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OH, but am I pissed right now….. (caution-explicit)

 

OK, so. All this time, I couldn’t properly remember events leading up to my coma/hospital stay. I was going on half remembered things on events leading up to me losing my legs.. well, I was just going through an old FB blog I wrote before I went to the hospital for the last time, and I am thoroughly pissed.

I mean clean-my-sidearm-and-load-the-hollow-points pissed.

I wont re post that blog, but I actually wrote down a timeline up to the 26th of September, last year. I dont remember writing it, but I know I must have. I even have comments from friends telling me they hope I feel better soon….Let me lay out the timeline for you I just pulled from my blog.

  • Thursday, 9-16-2010 BD attack started in mouth.
  • Saturday 9-18-2010 Last day I worked, throat hurt bad enough I couldn’t eat.
  • Tuesday, 9-21-2010 Went to DR in Bowling Green, prescribed pain meds and AntiBiotics. Mom came to pick me up and take me to Providence.
  • Friday, 9-24-2010 Late Friday evening, I was taken to RMC ER by my mother. I stayed until Early Saturday morning in the ER. Here is what I wrote about it.

I was told I had a case of old fashioned thrush……So, I went through 4 bags of IV fluids, 2 dolauded/zofran (sp?) combo shots, steroid shots and other things while in the hospital….. I was rolled out to the truck in a wheel chair, new pain meds script in hand and a vile mouthwash for thrush as well.

  • Saturday 9-25-2010 Early morning released from the ER
  • Wednesday, 9-29-2010 Late night rush to the ER. My mother tells me I staggered into the kitchen and said “I need help”
  • Thursday, 9-30-2010 Admitted to ICU from ER.. Coding, Coma… And the rest is history….

Why am I so pissed? Because I didn’t have THRUSH! I had a fucking MRSA infection! I was already at that time having a bit of trouble breathing.  I don’t remember everything they did to me on that first visit, but it stands to reason that a competent ER doctor would have taken a throat culture for strep.. Don’t you think?

I know that strep and staph are different things, but what the fuck? From my understanding, a MRSA culture is a simple positive/negative test. Did they draw blood? Did the test blood? I don’t know, I can’t remember. They put in an IV line, so it stands to reason. You can damn bet that I got run for the basics in that blood test. Why no throat culture? How did the MRSA not show?

 

I do remember this. The doc spent no more than a few minutes with me, total. Nurses, yes, Doc, no.

 

If the doc had spent possibly a bit more time, or ran a few simple tests to confirm his theory, my ass might not be legless right now. Or fingerless, for that matter.

 

But Neil! You can’t know that!

 

Bull shit. Bull shit. Bull shit.

 

Arrogant fucktard doctor, takes one quick glimpse, calls it thrush, and sends me home…

 

This is the problem with RMC. It is a low class, triage hospital. Granted, the nurses, therapists and a select amount of doctors there are top notch.. Dr Kitchens and his team, for example, who saved my life after I went to ICU.

 

But there would have been no need for ICU if the doctor would have ran a couple of tests in the ER. Or actually admitted me for observation.

 

And while I am ranting about the hospital, let me just talk about that asshole ortho surgeon there. Donnelley. That mother fucker came to my room when I wasn’t even a day out of ICU, still dazed from my coma to tell me what HE was going to do to ME.

Not to mention he was 12 hours late for the room visit, and talked to me with no one else in the room…

 

I didn’t even have my own power of attorney. I couldn’t make my own medical decisions. That didn’t stop that old bastard from telling me he was going to take my legs off at the knees, take my fingers off at the palms, and then schedule the fucking surgery…

 

They found me in my room.. thrashing in bed, muttering “not viable… Just going to cut them off” over and over…

 

I had to be sedated, and then shackled to the bed to keep from hurting myself!

 

My old man goes and finds Donnelley, tells him not to do any surgery, and never come in my room again… His response?

He doesn’t have to talk to my dad, because my mom has power of attorney. He needs to talk to her, anyway..

 

Then why did he tell me that shit?  why, if he knew that my mother had power of attorney, did he not wait until she was with me? If he would have been on time like he was supposed to, she WOULD have been there.

Why? Because he is an arrogant old son of a bitch. He needs to be put out to pasture. Could you imagine the shape I would have been in right now if we would have blindly followed his advice?

He is on a short list of people at the hospital right now that are not allowed to speak to me, go in my room, or look at my charts. Glad I am not there now…

And I hope to God that he retires before he does this to someone else.

 

I am going to have to request my medical records for the night of  9/24/2010 and see what doctor it was that treated me. I really want to know his name. And I want to make sure he will NEVER forget mine.

 

Now, some of you are going to say I am in some stage of healing/denial/whatever… Keep your psycho-babble to yourself. This is not about denial, or trying to find something/someone to blame. these are simple facts.

 

Like I said, there are some good doctors at RMC. But you watch. It is a continuing cycle.. The good Doctors do their residency there, and the get the hell out. Go somewhere else. Why? Even they know what kind of place they are working at.

 

and for those that might say I am being an asshole myself for saying any of this… Well, I will be more than glad to say these things to the Doctors themselves who deserve it. Trust me. When I go to RMC  on occasion to visit the GREAT therapy staff there who helped me, I keep a look out.

One day, he will be standing in the lobby, and I will say my piece. And show him that I still have knees, because we were smart enough to stay the hell away from his ortho department.

Enough said.

Rant over.

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Life goes on…

Well, it has been a bit since I posted a new blog that I actually wrote, instead of throwing up some new videos. I thought it was time for a real update for all of you!

Just as the title suggests, life goes on, even after triple amputations.

every day I get a little stronger, a little more stable on my legs, and a little more of the feeling that I might be moving on from this disaster that happened to me.

I have had my legs since February, but due to Behcet’s issues, i have only really been on the prosthesis and walking for about two and a half months. I have gone in that short period of time from forearm crutches to cane. Now, in the house, I am forgoing the cane.

When I walk in the door the cane goes in the corner, to be left until I go outside again. Why, you may ask? Why not use it because I might need it? Simple. If I use it, I will rely on it. If I have to rely on myself, and not the cane, I will be forced to walk without aid. Pretty simple, eh?

And so far it is going well. I of course, use the cane outside, as I have some stability issues on uneven ground, but inside is all nice and level.

I also limit my use of the wheelchair to shower time. I used to use it first thing in the morning for that first up of the day bathroom run, but not anymore. The wheelchair is just another version of a cane, if I let myself use it, I always will. So, I don’t. I will always need a chair close by at night, in the event of emergency. I can get my legs on and be walking in about seven minutes now, but, seven minutes is a lifetime if there is a fire or tornado.

So, until I get to the point that I can have “quick on” legs, I will need the chair. In time, I will have a set of legs that i can “pop” on in a few seconds each, but until then, I will keep the chair around. The legs I have now are the best that can be had… But the technology involved also involves prep time before they can be put on.

I am now back to working, part time, at my old fire department. I am a dispatcher. That has helped my head immensely. Feeling like I am doing something productive is nice. And, the people I worked with before at the department are still the same people. And they treat me just the same as they always have. They might might make a nice comment now and again about my walking abilities, but otherwise, they still give me hell like they always have.

I need that. I need to be treated like I am the normal guy I was, the normal guy I am.

I went yesterday and signed up for classes at college. Starting in January, I will be taking 13 credit hours towards a degree in Physical Therapy Assistant. I want to be able to help other amputees, and this is the starting point.

I am also going to be guest speaking to an OTA class soon. One of the kids from the old neighborhood I grew up in, and went to school with, grew up to be a fine OT in her own right, and is teaching at the college. She has asked me if she might use my videos, and blogs in her class, and asked if I might be willing to be a guest speaker to her students.

I really feel honored to help out. My hope is that by helping out the class, I might be helping out an amputee down the road!

See, I have found that both OT and PT have a few set in stone ideas about how things are done. Mostly, they are spot on, but some things are not. As an amputee, you are taught to do things just like a person who is paralyzed from the waist down. Someone who has legs, but cant use them.

Here is the problem. I may not have all my legs anymore, but I sure as hell can use and move what I have!

You also tend to get crammed into the “no movement box” for things such as wheelchair transfers, bathroom usage, and baths/showers.

Here is a good example.. I posted long ago about sitting in the floor of a shower to bath, and not in a handicap shower chair. My OT in Louisville was not pleased with this. Her basic attitude was, “That’s just not how your supposed to do it.”

Well, screw that. why force me to sit in a chair when I am safer, and more comfortable, sitting in the floor?

Oh, right.. You put me in the “box” again.

My shower at home is now set up just the way I want it, and was done all by me. the only handicap aids I use now is a small shower “seat” on legs about an inch tall. I dont use a shower chair, I don’t use any toilet seat helper chairs… Nothing. Just my little seat. Why the seat? well, able bodied people might occasionally stand in that shower to bath.

I don’t want to sit my hind in in someones funky feet fungus… 🙂 I don,t need the seat, but I use it as a precaution. That is now the extent of my “handicap” tools. I’m not handicapped, so why should I use handicap accessories?

Wait! Yes! I did just say that! I~am~not~handicapped! When I have my legs on, and my fingers or glove on, I can do all the things I need to do.

Hell, I don’t even park in handicap parking, or have a tag for my car. Why? Because every time I take the easy way out like that, I miss out on an opportunity to be the normal guy I am. Also, I would hate to take the last handicap parking spot when someone who is wheelchair bound might need the extra space to get their chair out.

thats why those spots are extra wide, people. So, every time YOU use a tag you don’t really need and park there, your taking away from someone who really needs it!

I refuse to be that kind of asshole. Really.

Some may argue that I am being silly, but I am who I am.

Wow, I got a bit off track, but hey, that happens. Maybe I didn’t.. All of this really falls under what happens when life goes on, Doesn’t it?

Life does go on, and I am living it.

Maybe I will see some of y’all around campus!

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New Fingers, new walking video.. and T-Shirts!

Because Sienna at www.kyprosthetics.com wouldn’t leave me alone about a video of my new fingers, I thought I would post two short ones. Sorry, Sienna! I am the king of procrastination!

First up, bare bones, without the gloves on.

[youtube //www.youtube.com/watch?v=-jsUM9s2f8M?hl=en&fs=1&w=425&h=349]

Next up, with the gloves on, and a little show and tell.

[youtube //www.youtube.com/watch?v=yD5rEanfFEE?hl=en&fs=1&w=425&h=349]

And, last but not least.. me free walking up some inclines!

[youtube //www.youtube.com/watch?v=wylmPKKovMo?hl=en&fs=1&w=425&h=349]

Now, if that wasn’t enough of me for ya, how about a T-Shirt! I made these up just for fun, but if you would like to help support my blog and sport a little Two Feet Shorter pride, try these on for size!

Black T

Gray T