If there is such a thing, I qualify. Not by choice, of course, do I deserve standing. I was volunteering for Races-to-Run to help shepard some autistic children on a 5k course in a fund raiser for Autism. Someone walked right in front of my bicycle and I had two choices: 1. drive through her, and 2: go over the handle bars. I chose the latter. I’d already done some rotator cuff damage in the Cesare Rodney Half Marathon when a car pulled up behind on the course, honked his horn and I dove for cover with a Camelback 5 liter water container on my back. Total weight and momentum did rotator cuff damage. Over the handlebars ripped the infra and supra spinatus tendons free of the muscle. First ortho repair followed. Now, I can’t pitch
Fell into my recliner chair and heard a snap in my left leg and an excruciating pain. My wife said, “miniscus tear,” to which I replied, “That’s for football Players not watchers. I’ve learned not to argue with her diagnostic skills. Dr. Michael Axe of First State Orthopedic fixed my torn miniscus.
In 2013, it was painful to walk. Dr. Bodenstab of First State told me I needed a hip replacement. On the second of July, that year, I got that done. This past May 2020, I had a fall (tripped on a stair and fell head first on the kitchen floor. The prosthetic hip popped out. Trip to Wilmington Hospital followed where they popped it back in again and suggested a follow-up with FSO. Dr. Bodenstab gave me a clean bill of health but admonished that making a habit of such a dislocation would find me under the knife again.
December 7th (Delaware Day to me, Pearl Harbor Day to the rest of the country) I had an appointment for bloodwork at Quest Diagnostics, four minutes from my house. I was headed from the mud room off the garage to the car. I stopped at the top step to reach behind me to pull the door closed, which I did. But, since my concentration was on things behind me, I didn’t notice that my right sneaker’s soul overlapped the wrapping around the left. I lifted my left and fell to the concrete garage floor among my spouses gardening tools. Again, excruciating pain. I managed to get to my feet, keep my bloodwork appointment, returned home and plopped into my recliner. I stayed there 18 hours because I could get out of that chair. Claymont Ambulance got me out of the chair and to the emergency room of Christiana Hospital — Wilmington the next day. I spent the day being x-rayed and otherwise examined with “you hurt yourself” as the diagnosis. Honestly, I thought I was due a more expansive version of the damage so I called FSO, got an appointment and went to see them. The physician’s assistant ordered a weight bearing x-ray, gave me some exercises to do and sent me back home, resisting my campaign for an MRI.
Perhaps, because of the trauma to my lower body, it losened the prosthetic, I don’t know. But, on 12/22, I climbed the stairs (one at a time, since that’s what my body would allow) and went to bed. In the wee small hours of the 23rd, I woke in immense pain and Betty again played super-diagnostician and said, “I think your hip is out again.”
Claymont came to see me again, put me in the ambulance and took me to Wilmington Hospital ER. The put my prosthetic hip back in and tried to find me a room. It took about 14 hours but the found me a room, moving me three time in the process. The word was that I was to have few Physical Therapy session in preparation for my release. My first PT session was a disaster. They could release me if I was ambulatory. They had a walker for me, but I couldn’t put enough weight on my left leg to lift myself high enough to reach the walker and the right leg was in a brace, rendering it little help. They couldn’t let me go home. So, I was admitted for Christmas Eve. On the 27th, I had improved my functioning enough to get up to the walker and walk around the 8th floor to the nurses station and back. I also demonstrated the ability to go up the stairs. I’d seen those stairs before as they are used for people like me who’ve had hip replacements in order to practice. So, I practiced twice. They allowed a release with the understanding that a team would deliver me, make sure I could navigate my environment and see that I was safe.
Back I went to my recliner (on which we placed pillows to raise the seat and allow me to escape the confines to the chair. The pillows had compressed under my weight. I couldn’t get out of the chair. Of course, it wasn’t unfamiliar territory so, with my medication and a urinal by my side, I prepared to spend the night. Bayada sent me a home health care worker for physical therapy and because he and Betty teamed up, we got me out of the chair. The pillows and cushions were suplemented to afford and easier escape and life went on. I wasn’t permitted to climb 13 stairs to the bedroom so the chair was me sleeping accomodations.
Bayada sent a nurse to visit the next day to check my vitals and general situation. But the pillows on the recliner again were again compressed so she and Betty had to help me get vertical. They included wood, thick book volumes and heavier pillows which solved the height problem for good. Meanwhile, Walmart sold me a chair that is designed for us old foggies with a power assist to help us to stand. It’s on the way.
One of the avenues the the hospital physician suggested was to get me into a rehab facility to help me ambulate. We were told that our primary care physician had to make that referral, since I had come home from the hospital, despite the fact that there were no slots for me on 28 December. Off we went to see Dr. Fierro. I work with a wonderful nurse practionier in Fierro’s practice who shows me a platinum standard of care. I told her that, since the fall, I still had pain in my left leg and left shoulder. I mentioned my attempt to sell FSO on an MRI. She immediately order one each for my shoulder and my knee. The next day after the MRI she called me to say she was glad I had an follow-up appointment the following Wednesday. MRI showed that I had ruptured the quad tendon and torn my left rotator cuff. It appears that my frequent flyer status will only advance. I’ll be sure to report after January 13th.