Good medicine: Thank you, thank you, thank you

Agathon included this in his blog on my account:

P.S. If you're the kind of person who sends prayers or vibes or good thoughts to those In Need, see if you can focus a little energy on our friend at Living in Syn, who is dealing with medical procedures best left to the Spanish Inquisition...or Extraordinary Renditioners.

I'm touched and grateful. This is the kind of thing that gets me through the day. Enough of this kind of thing gets me through my life.

I am one of those people who believes in prayers and good vibes and positive energy. I'm taking in all I can these days. I'll be a vessel for goodness and I'll pass it on when I'm strong enough to get back to doing good in the world.

Thank you, A and H. You've given me GOOD medicine. Thank you to anyone who is led here by A's invitation and call to service. Blessings upon us all.

Heather
(Who is, by the way, a confirmed vegetable eater)

http://agathon-sbh.blogspot.com/2007/11/stop-presses-man-has-teeth-could-easily.html

woozy medical update: not for the squeamish

Thursday: The swelling in my lower back ballooned to twice what it was yesterday, perhaps due to all the prodding and poking from the various medical professionals who assessed my condition. I called the physician's assistant this morning and she had me come into the office today. My doctor was there, so he stepped in to look. We all decided to extract the fluid, and see what happens before "taking more aggressive action."

One numbing injection, two large gauge needle pokes, and seven syringes later, I surveyed a row of syringes filled with 163 ccs of straw yellow colored fluid that had been in my body. The PA had to leave the room two or three times to get more syringes; she was surprised at how much fluid she could extract.

"We all agree, you're a unique case," she said.

"So I've been told," I replied.

After the first extraction and needle poke, she had to use another needle and just screw the syringes on one after the other. So I lay on my side in a pool of this stuff that oozed out of the needle holes. She stopped extracting when the puncture stopped oozing and the suction started to make an audible sucking sound.

I looked up measurement conversions at OnlineConversion.com (http://www.onlineconversion.com/) to see what 163 ccs amounts to in more easily understandable measurements. That's over 5.5 ounces, if that gives you a better idea of how much that is. Icky. It makes me woozy to think of it.

"That's a sight I won't forget," I said on my way out.

I was directed to go home and lie down flat for the rest of the day and tomorrow to try to avoid the dreaded spinal headache. If I DO get a spinal headache, then we have a clue that there may yet be a slow leak. The yellow color of the fluid indicates that it has been there for a while in the same state; I wonder if they have a medical term for "stagnant." If it had been clear that might have indicated a probable leak. It's not good, it's not bad, it's what it is.

I suspect all of this is WAY too much detail to post, but there it is. There you have it.

Just enough is more

Wednesday: I went to my first out-patient physical therapy session this morning, and later visited my neurosurgeon's physician's assistant. She was concerned that the swelling and fluid build-up hadn't gone down in the six weeks since surgery, so she had one of the neurosurgeons come to look at it (my doctor was in surgery). They are slightly concerned about this; it's not a crisis, especially since I'm not having those horrendous spinal headaches anymore, but I'm still weak and in pain. I'll go back soon to see my own surgeon so we can see what's next.

Perhaps more MRIs and myelograms, perhaps even surgery... though no one said that word today.

I guess I'll just keep plugging away.

As a total departure, CJL recommended this essay by Milton Glaser: Ten Things I Have Learned (Part of AIGA Talk in London, November 22, 2001)
http://www.miltonglaser.com/pages/milton/essays/es3.html

I can dig the mantra --- "just enough is more."

She also directed me towards a film, "The Lives of Others." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lives_of_Others I'll add it to the Netflix queue...