Bumps & Boo-boos!

Ready for another story? Current events have made me think about all of the times I have truly been "ill" since childhood. First, the current story.

I'm a pretty well person. I don't take medications. I'd be a horrible chronically ill person because I simply cannot make myself take medicine everyday! So, when my right foot started hurting over the weekend on 8/21/08 I figured it was simply because we were incredibly, unusually busy at work over that weekend. I'm a nurse who routinely works 3 12 hour shifts a week on my feet. So that was nothing new. But usually when I have achy feet they are better after sleep. Not this time. My right foot ached. A horrible, deep pain. And I felt it on the top of my foot. Odd. Of course, it didn't get better. It got worse. To the point that I was hobbling & limping. First thing on Monday morning I called Dr. Keiser (my go-to orthopedic doctor - he's SO awesome) and he got me in right away. From everything I read I was absolutely certain that I had a stress fracture. The symptoms all fit. We did x-rays & he saw an area that he thought could be a fracture (I later learned not all stress fractures show on x-ray - some never do). So home I went with pain meds (Ultram: love it, cuts the pain without making me feel 'out of it' and Naprosyn: anti-inflammatory) and "the boot". Yep, you've probably seen them around. A sexy cam-walker boot. Um, well, probably more like a medieval torture device. The thing was heavy and bulky. It made me walk funny (which in turn made my back hurt). But, it did make it so I could walk without pain. It was odd, though. If I had it on & was sitting still/had my foot propped up, the pain of non-movement in my ankle was unbelievable. And I did this for 6 weeks. Six very, very long weeks.

Then the magical day where I was to remove my boot and hopefully be 'cured' came. Yeah. Right. It so did not happen. Youch. No change what-so-ever. I was devastated. Not only because I was in pain, but because Dr. Keiser had stated that if I was still in pain after taking the boot off I'd probably have to go 6 weeks non-weight bearing. That meant no work. No driving. Crutches. Not a good thing given I'm a single parent responsible for getting my son to/from school, my mom to/from doctor's appointments, etc. It would not be a good thing. So I sat in the office terrified. Another x-ray. It was weird. The 'possible' stress fracture he saw last time was no longer there. No fracture noted on the x-ray. Again, not surprising. It happens more than you think. But this time Dr. Keiser stated that my description of the pain - now more burning, pinpoint, sometimes even when I wasn't walking/bearing weight- sounded like a neuroma. Hmmmm...I'd never heard of that. I wasn't prepared for this possibility. So we had options. He stated I could get a MRI to make 100% sure I didn't have a fracture. That would be a definitive answer. The MRI may or may not pick up a neuroma. But, if it wasn't a fracture it'd have to be a neuroma. The downside was the cost. MRIs aren't cheap. Luckily my insurance rocks and if I have the MRI at Creighton it doesn't cost me a thing. So that was the plan. A MRI and develop a plan of care when we have the results. I left the office and was able to breathe. No jail sentence for me...yet. Oh, did I mention that Matthew & I had a Christmas trip to Disneyworld planned for 12/10-12/18 and I know he would have been devastated if we had to cancel.

After a comedy of errors in getting a MRI appointment since Dr. Keiser doesn't have privileges at Creighton, the day finally came. Let me be blunt. MRIs suck. They are uncomfortable. In every sense of the word. The scheduling lady made me anxious, leading me to believe I might be too fat for the machine - gee thanks. So when that was not the case I was triumphant. The MRI tech positioned my foot. He put some things around my foot to help hold it, but didn't want to disrupt any pictures, so it wasn't packed in tight by any means. I had to keep my foot still, with the ankle at a 90 degree angle. Let me tell you, that is NOT comfortable. Just fall asleep, the MRI tech said. Sure.....it took every bit of my self control to make sure my foot stayed in position. Did not move. And it hurt. Very uncomfortable. And the MRI table isn't a padded bed either. So I was fighting foot pain, back pain and general discomfort for all of 40 minutes. UGH! And the feeling. No one ever tells you about it. I swear I could FEEL the MRI in my tissues, muscles, and bones. I felt it. It was the oddest feeling I think I've ever had. Again, thank goodness it was only 40 minutes because I'm not sure how much more I could have taken.

And the waiting game began. Dr. Keiser's office has notices all over to all 5 days for the doctor to call you for MRI results. My MRI was at 6am on a Monday morning. I figured by the following Monday I was ok to call for results. I had to leave a message. On Tuesday Dr. Keiser is in surgery all day so I didn't bother to call. By Wednesday I left another message and was getting more frustrated. And I was downright hostile by Thursday. And when the MA finally called me back on Thursday I was less than thrilled to hear that they didn't have the MRI report. Well, silly me would have thought my phone call on MONDAY saying I had the MRI the previous week would have cued you to call Creighton to inquire about it. Silly me. I didn't expect to hear from Dr. Keiser til Friday, but he called me at about 5:30pm Thursday night. The results? There was no evidence of fracture, but no evidence of neuroma either. Again, Dr. Keiser stated that neuromas aren't always shown on MRIs due to positioning or size of the neuroma. It was decided that I would call for an appointment for a cortisone injection.

And that's where we're at. Almost 3 weeks ago I had my 1st cortisone injection. It hurt like hell. And it worked for the first 2-3 days. Of course it was still numb from the lidocaine in the injection, but I was hopefully. Then gradually the feeling came back At first all I felt was pressure. Sometimes uncomfortable, but there none-the-less. Then it progressed to pain. But definitely less than it had been before the injection. Progress. It was tolerable. Unfortunately, by week 2 I was back to the same intensity of pain I started with. And I'm ready for my 2nd shot next week. I can have a total of 3 shots, 3 weeks apart. After that I will have to weigh the pros and cons of surgery. I hope it won't come to that.

Boy. That was long. And I told you I was a healthy person! Other childhood illnesses I can remember include:

1. I broke my right arm when I was about 4 years old. I had this awesome dark wood captain's bed. Of course I remember it being up to the ceiling, but realistically it was short enough that I could stand up on the bed and not hit the ceiling with my head. I was simply doing something I did all the time - pulling my covers back to get ready for bed. And how did I do that? By standing on the bed, walking backward toward the foot of the bed pulling the covers down. Duh. I don't know if I misjudged where I was at in the bed, tripped, or what, but soon I was on the floor. Some of the rest of it is a blur to me, but I know I didn't have a cast. Just a splint. And I hated it. I wanted to play outside with no restrictions. Of course mom told me not to run, but did I listen? Nope. With very little time before I was to get my splint off I was running, like I was not supposed to, tripped, fell, & re-broke my arm. So, I got to spend even more time in the splint. Not an easy thing to go through when you were so young!

2. As a little girl I loved to take bubble baths. One of the favorite things my Grandma would buy me was Avon bubble bath. I could spend hours in the bath. Unfortunately I paid for them! I developed multiple, chronic urinary tract infections. So much so that the doctors wanted to perform a cystoscopy and inject antibiotics directly between the kidneys & bladder (at least that's what I've been told was done). Of course, being so young I went to the hospital and was put under general anesthesia for the procedure. Again, I don't have lots of vivid memories, but I distinctly remember waking up from general anesthesia. I hollered. I cried. It hurt. I was having horrid, painful bladder spasms. I remember. Thank goodness they did not last for long. Another memory? My first grade class, led by my very favorite teacher, Mrs. Hough, made me a get well card. Mrs. Hough made the huge card herself. She hand-drew the jack-in-the-box that adorned the outside of the card. I still have it packed away in a box somewhere.

3. My dad's been sick for a long time. Since around the time I was in junior high school. He had Epstein Barr Virus - later know as Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. And now suffers with Fibromyalgia too. So when I became severely fatigued my mom was worried. After consults with our Pediatrician I was diagnosed with mononucleosis. And I had it bad. I don't remember pain so much as just no energy. No desire to do anything. I could sleep 20 hours a day, every day, easily. And it took me a long time to recover. I missed weeks from school. And in the end my mom was so desperate to help me recover that she followed my Pediatrician's recommendation and got me a dog. Dear Doogie was a loved member of our family for years before going to live with my dad.

4. On 9/11/07 I had a horrible head/chest cold. I contemplated calling in ill to work, but decided that I could make it through 1 shift. Little did I know how incredibly busy we were. I was miserable. And the patient I was caring for didn't help any. She was a frequent flier & we were all used to how difficult she was. Luckily, though, the decision was made that it was time to deliver her via c-section. Back in the OR I started to feel worse. I was all sweaty and my chest hurt. I was miserable. Linda, our OR tech, noticed how ill I looked (even behind the mask) and I told her that I did not feel well. Of course, I mentioned the magic words, "CHEST PAIN". Dr Khandalavala looked up from the c-section and said if I was having chest pain I needed to be seen in the ER. Again, I assured everyone it was simply a cold and the pain I was having was from that. He was not convinced and after the surgery was over he again said I needed to be seen. Maybe later, I said. There was no one to care for my patient during recovery. So I managed to get through the next hour. I told myself maybe it was heartburn, so I took some Tums. I bargained with myself. If I still had pain after taking Tums I would go the ER.

After handing my patient off to Post Partum to care for I relented and headed for the ER. I refused a wheelchair and told my co-workers that I'd be back in an hour or 2. Of course, the "magic words" got me whisked back to a room right away. Things were quick. I had an EKG, oxygen applied, an aspirin shoved in my mouth & being told to 'chew' it (YUCK!), and the doctor came in. Again, I was still certain it was nothing. Then they gave me nitroglycerin. I had no headache with that and the pain, while still there, had lessened slightly. The nurse was at my side starting an IV, drawing blood. Finally the doctor came in & said they were going to start me on a nitro drip. I think I laughed at him. Really? Mind you nothing abnormal had been detected up to this point. My EKG was normal with a PVC here & there (hello, CAFFEINE) and a smidge of tachycardia (heck, you slapped all these things on me and I'm sick to boot and you wonder why my pulse is in the 100s?!?!). I will give them that my initial BP was 140/90. High for me, but I was SICK. I didn't feel well. I got some IV Lopressor for that. The ER doc said that anyone with unexplained chest pain needed to be started on nitro and observed at least overnight. The kicker? Because I was on a nitro drip I would have to be admitted to Cardiac ICU. Seriously. Wow! I gave up. Whatever, I could use the rest. I called upstairs to give them the great news. They were all appropriately concerned. I took a nap on the stretcher and watched some horrendously bad middle of the night TV while they prepared a room for me. The chest pain was fading.

By the time I hit Cardiac ICU the chest pain was gone. After answering all of the fun admission database questions I was allowed to get some rest. In the morning someone wanted to give me PO Lopressor for my blood pressure (it was currently hovering at my normal: 88/44). I politely declined the offer. :) The medical student came by and I think I had the most comprehensive physical exam that I've ever had. And, unfortunately, I had to make the phone call I dreaded. I had to call mom and tell her where I was. Luckily she was calm. Finally my doctor came around with her medical students and I got to meet Dr. Anna Maio. She is awesome. I love her. She pronounced me fine. I just had to get a clean echocardiogram and 2nd set of cardiac enzymes before I'd be allowed to leave. I love her because she didn't make me do an exercise cardiac stress test (YAY!). Like me, she suspected heartburn. Later that morning I had my echocardiogram (dang they press hard over your bones and it HURTS) and 2nd set of cardiac enzymes. Both were normal so I was given my walking papers and a prescription for Pepcid. What an experience!

5. After mom broke her ankle/knee in October 2007, I slowly developed pain in my left shoulder. It started that I thought I slept wrong. I'm usually a pretty heavy sleeper and tend not to move or change positions much in the night. So when I woke up I was miserable. The shoulder joint hurt. I had full range of motion, but couldn't lift the arm over my head without horrible pain. I wanted to see if it'd pass, but, of course, it didn't. I soon saw my Internal Medicine doctor, Dr Maio. She gave me pain medication and Naprosyn as an anti-inflammatory. She wanted me to 'rest' it for a week and if I continued to have pain/problems to call and she would make an appointment for me at the Rheumatology Clinic for a cortisone injection. After a week of no improvement I decided to see mom's orthopedic doctor, Dr. Keiser, instead. He diagnosed me with tendonitis, performed a cortisone shot (barely hurt at all!) and sent me on my way. It was cured. No further pain or pressure. So, of course, if anything orthopedic ever happens to me I will definitely see Dr. Keiser in the future.