Fun and Games: Medicine and Applique

Close up of one block.

Today I have to update my beef about the medical system. Parts of it do work! Over the past week I have seen 3 ER docs, 2 Ortho docs, 1 rheumatologist, 8 med students,1 family doc, and 2 neurologists. If you add in the two radiologists who have looked at my X-ray’s and MRI, I have seen a grand total of 19 doctors in one week. Some of them, I have seen more than once. They are all confused about what is happening with my knee/calf/foot, none of them have seen anything like this before. So, they bumped my MRI up to emergency and I have already had it. How fabulous is that? The system can work!

As it turns out, I have a severe sprain/strain of my MCL (a ligament in my knee.) That explains why the knee is sore, but not why the calf/foot are buggered up. They are hoping that the issues lower down are related to the swelling in the knee. One would think that if your knee has a severe sprain that you would remember damaging it. Not me! I have no idea what I did. I’m not sure if that is a comment on my coordination (or lack thereof) or on my mental acuity.

Yesterday I was back at the rheumatologist’s office. She froze the knee (which hurts like a bugger), aspirated off a small amount of icky looking fluid and injected some steroids to speed the healing. She is optimistic that it will help the knee, but isn’t sure about the rest of the leg. We shall see. The rheumatologist was fabulous and her staff wonderful. Except for one little thing …

Had to decorate my Band-Aid myself.

I sat up after the brutally painful procedure and looked at my knee. All there was to see was this wee tiny flesh colored Band-Aid. So I said, “What all that pain, and I get this crappy little Band-Aid? Where’s the Hello Kitty Band-Aid? Old people like fun Band-Aids too. I would have settled for Batman or even smiley faces.” They did get a laugh out of that.

An old work in progress that I am revisiting.

One to more pertinent things relating to sewing, quilting and fabric … I have discovered that while sitting to sew, or standing to run the longarm is still quite painful, I can do short spurts of hand sewing. (Thank God for good drugs that are controlling the Rheumatoid Arthritis.) I could be doing the bindings on some of my WIP’s but have decided to focus on something more fun. I am doing some hand applique on a project that has been underway for a number of years. The blocks are supposed to be Six inches square. Much too small for a beginner at hand applique like me. So I enlarged them to nine inches. I think it is coming along quite nicely.

My lovely friend Mrs. Brown has brought me this beautiful purse from Hawaii. It is so nice to have such generous friends. I’ve carried the purse for one day and have already lost track of the number of compliments I have received for it. My other friends and family have been fabulous too driving me back and forth to appointments with no complaints. Thanks everyone. Your help means a lot and there is no way to express my gratitude.

Hugs and keep quilting
Cath

Reports of My Death Are Exaggerated!

           Wow! What a slacker I am. It’s been ages since I’ve posted anything here. In my defence, I think it’s been close to two months since I set foot in my studio. My life has been sadly bereft of the longarm, fabric, sewing, quilting, and hand-work. I haven’t even fired up the computer to design anything on EQ7. Pathetic.

That’s not to say I have been slacking off. Okay, mostly I haven’t been slacking. We all need some R&R, me included. My attentions have been focused elsewhere. I’ve focused most of my attention of my writing career and my health which is the subject of this rant post.

During the middle of last week, I had cause to visit the local emergency room. TWICE! Now if our medical system worked like it should, one visit should have been sufficient to solve my dilemma. Instead it took two trips and I still have no diagnosis.

The saga begins ... Recently, I was diagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis, and that is the root of all my problems. The arthritis caused issues with my knee joint and it was all downhill from there. Knee swelling turned into calf cramps which became swollen foot and the inability to stand or walk. Since I’m on a new regime of drugs, I contacted my rheumatologist who said, “Go to emerg and get checked out for blood clots, what you are experiencing is NOT a drug reaction.” So, off I trot. (Okay, my man drives me and I use a wheelchair.)

I got lucky, emergency wasn’t busy and I saw the doctor quickly. In a nutshell, he had no idea what was going on and recommended an ultrasound to ensure that there were no clots. Here’s where the medical system gets a big fat FAIL!

Please tell me why, at eight o’clock at night, in a major hospital emergency room I can’t get an ultrasound?  The department was closed and all the staff gone home. The alternative would have been an MRI, which I am already on the waiting list for. But, those folks were gone home too. So here we have a woman in need of tests, and the machinery stands idle. I have to go home, get the ultrasound the next day at a remote site and go back to emergency with the results. While it does not appear to be a blood clot, they have no idea what is causing the pain.

 Skipping to the point of this rant, tell me why with an MRI waiting list that is months, if not years, long the equipment stands idle for much of the day?

I don’t know about the rest of the folks in line, but I would gladly show up at 2am for my test, just to get the damned thing done and my problems fixed. Can’t they staff the thing 24 hours a day? Nurses work shift work, why not MRI techs? Is this a union issue? Does the equipment need a long cool-down time after running a day? Perhaps the machine needs a nap? Is it a political way to control the dispensation of health care? I’ll tell you what it is! It is complete and total insanity!

Hire the staff and man the damned equipment 24/7 until the backlog is gone!

 As it stands for me, they still have no idea what is wrong. The leg is improving, but not with any great speed. So I wait for spontaneous recovery and an MRI. On the plus side having a chronic, debilitating disease has turned out to be a great weight loss program! The new meds have killed my appetite and I’m dropping weight like a stone. J Go me!

Hugs
Cath

Side Note: "Reports of my death are greatly exaggerated," is a Mark Twain quote from when a newspaper mistakenly printed his obitauary.