Tuesday, July 17, 2012

A Trip to the ER

Last Thursday as I was getting turned in bed my left shoulder dislocated. Despite having limited feeling it hurt a lot. I knew right away something had happened, but I went ahead and got up in my wheelchair. By the time I sat down, it had popped back in. Then, Friday when I was turning it happened again. I thought it would go in when I got up like it did the day before but it didn't. I ended up going into the emergency room at Methodist hospital.

When I got there, they took me into a room right away. The doctor came and tried to gradually ease it into place but it wouldn't go and was extremely painful. They decided to give me a narcotic so I would feel it as much. Once those kicked in and she was able to try again; it took a while but eventually she got it. They took an x-ray afterwards to be sure.
 
However, I wasn't done in the ER yet. Because of the narcotic they gave me my blood pressure dropped extremely low. They decided to start an IV and get some fluids in me but had trouble finding a good vein but eventually after four tries they finally ended up getting it. (I have the bruises to show for it!) Even though the fluids were going my blood pressure still wouldn't rise and there were about four times where I became unresponsive. Not to mention I was a little out of it due to the drug.

After a couple of hours, I was finally in the safe zone to go home. It was a long day in the ER. My shoulder was very sore over the weekend but it's feeling a lot better today. I'm not quite sure how it came out of the socket. What's interesting was no one had their hand on my shoulder at the time. I think as I rolled onto my right shoulder, my left arm fell forward a little bit. It was just enough each day for it to dislocate.

Because of my injury and the inability to move, it's common for my muscle mass to start wearing down over time. I'm finding that my neck and shoulders are really tight and tense. I'm working in physical therapy to get my muscles relaxed and my arms and legs moving. Although, stress can easily cause tight muscles in anyone and that could be part of it. For now, I am focused on safe transfers and lifting; crossing my fingers for no injuries.

Jenni

3 comments:

Unknown said...

God Bless. The ER can be so overwhelming! Your attitude will conquer all.
DO you any advice for me on how to start public speaking?
wheelchairlady.blogspot.com

Kimberley said...

It's great that you're feeling better. I'm having a similar issue with my right shoulder where if I move it a certain way it starts to come out of where it should be. I have a C6 complete injury and I think it's just because of nearly 8 years of over use. I've had two lots of Cortisone injections in my shoulders recently and it seems to work relatively well, although my right shoulder still bothers e quite a bit. I don't think it moving out of place so easily is helping the matter much though.

Nadwrażliwiec said...

Oh, I'm so sorry because of Your health problems! I wish You fast return to full condition without any problems.