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Grandmother Update
Nov. 30th, 2004 11:10 pmAnd my opinion of my grandmother's chiropractor just sinks lower and lower.
Sequence of events: Grandmother twists while putting log into woodstove fireplace insert and falls into stove, burning her hand. She has some pain in her knee and hip, so she makes an appointment with her chiropractor (since he's helped her with that problem in the past). She goes to see chiropractor on Friday and, upon arriving home, falls two more times trying to get from the car to the house, eventually dragging herself into the house where she calls (excuse my language) dickhead chiropractor who tells her to "ice it" and to see her regular doctor on Monday. I arrive Sunday night, take her to the ER on Monday and I've told the rest of the story already.
I talked with my dad earlier this evening (who is currently with my grandmother, helping her this week) who talked to her doctor today about the results of the MRI (which I took her to get before I drove home last week). I'm a little fuzzy on what's wrong, simply because we were truly playing a game of Telephone and I was getting this information third-hand. Apparently, two of her lumbar vertebrae are compressed (or something along those lines) with some rather serious inflamation which is causing problems to the nerves in her leg. Her doctor is actually surprised she can still walk and has cautioned her to be very careful with her movements, since she could easily become paralyzed at this point.
Her doctor is going to be scheduling her in with a surgeon for later this week (pretty much as soon as he can possibly get her in) and they'll be doing spinal surgery to relieve some of the pressure and hopefully stabilize her spine. This is, in fact, a very old injury that has apparently been getting more and more inflamed as time has gone by (considering she used to work out in the fields with my grandfather, hauling hay and so forth, I'm not surprised she has back problems). Dickhead chiropractor has been treating her for years... and apparently never noticed this problem. Now, it's possible it's not the sort of thing he could notice. After all, it took an MRI of her lower back for her doctor to properly diagnose it. But still... my opinion of the man has reached rock bottom.
As has my opinion of my relatives (with the exception of my Uncle Lars who is still over in Bremerton with his partner Steve, helping Steve's mom during her recovery from surgery), who can't seem to be bothered to return my dad's phone calls about their mother. So, at this point it really looks like I'll be heading back down there to help out during her recovery period (when she is likely going to be confined to a wheelchair, in a very wheelchair unfriendly house), unless we can persuade some of the relatives who actually live in the same time zone and only a few hours away to go up and lending a friggin' hand for a change.
/rant mode off
Sequence of events: Grandmother twists while putting log into woodstove fireplace insert and falls into stove, burning her hand. She has some pain in her knee and hip, so she makes an appointment with her chiropractor (since he's helped her with that problem in the past). She goes to see chiropractor on Friday and, upon arriving home, falls two more times trying to get from the car to the house, eventually dragging herself into the house where she calls (excuse my language) dickhead chiropractor who tells her to "ice it" and to see her regular doctor on Monday. I arrive Sunday night, take her to the ER on Monday and I've told the rest of the story already.
I talked with my dad earlier this evening (who is currently with my grandmother, helping her this week) who talked to her doctor today about the results of the MRI (which I took her to get before I drove home last week). I'm a little fuzzy on what's wrong, simply because we were truly playing a game of Telephone and I was getting this information third-hand. Apparently, two of her lumbar vertebrae are compressed (or something along those lines) with some rather serious inflamation which is causing problems to the nerves in her leg. Her doctor is actually surprised she can still walk and has cautioned her to be very careful with her movements, since she could easily become paralyzed at this point.
Her doctor is going to be scheduling her in with a surgeon for later this week (pretty much as soon as he can possibly get her in) and they'll be doing spinal surgery to relieve some of the pressure and hopefully stabilize her spine. This is, in fact, a very old injury that has apparently been getting more and more inflamed as time has gone by (considering she used to work out in the fields with my grandfather, hauling hay and so forth, I'm not surprised she has back problems). Dickhead chiropractor has been treating her for years... and apparently never noticed this problem. Now, it's possible it's not the sort of thing he could notice. After all, it took an MRI of her lower back for her doctor to properly diagnose it. But still... my opinion of the man has reached rock bottom.
As has my opinion of my relatives (with the exception of my Uncle Lars who is still over in Bremerton with his partner Steve, helping Steve's mom during her recovery from surgery), who can't seem to be bothered to return my dad's phone calls about their mother. So, at this point it really looks like I'll be heading back down there to help out during her recovery period (when she is likely going to be confined to a wheelchair, in a very wheelchair unfriendly house), unless we can persuade some of the relatives who actually live in the same time zone and only a few hours away to go up and lending a friggin' hand for a change.
/rant mode off
