So here I am in the hospital, still. Tomorrow will be three weeks since the accident. I'm supposed to get transferred to a skilled nursing facility today and I'm not sure if I'll have internet access there. I plan to continue this saga either way, but I might not be able to post subsequent chapters in a timely fashion.
Believe it or not, I'm still knitting. I finished the neon circus monkeys and the first hundertwalker, cast on for the second hundertwalker, and am about 2/3 of the way through the first of a pair of Pomatomus (from Knitty). Only I couldn't figure out chart B and instead of muddling through and making it work for me, I just gave up and decided to do the foot in stockinette. It's all good. Needless to say, I don't have pictures and am not sure when I'll be able to take or post any.
I've also been trying to do some reading. It's unexpectedly hard to read in the hospital. It may be the pain medication, but I just can't seem to concentrate as well as I'd like. I'm reading Paul Campos' "The Obesity Myth" and it's fascinating. Best of all, my mom was looking at it the other day and she wants to read it when I'm done. I also started Terry Pratchett's "only you can save mankind". It's very good. My mom got me the updated edition of "double yoi", Myron Cope's autobiography, and I've been enjoying that a few essays at a time.
People call and visit. I get cards and emails. I cry sometimes, from pain and depression and from dreaming that I can walk. Or dance. Or that I'm at home. It all seems so impossible sometimes. I'm worried about the pain meds too. Oxycodone is addictive. I try to make sure that I'm actually in pain before I take it but the problem is that if I do that and wait beyond the four hour time point, the pain gets ahead of me and it's hard to get it back under control. This morning's doctor told me that it's okay to just keep taking it, that it's more important to control the pain. My nurse last night (Kurt, who is awesome) actually came in and asked me if I was ready for them, because he saw how distressed I was from waiting on the earlier dosage. I guess there's a whole science of pain management now. I have the feeling I'm going to learn a lot about that.
So I suppose I'm off into the unknown and I'll find out more when I get there. I'll update again as soon as I can.
1 comment:
Woof had the same reluctance to take pain meds when he had pancreatitis then gallbladder surgery.
His doctor told him that as long as there is no psychological addiction, breaking a physical addiction to painkillers is just a couple of days of feeling like you have the flu, at the worst. Usually they can wean you down gradually so you don't even feel that.
It's psychological addiction that can make addiction dreadful. You're in pain, you don't have a psychological addiction.
Please don't let yourself be in pain unnecessarily!
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