Backwards Gowns and Mg(OH)2

                       So my last post was written in the wee hours of the morning, and now, after getting a few hours of sleep, i'm writing another post. I wrote in a earlier post that i was writing so i didn't forget certain things during my stay at the hospital, in this post i wanted to write about one of those thoughts.

         One of the things i'm able to do now that i wasn't able to do immediatly after surgery is get myself dressed. Even my first days home Mom had to help me get a shirt over my head because i couldn't even move my right arm correctly. At this point, nearly two weeks after surgery, i have at least 90% of the movement back in my right arm and i can nearly touch my chin to both shoulders (not at the same time of course) which means i can dress myself now (although i'm sticking to tank tops and sleeveless shirts in general because they're easier to get on and off and i usually sleep in beaters anyway so i don't have to change clothes a lot, considering i'm not sweating or exerting a lot, but no worries to anyone reading this - i don't wear a shirt for longer than two days)
            The big difference concerning clothing between the hospital and home, though, is what i wore. At home the emphasis is put on comfort, at the hospital its convenience.

Modeling the 'comfy clothing' (took this the Sunday
before my surgery)

Modeling the hospital gown (took this the morning before i went home)

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               I had clothes from home i could wear at the hospital (tank top and sleep shorts or lounge pants) but before surgery i donned the hospital gown and stayed in that until the day i went home. Hospital gowns arn't uncomfortable, the only thing is they're open in the back. Even i nearly put it on wrong (like a jacket with the opening in the front) at first, but after surgery i came to appreciate the fact the back was open (except for the fact that the first laces were tied and ended up digging into the back of my neck at certain times which made it hard to get comfortable considering it wasn't until Mom noted the knot and untied it after nearly a day or two after surgery)

            But what makes the gown convenient that it's open in the back is that it makes it easier to use the restroom when you need to go. When you're drugged up and in a lot of pain the last thing you want to have to worry about is getting your underwear down in time to use restroom (and considering i had an IV in me for a few days pumping fluids through me to keep me hydrated, i had to use the bathroom on a regular basis) Considering i had to use a walker to keep my balance those first few days because of how unsteady i was and due to my lack of balance (nerves damaged after all) having that open back was incredibly useful. (that and the bar attached to the wall next to the toilet in the bathroom i held onto often to keep me upright and steady)

             The other nice thing about the gown was that the sleeves were put together with snap buttons which made them hard to put on originally (lucky for me i got a Mom who helped me out)  but considering i couldn't move my right arm or shoulder very well right after surgery, it was easier for someone to snap the sleeve around my arms then slide my arms into the sleeves.

     Of course having an open back can be a little dangerous, considering i made a point in always opening the shade of my window to let in the natural light of day. Considering the windows were only in the patient's rooms (and near the elevators) i felt the nurses would appreciate being able to see sunlight after being in the hallways in artificial lighting so often. Hope no one was looking in my window somehow when i started walking around more!

              Although have a non-open back probably would have been a bit more useful if it was a very absorbant material considering i was sweating a lot those days in the hospital (probably for any number of reasons: being on morphine, being in pain, in an air conditioned room with no fan for circulation, etc.) Instead i'd soak the pillows i was using to support my back and neck when i sat in the recliner during the day in the hospital. It was kinda miserable going through sweats a few times a day, which is why i started watching episodes of 'The Adventures of Lano and Woodly' on YouTube late at night to keep my spirits up (Colin Lane and Frank Woodly were one of the greatest comedy duos of all time. They were with each other for 20 years before going separate ways a few years back, but their comedy routines are still available online for everyone's viewing pleasure)

            The only time i got to wear a hospital gown backwards was on my walks around the floor. Every day in-patient therapy came to make sure the patients get some exercise (the patients that could walk anyway, considering i was on the Neuro/Ortho floor the majority of patients on the floor were probably getting joint replacements, after all i was most likely the youngest person on the entire floor) so after that first day recovering from surgery, two therapists would come in to take me for a walk and when i stood up to grab the walker one of them would drape a second gown on me to cover my backside

              Which reminds me, speaking as a side note, my first day in the hospital before surgery, i was visited by a occupational therapist and a physical therapist. My physical therapist was a guy named Macio (pronouned Mah-chi) and he spoke with a heavy Polish accent. (Not only that but he knew how to actually pronounce the name Jozwiak. It's a Polish/Russian name and it's pronounced Us-we-ak (heavy U sound like in the word 'wound')).  When he first came in and introduced himself i thought he said his name was 'Macho', but was corrected of course. He told me that he would see me after surgery and that i would hate him (probably because he would make me move when i didn't want to because i'd be tired or feel pain) but i actually never saw him or worked with him. Other in-patient therapists walked me around the 8th floor. I did see Macio on the floor but didn't actually work with him, so i never came to hate him. I didn't come to hate any of the therapists. I was glad to get up and moving.

          Which is another thing. Everyone who sees me seems to be totally shocked that i'm as active as i am; walking around, doing activities such as mowing and weeding, walking the dog, and i don't get why everyone seems so astonished. I mean i was in perfect health up until the tumor was found, why shouldn't i have bounced back quickly? The other day someone stopped by the house and i answered the door and the first thing they said (besides 'hi') was 'you're the last person i expected to answer the door'. Kinda makes me wonder if people think i'm just lying around all day or expect me to be quiet and still to heal. No way Jose! I don't want to lose my muscle tone perfected over years working at a horse farm (which has gone away some from lack of use  *cries silently) Kinda  reminds me of a Monty Python sketch in which a hospital believes in making their patients exercise and work to heal, and there are patients with broken limbs and all sorts of injuries and concussions running around, jumping fences, pushing the doctors around in wheelchairs, etc. Except i'm not actually in agony, just got tight muscles and some nerve damage.

             I've got a life to live, and no crink in the neck is gonna hold me back from living the way i want to (although it may limit how much i can do at once...)

               

         Oh, and on one last note, i discovered something interesting today, and that was Mg(OH)2. What is this chemical formula? Its Magnesium hydroxide, AKA Milk of magnesia which is the stuff i drank when i was trying to clear my system that i commented tasted chalky in a post or two back. How did i figure this out? I just happened across it this morning, actually.  Shawn was playing a hand-held version of the tv show 'Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader and one of the questions led me to google an answer, and it led me to a very informative  web page that has a list of several chemical formulas and their names, and as i scrolled down the list i happened to notice Milk of magnesia and voila! Isn't it neat how we happen across interesting facts?

Walking with my Bare Feet On

            So it's 3am on Thursday and thunder has just started rumbling in the sky. Kinda cool too, since i haven't gone to sleep, i've just stayed up on my comp, the first question should be why have i not closed my laptop and gotten sleep. The answer? The same reason i stayed up this late yesterday, because i haven't done anything truly physically exhausting so i'm not actually 'tired'.

         ooo, i just saw white light flicker over the pantry doors, so there's lightning out which means a good storm is rolling in. I do love storms, and rain, and the sound of thunder. Makes me think back to when i was a little kid, how Dad and i would pull out a chair or two and sit on the edge of the garage, just out of the rain, and watch the lightning.

           But it would seem that i forgot that the two 4-legged denizens of the household have a problem with storms, especially these kinds - the ones that have large claps of thunder. Lucky (red tabby with a thyroid problem (in other words she's fat)) and Ozzy (my Australian Shepherd nephew). Lucky i already grabbed trying to make a break for the upstairs where she would no doubt either go into Mom's room and hide behind the bed or go into Dad's room and hide under the bed. I instead opened the door to the basement where Beck resides and she went down there instead, given the option. But opening the door allows Ozzy to come up (he sleeps with his mom) which he has three times now because he's antsy. Poor puppy. I've hugged him each time and pet him to try and calm him. 2nd time he went  back downstairs i heard Beck calling him so hopefully he'll be a little less distressed, but this storm is far from over, considering the flashes of lightning i keep seeing......

       So anyway, i figure that since Monday made it officially a week since i came home from the hospital, i should analyze myself and see how i am.
       Considering the nerve damage done to my upper body, my neck and shoulder are still mostly numb of feeling. The lead i feel in my right arm isn't so much lead as it feels like someone is constantly leaning on my right arm and won't get off. I can now clasp my hands behind my back but i can't raise my arms very high in that position yet. 
         I've had some fantastic headaches the past day or two, in which at one point it felt as if someone unseen force was just increasing pressure across the top of my  head and face (like gravity was increasing on my hair or something). Mom thinks it could be a spinal fluid leak. (which Beck has shared with me that, when the surgeon has to plug the leak, she imagined him pulling the cork out of a bottle of wine then used the cork to plug the leak. Evidently he didn't cork the leak tight enough if it is what's causing the sharp headache) but Mom thinks it's due to my physical activites (which include playing with Charle daily and weeding where i can in the backyard). Ok, mowing two lawns may have been pushing it, but i feel so happy for cutting the lawn and getting that done. Maybe next i should try burning more of the wood pile. For the past few months i've been doing a lot of branch trimming and, thanks to Mom finding a metal fire pit on clearance at Wal-Mart, burning away a lot of twigs and branches that we can't burn in our own fireplace (such as pine. The soot from pine makes a mess of the chimney so we can't burn it in the hearth) but it's great for the fire pit. I don't think it would be to strenous of an activity, considering i had gathered a load of twigs and branches to  burn back before all this medical stuff started happening, so all i gotta do is feed the fire and not get to pyromanic (which is likely to happen, it happens often when i start burning the scraps) 

          I've still got this strange pimply rash on the left side of my face. It's a major breakout, perhaps conncted to the strange bumps on my left arm, but whatever caused it, i want it to go away! Mom tells me (because she knows so much more than i do on things related to health) that stress could be the possible cause, that my body is reacting to everything thats been going on to it. I think it could be caused by how badly i was sweating that week in the hospital. I was sweating a lot, an increase in blood flow (i think) due ot the pain i was feeling and the morphine i was on. Whatever the cause,  hopefully it'll clear up soon, just as the strange bumps on my left arm are slowly doing (so long as i diligently apply the steroid cream, and no, it dosen't seem to be making my arm any stronger. dang it, i'll never be able to throw a baseball like a major league pitcher!) 

     But other than those things, the small odds and ends, my balance is coming back nicely, and i'm walking around in my bare feet all over the place. I've gotten hooked on going barefooted as often as i can. Considering my circulation issues (and a while back the tension in my leg made it impossible for me to roll my foot for the natural way of walking) and after reading an article about the perks of going barefoot, i've been working at it. Such as walking on our road, which is pretty smooth, but the connecting neighborhood behind where we live has a much rougher pavement, which last year ended up tearing up some of my toes, but today Beck and I took Charle and Ozzy on a walk (i barefoot) and walking on that rougher road wasn't so bad as it once was, which tells me that my feet are indeed toughening, which is way cool in my opinion.

         Now i'm starting to beginnings of another headache, but this one may be from actually needing sleep,and i'm finally starting to feel slightly tired so i think i'll end here and see if i can't get some sleep and add another blog in a few hours, when i wake up :)  


and now it's 4am