The good news? I got a bunch of knitting done yesterday on my Shadow Shawl.
The bad news? It was in the Emergency Room for T. who has torn his medial meniscus.
The really bad part, not yet to the ugly, is that he is a Lead Physical Therapist. Not only does he practice PT but he has 5 other PT’s to supervise as well. It’s a very physical job and a hurt knee means no work. You can’t quite transfer a spinal cord patient when you can barely stand. This is actually how he tore it. He’s had some really hard patients lately and it finally just tore on Friday when he was on the mat working with a patient. He’s going in today to get the ball rolling with work-comp. Luckily it’s fairly minor surgery. They just go in and do a meniscectomy (removal of the meniscus) through an arthroscopy. Nothing major, but when you do heavy lifting for a job? Not so much fun. At least he knows how to rehab himself! HA! My father’s a Dr. and he’s had a trillion of these done on himself and he always stayed awake so he could watch the scope which of course, T. informed me yesterday he will want to do too. “Of course I want to see what they do!” It looks like there’s lots of waiting room knitting for me on my horizon. Oh yeah. Did I mention that T. is one of the top bike racers in New Mexico? Yeah…..so that’s done for this summer too. Fun STUFF! At least there are 3 full weeks of live Tour de France to watch on TV right?
The ugly? Dang. I’ve spent my whole life growing up in hospitals. I used to make rounds with my dad when I was little. Then T. managed a Physical Medicine Department for 7 years outside of Boulder, CO. I’ve even been in the ER about 3-4 times for my own injuries and never, in my whole life have I seen what I saw yesterday in the UNM ER. I saw stuff I only thought happened on shows like ER. I had no idea what a real ER looked like. Patients lined up on stretchers in the halls? Drunk people ripping out their IV’s because they don’t want to be there. Beat up drunk people. People screaming because they needed stitches. At least 3-4 people just walking around moaning. And one dude who was sick of waiting and just ripped his IV out and got pissed off because he had been there too long and said he had to go to work. He was drunk too. Maybe it was because it was a Sunday morning? Holy crap. Scary. And I actually have friends who work there too! That my friends, takes a special kind of person to work in a place like an ER. I know it has a lot to do with the fact that UNM Hospital is the only Level 1 trauma center within 400 miles. But still …. it made me want to run back to the cute, quiet Monadnock Community Hospital where Supergirl was born where people come in with injuries like chainsaw cuts and BB’s logged in their arms…….
31 Comments
Sorry about T. Glad to know it’s not such a big surgery as my dad just found out he
has a torn meniscus as well. ERs suck. I needed stitches once and decided it was
better to go home to my small quiet hospital than sit in an ER in NYC. Very scary.
Yikes…sorry to hear about T. I hope all goes well — how long does he think he’ll be off work?
*ouch*
Sorry to hear about T. and the long day in the ER. I hope the kiddies didn’t have to be there.
Sorry to hear about T. I agree with you about ER’s.
Oh, poor T!
That ER sounds crazy wild… Who would’ve thought that a Sunday morning would be so intense at the ER??
When is T having surgery?
OUCH, I hope he is a fast healer!
The Washington DC ER that I had to go to once scared the hell out of me.
When is the surgery?
JWW
Sorry about the injury. Hope he’s on the mend very soon.
Ouch! I hope T recuperates well. I hate ERs too.
Those city ERs are kind of scary. The only good part is that there are often lots of police around!
Hope T. continues to do well and mend.
He’s strong and in good shape so should heal quickly! Good luck to you both.
You hit ER on a GOOD day. The wait during the winter for ER and urgent care was about 15 hours if you were lucky. You signed in waited all day and were sent home to come back the Next day. : (
‘Hope he’s feeling better. Knit on!
Sending healing vibes to Mr. T! On the bright side, if he’s at home, he could entertain the
kids and you could dye a whole dump truck load of yarn!
Oh my gosh!!! What a trying weekend. I hope T feels better soon.
Fast healing thoughts and wishes going his way.
Sending lots of good vibes your way. Hope he gets fixed up fast. I just spent all of Thursday and Friday at the V.A. Hospital. Have spent too much time in hospitals in general. I know what you mean about the Level 1’s. Wild and crazy places.
Most men are not very good patients (ask me how I know). Hope your Mt. T. doesn’t run you ragged.
I’m so sorry to hear about T hurting himself. I hope he is quick healer and there is not much pain. My first husband went back to work after two days with similar surgery, but not that kind of work. See if he can learn some fast hypnosis so he will sail through that surgery awake. Or ask if the doctor is videotaping, he can watch it over and and over if he likes.
TK
Wow! Hope he’s feeling better soon! Injuries just plain suck. That’s right! Suck!
Ah….I’m having ER flashbacks. I was an ER nurse for a short time, but I’ve spent countless hours with active boys, waiting, waiting, waiting…..
I’m so sorry to hear that about T. I hope that he heals well. That ER room sounds very scary.
Yikes! T. has my full sympathy. There’s nothing like injuring a part you really, really need to get anything done. Perhaps he should take up knitting?
We’ve had numerous visits to Boston Children’s ER with DS. If you are in immediate need of medical care they are blindingly fast. If not you go to the end of the line — which is as it should be, but which has given us ER waits of 6 or more hours. I once made an entire hat in an ER exam room. I can understand how a person could get tired of waiting.
I’ve worked in healthcare since I was a teenager, so I’ve seen a lot, too, including what you described above. That’s fairly typical for the larger university medical centers which are often also the local trauma center and are usually state-supported and typically the only ones in town who will regularly treat indigent patients, and it’s often the indigent and homeless patients who behave like the ones you described, unfortunately. Community hospital ER’s don’t see quite as much action.
Sorry for your husband’s injury - that can’t be fun. My SIL is a P.T. but thus far hasn’t injured herself to such an extent.
Oh no! I hope T. is as good a patient as he is a PT.
I’ll be thinking about y’all. ♥
I’m so sorry to hear about T. Sending y’all good vibes.
Amy
Ouch! I hope that he gets it all taken care of soon and recovers quickly! My hubby tore his meniscus and PCL a few years ago and he’s still dealing with PT, after three surgeries.
Hey Scout -
I am so sorry to hear about T - what a great weekend! Not. Sending healing vibes in your general direction. Owie.
The more I see of what you get accomplished, the more impressed I am!
Oh no! I’m so sorry to hear about that. I hope at least T has some fun watching the procedure, and that he gets better soon. Take care.
Rocking shawl!! Ouch that hurts! and Glad my local hospital is relatively calm too.
Hope he’s on the mend soon!
Oh, and keep that yarn coming!!
So sorry about T’s knee–as a fellow PT (with shoulder issues) I empathize. I can’t believe that with all the stuff going on in your life, you still managed to go from an inquiry on a custom skein of yarn through dyeing, drying and shipping and it arrived in CT, all in 5 days! Thanks again, it is beautiful!
Sorry to hear about the knee! Having been through 2 surgeries for the same meniscus, torn in 2 separate incidents, I can totally sympathize with the current pain and the future recovery! One time I tore it clean in half, and it was able to be repaired with something called “arrows”.
Can’t say I ever stayed awake during a surgery on purpose, though I watched the video afterwards, and was totaly fascinated!!
Love your yarn. One of these days… My backlog of projects is currently too high for my comfort level, but I’m steadily decreasing the stash! I’ll have to renew it at some point!
Oh no, sorry about T’s knee. I’ve been to the UNMH ER and both times was pretty scared, although in retrospect the guy who hit on my sick friend while covered in someone else’s blood is pretty funny.
Thoughts and prayers to you and T.