Well this has been an interesting, painful, and a lot of other emotions I could throw in here about 2021 and it is only two months old!
I was plugging away at my day just like any other morning, the phone rang and the call display said that it was Kelowna General Hospital. My first instinct is that it was them just calling to postpone my surgery, as from what I have been told since December is that surgery was very unlikely to happen in the first quarter of 2021, which was how it was originally suppose to happen. The nurse that was calling was pleased to inform me that my surgery would be scheduled for February Seventeeth and she wanted to start getting all my pre-surgery appointments all set up. I actually looked around the room because I really thought I was being played. Long story short, it was for real. Are you kidding me? This has been about a three-year process, and to be honest I was at a point where it felt like it was never ever going to happen. Was I excited? Not really. I was actually nervous, BIG TIME! Why? Nothing with my health really has ever gone like I would hope. It is what it is though. I was set to go through with this surgery, I have put so much time and other peoples time into this. So, let me send a shout out to every single one of you that have ever driven me down to Kelowna for appointments or have done something in regards to this matter. Alyssa, Derek, Sang, Christopher, Angela, Steve, Kelly, Vanara, George and I just hope I haven’t forgotten anyone?! There were over sixteen appointments and it wasn’t always easy there were definitely a few hiccups and some of the appointments were down right discouraging. Some were overnight which we doubled up with a little of fun/poker (pre-pandemic, remember those times). I managed to get all my pre-surgery stuff all done and surgery was just less than one week away. You guys gave up your days off, work and certainly other things to accommodate me. This isn’t totally over as there are some follow up appointments. But I will somehow find a way to repay my gratitude. Many will likely say that I have helped them in the past with computer work or something, but that’s just what I do for work. But you all need to be acknowledged, and again I hope I am not forgetting anyone. Now back to the original story, I kind of necessarily went off track there! I thought I had all my business stuff taken care of when my stand-in decided to pull out less than one week prior to February 17th. He was being very wishy washy leading up to this moment but I thought we had everything all sorted out, apparently, I was wrong. He called me six day before my surgery and officially pulled out. I wasn’t stressed out at all. I was in panic mode! Other things had me emotional charged up then it happened. I made some hot chocolate. Before I go too far let preface this a tad:
When I drink something Hot, I make it in a thermos that has a lid on it for this exact reason.
I made it and safely got it to my office where I set it down on my desk and decided I was just going to chill out and try not to stress too much until tomorrow. So, I was taking my pants off and had one leg out, also keep in mind I need to sit down when I do that. Then I didn’t want to do something stupid like spill this HOT drink by accidently kicking it over so I decided to move it even further from the ledge, well fuck me that thermos was hot to the touch and it doesn’t take much for me to jump or flinch (spastic reflex is a part of this stupid disease) YUP, you guessed it I knocked it over the lid fell off and it spilled all over my bare leg. I of course can’t get to a bathroom or cold source of water really fast, it wasn’t pretty. You can imagine the rest. I didn’t go to the ER, but the pain was brutal. I should have. I wrapped it in a wet towel, cleaned it as best as I could. Took many Advil, and just grit my teeth in pain with a cold towel and some frozen corn. The next morning my speech was really bad, so I sent my doctor’s office an email, shortly after she asked me to send some pictures and after about an hour my voice was legible. Dr. Barclay called me and he told me that I had second and some third-degree burns. To keep it clean and keep up with the cold compress and take Tylenol for the pain. At the time it wasn’t actually to painful, I got some gauze and wrapped it up. I worked from home that day with my leg propped up all day. It wasn’t to bad. That was the calm before the storm. Sheer pain started to kick in. Putting any kind of weight on my leg was excruciating. I sucked it up because that’s just what I do and complained about it on Facebook when Kelly, who is a nurse sent me a PM. The short version of the story was to get some additional advice which I did. I called urgent care in RIH and they booked me an appointment for that early evening. I went down there and they looked. It wasn’t infected which of course was my biggest concern with my surgery less than four days away. They cut off all the huge blisters as they would have ruptured likely anyways. They cleaned and patched it in silver and wrapped it up and advised that I come back and change the dressing daily. This time they told me to take the bandages off first and shower before I came. Well fuck, I have never passed out from pain, that was a close as its ever gotten though. So, to sum it all up I was referred to a clinic that changed my bandages daily, gave me extra supplies. The pain is way down, still not great. Dressing changes are still happening but now I am down to having it changed every three days.
Now back to my eye surgery……
Between pain and stress, I basically tossed in the towel with trying to find a work replacement for a few days and decided I would deal with it if it happened. With the exception of the day of my surgery and most of my customers knew my situation that actually worked out really well. I got two emails the day of my surgery, one was able to wait and I the other needed a little more attention but it turned out to be no big thing. All in all, it went really smooth. I actually did try a bit of work, I was scolded. But I did the little work anyways, because that’s just me. For all those people who reached out to me, thanks because it helps more than you can ever know! Surgery will have been one week tomorrow and it will take a few weeks to real know if this procedure work. I am not saying much of anything to people in this regard other than I will remain cautiously optimistic. Not much I have ever wanted to work in regards to my health has ever really worked in the past, so I am just taking the wait and see approach. Being let down by this will not be the end of the world for me but, yes, it will be very discouraging. I am not looking for perfection from this procedure just an improvement to extend a few things for me. I can safely say at this point that things are no worse than they were. If you got any questions or concerns please feel free to leave a comment or direct message me. I am certain there is lots I forgot to mention
PEACE,
Darrin
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