Wednesday, August 19, 2015

Erratic Camping and Healing

as of  Tuesday, back in nature, on a lakefront lot surrounded by a nightly chorus of lively cicadas. I can recuperate anywhere... might as well seek out a budget view as ironically, this is the nicest place at the cheapest price in the past 3 weeks of medical and RV chaos. Just this week has been a whirlwind  of rv repairs and ortho trauma visits plus moving around multiple campgrounds.

Pardon my typing I am still having a rough time with my hands but it will all get better soon.



wednesday-transmission repair took all day, we rented a car to live in for the day finding things to do with an energetic canine. it turned out to be a fun busy day but exhausting all around. doggy loves touring rv's so in the morning before it was hot and muggy, we drove southerly to a small rv lot that had only used coaches. harley dog can be hilarious when shopping. if he doesn't like the rv, he just gloomily walks around it staying at my heels. such was the case with first class c.

at the 2nd rv, he hopped up on the sofa and sat down briefly then leaped off again. At another Rv with old thick carpet, he rolled across it to see if it was soft enough. The bedroom didn't win him over, he left the bed untouched.

One huge tour bus at least 45 feet long was designed for a band on the road had 385,000 miles on it with 12 bunk beds stacked in three's from the floor to the ceiling with six on each side of the middle of the bus.  At either end of the bunk section were two different lounges. All the bunks came with luxurious thick padded curtains to dampen noise and black out all hall lights. The exterior of the bunk curtains which faced the narrow hallway running down the middle of the coach was made of what appeared to be thick faux mink fur. Harley dog especially like this enormous bus, he could race up and down the length of it and the fur curtains really caught his fancy.

After sniffing the bus from bow to stern, he picked out a lower bunk, that had the curtain partially drawn. He seemingly moved in by entering the bunk gingerly, hiding behind the curtain then slowly turning around three times before contentedly curling up for a nap with a long sigh.

We were laughing ourselves silly the way he just settled in like he was ready to travel to the next show.

Laughter is the best medicine.

Hard to believe that was a week ago, it seems like yesterday.


Heavenly healing, over 100 campsites and only 3 campers, talk about solitude and peace... ahhh... the view from my bed sofa in the rear of  my little old wheel estate looks out on the receding Hartwell Lake. Not bad at all for $15 a night.



Now on to gory stuff...

Below at the end of this post is a picture of my arm with the stitches removed. There is another warning below STOP NOW if this is going to upset you.

If you do want to see the ugly incision then scroll way down, otherwise stop at the next warning.

I was so shocked when I saw the incision, the splint had to be removed so the oh so sloppy stitching could be taken out. I would expect an erratic mess if I had torn my arm open through misadventure, but I thought since this was surgery it would be nice and neat. Back in the 90's I had emergency surgery and they stitched me back to life beautifully, so when I saw this mess, I was not prepared.

I am baffled by the trauma center which keeps handing me off to different surgeons and no one seems to know what's going on. The first orthopedic surgeon I saw that said I needed surgery immediately seemed very knowledgeable and caring. But then while waiting to be hauled off for surgery the next morning after showing up at the hospital, another surgeon bolted in the room breathlessly introducing himself, scribbled his initials on my elbow then vanished. In recovery, no one came around to talk to me at all and I had loads of questions. Next thing I knew I was being rolled out in a wheel chair to the RV in the parking lot of the hospital.

When my friend opened the door, my doggy was dancing around ecstatic to have me back but the attendant pushing the wheel chair freaked out saying "I don't do dogs!" over and over then fled with the chair. I collapsed in my bed in the rear of the coach. when I woke up again, we were camping at Springwood RV Park at Donaldson Center in Greenville, South Carolina. It's about 5 miles from the hospital where the surgery took place but my friend had already taken us shopping for meds and foods while I was oblivious to the world.

The incision looks like it was cut with a dull rock rather than a sharpened scalpel. The stitching looks like they let a student practice on my arm for the first time. If they gave him/her an F, I wouldn't be surprised.  Luckily the sleeved it all back into an adjustable splint, so I don't have to face the ugly mess daily... yet.

Scroll down for pic but STOP NOW if this sort of thing upsets you. This is after the stitches were removed, the one with the stitches still in didn't show up well and it's super hideous like bride of Frankenstein.

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YUCK

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1 comment:

  1. Just remember, 50% of all doctors finished in the bottom half of their class!

    ReplyDelete


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