INSOMNIACS place to talk in the wee hours
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I thought pic of Nick was b/4 surgery. Huh? Insensitive?? No,not at all. Nick just looks sad to me underneath that smile in that pic. Ms. Smaarty had shared with me his challenges and struggles. If that is a picture of post-op, he looks pretty good.
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smarrty, happy to hear all went well. I am sure he will have great spirits moving forward. A friend of ours lost his leg in college in a huge washing unit thing. Fell in...yikes. Today he is in his 60's and still pays pick up basketball. He is proud of his stump
. Never hides it. Best wishes for your family
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Loverly you are so intuitive,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,always. One of my primary surgical patients as a nursing student, had lower leg gangrene. His pain was awful. Had him a couple days pre-op. Many he times he asked me to move his leg. We would readjust. Postop in the room. He asked me to move his leg. Wow the leg is gone, phantom pain. He was prepared for phantom pain- I and his primary nurse , and the doc taught him. What to do? I flipped his sheet back and said "You know your leg is gone". He said "Yes, but please just move it". Quandary, what to do? He knows, he sees. Maybe he knows and sees something I don't. I moved his leg. (like air guitar). He moaned "thank you". I explained the situation to my instructor. She ripped me.
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sassy, that pic was preop. This is about 6 hours after. His hand is on the stump. He knows about the phantom pain. There's a trick you can do with a mirror if it starts to bother/itches him. Place the mirror so that he sees the reflection of the good leg and scratch where it itches. His brain will think he's scratching the leg that's gone. He's done it before when he couldn't touch his leg.
GS had CRPS (chronic regional pain syndrome). That's what they call it now. Why would your boss be pissed? I think that a normal condition for somewhere to go through.
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does phantom pain go away
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Smaarty, so glad this surgery is over. I realize he has lots of recovery & physical therapy. It's the b ginning of a better life for him. I wish him all the best. So, is your DH missing his leg? he is grandpa.
Rose, hope you can get comfortable & quality rest.
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Nick must be very strong! I hope things go well for him in his recovery and he'son to the coolest prosthetic they make! Up and off living life! I love all the trees thank you. Rest is a little tough in the hospital, but everyone has been so nice. No puking since this am and just a little. Fingers and toes crossed! I want to go home. Hi Patty! Love your peppermint tree. Thank you for the well wishes and the pictures. (((hugs)))
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Rose- I hope you feel better and are home soon. Hugs
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phampton pain comes and goes. DH has had it off and on for 49 years. Sometimes not to bad, sometimes he can't sleep because it hurts too much. Most of the time he's ok.
Rose, hope you are sprung tomorrow and can be comfortable, as much as possible.
GS says he doesn't feel any of the tearing, burning, skin peeling pain he had. So he's very happy and wants to go do so much! It may be tough to keep him down soon. Thanks for the wishes for him.
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Someone explain why they give you a sleeper and pain meds at 9pm and then wake you up at midnight to weigh you and take vitals? I have been awake ever since and I was happily sleeping. Now it's 4 am and I have paced the halls with my IV pole, read a magazine, listened to Christmas music, watered the pointsettas in the lobby.. wilty and dry. There is zipola on TV. Oy.. still wide awake. I need to go home. I am so tired I hurt. I know better then to try and sleep. My lab tube is sitting out there and so they'll be in in an hour to draw it. Lights on.. sigh. No puking kept clears down. Maybe the key is to keep upright and not lay down.. keep moving.
No one awake here either.. ok insomniacs where are you???
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Rose- oh those middle of the night visits in the hospital. I never understood it either, but remember those visits only too well when I was inpatient for 8 days back in 2012. I am glad you are able to get up and move around though. Laying in those beds too much is not a good thing. I hope the stomach stays calm. Praying you can go home today and get some good rest friend. Hugs.
This tumbleweed snowman is for you.
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Morning gals.... Big snow storm here....
Smarty, what a brave guy Nick is! I just can't imagine.......... Tell us again, why did he need this? Did I miss the reason? His Grandpa too?
GOOD LUCK NICK! Hang in there kiddo!
Okay, I read what RSD is.... is that it?
Rosie.... get better girl! It's a wonder you didn't mop the hall, while you were at it! You are like my Daughter.... whenever she comes over, she "checks" all my plants to see if they need water...Hah! She has her own floral department in the King Soopers here... No more throwing up!
For Rosie, Blondie and Peppermint.... and little Nick!
See, my Brother has been a drummer all his life.... he recorded with some of the best.... Here is one of my favorites, and maybe it'll help you guys.
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Chevy they have the cutest little lobby with a Christmas tree AND all these Pointsettas on the window ledge. I got my water bottle and gave them a drinky poo. Me and plants.. it's an OCD thing. I understand your daughter!! I like the tumbleweed snow man.. gotta use what you have right?
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Rose- I do a lot of work for the hospitals here and one year, a group of us who were contractors formed a little band and played Xmas music and other jazz songs for the patients. I think hospitals try to make things a bit more cheery for folks that have to be there during this time of the year.
Chevy- we had a big cold front and high winds down here last night. I hear the mountains got snow. It is cold here this am!
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We have about 8 inches right now.... 130 flights have been cancelled.... And almost every major school district is closed.... .... They SAY only bout 5 inches downtown, but a lot more in this neighborhood.... Snow is coming down so fast, the snow-plows can't keep up with it.
Rosie.... I know! My Mom and Dad were both gardeners, and my Dad had his own Florist shop.... Janie took classes to be a floral designer... I just like plants.... I used to have an Orchid collection.... but I don't have enough windows to keep a LOT of plants .... My Dad made this spray for one of my dance recitals....
And one of DD and her plants & stuff...
One of my favorite plants....
I just wish it was Spring...........
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Smarrty, Well no wonder he was so alert. Preop.LOL Love the mirror trick. Would love to talk with the person that discovered that about the mirror. CRPS. yes. It's more comprehensive than RSD. It wasn't a boss that was pissed, it was an instructor in nursing school. 1974. It was a strange time. Wasn't easy for someone like me. I thought I managed it quite well. Patient was aware of reality. Reality wasn't working. I just followed his lead. His pain was relieved for that moment. Works for me. Instructor went off in the direction that I was only supporting his inability to deal with reality. Overall the time was in transition. I found nursing and medicine rigid, no shades of gray. Can you imagine my instructor if I'd used the mirror. Serious that type of thing would not of have been considered. Understanding of how the brain functioned, brain mapping wasn't even in it's infancy yet. How about embryo period......... Just read your up date--YAY!
Susan, phantom pain can last forever. But overall tends to fade. The brain is something as far as memory. The Gate Theory re:pain really simplified. Think of a flood. The gate is opened and a flood (of impulses) occurs. The flood may or may not be controlled. Trial and error until an adequate method is found. Each flood is different. What worked in flood control for one flood may not or marginally work for another. Once the flood is controlled getting the gate to close is important. It's not an absolute the gate will close. Until it actually does. Sometimes it will leak over time. Then everyone observes, well now the trouble is over the gate is finally shut or the leaking can be managed, sometimes it can't. Tell me if that analogy works. I haven't used it before. The Gate Theory gets all technical with afferent and efferent nerves and chemicals between synapses.
Thery're is a worst case scenario for intractable pain a sympathectomy.
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Yes Sass, and the infranerial pain, as opposed to the extracurriculaneum species is quite irrelevant, considering the obtuse ri-iteration to the femorhobal impact that living green will cause...............
DAMN it is snowing here.... Sass.... go close your gates..........Or come help us shovel a walk at least to the garage.....
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going to have to get out the dictionary to keep up! I understand the gate theory, just not the medical mumbo jumbo. Glad he's moving forward.
No snow here. Overcast and 50s. Need some cold weather to kill the flu virus going around. We just now managed to get our shots on Friday. Today hearing about classmates and playmates being sick. Hope it skips us.
Anyone cross stitch? Know anything about those counted Christmas stockings. It's 14 count. Too small? Too difficult for chemo brain?
Hootie hoo Rose and Patty. Hope you continue to feel better.
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Chevy you are so talented. Making up jumbled words can be harder than trying to spell real words. I misspelled a word above which totally changes the meaning. Leaving it there for the purist to find. One letter. So, I can't talk politics, I can't talk medical. What's left? LOL. Harry Potter? Only Smarrty's a fan.
Susan as apurist OCD. Need to modify my flood analogy. Two canals flowing opposite directions that are flooding. I like the analogy, but would have to tweak it a bit.
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I love Harry Potter!
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Rosevalley: (sings lullaby) weighing you at midnight? oof. My sympathies--I only got the vitals checks and that was annoying enough.
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he is at a 2 this morning. His mom stayed with him last night, neither got much sleep. A PT is coming in today and he gets to go home tomorrow. YEAH! It's bright and sunny today but windy. He won't have to worry about the weather anymore!
Rose, sorry they woke you up. Never made much sense. Hope you go home too.
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Smaarty, great news ! Rose, can you tell me what these plants are ? I was looking at different foliage, and these have me intrigued.
Mother Nature is the best.....
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I think I've read back 3 pages. Not much posting because this house is a DEEsaster with more caps than I dare put. I have too many projects going on to finish by Sat. when DD comes out. Just that one night to go the Mexican Food Christmas party. Then she will be here for 2 nights, Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. I have the tree up well DH put it up. Partly decorated. Unwrapped ornaments everywhere. Don't use tinsel. Some box has cranberry strings. Not in the 2 DH got out. I think I have 6-7 big plastic storage boxes full and we only use the same 2 boxes over and over. Mine is a collection of very old ornaments, some from my childhood and others bought at antique stores. Hallmark stuff and then odds and ends. Lots of Raggedy Ann/Andy though most are not in this box. Like I said b4 I have the ceiling height for a bigger tree but not the diameter space. Not without moving furniture to someplace I don't have lol.
Smaarty - so glad GS is doing so well today. Yay for home tomorrow.
Rose - tell nurses to cut out the 12 MN weight and good golly lab draw. That is just plain mean. That or you're taking the sleeper when they do them. You and I know the 9pm time is convenience. All sleepers get scheduled for 9p. But am glad you got help at the hospital. Do you have a recliner? Not quite upright but that may be the option you need.
Zills - I made a counted cross stitch stocking for DD. My DM made DH's when we got married but his is the embroidered kind with little stuffed things sewn to it. Only after I finally finished DD's did we realize the toe faces the opposite direction from most stockings. Her toe faces L. All the rest of the family's which was a bunch at the time faced R. They take a long time. Pretty sure it was on 14 count. It was a kit. DM did the finish sewing. I've done stuff on linen the 1 stitch over 2 spaces but it's been prob 10 years since I've done any. Can't see well enough now. Would need one of those fancy lights. IF - haha - DD ever gets hitched I might do something but by then I'll be decrepit. I put myself to sleep many a night doing CCS. When I worked nights I could not sleep on my nights off. Made a lot of stuff then. I came across a "Just CrossStitch" magazine not long ago in WalMart. That used to be a favorite. Didn't know it was still in publication. I resisted the temptation.
Chevy - I had one of those barrel curl things I plopped on my head. Hair in a bun and plop it on. Not sure there are even any pics of it. I will send picture of tree if it ever gets done.
Chevy - are you the one on the left or the right?
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Rose, Poinsettias need a lot of water. You were doing them a favor. Sorry it had to be in the middle of the night, tho. I hope you get sprung soon too. People need rest and hospitals are geared to prevent it.
Jazzy, Love the tumbleweed snowman!
Got out our fake tree last night to find that the stand is broken and gluing doesn't work. Not sure what we'll do now. The scouts are selling trees around the corner. Maybe we'll see if those come with stands of some sort. It's 39 here and maybe some more rain later.
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For you Rose. Thetree the kids decorated. Must have room for trains. Presents to one side, wooden tracks to other. One of the legs broke on the tree so duct taped a scarf to pole to make it big enough to sit in real tree stand. Pardon the patching on the wall. Contractors homes always last on list.
Cool lily pads. Will they hold adults? What kind of creatures lurk under?
Yea for DS getting sprung. Hopefully Rose will too.
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A trick I used for real trees so I wouldn't have to water them was to get a galvanized bucket (make sure there is a sturdy trash bag around it), start filling it with sand to about a 1/3 of the way up, put tree in it (hopefully centered with the good side out), add more sand to about 3/4 of the way up, start adding water and alternate with sand and water until nice and tight to the top. It does take two people to do it. The tree doesn't dry out and I would leave it up for three weeks. Only problem is it's a b..ch to get out of the house. Have to make sure the trash bag is up around the top of the bucket otherwise the sand gets in the house. Once outside DH had to wrestle the bucket to get the tree out. It was so worth it for me since I had to deal with the watering and getting ornaments off. Never had to worry about dry needles.
One year, we put the tree in our family room in our basement. Our dog used to go under it and use lower branches to scratch his back. Between that, the tree drying out, and having to go through two door frames to get it outside, the tree lost almost every needle. It was so funny to see the reaction of the trash crew when they came to pick it up. It truly looked like Charley Brown's Christmas tree.
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loved all of the firemen Santas and the pictures of the men pin ups! Also the cute trees everyone posted. Patty, glad you are home. Pace yourself. Rose, hope you feel good enough to get sprung soon with some relief from the pain and vomiting. Mags, sorry you guys are down with the crud at your house. I'm over last weeks H&P finally. Getting ready for son and daughter in law to be here for Christmas week. Having Christmas dinner here for 14. What was I thinking. Planning on using the Lenox Christmas China. In the back of my mind....is this my last Christmas? Can't wait to see my kids.
I don't often post but I'm here morning and night checking on all of you. Love Brenda
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