It started out innocently enough. Sunday evening, I had a nagging pain in my coccyx. For those of you non-health-affiliates, the coccyx is the tailbone. Anyway, I had a nagging pain in my coccyx. I didn’t think much of it, because the pain felt like the pain I get when I sometimes plop hard on it, at least enough to bruise it. So I brushed it off.

Monday came and went, and it was around Tuesday that I noticed something was wrong. The pain wasn’t getting better. In fact, it was getting worse… much worse. In the shower, I decided to do my usual awesome assessment. I discovered a lump (omg TUMOR?!?!) and hurt like hell with even the lightest of touches. I began to wonder if I didn’t just bruise it and instead shattered it.

I tried a lot of different things throughout Wednesday. I couldn’t walk without a limp. Just moving hurt. Just standing there hurt. And I had no idea what it was that was causing me so much increasing pain. I tried looking in the mirror. I even tried to take a pic. Yea. Totally failed.

Wednesday night I finally decided that I needed to get it looked at because chances were that I would be in too much pain to move if I waited an extra day. And that’s how I found myself lying on my side and cursing the fact that even that hurt, in a room, in the ER.

I spent the following 20-ish minutes (at least) listening to the kid next to me and his grandmother and father. The kid wanted to go walk around and stuff, and the adults were trying to nicely convince him that he would be better off staying in bed. I wondered to myself if they were that nice to him behind closed doors.

Anyway after waiting for what felt like an eternity (with friend, Drew, who came to keep me company and whom I’m very pissed at for the time being), the doctor, Debra, came in. She asked me some questions, I answered them, and then she took a look. She hadn’t even been poking around for two seconds when she said “Yep. You have a cyst.”

So I asked her “Well, can you take it out?”

And she explained to me that she needed to drain it and that it’d be painful. I didn’t give two fucks, so I then asked “Can you take care of it?”

And so she did. (She moved me into a private room for this, btw)

My advice to you? Don’t ever get a cyst.

So, she had me strip the bottom half of my being and lie prone on the bed. There were some absorbing pads beneath me. And she was nice enough to give me a heated blanket. It was SO WARM! I want one for Christmas.

So what felt like another 30 minutes later, which was spent listening to the surgical tables being rolled over to right on the other side of the curtain, and wondering if I was going to regret what I was getting myself into (Drew, by this point, had been sent off to the waiting room by the doctor). And then, she came in with the table, with all sorts of tools and whatnot.

At that point, I was thinking to myself “… oh shit.”

So she was explaining what she was going to do, and it reassured me somewhat. It didn’t sound that bad… right?

WRONG.

I learned the cold, harsh truth when she stuck the long ass needle in (to inject some “numbing agents” underneath the cyst). And I’m assuming it wouldn’t be that painful if it wasn’t infected. I’ve given blood with longer, thicker needles, and that didn’t hurt ANYWHERE as bad. I started half-yelling (though with my face stuffed in the pillow that they so graciously gave me, it sound more like I was death-moaning), and half-assed bit down. But, I’m proud to say, my eyes didn’t water at all. Hell yea, I’m not as wimpy as I thought I was.

So according to Debra, I “have good timing” apparently. Originally, she was worried that the cyst wasn’t “fluctuant” if that word even exists… basically ready to drain. She discovered REAL fast that it was ready to drain, when, as she stuck the needle in, pus and other generally disgusting crap spurted out. I didn’t see it, but I sure as hell FELT it when it ran down my leg. IT WAS GROSS!

And that wasn’t even the worst of it. Debra then grabbed a scalpel, since the “numbing agent” was in effect, and cut a slit into the cyst. That wasn’t too painful. But when she took the “numbing agent” and stuck it INTO THE CYST, that felt amazing let me tell you.

After that, she began to squeeze the cyst to push as much of the crap as she could out. And after that, she packed the cyst with gauze. That also hurt more than anything. And I thought I couldn’t walk before? Ha! I was perfectly mobile before I got the damn thing drained.

Anyway, she gave me a shit ton of drugs to nuke my body with. Two different kinds of antibiotics (3x and 4x a day, respectively), and a painkiller (that makes me nauseous as hell). And they sent me on my way.

Since then, I’ve been getting repacked daily at the Health Center. It’s never a pleasant experience, but I noticed as the day go by, the pain is lessening. Which is good. I don’t want to have to deal with this anymore than necessary. And the folks taking care of me have been telling me that I’ve been healing really well too, which is good.

And if I get a relapse, someone shoot me.

Anyway, it’s about 7 days, give a few hours, since I sustained my concussion. My follow-up for my concussion says I still have a concussion. Dr. Getzin recommend mental and physical rest, of course, and advised me to push back my midterms thank God; I was worried about that. I had taken my Bioethics midterm last Thursday and I couldn’t finish it . He said “no exercise”, which I knew and had already been doing with frustration (I hate not playing soccer). I still get headaches, and they worsen when I have to really concentrate on something. The sunlight hurts too, and not just my head but my eyes. Sleeping does help and I should do more of that, but since I’m going home in a couple of days, and since I don’t have a life outside of the house and Nat’s place, I think sleep won’t be an issue.

… Crap. I shouldn’t have stopped typing this to pull up a song… now I can’t remember what I was gonna write. Yea, my short-term memory has improved, but it’s not back to the way it was. Um… yea. Since I don’t remember what else I was going to say, I guess I’m done with this blog post =/

So I have a concussion. I’m about to go to the ER to get it checked out. Simply because I panicked about going to sleep. Though I guess one can never be more safe than sorry. But I didn’t want to turn this into a hospital visit because I didn’t think it was that bad.

Well, here’s what happened; last night during our intramural soccer championship game (in which we won YAY!), I was playing defense on the girl who had the ball. Sam, her name, has a really powerful drive, and is one of their better scorers. So she went to take a shot, and I got in front of her. I’ve blocked shots before, hitting them off of my legs, shoulder, back, etc. It’s nothing new to me. So I turned around, hunching my shoulders to tense up my back (which was probably a good thing, because if I hadn’t, I’m pretty sure the concussion would’ve been a lot worse), and I expected the ball to hit my back. Well, instead, it hit the back of my head.

I vaguely remember taking a staggered step forward from the force of the impact, and I managed to sit down on the floor without falling. I remember there was someone on my right side, and then someone on my left (there might have been at least one more person). I could only look straight ahead; I couldn’t even turn my head to look at who was around me. Or maybe I did, but I don’t remember. I don’t know how I got back on my feet, and I don’t know whether or not I got off the court with/without assistance. But my head felt light-headed and in a daze, and I had a slight pressure-ache (the barely there headaches). I managed through last night just fine.

Today went by in a blur; I can’t remember what we talked about in Spanish, and I don’t remember what we went over in Assessment. The only thing I could tell you about AT Tech was that my injury RP was a patellar subluxation, and Jess was my clinician. I can’t really remember the other injuries nor can I remember which assignment was to whom. I even forgot something that Rose, my professor, told me, seconds after hearing her say it.

I’ve been told by nearly everyone I talk to that I should get looked at (though I didn’t think it was a big deal… did I say that already?). I figured I’d do it tomorrow. Nick, one of my coworkers, told me that sleeping with a concussion, wasn’t a good idea. And about an hour ago, my headache got slightly worse. So I panicked slightly, and called the Cayuga Medical Center for consultation. The lady told me I should go over just to play it safe, so I’m about to go right now. I don’t think it’s anything terrible, but I just want to make sure I don’t accidentally die over night. I guess it’s true that you shouldn’t take head injuries lightly. Anyway, I’ll update you all on what’s going on tomorrow.

(I find it slightly ironic that it’s been almost a year since my last visit.)

The pain’s gotten better, but the bruises sure haven’t, lol. It sorta looks like death. I’ll take a pic or two and I’ll post another time.

foot injury

Wonderful stuff. Wonderful.

Well now, you’re all probably wondering exactly why I went ahead and broke my foot. What are you stupid? I didn’t do it on purpose.

Ironically, I did it playing soccer (God has one sick sense of humor…). I’ll try to make this simple.

So I was playing soccer in the gym, playing my position, you know, defense. I was fighting over the ball in a corner of the gym; the corner of the gym where the double doors are. And then I actually got possession. So now I’m in front of the doors, shielding the ball from this guy who’s a freakin’ ex-Bomber. Yes, you read that right. He was on the varsity men’s soccer team here, and I was the one with the ball and he was trying to steal it from me.

Originally, I had planned to kind of swivel my hips and drive the ball up the court, using the wall to hit the ball around him. And I suppose my sense of depth perception completely failed me… actually no it didn’t, because if it wasn’t for the door frame in the way, I would’ve been able to hit the ball. So instead of kicking the ball as hard as I could, I ended up kicking the corner of the frame as hard as I could instead. And let me tell you, I thought my coccyx was painful? Holy effing crap.

At least the adrenaline made the pain bearable, so I kept playing. We were already playing a man down and none of us had any subs, and I wasn’t about to just stop (even though we were mercy ruled 3-13… God, you’re an asshole). So I kept playing, and since this was my kicking foot that I hurt, every time I took a shot or kicked the ball, it hurt like hell.

Afterwards I took off my sneakers and my right sock, because throughout the entire game I could feel how swollen it was. I was cursing the whole time. When I finally looked at it, it was swollen and black and blue. And at that point I thought to myself ‘Well shit… knowing my luck, I broke this, didn’t I?’

When I stood back up to get a drink while informing Mom over the phone, I quickly realized just how much more painful something can be once the adrenaline starts to wear off. And that pain increased tenfold after I got back to my room.

In the end, I went over to the hospital, because when I reached the point where I couldn’t even walk on it, I decided that getting it checked really couldn’t wait.

So they did x-rays, found nothing, suspected a hidden fracture, and they gave me this shoe brace thing, a pair of crutches (which I suck at using) and vicodin. I just need to get all of my papers back from Meredith, the friend who drove me up, so I can call to see Dr. Greene at the Orthopedic group in town. I’ll keep you guys posted.

Download audio file (032309.mp3)

It’s going well… actually, it’s currently going no where, since I’m waiting for our insurance to actually kick in before I start talking to people. So far, however, I have two prospective (I don’t think this word is even in context but whatever. It’s Monday, sue me) orthopedics on my mind that I hope I’ll be able to see one of them for my clavicle.

The first one, Dr. Toni McLauren, is a trauma/fracture specialist based in New York City. I learned about her with the help of a wonderful communications coordinator at NYU’s medical center (I didn’t know they had a med school… potential school for later on yaaaaaay), and got her contact info and everything. She even takes GHI, which is awesome, because that’s the kind of health insurance we’re about to get. Another plus is that NYU’s med center is a research hospital. Cutting edge stuff, the most up to date technology. Good stuff, indeed.

And what I like even more about Dr. McLauren is that she’s female — I never find female orthopedic surgeons, and I’ll be honest, I have a personal bias for female doctors, since 1) the majority of doctors I’ve seen are female, and 2) males doctors just seem more stupid, 3) female doctors just seem more in tune to understanding their patient’s needs and 4) Male dentists traumatize me (a little off subject, but it matters). The only downside to this is that she’s in the city. No, it has absolutely nothing to do with transportation — I’d love to go back down to the city since it’s been a while since I’ve been down there. The issue related more to the insurance company.

I’m not sure how GHI works, and more than anything I don’t know how big my ‘network’ is. I don’t know if it’s within 100 miles of where I live (that’s the only way we could search), and I don’t know if it’s more likely that I can see anyone in the state of NY without too much trouble. If it is a 100 mile radius, then I’m going to have to jump through a hell of a lot of hoops to get downstate to see McLauren.

The other doctor, who was recommended to me by an ATC on Yahoo Answers, is Dr. Leslie J. Bisson, based in the orthopedic facility at the University of Buffalo’s med school (another potential school for later yaaaaay). He’s actually done research and published studies specifically on clavicular osteonomies. And if that’s not a good sign that he’d be a good candidate for such, I don’t know what would be.

The only thing is that he’s definitely more than 100 miles away, just like McLauren is. And actually, I don’t even know if the guy takes GHI. He is a bit closer than McLauren, but not within that 100 miles radius, once again. So we’ll just have to hope that, once again, I’ll be able to jump through enough hoops to get me sent to either one of these doctors.

(Honestly, I feel like I’d be better off seeing an orthopedic who’s based in a med school, and I’m not exactly sure why, but they seem like they’re more… idk… experienced… that’s not the best word to describe it. I’m gonna assume you know what I’m talking about)

Of course, it still doesn’t solve the insurance idiot problem. But since I had a few tricks of my sleeve as well, I have the feeling that in the end, I’m gonna get my freakin’ way. After all, I know the insurance people don’t really care, but they will care if I continuously give them hell every day until they do listen to what I have to say *evil grin*.

I haven’t heard from Dr. Krauss about anything, and I haven’t quite figured out everything I need to about the insurance, but at the moment, I’m trying to find a very specific thing, and I need your help.

Orthopedic surgeons do a lot, but in actuality, a lot of them are specialists. I’m looking for a orthopedic with a shoulder specialty and experience with surgical repair of clavicles. I’m already working on getting info from others who have had surgeries and such, but I would very much appreciate it if you all looked into shoulder specialists in the Northeast, preferably. Please let me know what you come up with. I want to get this treated before school ends for the summer, because my student health insurance ends at the end of the semester, so I wouldn’t have that added coverage.

And to those of you that help, thank you so much.

I didn’t actually see an orthopedic surgeon, because I guess the universal rule is that you can never visit an orthopedic directly; you have to get referred to them by the whole world first. So I saw Dr. Krauss (hoping that’s how his name is spell) instead.

So, we started out with me telling him absolutely everything I knew about what had happened. I told him ab… oh! That reminds me. I don’t think I told you about my epiphany… well I’ll tell it to you the way I told Dr. Krauss.

Basically, this injury occurred a couple of years ago during school late March, 2007. I recall playing soccer in the gym after eating lunch, and I remember someone (I think it was Steve… knowing him like I think I do, it probably was) sandwiching me up against the wall really… lack of a word~… and after lunch period was when my clavicle was bothering me so much. Mom looked at it after school, said it was bent, and we saw the doctor the next day, and nothing got accomplished.

I told Krauss about my theory of it being a bowing fracture, and I told him about the few case studies I compared symptoms to, even if those case studies were ulnar bowing fracture. Anyway, he took a look at me, requested I get an x-ray on my spine (because he thought that I had a curve in the spine that was affecting the prominence of the deformity). He left to talk to the radiologist while I sat in the freezing exam room, pissed that he thought, of all things, that my spine was somehow part of the problem.

Anywho, he came back, and told me I had slight curvature (and honestly, who doesn’t? No one’s perfect), but it probably wasn’t affecting the clavicle all that much.

The good news; he told me, straight up, that he believed my self-diagnosis was absolutely correct, and he gave me a couple of tips to look for case studies that relate to the clavicle so I could better compare (you’ll see why in a minute). The bad news; since it’s been two years since the incident, putting an amazing amount of pressure on the bone just isn’t going to work. I’m going to need to get an osteotomy if I want to fix this clavicle. And guess what, folks! That’s not all.

Surgery on the clavicle takes a specialist, and I mean a specialist. This means, that if I get the surgery done, I may very well have to travel to NYC, or even Boston, to get this treated. That’s pretty expensive traveling wise, so most likely I’d be going by myself (and that’s gonna be scary as hell). Another potential problem is cost. I’ll need to get a CAT scan, among other things, and I know that while insurance helps pay for a good chunk of the cost, my clavicle could very well be classified a “pre-existing condition” and they won’t help pay for treatment. Maybe we ca find a loophole in that… who knows?

So right now, I’m waiting to hear about the situation regarding our health insurance before I figure out if I’ll be able to go through with it. And once I’ve done that, I’ve got a hell of a lot of research to do. I have to thank Krauss, though. He told me he’d look into clavicle specialists and help out with researching the treatment of a “plastic deformation clavicle fx” (fx = fracture). Those were the Google terms he gave me. So hey, I think you all should help research too. The search terms are in the quotation marks earlier in this paragraph. You’ll learn a thing or two. I know I’ve learned a shit load since I started on this little and tedious expedition.

But there you have it. To the stupid doctors: I. Fucking. Told. You. So. What the fuck now, BITCH! In the meantime, I’m not giving up on getting treatment — if there’s a will there’s a way. Just because I might have to travel a few hours doesn’t mean I’m not going to get it done.

And while Krauss was telling me “Well, I wouldn’t let my daughter go through with it, just because it’s a very delicate operation” — you need to do everything EXACT and perfect, or you fuck up everything — “And who knows if it’ll actually get rid of the pain”, I say that, well, may be it’ll work, and may be it won’t. But we won’t know unless we try? I’m not sue-happy, if that’s what you were concerned about, Krauss. I wouldn’t sue if you messed up — I’d just make you fix the mistake. The only exception is if I die because of something directly related to the surgery/treatment. In that case, I gave my mom permission to sue on my behalf. But since they’re specialists, and they’re orthopedic surgeons, I have faith that they know what they’re doing.

I’ll keep you all posted.