The Last Two Weeks-Part One

 It's been a hell of a two weeks.

Two weeks ago on Tuesday, when I did that pick up order at CVS I blogged about my left leg started feeling funny.  This was less than a week when I was suppose to fly up to Virginia.  The whole leg was achy and the calf hurt, then the thigh hurt and whatever was going on seemed to move around.

So on Wednesday we went to Urgent Care as I had had a PE in that leg's ankle back in 2012, over 12 years ago so I didn't want to take a chance.
At Urgent Care they only had an x-ray machine so told me to go to the ER as they had the ultrasound machine.  Great.

So the next day, after lunch, as I was still hoping it was nothing and would go away, we trotted up to the ER.  Got triaged and of course my problem was not urgent(to them)so we sat for hours(they had just brought car accident victims in from a wreck we passed on the interstate)until they finally called me back.

Got the leg ultrasound and it showed no blood clot(thank goodness).  Then they did an x-ray of my thigh and hip as that is where the pain was presenting at that time.  No broken bones so they sent me home with Naproxen(aka Aleve)and was told to stay off the leg for a day or so.

Friday I was bopping around the house, packing and such and while standing next to the bed my leg knee gave way on me and I fell.  Didn't hurt myself and was able to use the bed to pull myself to my feet.  Put ice on the knee and rested.

Later that evening, after dinner, the knee gave way again and I went crashing to the floor in the kitchen.
Hubs and I tried for almost an hour to figure out how to get me up but I was so tired I told him to call the fire department and I pulled a Linda(sorry Linda! 8-))and they came and picked me up.  Hubs says I just wanted to hunky hotties paying attention to me-not in that way! lol

On Saturday I was oh so careful about moving around all day(lots of sitting and icing as it became clear that the knee was the issue, not other parts of my leg)but then I had to take a shower before bed as I'd be flying the next day. 
I usually enter the shower with my left leg first, while holding onto the bar and then raise my right(TKR)leg into the shower.  Well, that was the wrong call.  I should have used the right leg to enter the shower first and would have been facing away from the showerhead.  The right leg gave out on me and I went down, mostly landing in the shower.  But my right leg, right where I had the 24 stitches and the fight with Sissie's collapsing stool on Christmas Eve scraped over the metal track where the glass shower door attaches.  I looked down and you could see the first layer of skin peeling right off.

I also had a wonderful bruise above the wound and as the last week has gone on I've been developing more and more lovely bruises, from my toes and left foot, the my right upper arm and on my right side.  All places where I landed on in that fall.

                          My swollen and blooming bruises on my foot and toes.

Hubs and I cleaned me up after my shower, applied antibiotic ointment and gauze pads with medical tape where needed.

Early the next morning he drove me to DFW airport 3+ hours away and I got a wheelchair ride to the gate and Hubs drove 3+ hours home.

Being as I had special assistance on my plane ticket I was suppose to board first but the wheelchair pusher in the airport dumped into a seat by the gate and I had to get the gate agent's attention that I needed a chair to get through the jet gangway to the plane's door.
She kept calling for a wheelchair but it almost didn't arrive.  Meanwhile all the other passengers boarded the plane.
Finally got a chair and got wheeled to the plane's door.  The flight attendant asked me what my seat assignment was as I gingerly made my way into the plane's galley with my cane.  He asked to see my electronic boarding pass on my phone so I took it from my pants pocket to show him.  He looked down the aisle and said someone was already in that seat!  WTF is wrong with people?  Don't answer that, it's rhetorical.

So the flight attendant had to get that idiot to move while I muttered how stupid is someone they can't count flight rows. 8-(  
I finally got to the row and I had a window seat so had to wait for the two people next to me to more into the aisle so I could try to slide over into my seat.   As I slid I must have opened up a blood blister on my left arm(not related to the fall of Saturday)and after getting settled I looked down and saw I had blood all over my light grey pants.  ugh.  Then I saw my arm.  Not having any facial tissue with me I asked loudly if anyone had a Kleenex with no response.  The guy sitting on the aisle went and got some cocktail napkins from a flight attendant for me.   Bless him.

After staunching that wound I went to get my phone out of my pocket so I could watch something as it was a 3 hour flight and my phone was gone!!  I know it was on the plane as I had it out to show the flight attendant my seat assignment in the galley area.  Maybe when I went to slip it back into my pocket I missed and it landed somewhere in the aisle before I got to my row.  I looked all around me on the floor and asked the two guys if it was in their seats(dropped as I slid over to the window)but that wasn't the case.  When the beverage cart came to us I asked the flight attendant who had removed the idiot passenger from my seat to be on the lookout if anyone finds a phone as mine was missing.  No one found it.

I spent that 3 hours getting all worked up over the phone(it was my only means of communicating with my brother after I landed)and planned to ask a flight attendant to call my phone so we would hear where it was on the plane and it that didn't work, to refuse to leave the plane after landing if no one turned my phone in.  It was an awful feeling to be alone, injured and having no phone.  I sat there as everyone else behind us on the plane disembarked.  Someone stopped and asked me if I wanted to get up and I said the flight attendant had put my cane in the overhead compartment and I couldn't reach it, so they got that down for me.  I half stood up and looked at my seat and damned if I wasn't sitting on my own phone that entire time and never felt it! LOLZ  I was so relieved. 8-)))

So I got a wheelchair right at the jet bridge over to the baggage claim area where my sister in-law was sitting and waiting for me.
I have never been so glad to see a friendly face.  8-)

More later.
I have been off my tremor meds since Sunday in preparation for my Focused Ultrasound procedure this Friday so typing is a bit dicey and laborious for me at this point.  I might have to finish this up over the weekend.

Sluggy