A year to remember

 Although the year is not even up yet and we are a few months away from the end of 2024, it has already been a year to remember. 

The year started off okay, nothing notable that I can recall but then April rolled around, and the season was changing, the weather was getting warmer, and Spring was in the air. Also, the Spring Fling at my granddaughter's school was taking place and I had been trying to stay proactive with keeping her busy on the weekends, that we helped watch her while her mom was working. 

We made plans to attend this Spring Fling April 13, 2024. we arrive and the first thing that we were directed to visit was the petting zoo there. There were several farm animals out and we walked over that way. My granddaughter wanted to see and pet them. So, as I was fumbling to get my camera pulled up on my phone so that I could snap a few pictures of her with the animals and trying to fight the wind blowing my hair in my face, the Ox that she was standing next to who was turned opposite of myself starts stepping backwards. He did not see me and before I realized he was stepping back towards me it was too late and he stepped onto my foot. 

So, while I am trying to figure out how I am going to get my foot loose, I start feeling him bump against me and all I could think of at the time is him knocking me over, So, I started looking around to see if I could see the owners or anyone who could help me, but then he finally let loose of my foot but then before I could move enough away from him he started kicking his hind legs my way, so in order to not get kicked I turned around to try to escape as quickly as I could but I lost my balance trying to quickly get away and down I went. But when I felt myself falling by instinct, I threw my right hand out to try to brace my fall and to try to hopefully keep from hitting my head in the process. 

It all happened so quickly that I couldn't tell you how it even happened in detail until a few days later when my memory came back clearly. I did not hit my head however but when I was able to get back to my feet after falling, I thought that I probably sprained my wrist at the most. but I seemed okay everywhere else. 

I tried finishing up taking pictures of my granddaughter with each animal. But it didn't take long, and the severe pain set in first through my wrist and then it traveled all the way up to my elbow. By this time, we had only been at the event for less than ten minutes so as to not disappoint my granddaughter and leave right away, I decided to tough it out a little longer, grant it, I had to sit it out the remaining of the time we were there, but I was in tremendous pain and could not help myself as I sat on a nearby bench trying to keep the tears from flowing too much.  

Finally, my granddaughter was ready to leave, and I so was I. But I knew something was not right about either my wrist, thumb or arm or all of them. The way the pain felt told me that I was either dealing with a break or a bad sprain. So, I left the rest of the family back at home and took off to the Emergency Room to see what I had going on with my arm. 

Turns out my wrist was broken, but thank goodness not displaced so only ortho was recommended and I followed up with them and they placed a hard cast on my arm and then a couple of weeks later gave me a brace to wear. It took about that long for me to feel like I could actually use that arm for much. And it took a few weeks longer for me to get my range of motion back to feeling normal again. 

It has now been five and a half months since that accident, and I would love to say that I have not had any more crazy incidents since then and that life has been pretty boring but of course that is not the case at all. 

Fast forward to a couple of days past the three-month mark of my wrist break just as I started feeling like it was getting back to almost normal again with the exception of a few aches and pains here and there with it. At least the range of motion was getting better and I actually felt like I could use that wrist again to start lifting heavy objects somewhat. 

I started with a dull ache in my right side but not an unfamiliar ache though. I sort of figured that it could be my pesky gallbladder, or should I say my gallstones that I was pretty sure I still had from at least five years prior or longer acting up once again.  So as the week progressed on, the pain did not subside except temporarily as long as the ibuprofen was on board. And by the time that Friday arrived, the pain was becoming more prominent and really bugging me more, but I continued to ignore it, because honestly, I just didn't have time to deal with it, however I knew that it was going to have to be taken care of because the pain didn't seem to be leaving and going anywhere. But I decided to hang on a little while longer to go see about it because I had a busy day that day. 

So that day went fairly well, and I was able to keep the pain mostly at bay with some ibuprofen but then after trying to eat dinner that evening, it caused the pain to be more prominent and more worrisome. So, I thought then, I will see how my pain continues the rest of the evening and overnight and go from there. 

Well, as we were leaving the restaurant that we ate at, I was walking along and trying to stay out of the way of the traffic that was coming up and down that street and saw a street sign ahead so right as I thought I was clearing the sign, BAM, I ran right into the long skinny leg of this sign. I did not see the leg at all until it was too late. But by then my Big Toe got the blunt of the jam. And of all things to be wearing, I had my nice comfy flip flops on. But one thing for sure, all of the pain that I had been feeling over on my right side went away but it was all in my right big toe for the next couple of hours. 

So, we left there and headed home. My toe was throbbing, but my side got a break for a while. Then at bedtime, I was uncomfortable between my side bothering me and my toe still hurting every time I moved it. But I laid through the night with the heating pad and more ibuprofen and just toughed it out because I still didn't feel like the pain was bad enough to warrant an ER visit at the time. 

Saturday rolled around and I hobbled around on my right foot, and it hurt too much to put any pressure down on it but at the time it figured it probably only had a bad sprain and I would just deal with it but of course that side pain was still lingering around and I had also noticed earlier in the week that I had another issue going on as well that I had been halfway ignoring. That was, an itchiness around the same area as the side pain. That ended up turning into a light raised rash by the end of the week and then on Sunday I had noticed that about 5 tiny bumps had popped up in that area and that the itchiness was subsiding though. But still I wondered what these bumps could be. I thought about it being shingles and the only other thing I could figure it may be was hives. 

So, as Saturday continued on, I was supposed to be meeting up with a friend for lunch, but we ended up post phoning to another day because her car had broken down on her and my toe hurt too bad to just drive a little way's and then of course my side was still not feeling any better. So, I decided to just take a nap and see how the rest of the day went. But then the day did not get too far gone before I got more concerned about my side pain and decided that it was time to go be seen about it. 

So, that is exactly what I went and did. I had an ultrasound done and blood work drawn. And then I mentioned my accident with my toe and the itchiness I was having on my side. The toe was x-rayed and determined to be broken, and the itchiness was not really discussed, and the ultrasound did not show any blockages or issues with the gallbladder but showed multiple gallstones just as I suspected. So, I was sent home with a walking boot for my foot and told to follow-up with the Surgery center for my gallstones. 

But then Sunday rolled around, and the pain got really bad. So bad it woke me up out of my sleep and definitely concerned me. Plus, that is when I had noticed that itchy rash had turned to the five bumps. So, my mom was concerned about me as well and came all the way to my place and drove me to the ER once again. And then a CT was done on my gallbladder which still didn't show any blockages, but they knew the pain I was in was being caused by something that was just not letting up. So, they consulted the Surgeon and admitted me that night. And I was also told that the bumps on my torso area didn't really look like shingles but at the time I wasn't worried about them and was just concerned about all of the pain I was still having and had all week long. 

Monday came around and I waited patiently for the Surgeon to come see me and to see whether I would be having surgery that day or not. By the time lunchtime arrived and I was still not allowed to eat, I kind of figured by that point that I would not be having surgery that day which I was already informed that the Surgeon may not be able to fit me into his schedule that day. So, he finally showed up to talk to me. He let me know that he was not going to be able to do surgery that day but that he was going to try his best to get it done the following day because from what he could tell from looking at my test results was that my gallbladder was nonfunctional. He didn't see any blockages though. And he told me that I could eat, and he would make sure lunch was ordered for me. He also gave me the option of leaving and returning back for an outpatient surgery. 

Well, what was going through my mind at the time was that if I left and then set up an outpatient surgery that it would probably be scheduled days or a few weeks out and I knew with the pain I was in, that I would not last that long, plus with a nonfunctioning gallbladder that he told me I had, that things would only get worse. So, I asked to stay. And they let me. And I ended up getting the same food for dinner that they brought me for lunch, but that was okay. I just knew that I was so ready to get rid of the pain I was having and that hopefully it would be less than 24 hours away. 

Tuesday finally rolled around, and it wasn't too long after I had woken up that the nursing aid came in and announced that I would be having surgery sometime that day and more than likely that morning but that she did not have an exact time because I was not on the surgery schedule. Which I was satisfied with because as long as I was getting it done and he was willing to fit me into his already busy schedule. 

So, as I prepped for surgery, I noticed that those tiny five bumps I had, were a little bigger and redder. So, when the Surgeon came in to talk to me about surgery, I showed them to him. He automatically said that is herpes zoster (the shingles virus) so great, now I have something else I have to deal with. But at that moment, even that new diagnosis was far from my concern. I was just eager to get my surgery done and over with. So eager that I never once worried much about it or gave it much thought about how it may go or the recovery time of it. I was confident that all would go well, and I would recover just fine. I had only had a cesarean section one time and other than that surgery I had a few minor procedures. So, I figured as long as I stayed asleep during this surgery that all else would go well. 

I didn't have to wait very long before they rolled me up to Surgery. They went over all the details of what they would be doing to prep me and asked me the normal questions. Then everyone wanted to see my shingles. They gave me some medicine to help relax me as they were rolling me to the operating room and then the next thing I knew, was a nurse or someone was talking to me telling me things that I can now not remember, and I was just hoping she would see how sleepy I was and let me sleep. lol. Which I guess she did, until the next thing I sort of remember was being rolled back to my room where my family awaited my return. 

I remember bits and pieces of their conversation as I lie there in and out. Finally, I woke up enough to complain about how bad my back hurt. I wanted to continue sleeping but the nurses were trying to get me to eat and be alert enough to make sure I was ready to discharge. And to be honest, by back hurt so bad that I was ready to just get up out of the bed and then my bladder wouldn't allow me to just keep lying there ignoring it, so I reluctantly got up and I ate so that I could prove that I would just either end up throwing it up or not being able to tolerate one bite of food because my past experiences with trying to eat something after surgery or a procedure never went over well. But fortunately for them and I guess me too, I ate everything and was able to hold it all down. I am thinking that since it was a liquid diet, that it helped in the matter of letting me keep it all down. 

So, with me being able to get up and eat my liquid diet and get dressed, I was then discharged for home and just in time arrived my liquid dinner, which I did take along with me and found a way to transport the broth and all without spilling it. And I wasn't even mad that it still was a liquid diet. I didn't really feel like eating anything I had to chew anyway. 

I got home and the next few days consisted of a lot of gas pain from the air they put in you, and the shingles medicine that they started me on in the hospital ended up giving me an allergic reaction in less than 24 hours. 

Later that day I went on back to the hospital to be checked for my allergic reaction because it was causing a lot of shortness of breath and a rash. While in the ER they changed the medication that was causing the allergic reaction. And also did another CT scan to make sure everything else looked okay from the surgery. it did. after arriving back home I had the air that had settled in my shoulder return but the next day it did start subsiding. as the next couple weeks came and went, I had minimal pain from the surgery, but my shingles pain increased and for the next two months I would have lots of unwanted pain from it. I don't recommend getting shingles. 

Since my gallbladder removal and the other things going on, I recently found out that I am dealing with type 1 diabetes instead of type 2 like was suspected for many years. I will touch more on my diabetes journey in a separate post. 

Let's hope the remaining of the year 2024 will continue on with no more incidents.