And so it goes...

To this we just say “WTF?”

I hope you can all handle the swearing. For you that have been in direct proximity to my potty mouth I am that you are fine. For those of you that it offends I am trying to remain acronym friendly for the kids.

Thursday, July 19, 2007

Off we go in the Durango. Gas guzzler-yes- but the access for me is easy and the ride is deluxe. It also feels safer to be in a 6,000 pound vehicle instead of the ‘roller-skate.’ We have an appointment at Evergreen Medical Center to meet with Dr. Jennifer Shook in the Diagnostic Radiology Center. Need to get some final reads on films, check-in and the like. Our plan is to be home before 5:30 p.m.

It has been an all around great couple of days because Mila had her ‘big girl bed’ installed as well as the furniture in the family room so that people can stay over and wake up with the girls SHOULD I NEED TO BE ADMITTED IN THE NIGHT. It was really a team effort with Chrsita, Matt, Tom & Anne, My Mom, the Knoles, Costco, neighbors and everyone stepping up to make these changes at our house.

So we are off and taking an inland route through Kirkland to get to the hospital. Wouldn’t want to drive on 405?!?!?! (I am still on spine precautions BTW.) Stopped at a light and the sound you just don’t want to hear “Smack” to the back of the car and the impact. “HS! Was that us?!” to whit Matt replies “GOD DAMMIT! IT SURE WAS!” We pull off and so does she (the tailgater) and this is when I get to tell my Officer Hyra that upon impact my right upper shoulder, outer arm, down to my pinky in numb and tingling and I am now having new pain in the right side as well as the left neck up into jaw. Here is what you get when you are married to a cop. “I’m rollin’ fire!” So tough!

Yeah baby, rear-ended on the way to the hospital while being on spine precautions. Does it get any better? Probably 400 other cars in the area with targets painted on the bumper but WE WERE CHOSEN! (Last comment awash in sarcasm……..)

So let’s just chat about a couple of things in regard to a car accident when spine precautions are in place. EXTRACTION: That was a real treat. 5 guys trying to delicately move my big ass out of the front seat, while maintaining my cervical spine. Me ever the control freak promising with every breath that I will be a “good patient” if they just cease to torture me further. Every bump every crack in the sidewalk was just excruciating. EXTRACTION not for the faint of heart. Good outcome here though. The first Kirkland cop on the scene, his wife is going through the same diagnosis. I have already received an email from them. Very cool and the wife has made herself available should I want to chat or get together. She heard about us from our Firefighter friend Janelle. Number two. First medic on the scene, Chris Martin, who led up the extraction (and let me keep my sunglasses on) his wife was diagnosed with breast CA two years ago. She is doing great. These are some of the people on my path. Pretty effin’ cool! Also, another example that when I am in the picture the 6 degrees of separation in the world changes to about two. Seattle is such an overgrown village.

So I an now and strapped down to a backboard, hard neck collar in place, forehead taped down, body crisscrossed in chain link and strapping that would get a rise out of a dominatrix and on my way to my ultimate destination, the hospital. Now I am just receiving door-to-door service.

Seen in the ER, SOP, maintaining my spine. We need a CT of the neck and an MRI. I am just lying around. Matt’s playing games with my blood pressure readings and betting. I think I am down to him $1.25 because my systolic never got about 120. We are just hangin’ in Trauma 7. The staff in the ER at Evergreen is amazing and that has got to be the cleanest ER in Western Washington. Most of the people that were taking care of me had previously worked at Harborview so there were lots of stories. Thankfully, they were very generous with the IV pain meds and anti-anxiety meds. I came in at a “10” for pain and left with no pain. I had one temper tantrum after being on a back board for 5 hours. It was appropriate. I apologized later and they said “It was okay coming from you. At least you had a legitimate gripe.” In the insurance industry we say that “AP solves all problems.” In the ER, IV Ativan seems to work the same way.

Result: Getting rear-ended has caused some changes in my spine. (For my many readers who are in the medical field. Previously I had a significant amount of damage and bone destruction at C7, T7, and T10. There was no cord compression at these sites just compression fractures and we were going to monitor to make sure that if there were any neuro changes they could be accounted for. Now, post-MVA there are significant changed at C4-5, C5-6 and C6-7. The cord is compressed at C4-5 and C6-7. We are able to compare directly to the films from the beginning of the week. The numbness and tingling is resolving. Pain is more. Now I am on full spine precautions at home and I AM THE MOST COMPLIANT PATIENT EVER!!!!) I did talk them out of admitting me to Swedish over the weekend if I maintain full spine precautions at home over the weekend. I agreed. I really did not want to be admitted. Thankfully, my team of docs is wonderful and reasonable and so we will reassess on Monday. For now I get to stay home. This is much better for me and the family and my ever growing team of sherpas.

Our goal was to avoid any spinal changes until we got through this 8 weeks hormonal treatment window. The reason being 2 sided. One, we don’t want to have to make a move on treating the spine with radiation if we don’t have to. We would rather see if the hormone therapy coupled with strengthening the bone will arrest the issue. Two, if my spinal cord was compromised in some way and allowed cancer cells into the cord that would be bad.

This is where we are at. Again if these dispatches are too much for you or not working for you just don’t read. My friend Anna is going to set me up with a blog. I think this will be great. I really need all of you and to be able to communicate to you is really important to me. Also, who doesn’t secretly relish in being able to hear themselves rant?

Stay tuned. Certainly something funny, or ironic or wonderful will happen this weekend. It is only Saturday morning.

Thank you for all the emails, and cards, and flowers and your presence. There are few in the world as fortunate as I to have all of you with the depth of your spirit and the breadth of your caring. You are so awesome.

I will probably send something out in the next couple of days. Who knows maybe one of the frozen blue ice blocks that dump out of airline toilets can fall in the backyard?

Love you! Meesh