Seanitude Version 2.0 This is the personal web outlet for Sean McDonald. Now serving 25% more Auburn, Bama and Ole Miss hatred.
Monday, May 31, 2004
10:29 PM
Thanks for all the well wishes everyone, the back seems to be healing up. Still a little stiffness/soreness here and there but nothing like a week ago. Taking most of this weekend off and staying in bed almost all day Sunday seem to have been good decisions (though I did not write or look at one page of work stuff for three days... hope they don't kill me tomorrow LOL). Tomorrow night is Tigerland Kiwanis' Charter Night Celebration so we'll officially be a Kiwanis Club in 24 hours.
I went to a doctor 3 times last week. Thats after not seeing a single doctor for 3 or 4 years. Hopefully I don't need to see one at anytime this week. (Friends in med school excepted, of course)
Wholistic place was a joke. Thought I was getting a massage, but got put on machines that tried to massage me instead. One hurt and I almost killed the doctor's 60 year old wife jumping off the bed. Also, they put on a "relaxation" tape that sounded like Buddist monks "OM"ing. It may have had subliminal advertising, but I can't prove it. All I know is that George Bush is Satan and I am voting for John Kerry now.
The lady thinks the medicine I was on poisoned my liver and that I need to get her recipe for a liver flush smoothie to have for breakfast once every two weeks. Yeah. I should also come back and have her husband (the doctor) look at the red lines in my eyes as lines in certain areas show where polutants are located in your body.
Anyway, because of the pain at the wholistic place, I finally went to the after hours clinic again fearing the words "ruptured" and "pinched". They shot X-rays, saw that I could touch my toes and concluded that I was having muscle spasms. No liver poisoning and no studying of my eye to see whats wrong with my back. I'm now on a muscle relaxer, an anti-flamitory med and heat. They are thus far (3 hours in) working.
I was able to sleep for about 5 hours in the bed last night and when I woke up, it only took 2 or 3 minutes for me to be able to stand up instead of 5-10, so thats an improvement.
I've scheduled an appointment this afternoon to hopefully have my back realligned. The wholistic doctor I talked to said it sounded like my pelvis was a little crooked and that treatment with rollers should be able to correct things. Since the pain started on Monday, the injury is recent enough for this to probably work.
OK, prepare for a trip folks, this is going to be interesting.
Saturday Morning and Afternoon
Its a nice Saturday morning, helping Eddie move into the new apartment. We move a couch. I feel something pierce my thumb by the nail. After dropping the couch, I look at the thumb. A little blood, nothing else so we finish moving. A few minutes later I feel the other side of my thumb and there's a bump. A tip. A splinter is COMPLETELY IN MY FINGER with neither side sticking out of the skin. Jason drives me to Our Lady of the Lake Emergency where there's a 4-5 hour wait, they send us to the After Hours Clinic. They get to me fast. the doctor cuts a hole in myfinger and digs for at least 25 minutes. He got the tip of the splinter about 10 times but could only get a millimeter or so off so he has to dig deep and grab near the base. He wraps it and gives me perscriptions for Augmentin XR (taken twice a day to fight inspections) and Vicodin (as needed for pain). I get ominous warnings that Augmentin and Vicodin can cause extreme diarreah in 1 OUT OF 7 patients and that I should go to the emergency room if the finger pusses up badly. If somehow that doesn't happen, go to the afterhours clinic on Monday night for a quick checkup.
Saturday Night
Long, stressful day with some thumb pain leads to Vicodin #1.
Sunday
Nothing of consequence. Thumb is doing fine, just keeping it well-wrapped and clean (as I continue to through tonight).
Monday
I go to work. everything is fine except for back pain developing in late afternoon. After work, doctor looks at my finger, is amazed at my level of healing and says to keep doing whatever I'm doing (cleaning with hydrogen peroxide and wrapping in sterile gauze). I go home and take a Vicodin for whatever minor pain in my thumb and the building pain in my back...
Tuesday
wake up with back pain but tough it out (as I usually do with any ailment, for better or worse). I walk around the office pretty decrepitly, but no one notices (I suck up as much pain as I can to walk normally through the halls. I use my massage cover for my chair for the first time in months and even change out chairs to one without wheels (with better lower back support). A little after work, pain is subsiding. I take my nightly Augmentin and play NCAA football, pain comes back. I try to go to bed. Everytime I lay down, if I move I get extreme pain in my lower back. I keep falling asleep, curling up and waking up in huge pain. I try to get out of bed and can't straighten my back. I end up crawling on the floor some to loosen things up. Once the back loosens (after 5-10 minutes) I can stand fine with little pain. Through all this I consider trying to get to the cell to call Eddie (who has the spare key to my apartment) because I can't get downstairs and/or, for the first time ever in my life, calling 911. Once I get standing and find out I can traverse the stairs, I decide to do neither. After sitting downstairs, potential causes run through my head. My car seat's been messed up for a year and a half, with the pressure at about the point I'm having problems. Then something else hits me. I hadn't shit in 2 days.
I get upstairs to the computer (once I'm out of bed and walking, things are pretty normal, just a little stiff, like a mild sprained ankle) and do some research. Turns out these meds, in addition to causing diareah in some patients, can also cause constipation. Think about that for a second. Anywa, I decide I have two things I can do, drive to get Exlax or drive to the emergency room. I go for the Exlax, I hate hospitals. I call Walgreens and find out it is safe to take the Exlax and Aleve with the meds I'm on. Can;t take other medicing within two hours of Exlax, so its about 5 AM when I finally take the Aleve and fall asleep in my recliner. I wake up around 9 with minimal pain.
Wednesday
I do not take my Augmentin. Back doesn't give big problems till 2 or 3 in the afternoon, a good 10 hours after taking Aleve. And the Exlax helps take some "pressure" off the back too.
After walking around for a few minutes and figuring I'm in good enough shape to try to go to work, I get the car to a repair shop. It will be 2-3 days just to get parts in, but I leave it anyway, I am not driving that thing and messing up my back any more than I alreay have. People at work are supportive, boss offers to take me to his health club for the whirlpool (which I will probably do tomorrow) and secretary (who has had a broken back and has the lingering effects) is going to bring me a business card for the theraputic masseuses she uses. Hopefully I will see them tomorrow afternoon or Friday. I also have gotten a rental car for at least the next week. It has the same seat as my car (except not damaged) and the support it gives is so much better.
Tonight I swam a little and took a soak in Epsom salt. Neither seem to have done much but stretch me out a little (which I am feeling). I will be sleeping in the recliner again tonight b/c I've already tried to lay down for a few minutes and get up with not much more luck than last night (I'm not going to chance laying down all night and not being able to get up or turning a wierd way waking me up in pain again).
So thats where I am right now. If I'm tempermental or short, please be understanding. Also so people don't worry, the worse pain was at about 1-2 AM. Things have gotten better and throughout today the lower back's been making me know its there, but not excruciatingly. I think its just a bad pulled muscle or two. Hopefully it will be straightened out (literally?) soon. I think I might be having to pull out of Magnum Night/Day for obvious reasons (lots of walking and drinking and medicine don't like each other).
11:27 PM
So I was told today that by not putting up a facade to mask how miserable I am a lot of the time, I'm being insensitive to everyone else's problems. Apparantly people would just rather me not be around than deal/help with whatever's bothering me. Discuss.
Daily work (by Astrology.com)
It's time to reexamine why your job stresses you out. Maybe your present career track needs to come under review as well. Working for a living is necessary at this point in your life. It's up to you if you want it to be more fun.
10:14 AM
I found this today, its a summary of NBC's biographical movie on Jesse Ventura. It was a greatly researched historical film featuring a reinactment of Jesse's 1975 wrestling debut vs. World Heavyweight Champion Bill Goldberg and announcing career alongside Gorilla Monsoon in WCW.
4:11 PM
If you're coming to the concert on Saturday, please call, e-mail or leave a comment before 5 PM Friday so I can buy tickets at the rehersal Friday night. They might not be available at the door.
"If we must take this war into their homes and burn them to the ground, we will do so."
-Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman
President, Louisiana State University
