So I'm about to lose my right foot.

I'm home again!!
Actually I got home a while ago, but then I went right back out to do this and that.
More later. But how is this for a tease? I am going to be included in a diabetic program that will give me my meds and doctor's office visits for free...

 

Click this on if you are brave:
http://gallery.mac.com/tjthedj#10016...&bgcolor=black

I mean it. It's pretty knarly, seeing how raw a foot without a pinkie toe looks.

Don't click it if you are put of by eww. You have been warned.


It looks better then that now, but still. Eww.

 

A Tale Of the Toe

[FONT=Verdana, Helvetica, Arial]On the SECOND of JANUARY, I went into the hospital, and on the next to next day, I lost my pinkie toe. Gone. Amputated as in. [/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana, Helvetica, Arial] I have a picture, but you don’t want to see it. It’s pretty gross. In fact, I have a before and after shot. But really. You don’t want to see it...do you?[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana, Helvetica, Arial] Okay. Head over here:[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Helvetica, Arial] http://gallery.mac.com/tjthedj#100167[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana, Helvetica, Arial] But be warned. IT’s pretty EWW with a major EWW.[/FONT]

• [FONT=Verdana, Helvetica, Arial]I woke up on the first feeling pretty weird, and this feeling did not go away by the second. So Ellen came home, and took me to the hospital, ER. [/FONT]
• [FONT=Verdana, Helvetica, Arial]Where we waited in a crowded third world ER for what seemed like forever, only it was longer. Maybe I come from another era, but how hard is it to be respectful of the sick in the ER by not talking loudly, on the cell phone, kids running around...how hard? Pretty hard so it seems. [/FONT]
• [FONT=Verdana, Helvetica, Arial]When I was waiting in there, I was shaking so much, it was like I was a leaf. And I was seated in this wheelchair that was two sizes too small. Not comfortable. So Ellen covered me with her hoody jacket, backwards, so I did not have to see anything or anyone. Occasionally, I growled, so I heard later. [/FONT]
• [FONT=Verdana, Helvetica, Arial]Got put into a hall, on a cot, with no pillow or blanket, so I shivered with Ellen’s coat now as a pillow, and thankfully, our green cat haired covered blanket. Got told I was going to be spending the night there; not in the hall, but in the hospital. Susanne, the wonderful ER nurse, she took care of me very well. She was the first, outside of me, who knew my toe was a goner. [/FONT]
• [FONT=Verdana, Helvetica, Arial]Got up to a room on the surigical floor at about 0300 or so. That night, sleep was not to be found. Ellen slept on a couple of chairs; she was my angel through out this. As always. [/FONT]
• [FONT=Verdana, Helvetica, Arial]Did you know they run ZAMBOINIS through the halls of hospitals at 0430? They do. [/FONT]
• [FONT=Verdana, Helvetica, Arial]I saw for the first time the doctor I was assigned, Dr. Khan (and yeah, every time I hear his name, I think of Captain Kirk yelling ‘KHAN!’ from Star Trek II). Anyway, he is a nice Indian. Did I mention that my hospital is apparently a mini UN place? Not that that is a bad thing. [/FONT]
• [FONT=Verdana, Helvetica, Arial]He tells me that a surgeon, Dr. Soo, would see me soon. And Soo does. He is a young turk from San Francisco, who thinks the toe can be saved. Not according to his trauma nurse Rita, but what do two nurses and myself know? Seems like later, more then the trained surgeon. [/FONT]
• [FONT=Verdana, Helvetica, Arial]At this point he schedules the surgery for Friday morning at 0830. I spend the day in and out of pain and sleep. People don’t really rest at hospitals, you know? They can’t. Too much noise, the machines that go ‘bing’, or breathe, or people waking you up to tell you to take this sleeping pill. That sort of thing. [/FONT]
• [FONT=Verdana, Helvetica, Arial]Friday comes, and goes my toe. The surgery, now that was easy, as in, out like a light (strapped to a table a bit like Christ being crucified), and I felt nothing. On second, I am being told to breathe in the mask, the next moment, I am waking up to the sound of my heart beating on this machine, being told by the disappointed surgeon, that my toe is gone to heaven ahead of me. Well, not that way, but I think that my toe is there, so I have to go to heaven now, right? Can’t be separated from my toe for all eternity. [/FONT]
• [FONT=Verdana, Helvetica, Arial]Spend Friday doing more of the same as Thursday, only less a toe. [/FONT]
• [FONT=Verdana, Helvetica, Arial]Saturday I spend being ill, because of a staff infection (when told to a frined, this, she said, ‘It must be the accounting staff’; I thought that was Freaking Hilarious!). Anyway, they make me take a Cat Scan, which is a tube a bit out of Star Trek (KHAN!) and normally I would have enjoyed it, but I was too busy hurling what was not in me out to enjoy it. Ellen was again great. [/FONT]
• [FONT=Verdana, Helvetica, Arial]Later on Saturday, a bit more stabilized, the Redskins lost their playoff game. A couple of days later, they would lose Coach Gibbs again. For what I hope is the last time. [/FONT]
• [FONT=Verdana, Helvetica, Arial]Sunday, I start to feel a bit better, and Ellen takes me out of the Hospital on a wheelchair. Which makes me long for home and my three kitties and one puppy. I have to say, you can go ape poop fast in a Hospital. Fortunately for me, the hospital has free high speed internet, so I can occasionally prop up my sore butt to a sitting position to type every now and then. [/FONT]
• [FONT=Verdana, Helvetica, Arial]Oh, how can I forget the craptastic food there? I mean, a starving man would eat it, but by the second meal, even he would turn away the food. Thankfully, Kerri Kennedy (who I find out, is a distant cousin of the late Teddy Roosevelt, my FAB FAVE PRESIDENT, which I tell her, and she thinks that is neat), anyway, she is the Program Coordinator for the Dieabetics, she tells me that CHIC-FIL-A Nuggets are YUMMY!® and okay to have. So Ellen starts getting me this every other meal, with ARBY’S thrown in. Thanks to that, I don’t waste away to nothing. [/FONT]
• [FONT=Verdana, Helvetica, Arial]Whilst in the Hospital, they take all kinds of tests on you. Like Blood Sugar. And once, I had three different readings, at the same time, on three different fingers. Makes you confident in the system. Yup. [/FONT]
• [FONT=Verdana, Helvetica, Arial]Find out that I won’t have to take insulin, which is a Good Thing™. I will have to take a pill. But much later, after I got out, I will find something out that makes that not happen. [/FONT]
• [FONT=Verdana, Helvetica, Arial]On Monday, I go officially ape poop, and have figured out I can go AMA, which means Against Medical Advice, and check out anytime I want to. I also hear from my disappointed surgeon, Soo, that I can leave Tuesday, which also suits Khan. Tuesday I plan on leaving. [/FONT]
• [FONT=Verdana, Helvetica, Arial]And on Tuesday I do, with a hearty handshake from KHAN! And a promise to stop by his office to get a script for a handicap parking permit. Walking and I are not big friends right now. Maybe later we will be friends again, but now I am on a cane. For at least six months. [/FONT]
• [FONT=Verdana, Helvetica, Arial]When I leave, I drive home since Rita the trauma nurse tells me that Soo says I can drive, as long as it’s not to Austin. There goes my weekend plans. Nuts. [/FONT]
• [FONT=Verdana, Helvetica, Arial] I go to KHAN! And see him about that script. That is when he tells me in confidence, that I can participate in a program that will give me all my meds for free, and doctor visits, if I want to. It’s this deal where instead of a insulin type pill, or a insulin shot, I can take this insulin inhaler and do that. Hmm. Seems like it’s time to be a guinea pig. [/FONT]
• [FONT=Verdana, Helvetica, Arial]Also went to the DMV and got my red handicap placard, that hangs when I park, in the car, so I can park in the handicap places, and walk short distances to the store. Which I did when we went to WALLY WORLD and I got my meds and drove the cart around, because I really needed to. Now I am old officially, since I really had a reason to drive the scooter cart[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana, Helvetica, Arial] And that is about it really. [/FONT]


[FONT=Verdana, Helvetica, Arial] Well. Time to take a pill, and some sleep, in my own bed. [/FONT]​

 

Scares me as well.

 

Yes, I am in Texas now. Change in jobs, well, not so much as wanting to make my $10 last longer, so to speak.

In other words, cheaper here.

And yeah, get 'er done, yeah, that is usually me. As in, I hate leaving a project not done.

Good to see you Loveit...