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Get Well Vlerma and Anyone Else!

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shawneeo

Posts: 7951

Posted: 07:04PM Mar 30, 2011

Hi Vlerma! I thought I'd start a topic to wish you well since you just got out of the hospital. I don't know what happened, but you are such a wonderful person, and a valuable Braingler, and you deserve a topic! Heck, if Trick can have a topic about smelling your hand, Vlerma can have one to wish her well!

Maybe we can make this a "Get Well" topic for anybody who's having trouble.

Beetle is recovering from major back surgery, and is doing quite well but is still in lots of pain. I hope Beetle feels better soon.

Anybody else, post here to either tell us about someone, about yourself and your latest illness/trauma, and to wish people well.

I just found an apartment, so I'm vastly relieved, and I so much appreciate all of you encouraging me, praying for me, and sending good vibes!

Life... can be so many things... how can anyone ever think they are RIGHT? HAhahahahahahaha!!!!!

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froggygg

Magical Sorceress Frog
Posts: 8823

Posted: 08:25PM Mar 31, 2011

Great idea for a topic, Mr. P.

I also hope that Grayma is doing better. Due to my busy RL schedule, I didn't even know that she was in the hospital. Get well, Grayma!

Beetle, I hope your surgery was a success and that you heal quickly. Take it easy and rest.

Congrats on finding an apartment Mr. P. I know how difficult it is to move, so I hope your move is an easy one and you have lots of help.

SMILE and people will wonder what you are up to!

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Mathgeek007

Pi Guy
Posts: 1424

Posted: 08:48PM Mar 31, 2011

Ditto.

Parents are supposed to "protect" their kids, but there's a real distinction between protection and unrealistically keeping children away from reality. - Life_Sucks --- One of my teasers was featured as the Teaser of the Day! :D Sept. 18 2011 :D YAY!

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EMB92

Posts: 555

Posted: 09:00PM Mar 31, 2011

I hope everyone gets better soon, including me. I got my wisdom teeth out a week ago, but I'm still not feeling better. I also have a sore throat on top of that.

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beetle22

Posts: 1327

Posted: 10:06PM Mar 31, 2011

Thanks everyone!! Very worried about getting wisdoms out in 2 weeks - as I have a pain condition where my pain threshold is really low (i.e peel a bandaid off my skin and it will still hurt me in a few hours!), I'm so worried I won't be able to handle it...

check out my embroidery blog at www.sewnbysaliba.com

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EMB92

Posts: 555

Posted: 09:55AM Apr 1, 2011

Be very careful not to drink with a straw. And ask them to put you completely under when they remove them, if you don't mind anesthesia. They should give you pain pills, so be sure to take those on time. And be sure to eat when you take the pain pills, otherwise your stomach will hurt. Ice is your friend for the first 2 days, then warm washcloths are. Those are all things I did to help me feel better. You don't have to follow them, but they helped me. Good luck, and I hope you get better faster than me.

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shawneeo

Posts: 7951

Posted: 09:04PM Apr 1, 2011

Goodness, it's one thing after another! I hope you feel better soon, EMB, and thank you so much everyone for your thoughts!

Beetle, I'm sorry you have to have that done right away after your back surgery! I had all four of my wisdom teeth impacted/infected removed at once. They did put me all the way under, and it went totally well. After I went home, I kept ice on both jaws for a few days. It wasn't fun, but it made a huge difference because I had no swelling at all, and the pain was very low compared to how it could have been.

Life... can be so many things... how can anyone ever think they are RIGHT? HAhahahahahahaha!!!!!

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vlerma

Grayma V
Posts: 3333

Posted: 07:03PM Apr 8, 2011

Thank you Shawn, Froggy for your well wishes and to you Shawn for opening up a place in the forums to keep track of our ill ones. You just don't realize until you have had a year like I've had just how wonderful it is to know that people are thinking of you and wishing you well.

I am much better thank you. My foot doctor had put me on a very very high dose of antibiotics as he had removed one of my big toenails - completely removed it and it was infected. By the second day I realized that the antibiotic was so strong that I had become dehydrated and it was making my heart skip beats. I could not get to ten without skipping about 2 so got myself up to the hospital to be checked out. I forgot they always do a blood gas when they are worried about your heart. Now I am used to needles, have been for a long time, being a diabetic. But I forgot they would have to do a blood gas. I do not like them one little bit as they have to use the main vein in your arm. Ouch! But things did turn out ok, but they kept me a couple nights to be sure since I had accidentally

The sound of the wild, but if there is no one there, does anyone hear their howls?

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shawneeo

Posts: 7951

Posted: 07:54PM Apr 9, 2011

Since you had accidentally...? Well, I'm glad to know you are feeling OK now, and I hope you finish the story, the suspense is killing me!

I'm really really grateful that you're glad we have this topic, Vlerma! I had read your post about being in the hospital, and it struck me how much you give here, and how much everyone really does mean to you. I understand that very well. Especially when one is shut in, or has their mobility bery limited, your contacts on the web become a spirit-sustaining thing, and I certainly have received so much from people on this site!

I'm very concerned about people having back surgery. It's selfish of me because my spine is messed up now, and I've been putting off really getting "on it" for a few years. I had an MRI done a few years ago and nothing was found. Then, I was supposed to get another test done and I haven't done it. I had valid reasons most of the time, but the truth is: I just hate having to find out that I have some serious condition, especially when so much else is already wrong! I "know" that there may be something that can be done that will straighten my curved lower-back, it's curved to the right about an inch, but I'm more afraid that I'll either have to have surgery, and that I'll have to deal with a surgery-or-suffer scenario. So often back surgery seem to cause so much additional trouble, at least in some of my friends, and I'm just terrified of it.

Everyone who's not well, may you feel well, 100% healthy, soon!

Life... can be so many things... how can anyone ever think they are RIGHT? HAhahahahahahaha!!!!!

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vlerma

Grayma V
Posts: 3333

Posted: 03:45AM Apr 10, 2011

Man, I wish I knew how I was going to end that sentence. The suspense is killing me too, Shawn. I was really on a roll there with my story, but I honestly have no idea what I had accidentally done. You know of all the things I have lost over the years, I think loosing my mind has been the very hardest thing to deal with.

You are so right about friends on the Internet, particularly like here, on a somewhat protected site, becoming like family to a shut in. When my old dinosaur computer was so slow, it might take me all day to get around Braingle, but even with the frustration of it, I didn't want to leave the people I was in contact with. Even through some times that were very hard for me to handle or understand I still knew that I had friends here who I could count on. I have also come to realize that when I reach out to people I leave myself wide open for whatever someone wants to tell me. I am not, but I feel like I know why a friend now has the user name Wiser Now.

But I also decided that my anger and feelings of betrayal were only hurting me and that I needed to make peace with a young lady. After many conversations now and five years of previous conversations I now know the person who made us laugh and cry as Grilleedcheese has gone through her own pangs of guilt. If any of you ever got past the bravado you would learn about the family, the two dogs, the cat, the car, trips, and friends. I have spent the last four months discovering that most of what I knew about Cam was all true. The names and faces were just changed to protect the innocent. Bad pun, I know, but the personality is the same and after talking with Nyssa for over four months I have no doubt I am talking to one and the same person, and we are friends. She has moved on with her life, knowing she has hurt many people, but mostly herself. But she will soon graduate as a certified pastry chef. I have seen some of her work, and since my own youngest daughter works in the same field, I can say that Nyssa does some beautiful work.

I know some of you here in Braingle are still friends with Nyssa and I too now consider myself her friend. She remarked to me one night, I don't understand, as long as I played the Cam card everyone loved me, but now they don't like me. I told her the only reason is that everyone felt betrayed. That had she come to Braingle and entered with her own personality and humor people would have loved her as Nyssa. Ok, as one of the older ones in the bunch, I'm just saying, life is too short to carry a grudge and you only wind up tarnishing your own shield with hatred. Just was talking about friends that have been very important to me and wanted everyone to know that I do include Nyssa.

Shawn, having back surgery is a scary, scary thing. I feel so for Beetle as young as she is having to undergo such an operation. Your spine, the nerve center for your entire body. As a dancer, I am sure you probably strained your back from time to time, but the show went on, no matter how bad your back might feel. All too often people do that - if only - - -. I know my youngest swears by the help she gets from a chiropractor. I'm too fat, they couldn't get me into the positions needed to do me much good. Her step son, now almost 20, will carry with him the rest of his life the results of a parent not paying much attention to the scoliosis tests they do in the schools. At 9 they had told him he had a distinct curvature of his spine and they recommended the mother take him to a specialist. She had not insurance and didn't realize the importance, and what it could cause for him in life.
When he was in high school he went out for football. He had played little league football for four years, with pads and helmets of course. He went to the doctor to get his physical for the school. Of course they checked his spine, hmmm. Let's get an Xray of that! Oh my, did you ever go through scoliosis screening in school? Yes, but mom didn't think it was too bad, so we didn't do anything. Well Tyler, I am sad to tell you this. Most spines will have a visible S curve one can see going down the spine. However, yours instead of going side to side has gone from in to out and then in again. So what does that mean? It means Ty, that if someone would have hit you in the chest with their helmet like they do when the big boys play, because of your scoliosis it could have stopped your heart. You must never play contact sports, or do anything where you would knowingly get hit in the chest. Although we are all very glad that they found the problem, we may have as well hung a sign around Ty's neck that says "Fragile, do not touch!" And heredity plays into this one as Ty's dad has now had two spinal surgeries for degenerative spine disorder, caused by spinal stenosis. He works every day in a chemical plant, bending and stooping, running the fork lift and all types of things and yet the man has no feeling below his knees. We kid him telling him it's good he is tall because when he walks he gets to see each foot since he can't tell if it is on the ground or not! He hasn't let it slow him down, but spine injuries are truly serious.

Well I have run my mouth way too long again. I'd like a few prayers and good thoughts as I try to make my decision about having my colostomy surgery reversed. When it was done, I had no choice. Go under anesthetic or die. I have been undergoing sleep studies and pulmonary tests, lung functions, you name it. Now if my lung doctor says ok, I just have to get my nerve up to trust what they are telling me. For 20 years I have been told that my lungs are not strong enough to go under without winding up on a ventilator the rest of my life. Don't want that at all, so yeah, it's gonna be a big decision. But jokingly, guess what folks, it sure has saved on the cost of toilet paper!

The sound of the wild, but if there is no one there, does anyone hear their howls?

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beetle22

Posts: 1327

Posted: 08:50PM Apr 10, 2011

Can you make me one of those signs grayma? I'm in just so much pain.

I can barely keep my eyes open at them moment and I just feel like I'm breaking down. How much more pain can my body take?
And then the bloody teeth this weekend, which my doctors say is most likely going to cause more back pain. I could cope with the teeth, but everything together is really hard to take.

The doctor said he would put me under, and then just before they bring me out he said he'll give me a local to ease the pain as I wake up. My mum wants me to stay the night - I'm on such strong painkillers anyway I doubt they'll be able to give me much more for the teeth pain, but she said if i'm in hospital they can manage my medications a bit better.

check out my embroidery blog at www.sewnbysaliba.com

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vlerma

Grayma V
Posts: 3333

Posted: 02:27AM Apr 11, 2011

Beetle, I am so sorry you are in so much pain. That is so hateful that life has to be that way. Your mom is probably right. The hospital is probably the place you need to be in order to get the pain under control. I found that out last year when I had surgery that as long as I could get ahead of the pain I was ok, but if it got out of control, I could not catch up with it and could not control anything that happened until they would almost knock me out. I had drip morphine going for five days and I could still come right up from being almost under with that.

I have made you a sign and even though it is no laughing matter, as one of our American Blue Collar Comics, Bill Engvall says: "Here's your sign!"

The sound of the wild, but if there is no one there, does anyone hear their howls?

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beetle22

Posts: 1327

Posted: 08:16PM Apr 11, 2011

Thanks Grayma!

I honestly don't know what more to do, and it doesn't seem the doctors do either. Its just one of those things

check out my embroidery blog at www.sewnbysaliba.com

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shawneeo

Posts: 7951

Posted: 08:58PM Apr 12, 2011

Gosh Beetle, I'm so sorry. Do you really have to do the teeth now? I'm assuming it's absolutely necessary or you could do it later?

I'll pray and send good thougts your way. I wish I could do more but Idk what else I can do. I'm sure that staying the night is a pretty good idea, although it always depends so much on your doctor and what he'll allow. If you have one who has some compassion and will give you the meds you need, great.

I found that when I was in for six weeks, several years ago, and in a huge amount of pain, that when I talked to a very friendly, sympathetic physicians assistant, she went to one of the several doctors who were on my floor who she had a good rapport with, and she spoke to him about my pain situation. He gave an order in my chart for the nurse's to ask me if I needed meds every two hours, and to give me up to 4 shots (2 mgs. each?) of morphine as needed. I was SO grateful! The nurses were a little bit freaked out because it was an unusual order, but I did not take advantage or ask for more than I really needed, and they relaxed and we were all happy. You have to try to find a doctor/nurse/etc. who will listen to you! Unless you already have one, of course.

Life... can be so many things... how can anyone ever think they are RIGHT? HAhahahahahahaha!!!!!

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vlerma

Grayma V
Posts: 3333

Posted: 04:21AM Apr 13, 2011

Sometimes nerve neuropthy can be so hard to handle and get control of. When I had MRSA and it had gotten almost to the bone on my left leg I was about ready to ask for a loaded gun. In the hospital they finally got so they would give me a morphine push, not a drip, but an actual push about 20 minutes before they would start the debridment. I managed to handle the pain that way, all except for one day. I think that day they could have put me completely under and I still would have been screaming. I felt so sorry for my nurses because their compassion was so great, and it made them cry to see me so out of control. I remember Melinda finally just started rubbing on my arm saying, "Oh I wish there was something more I could do for you." I finally told her, maybe just leave me alone and let me cry it out. She came back in in about 15 minutes and I had regained my composure somewhat.

I found out as long as I was getting sympathy for my pain the more I felt like I was in pain. I loved the attention I guess. But when I had to cry by myself and no one came to see about me, I finally got myself on top of the pain and refused to let it get hold of me again. But I did learn to take my mind into a far away place when I knew the pain was going to be intense. I still do manage to do this at times now. I don't like to take medicines either, but intense constant pain soon drains your self reserves, so if one must use meds to get over the hump, I say more power to you. But learn your limits and don't over medicate - just up to the point where you can handle the pain yourself. Because becoming addicted to the pain killers just creates another problem.

The sound of the wild, but if there is no one there, does anyone hear their howls?

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snappytom

Posts: 4350

Posted: 10:08AM Sep 24, 2011

That is very true vlerma! You always offer such good advice!
You look after yourself. Make sure you are #1!

Pain is such a debilitating phenomenon. So nebuluos. So real. It cannot be translated from eprson to person. Tolerance levels are so different in each person.

Snappy Snappy Snap..Snap Snap Snap Snap!

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snappytom

Posts: 4350

Posted: 12:14AM Oct 20, 2011

Haven't heard from you vlerma for a while....
We miss you!

Snappy Snappy Snap..Snap Snap Snap Snap!

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talanpoe