WHERE THE HELL HAS DIANA BEEN THE LAST 5 MONTHS?

This happened about 2 months after they found the COPD (first part of April) and the fact that I only have 27% of my lung function. I am on oxygen 24/7 and it is a pain in rear dragging that line around.  That is what you get for working as a chemist in a petroleum lab for 25 years.  

The next part of this 4-month and ongoing saga started at the first part of June.  It all started with a horrible pain in my back and hip area that got very bad over the last weekend. I wound up in the emergency room Sat. and Sun. of this past weekend. They finally found the source of the pain on Sunday morning after doing a CT scan of my hip and spine area. 

 So, after a three-day or so stay in the hospital, I went to rehab trying to do very painful rehab for two weeks. Three hours until day two of rehab. Man, it sure does hurt doing it, but no pain…. no gain, I guess.  

They also diagnosed me with Diabetes 2 and begin to treat me for that. 

I already have been diagnosed with congestive heart failure. 

Well, today is the day I get sprung from here. I get to go home and hug Tori Bug today. I am so happy! I even met the goals I set for myself before I started rehab. Those being: being able to walk again using my walker and above all being able to walk far enough to take Tori outside to do her business. I can do all of that and then some. 

I have home health help with twice a week visits from a nurse, home health aide, physical therapist, and physical therapist. 

I did fine for 10 days…. just fine. Everything was going great and then I woke up with the most god awful pain in my LEFT hip and leg…so back to the emergency room…back in the hospital with pinched nerves that hurt like a mother…. now back in rehab to try to work through the pain and get the nerve to get better. Sure am tired to all this pain…. just want to go home and hug my Dog. 

I went home today because I ran out of Medicare paid treatment days.  I can’t sit up due to the nerve pain.  It ain’t easy to eat lying down. 

I have the same home help as I did before.  It has taken weeks to fine the correct pain management for the nerve pain, which I equate to labor pain.  I begin to get better. 

My balance and coordination are quite bad which is keeping me from walking without the walker.

So the falls begin because I can walk with the walker but have no balance, etc.  I fell last Sunday, but didn’t seem to have any lasting effects.  I had a doozy of a fall today.  I hurt my right wrist and hand so bad I have to have a brace on it.  Messed up my Whole right side…knee and all. This will affect my rehab a lot. 

I had an Epidural Steroid Injection yesterday directly into my swollen nerve. It was a minor surgical procedure. 

I am waiting to see if I re-injured the fractures and/or pinched nerve. 

So far so good on re-injuring the original fractures.

And so the saga continues… 

I hope to be back here and keep up with the posts.  I will post back to this thread if anything changes. 

Thank you for all your patience with me, but I am walking my path too…and evidently dealing with all these health and pain issues is going to allow me to share this journey with you…and be of some help with your own personal journeys through chronic illnesses and perhaps end of life journeys when I go above vibration and stay (which is not eminent ).  

I will post updates to this thread so they are kept in one place.

diana