungs. These things kill people when they move to the heart or cause strokes if they move to the brain. Suffice to say, if my wife even SNEEZES hard now I am dialing 911 or putting her in the car!
|
|
sturmbird
Full Member
Member since: June 2012
Posts: 1,406
Jun 21, 2012 13:51:45 GMT -5
Jun 21, 2012 13:51:45 GMT -5
|
Post by sturmbird on Dec 24, 2017 0:29:22 GMT -5
word to the wise... dont fr around next time ! Had a sort of kind of thing like this with my wife after the birth of our second child... she had this flank pain that would take her breath away and it would go away... Me being the smart paramedic I am I just told her it was post partum soreness. Well, four weeks later when it didnt go away I agreed maybe she should go to the walk in for something like the flu. She did, they didnt find anything and home she came. A week later and she is in real pain so I said go to the ER. I stay home with the kids. She goes, they xray her and say oh yeah you got a little pneumonia lookin at your lung... heres some meds go home and rest..... another week goes by and I get a call at midnight at the Fire station.... its my house number but no one on the other end of the phone... wife cant breath and is just panting into the phone. So I send the guys down there with the ambulance... she goes to the ER AGAIN... they say ya, Pneumonias a bitch... go home. Another week... more pain... finally she goes to the walk in AGAIN and they do this test.... 7 weeks after it started , they find out shes got freakin pulmonary embolisms in BOTH lungs. These things kill people when they move to the heart or cause strokes if they move to the brain. Suffice to say, if my wife even SNEEZES hard now I am dialing 911 or putting her in the car! Wow! You'd have thought they would have gone much deeper everytime she returned to the ER. The VA in Indy is really good. Most of the staff are actually Indiana University Hospital staff. Yet as with most VA hospitals, the rest of the staff sucks. This time of the year most folks in the ER have pneumonia or something worse, and are older. Was quite surprised as to the actual size of the staff and the physical size of it. yet going to the ER (for me anyway) seems like an abuse of the medical care. I normally go there with an appointment to a specific doctor's clinic. I don't have to use the VA, as I'm on Medicare plus Anthem. Still for my problems in the past they were the ones to go to. Till now, all my ills were Agent orange related. They never blinked an eye about working on me once they found out about it. gary
|
|
fhvn4d
Full Member
Member since: October 2012
Posts: 439
Oct 1, 2012 6:30:09 GMT -5
Oct 1, 2012 6:30:09 GMT -5
|
Post by fhvn4d on Dec 24, 2017 7:08:28 GMT -5
I have used my local VA ER once, and I have zero complaints about it. I am seen at the Providence RI VA, and my experiences have been nothing but FANTASTIC. Merry Christmas and keep that hand CLEAN!
|
|
sturmbird
Full Member
Member since: June 2012
Posts: 1,406
Jun 21, 2012 13:51:45 GMT -5
Jun 21, 2012 13:51:45 GMT -5
|
Post by sturmbird on Dec 24, 2017 15:40:49 GMT -5
I have used my local VA ER once, and I have zero complaints about it. I am seen at the Providence RI VA, and my experiences have been nothing but FANTASTIC. Merry Christmas and keep that hand CLEAN! Merry Christmas to all of you as well. Hand is a little better this morning, but still ugly. Drainage is still there, but not nearly as much. Took another pain pill last night, and got high. gary
|
|
sturmbird
Full Member
Member since: June 2012
Posts: 1,406
Jun 21, 2012 13:51:45 GMT -5
Jun 21, 2012 13:51:45 GMT -5
|
Post by sturmbird on Dec 28, 2017 16:23:28 GMT -5
Looks like they'll be opening up my pinkie finger next week. The infection has seriously slowed to a crawl, but the swelling is still there. Doctor thinks there's still more damage to be found. I can barely move it, and it's numb. Still in the last 48 hours the pain has finally eased up.
I'm pretty much one handed right now. Just never thought how much one depended on that little finger. gary
|
|
joelsmith
Full Member
Member since: July 2012
There no winners in war, only survivors.
Posts: 1,404
Jul 5, 2012 22:33:58 GMT -5
Jul 5, 2012 22:33:58 GMT -5
|
Post by joelsmith on Dec 28, 2017 20:30:18 GMT -5
Hang tough, keep us in the loop, we'll be praying for you.
|
|