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Mar. 4th, 2015 08:19 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
turpsFirst, some good news, James doesn't have to have an operation to fix his arm.
The long story and catching up on the last few days.
It was a tough weekend. James didn't get home from the hospital until nearly midnight on Friday, and then had an appointment at the trauma fracture clinic the next morning. I suspect between us we had a few hours of sleep that night. So, next day we drove to the fracture clinic and saw the doctor, who walked into the room and simply said, this needs surgery.
We knew that was a possibility, but his doctor said it in the worst way possible. He had zero bedside manner, no inflection whatsoever in the way he talked, just walked in and said that and when we tried to ask questions about why the surgery was needed, just said it was a complicated case and left the nurses to book James in for surgery.
Even now I get annoyed when I think about him. I know it's a tough job and he would have been working flat out to see all the trauma fracture patients, but would it hurt to have a bit of humanity? James got upset when the doctor left and the nurse saw that and must have said something as the doctor came back later and said I heard you were upset, and yeah, he was, he was in a lot of pain, exhausted, had just been discharged from the clinic about his wrist two weeks earlier and was now facing more surgery, and I know the doctor couldn't know all that, but again, bedside manner matters.
Anyway. The nurses were fabulous and after a bit of organising and getting James' details booked in told us to go home and we'd be called with an appointment for a CT scan on Monday, and after that would be called to be told when to go in for the surgery.
Sunday wasn't the best either. James' confidence had been hit a lot and he kept saying how useless he was -- which isn't true in the slightest -- but we both agreed he'd have to give up going to the Scout camps and especially the one in France which is coming up in a few months. He was really looking forward to that but it looks like his disability is starting to worsen and going on adventure style camps isn't a good idea, even if mostly he's the person in charge of check-ins etc and not actually doing the activities. So yeah, those were fun conversations.
Then yesterday. We had to wait for the hospital to call with a CT appointment, and they did so around 10 and asked if we could be there for 11, and we could. So we went, James went to be scanned -- and was asked to put his arm over his head a few times, which yeah, he's never been able to do that anyway never mind now -- and then told to go to the fracture clinic.
Now that was a surprise as we'd originally been told that he'd have the scan and then we'd go home and wait for a call saying when to go in for surgery. But, we went to the clinic, saw the nurse and they somehow managed to fit us into the clinic that was going on then.
Also, I have to say here, you can tell you go to the hospital too much when a load of nurses know you by name in many different places.
So, we didn't wait long before being sent to a room to wait for the doctor. He took a while, but that was fine, I mean, James' didn't even have an appointment after all, but then when he did come in he just said if James was happy to stay in the backslab he was happy with that too.
I swear, I think we both could have danced out of the room at that point, or as James said later, he wanted to give the doctor a big kiss. Which I know probably sounds like an overreaction but James is done with surgery, he said he'd only have more if it was an emergency, which of course this would have been, but never have any more by choice, so this was a huge relief.
This doctor was lovely, he explained everything, said the CT scan had shown the bones were in a good place, and I do have to wonder if the CT people had got in touch with the fracture clinic and said that. I know they're not allowed to diagnose on the spot and say what they think but James said quite a few were in there with him, including the most senior scanner, and maybe they have the experience to know when bones could heal on their own? I don't know, I'm just glad that it happened.
James needs to go back in three weeks and hopefully the bones have started to knit, and he'll be able to change the backslab for an actual cast, because man, the thing he has on right now is heavy and goes from his wrist to his shoulder.
Right now I want to wrap him in bubble wrap. I keep checking there's nothing he can trip over and keep having anxiety thoughts about him banging his arm somehow. We talked to the district nurses yesterday and a hospital style overbed table is going to be delivered next week for as long as James needs it, not for in bed but downstairs on the couch because while his dominant hand is okay he still can't hold a plate or mug right now.
Now it's just a case of waiting and hoping the bones are knitting, and having someone stick to his side 24-7 because no way is James going anywhere on his own for quite a few weeks.
And that's that. Kayleigh gets admitted on Friday and has her op on Saturday so from Sunday onwards I hope this family is just healing. No more accidents, no more trauma visits to hospital, just a whole lot of getting better going on.
I'm hugely behind on online stuff right now, and sadly there's no way BBB wave one is going to happen. But, I will catch up, it's not like people aren't used to me commenting late anyway.
The long story and catching up on the last few days.
It was a tough weekend. James didn't get home from the hospital until nearly midnight on Friday, and then had an appointment at the trauma fracture clinic the next morning. I suspect between us we had a few hours of sleep that night. So, next day we drove to the fracture clinic and saw the doctor, who walked into the room and simply said, this needs surgery.
We knew that was a possibility, but his doctor said it in the worst way possible. He had zero bedside manner, no inflection whatsoever in the way he talked, just walked in and said that and when we tried to ask questions about why the surgery was needed, just said it was a complicated case and left the nurses to book James in for surgery.
Even now I get annoyed when I think about him. I know it's a tough job and he would have been working flat out to see all the trauma fracture patients, but would it hurt to have a bit of humanity? James got upset when the doctor left and the nurse saw that and must have said something as the doctor came back later and said I heard you were upset, and yeah, he was, he was in a lot of pain, exhausted, had just been discharged from the clinic about his wrist two weeks earlier and was now facing more surgery, and I know the doctor couldn't know all that, but again, bedside manner matters.
Anyway. The nurses were fabulous and after a bit of organising and getting James' details booked in told us to go home and we'd be called with an appointment for a CT scan on Monday, and after that would be called to be told when to go in for the surgery.
Sunday wasn't the best either. James' confidence had been hit a lot and he kept saying how useless he was -- which isn't true in the slightest -- but we both agreed he'd have to give up going to the Scout camps and especially the one in France which is coming up in a few months. He was really looking forward to that but it looks like his disability is starting to worsen and going on adventure style camps isn't a good idea, even if mostly he's the person in charge of check-ins etc and not actually doing the activities. So yeah, those were fun conversations.
Then yesterday. We had to wait for the hospital to call with a CT appointment, and they did so around 10 and asked if we could be there for 11, and we could. So we went, James went to be scanned -- and was asked to put his arm over his head a few times, which yeah, he's never been able to do that anyway never mind now -- and then told to go to the fracture clinic.
Now that was a surprise as we'd originally been told that he'd have the scan and then we'd go home and wait for a call saying when to go in for surgery. But, we went to the clinic, saw the nurse and they somehow managed to fit us into the clinic that was going on then.
Also, I have to say here, you can tell you go to the hospital too much when a load of nurses know you by name in many different places.
So, we didn't wait long before being sent to a room to wait for the doctor. He took a while, but that was fine, I mean, James' didn't even have an appointment after all, but then when he did come in he just said if James was happy to stay in the backslab he was happy with that too.
I swear, I think we both could have danced out of the room at that point, or as James said later, he wanted to give the doctor a big kiss. Which I know probably sounds like an overreaction but James is done with surgery, he said he'd only have more if it was an emergency, which of course this would have been, but never have any more by choice, so this was a huge relief.
This doctor was lovely, he explained everything, said the CT scan had shown the bones were in a good place, and I do have to wonder if the CT people had got in touch with the fracture clinic and said that. I know they're not allowed to diagnose on the spot and say what they think but James said quite a few were in there with him, including the most senior scanner, and maybe they have the experience to know when bones could heal on their own? I don't know, I'm just glad that it happened.
James needs to go back in three weeks and hopefully the bones have started to knit, and he'll be able to change the backslab for an actual cast, because man, the thing he has on right now is heavy and goes from his wrist to his shoulder.
Right now I want to wrap him in bubble wrap. I keep checking there's nothing he can trip over and keep having anxiety thoughts about him banging his arm somehow. We talked to the district nurses yesterday and a hospital style overbed table is going to be delivered next week for as long as James needs it, not for in bed but downstairs on the couch because while his dominant hand is okay he still can't hold a plate or mug right now.
Now it's just a case of waiting and hoping the bones are knitting, and having someone stick to his side 24-7 because no way is James going anywhere on his own for quite a few weeks.
And that's that. Kayleigh gets admitted on Friday and has her op on Saturday so from Sunday onwards I hope this family is just healing. No more accidents, no more trauma visits to hospital, just a whole lot of getting better going on.
I'm hugely behind on online stuff right now, and sadly there's no way BBB wave one is going to happen. But, I will catch up, it's not like people aren't used to me commenting late anyway.
