Update From Yesterday

It was a very long day and we got home about 8 last nite. I had to be at the new pain specialist at 12:30 and he is very nice. We talked and he checked me and he wants to start on the place hurting me the worst right now. That was a hard choice. So, he wants to do radio frequency ablation of the nerves coming out of my spine in the mid part of my spine.

radio-frequency ablation is a procedure that is done under the twilight stuff to relax you where they burn the nerves to stop the pain. It takes several steps to do one section and you are on an x-ray table with x-ray stuff all around you that guides him as the needle goes in to the right nerve. The first time he does it, he just uses lidocaine to see if he got the right nerve. It wears off in 15 minutes. Then once they are sure they have the right nerve for that layer, he will burn the nerve.

He wants to start with four layers he said on my mid spine. If it helps, he will work on the rest of my spine. So, this will be procedures done over several weeks which means several trips to Pueblo over the next few weeks. Please say a prayer for us as that is something price wise that is out of our budget. I am not one to ask for help but a couple of you have asked about donating for the gas. If you want to help, the paypal name is jack_zero_seven. I am not one to just take and take money that I do not need. The one time that people donated to get me to Denver, I stopped the donating when I got the 300 dollars we needed for motel and gas.

I love my new doctors. My new primary docs are sending me to an orthopedic surgeon for this shoulder that I hurt a few weeks ago when I fell. Remember that?  I grabbed the bar to stop the fall and ended up with my face about ten inches from the floor and my arm all twisted up .Well the cat scan taken of my lungs shows something is not right at all. I can not…no matter how hard I push …raise my arm over shoulder-high. Stick your arm straight out parallel to the ground and then raise it over your head. I can push my arm up with great pain but not move it up on my own. When I laid for this cat scan below, they had to place my arm up like that because I could not do it.

If you look above, you can see that the shoulder on the left side of the page, which is my right shoulder does not look the same as the one on the right side of the page. The bone at the top is curved and separated and the tendons do not appear to be in the same place. They suspect I tore my rotator cuff but want the orthopedic surgeon to see and to see if I cracked a bone in there. I have lost strength in that arm and drop things and I am right handed…so not good. And especially not good on forearm crutches.  I can not even lay on that side to sleep and that is the side I normally sleep on. The other place where I went before we changed doctors has never even touched my shoulder to see if I can move it. They scanned my neck, my lower back but never my shoulder, which is what I complained of. Yes, I know….crazy huh.

My primary doc is sending me to the wheelchair shop to talk about fixing my good scooter and to discuss whether to get the roll-in shower wheelchair now or  get a transfer bench for now and the rolling chair later. The roll in shower wheelchair would allow me to transfer from my bed to the chair, roll in the shower…take my shower and roll back to my bed and get on it and put my lounge clothes on. I am excited about the thought of having my good chair fixed too.

Below are pictures of the construction going on. They poured the concrete ramp on the front of the house and will be building a railing up the side. We also will be getting a new screen door that opens the right way. The shower and sink have been torn out of the bathroom and my new handicap toilet installed. Today, hopefully the new roll in shower will be installed and the pedestal sink will be done. They are putting up new sheet rock and putting the carpet down too.

I must be a princess because I got a beautiful new throne. LOL     They will be putting bars on both sides so that I can get up and down easier. Not bars screwed on the wall but long bars from back of wall out and down to floor on both sides.

Bars kind of like the toilet on the right in this picture that come out beside and down to floor.

image from business.inquirer.net

Here is where the shower is going and then there is a roll up ramp thing that goes beside it. If you look at the studs in the wall, you can get an idea of how long the shower is. I think they said five feet long or maybe six…not sure. This is the opposite end of the big bathroom. and the sink will go to the right of it. There will be a closet on past that. Thank God this bathroom was so big with a  garden tub to allow for all of this.

And now…demolition pictures. cutting the old shower to get it out of there.

And the ramp out front. They will be putting railings up all the way up the side and around the little porch.

And all I can say after such a hard day and all the work done is thank you God for blessing me so. God has been so good to us and we are so thankful.