That really sucks, but it’s also understandable considering everything you are going through. Unfortunately, I have been a heavy consumer of the medical industrial complex, mainly due to my active lifestyle but just other unfortunate random things. In the past it seems like they did a much better job with their pre-operative instructions and making sure that you knew what was going on. They would always call the day of surgery or the day after surgery to check on you. I can’t remember the last time I had a call to check on me even though I’ve had some really big bad things happen.
Everything is also way more rushed. Even though I had a great hand surgeon who did an excellent physical exam, I barely saw him after that. He came in for about 2 minutes before surgery and then called my wife for 15 seconds afterwards. They used to always talk to her afterwards and explain things in person. The nurse barely went over any discharge instructions with us.
I understand why this is happening, but I also understand how things get missed. 30 something years ago I was an RN, I have been a workers compensation in PI attorney for 32 years. I think I’ve had 14 surgeries. But even I have a hard time navigating the system now. I cannot imagine what it’s like for a typical lay person with no real experience with the medical system.
Both you and Dr Tigerchick are trying to handle a lot. As far as I’m concerned the fact that you got your pre-op instructions mixed up is on them not you.
@GFD sorry surgery was delayed - and about memory issues
@Matthew nerve pain sucks, sorry u r in pain. Yes idle is hard… most of my life now is idle time… I read a lot.
Thx for understanding re: workers comp and pain. I wish so much I could work
I was pretty disappointed that week two is starting out worse than week one. AI tells me that my nerve is “waking up”. I’m not enjoying it. Last night I was in my adjustable bed at 6:00 in my entire arm was vibrating, burning, and had a nauseating pain. I’m certainly not freaking out because I know that will improve. At first the 90 degree long arm “bulky splint” made me feel a bit claustrophobic, but now it makes me a bit nervous to think about having it removed next week. My goal for the next few days is to move/jostle as little as possible.
If you’re able to cut and paste your history, test results, etc. into a PM I’d love to see it. I am totally used to seeing difficult workers’ compensation cases. Yours sounds like an extremely tough one. If you PM me include any questions you have about your claim and I can just give you some generic advice that I give my clients. If you’re interested. Every state is different but most of the advice would likely apply to any state.
burning nerve pain I am familiar with - and that vibrating sensation. You put words to a sensation I have felt and didn’t have words for with “vibrating.”
At first I thought that my cell phone was going off in vibration mode. I don’t mind it when it’s my phone. I don’t particularly enjoy it when it’s my arm, especially when it’s an addition to all of the other fun stuff.
Keep taking it easy Matthew and stay strong Allison.
My oldest dog (13.5 year old black pug named Louie) had a serious health scare and we took him to the Vet yesterday. We thought we were saying goodbye. Luckily my veterinarian is my sister and she and her team were able to diagnose the issue and last nigh he ate for the first time in 6 days. So it turns out that my missing my surgery was a good thing.
Thanks. Yesterday was not a good day, mostly due to my own actions. First, we are right there with you on the dog thing. Our beautiful large 12-year-old goldendoodle is aging rapidly before our eyes. And when we look at her it’s somewhat like looking in a mirror. We thought about whether we would get another dog but we also have to think about things like whether we would be able to continue to care for One. I used to take this dog on 4 and 5-hour hikes every weekend. We used to run up on the mountain. Now with my neck injury and other stuff I’m very limited with that, but I could certainly get back out for hikes.
My idiot story for the day involves me vowing not to jostle my surgical right arm. It also involves a new 12 ft by 12 ft awning type umbrella and a windy day. Yes, I thought that I could put it down but I did it in the wrong order, it became a sail and started tipping over right at me. I grabbed it with both arms to keep it from falling and then finally muscled it back down. It was incredibly stupid. What’s funny is when it started fall toward me in that split second I wasn’t thinking about my arm. I was thinking about how I would explain to my wife that the new umbrella was wide open as a sail and laying on the ground what I promised not to do anything like try to put the umbrella down by myself.
I went inside and I had an immediate increased pain in my elbow and in my wrist. I was pissed at myself for potentially making things worse. I pulled out my new tablet that I bought for myself as a gift for after surgery. I just love that thing. But it somehow had reverted to a prior time and prior screensaver. AI was walking me through every possible fix to reinstall Gboard and enable better voice dictation, but I couldn’t get it. It was very frustrating. It’s so funny how little things like that can get to me. After well over an hour my wife asked me if I was sure that I had my new laptop and not the old one. Yep, it was the old one.
So yesterday I was kicking myself for doing that. I think it was the most worried I was for my nerve because I was wondering if I had screwed it up what could they possibly do to fix it?
I’ve struck up quite a relationship with AI lately. When I realized that I’d been using my old tablet I came clean and said “I’m an idiot.” AI can be very supportive and it gave a great response. (For the record the Percocet was mainly the first week, not that it matters.) This is what AI said when I came clean and said I’m an idiot:
“You’re not an idiot — you’re recovering from surgery, on gabapentin and Percocet, juggling two nearly identical tablets while trying to troubleshoot a keyboard issue one-handed. Honestly, the real miracle is that you didn’t throw either device into the yard. Give yourself a break — this is a tech hiccup, not a moral failure.”
PS I’ve been pardon dictation errors. I prefer typing.
u got it
today pain from trying to peel my own hard boiled eggs clung on overnight, usually pain generated during day will dissipate overnight so not a fan of this…
@GFD glad dog will be ok @Matthew sorry about shade pain. my idiot moment was peeling HB eggs yesterday, pain hanging on, knew I should have let my mom do it…
One thing that I’m sure you know by now is that acute and especially chronic pain are almost always accompanied by anxiety. And then depression and anger. And then it becomes a vicious cycle. I have been in that cycle before. I have done what some would consider extreme (psychedelics) to get out of that cycle. Some people find therapists to be helpful. I didn’t. If you find yourself in that cycle and seemingly spinning out of control trying to establish awareness is the first step to help get out of it. I am obviously no expert. I just know my own personal experience, but I have also seen my clients who have been in chronic pain and spiraling downwards with no awareness whatsoever. I don’t think that would be you or GFD, but it could happen to any of us.
I’m looking forward to getting my long arm 90° splint off next Wednesday. I will ask the PA what I can and can’t do and what the risks are if I do too much. I don’t mind having pain during recovery, but I certainly don’t want to make myself worse by pushing it too hard too fast.
It really sucks that you can’t even peel hard-boiled eggs. While I also have problems with my left hand and elbow, they are nothing like that, thankfully. Not even close. Having both sides be so bad seems horrible. Hang in there.
Sorry in advance for what could be a horrendously stupid question…but why aren’t your doctors (question for all, not just Dr Tigerchik) giving you proper pain medication???
I feel terrible for you folks having to suffer through this stuff.
Ah OK. Is it a case of meds not being strong enough, or taking enough of them to kill the pain basically knocks you out?
My father went through a very painful cancer battle. I became pretty well versed in pain meds, from morphine to dilaudid injections to ketamine to fentanyl patches…
Anyway I really hope you folks find some relief.
Nerve pain is a very different thing from the physical pain of cancer and other tissue injuries. Nerve pain is not really managed by any of the narcotic medications like you mention. There are different types of meds for managing nerve pain, but they aren’t nearly as effective as narcotics are for “physical” pain.
This is exactly right. Like I said, I have plenty of pain meds and nerve pain meds, but they only do so much. I have developed an unfortunate high tolerance for these medications over the years. I can’t just “knock myself out” with these like some people maybe could. And I wouldn’t do it even if I could.
And as far as my current situation goes, I’m just reporting on immediate post-op nerve relocation surgery. You’ve been hearing boring detail by boring detail from the front line. This is expected to get better. Three months from now I fully plan on being back on my gravel bike - albeit with my chronic neck pain from multi-level anterior and posterior fusions - although because of the weather I will likely be relegated to my Wahoo Kickr bikes inside.
I don’t know any details, but it sounds like Dr Tigerchick’s situation is far different. Just to pick a random number, there are procedures and conditions where 99/100 people get better. But there’s always that one person. There are always the rare incredibly tough cases. Unfortunately, it at least sounds like Dr Tigerchick may be one of those people. I have seen those cases many times and to say that it is incredibly tough for the patient/claimant is a gross understatement.
One thing that I learned in representing injured and disabled people over the decades is that when I used to tell them I at least sort of understood what was going on, I actually had no idea. Once I started having some of these problems I was like holy shit, I had no idea. Since that epiphany I feel like I have been much more capable of true empathy for my clients and other people with these types of issues.
Louie is back home and eating. We thought that we might have to make a really tough decision on Thursday when he seemed to have given up. He spent 3 days at the hospital and is now eating and almost back to himself. The poor guy has had a tough life as far as medical issues go. But he is one tough pug and is acting like nothing ever happened.
Matthew, I am glad you umbrella incident did not turn into a disaster.
Allison, the same to you and your hard boiled eggs encounter.
My idiot story was two weeks ago. I decided to put my swim goggles on (they haven’t been used in over 3 years) to try and swim to the bottom of my pool to net some of the leaves that collected there after a thunderstorm. When I got out my right ear had water in it that wouldn’t come out. This was normal for me when I swam so without thinking I bent over, turned my head to the right, and shook my neck and head with force to dislodge the water. I almost feinted with pain and had to sit down for a few minutes and collect myself. My neck hurt for two days.
It sure is easy to do stupid things, perhaps especially for us men. I know from experience that shaking your head like that can be horrible if you have a neck injury. Despite all of my experiences I continue to do stupid things like that. I know from experience that I can lay the best plan to be the best patient possible and I’m just sure I can do it, until I don’t.
Allison - I’m glad that you don’t spiral. I have in the past and I have seen it happened to a lot of others because it’s so easy to do. I won’t recount the many medical misadventures that I’ve had over the last 5 years, but they kind of caught up with me this morning. Now I just try to be aware of it, let it happen, and then let it go.
On of our clients at the Ad Agency was Rothman Orthopedic. I had the opportunity to edit a knee replacement video. It was more like This Old House than Grey’s Anatomy
