Monday morning: Much, much worse. We decided that to go right to Oschner’s Emergency Department after dropping the kids off at school. I showered and tried to get dressed… only couldn’t do it. Spasms eventually put me, half-naked, on the floor: paralyzed. I arrived at Oschner via ambulance.
The bottom line: bones are fine, MRI showed some herniation between Lumbars 3 and 4, but was negative. This is a muscle injury. Serious pain meds (Dilaudid) took several doses to have any effect; pain caused extreme nausea/vomiting when I would stand to use the bathroom (the first few hours they used a catheter). Every bit of this was humiliating and simply awful.
Now: trying to stick to muscle-relaxers and coedine (and nausea meds) so that I can nurse Kate. I thought that she would wean this week, as she hadn’t nursed since Monday morning. Wrong! She crawled up on me and pulled at my shirt moments after seeing me when Paul arrived with the kids this afternoon. I had stopped taking the dilaudid yesterday just in case. The bummer is that without it, my movement is much more limited. I am still going with everyone to the beach, but won’t be doing any of the activities we’ve been dreaming of doing… sailing, swimming in the ocean, long walks for photography, etc. But at least I can be there! PA friend Scott (who works in Ortho at Tulane) has been a great resource. Bottom line is that it will be a 4-6 week healing time, but I won’t be like this forever.
Shokufeh | 10-Aug-07 at 7:55 pm | Permalink
Oh. My. Lord. I want to cry for you. I am a little. It just sounds so painful. And bummer about the limited beach activity. But you seem like someone who’s good at making lemonade, so I wish you a good trip.