Saturday Sweet Thang got out of his hospital bed for the first time in 9 days. He’s had lots of complications from the surgery and being on a morphine pump for days (his bowels shut completely down, I know--TooMuchInfo) and as a result he had to spend the whole time eating nothing but jello and chicken broth. So when a physical therapist, a nurse and me tried to help this #350 man stand up on his one good leg he was so weak that a cold sweat instantly popped out on his forehead and he trembled like a wobble-legged new-born colt. The fact that he can’t move his left leg or bend his left knee didn’t help a whole hell of a lot; he’s hanging onto the bed handrail and trying to drag himself over to the edge of the mattress while one of us attempts to lift his left leg and slide it over at the same rate the rest of his body is moving without making him scream in agony. He’s in constant pain and still has staples both front and back (from hipbone to hipbone and starting at his side and running around his backside) not counting all the hardware permanently embedded in his pelvis.
We finally get Sweet Thang in a wheelchair and then the therapist states “You’re a big strong fellow, when you get ready to get back in bed just go for it, I’m not coming back” and then he left! I was shocked and just a little pissed off by his attitude, but we managed to get it done so I guess those therapists have to be mean in order to make patients who are in pain do things themselves regardless of how much torture they endure while getting better. The nurse and I helped Sweet Thang out of bed by ourselves Sunday, so either he’s getting better at being an invalid or I’m learning how to help him do for himself, maybe a little of both.
I washed his hair and gave him a sponge bath; sounds kinky but don’t get your (or my) hopes up because there won’t be any hanky-panky for a good long while and it ain’t just because of his broken hip....... {GUYS, YOU MIGHT WANT TO SKIP THIS PART!}....... When Sweet Thang got thrown up on the gas tank of his Harley, it crushed his cojones! His scrotum is swollen so big that it won’t fit between his thighs and it’s a deep dark purple. Not just a little bruised but a solid, almost blue-black, purple. I swear to God his nut sac looks like a huge grape and it’s so enlarged that the nurse told me to prop it up on a folded towel so that some of the fluid can drain away. Of course all this makes it even more painful for Sweet Thang to struggle from the bed to the wheelchair and back.
Monday they moved Sweet Thang from the hospital to the rehab facility but he can only learn how to maneuver himself from bed to chair and back for now, he can’t do any actual rehab work until his bones reknit. He called and described how much better it was to be able to roll himself up and down the halls, but it didn’t take very long to wear the poor baby out and he was talking about a nap just as soon as he hung the phone up. Today will be his first day of actually working with the new therapist and I'm afraid he's gonna hurt more than he likes (not to say he's into pain but... Oh Hell, you know what I mean). They say he can go home, actually his parents’ home, on Friday and while I know he’ll be glad to get out of the hospital I’m afraid that he’ll go stir crazy before it’s over with. Hopefully he’ll be able to handle the bed to wheelchair transfers himself because I know it’ll be rough on his Dad to help, plus his Dad works part time and there’s no way his Mom can do much to help as she’s still recovering from colon surgery.
Sorry I haven’t posted much, but all my spare time has been spent at the hospital and I just haven’t had the opportunity or the energy to do much blogging.
I’m ashamed that I haven’t visited all of my blog buddies and the few kind strangers who have commented and offered moral support for both myself and Sweet Thang. Please know that I love y’all and I appreciate what wonderful people the ‘net has brought into my life.
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