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Many PHB readers have seen me chronicle my health woes (with humor, of course) over the years — three kidney stone attacks, fibromyalgia, a hysterectomy, rheumatoid arthritis and living with chronic pain generally as well as navigating a health care system that illustrates just how screwed up things are, even if you are fortunate enough to have a job and medical insurance.
However, my health travails have become so troublesome — and less humorous — to deal with of late that I’ve moved newer posts of that nature over to a personal blog — pamspaulding.net — to keep it separate from the political blogging. I wasn’t sure if they belonged on PHB, or if anyone reading gives a crap one way or another — since you can simply skip reading the posts (they certainly won’t make the front page). Folks who follow me on Twitter and Facebook have known things were going downhill for a while. It’s a lot easier to update social nets than write a full-blown post.
You know I have to be in a bad way if watching and commenting at length on the convention — something I’d be doing from Charlotte if I was well — doesn’t interest me right now. Thinking about the prospect of getting your back split open kinda does that.
In any case, if you notice there’s not been a lot of writing being generated on my part, you can at least read why. Folks dealing with chronic illness have sent me lots of emails and messages about how they’ve been meaningful to read — and offered them a chance to comment on their own struggles, so I thought I’d point them to posts if they are interested in those discussions:
* 9/5/2012: MRI results in – not good news; my spine is f’d up
* 9/2/2012 RA Diary: Home and recuperating w/lots of Qs; no DNC 2012 for you, young lady
* 9/1/2012 Rheumatoid Arthritis Diary: the ER visit from hell + an update
* 8/30/2012 Rheumatoid Arthritis Diary: horrible side effect while on Humira
* Sorry, peeps: the Blend won’t be in Charlotte to cover the DNC
I highly recommend the post about the trip to the ER; it’s shows exactly why the system is in in epic freefall #FAIL.
11 Comments
I give a crap and I’m very sorry to hear your news.
I’ve been following your tweets Pam. Do whatever you need to do to take care of yourself
Best wishes for a less eventful, smoother recovery. Hope you feel better, too.
Hey Pam, I read your blog and like other said I do care.
{{{SPEICALHUGS}}} to you Pam. What that means is your gonna need an operation. Its scary and everyone will tell you horror stories and you’ll worry.
Remain calm. Everything is going to be all right.
My stepmom has degenerative disk disease, she had issues for years and refused to do anything about it until it just got too bad. Once they went in, they were confronted with 6 vertabral disks that were so deteriorated that ….(Im not going to cherry coat it) they bascialy used a spoon to scoop out the disk and vertebra material it was so far gone, but they fixed her up. It took a few metal rods, some fusing of the bones but she got a lot better.
One of my close coworkers herniated a disk. Everyone told her not to let anyone try to fix her back, one day she sneezed violently and ended up in the hospital and they HAD to fix it. So they did, she hobbled in to the hospital and walked out. A week later she was in a car accident, her back was fine but it gave her a mild case of whiplash. (she has horrible luck some days) and then she went camping for a week and omg… she blew a disk out and had surgery and was back to being totally normal within a month.
A close friend was in a one person motorcycle accident. The back tire lost traction and they went off road, bailed from the bike and hit a tree. They were laid up for a few days thinking it was just bruising and ignored the pain. 2 years later they finally had enough of the pain, went in and got a MRI and CAT scan only to find out their back was jacked. Once they went in, they found out that it was far worse than they thought, a fractured vertebra and a disk that had popped out totally and lying against the spine but they still fixed the injury.
All three say that they’re 90% or better to being back to normal. They are all limited to how much they can lift. So they can only lift a bag of groceries or a small suitcase at 25 pounds. It takes a few months to recover and for the impacted nerves to heal. You may find that even after recovering from the surgery that occasionally you have to take a mild pain reliever to sleep. If you over work yourself, a pain management medication.
It is scary, but so long as you have a good doctor who’s well practiced doing the surgery you should be fine. (HUGS)
Wow, what a bummer. As Gina said above get a good doc. If you have friends or family that work in the medical field have them ask around, especially at the hospital where they work – word about bad apples gets around, even between different hospitals.
Now is the time to make sure you are making yourself priority number ONE. Your job is to do whatever you need to do to get better.
Sending our love from MN.
Brian and Greg
Thanks, all. The next diary that I’ll cross-post here is the real kick in the gut reality about DOMA (and Amendment One here in NC) – a real-world reminder of how far LGBT rights have NOT come for those of us outside of Blue states:
My spouse, who works for this discrimination-sanctioning state, cannot take advantage of the Family Medical Leave Act to take care of me if I have spinal surgery because our marriage is not recognized here. We are strangers in the eyes of the law.
Thanks for the non-sugar-coated info sharing. I’m a realist and not one to scare easily. I’m more of “give me as much info as I can digest” so that I can ask intelligent and relevant questions. I know it won’t be easy, but this pain is pretty intolerable – now I know why.
I also do care! One thing to keep in mind is that it’s going to be a rough period in the near future but if your surgery goes like my mother’s did you will feel a million times better when it is all over. Besides, with the wires think of all the fun that you’ll have at airports! It really is disgusting that Kate can’t take time off to help you. Beyond disgusting.
I am so sorry you are going through this.
I am a veteran of 4 back surgeries. I am writing this at 10 am because I am now disabled and have not worked since I was 45. I fell after my first back surgery(I was doing great and ready to go back to work) and really hurt myself and things just went downhill from there.
I continue to be on pain meds and I volunteer in my community in several different ways.
Please get a second opinion before surgery. Choose a good surgeon and take care of the problem when recommended.
I did not have the outcome from surgery I expected, but I believe my fall was the main cause of this.
But, this is what life is, dealing the best we can with what is given us.
When I read this, I am reminded how our people used to resort to adoption in order to force the law to allow them to provide and care for one another. Maybe it’s time for a wave of caring adoptions in the states where marriage equality is illegal. I mean, they can’t stop someone from taking leave to care for a child, or a parent, even if adopted, can they?
I’m sorry to hear about your health issues.
I have HIV, hep B, chronic back pain and PTSD/depression so boy do I get chronic health problems. This is one of my favorite blogs but I haven’t checked in a while because of life stuff. But you’re definitely one of my favorite bloggers and I’m glad you’re chronicling your health battle. Hang in there.