PRAISE GOD and thank you all

[Doug]

Amen to that jb.
Now look. You really need to be a little patient with yourself. Look at it this way. If you wife had TKR wouldn't you do everything you could to help her with her recovery. Sure you would. I'm so grateful that I've got a wife and son who have helped me with everything. I had to ask them not to do so much fo me. It makes you get up and stretch the leg out.
You had some major cutting and sawing on your leg and it darn sure isn't going to heal over night. Ever break a bone? It had a cast on it for at least six weeks. Our bones were cut off. I'm at seven weeks and I've got one heck of a deep ache going this morning.

 

[beachcomber]

It is good to see you back on here JB!

If you need a perspective renewal--- go back to one of those websites that show an actual TKR being done and watch it. (you probably did that BEFORE your surgery--- I know I did). But there were times AFTER my surgery that I would get impatient and I went back and watched them AGAIN.

Remind yourself what has been done to your leg and cut yourself some slack!
Doug is right! They just sawed off the ends of two of the most important bones in our bodies and glued and hammered chunks of metal and plasticky stuff into those bones. And then they just boot us out the hospital door with an ace wrap and we are on our own!

Let her help. Do the things you can do for yourself when you can--- you will feel better as you become more independent. BUT if you insist on doing things that cause you to hurt you will actually make it harder on her to watch your pain than if you had just let her get the coffee (or whatever) for you. I am sure she feels so helpless and would do anything to take some of the pain away.

This has been a humbling experience for me. My honey calls me "Miss Independence" because I have lived so long as a single mom in charge of everything and so used to doing it ALL. It was hard to ask for help and to accept it. But the time will pass and although it won't seem better EVERY day you will see an improvement over time and it will all be worth it.

Take very special care.
Carolyn

 

[Pattipoo]

Carolyn...my nurses called me "Miss Independent" while in the hospital. I've got short hair and it looks like a big fat monkey butt if I don't wash it every morning.....talk about BED HEAD!! I'd get up EVERY morning on that big fat monkey sore leg and quickly throw my head in the "hand" sink and wash my hair with hand cleanser!!!!!! It made me feel so good, though! I'd have to scoot back into bed (we all know that a scoot at that point was a snails pace -but i scooted as good as i could!) before they'd come in a scold me.

I have a hard time accepting help!.....wish I could get over that.

 

[Rowdy66]

Gat it is really wonderful to hear you feeling so good about things. I think if after I have my surgery and am at the place you are at there is no way that anyone could bring me down. I have been in severe pain for almost two years now and the quality of my life is just terrible but I have still managed to have a good outlook. It isn't because I am a wonderful person, Oh, No! Long ago I discovered the most aggravating thing I could do was smile, so I became inspired. I just can hardly wait until I have had these knees replaced and am at the point you are today. I just pray you wake up everyday feeling that much better from here on out. God knows you have been through the fires and are ready for some cool breezes and peace. God Bless you.

Patti, don't feel bad about being Miss Indendant, there are a lot of us out there just not as many as there used to be. God gave you that indomitable spirit for a reason and your postings here prove that. You are a blessing in anyone's day who is around you or who reads you. I hope you never change.

Hope everyone is having a great Sunday afternoon. God Bless, Jan (Rowdy66)

 

[Pattipoo]

Rowdy!!! Where have you been? I was SOOOOO hoping you'd be on here at 2am....I was going to get you to IM me. ANY of you, PLEASE, if you see me online when you are, in the weeeeee hours, IM me...my little yellow AIM man is always with me. We'll gab and gab and gab!!

When is your surgery?

 

[Nursepair]

JB I know what you mean about relying on the spouse. I was doing some housework with hubby this morning as we are having guests to dinner tonight. My knee felt soo..........painfu,l after a while I broke down and cried (again) and he took over and finished, He never complains but I still feel awful. But they really don't mind, just hard to accept I guess when you are usually quite independent.

 

[Skeet]

I couldn't have done this without my husband and kids. They have done everything for me. Put up with my tears and whining. I consider it a blessing to learn how to receive as we are so much better at giving. It's hard, but it allows others to have the joy of giving, too. As you go, you'll be able to do more and more, but for now let others take care of you. It was hard for me to ask for help, but I've learned how and I've also learned how to relax, which I really didn't do well. So, look at the positive. Having a great attitude will make all the difference. we love you so much and want only the best for you. God bless your week!

Skeet

 

[dw6928]

Carolyn...my nurses called me "Miss Independent" while in the hospital. I've got short hair and it looks like a big fat monkey butt if I don't wash it every morning.....talk about BED HEAD!! I'd get up EVERY morning on that big fat monkey sore leg and quickly throw my head in the "hand" sink and wash my hair with hand cleanser!!!!!! It made me feel so good, though! I'd have to scoot back into bed (we all know that a scoot at that point was a snails pace -but i scooted as good as i could!) before they'd come in a scold me.

I have a hard time accepting help!.....wish I could get over that.

Hair washing was such an ordeal in the hospital! I was not allowed to use a shower and had to make do in a sink. I think I got more water on me than on my head. My first real shower/hair washing with real shampoo+conditioner was off the scale. I had tried the stuff that you put on your hair and towel it off with no water but that was marginal, it did beat an itchy, disgusting head of hair but nothing came close to some Pantene!

 

[Josephine]

When I was a young nurse, we would have a lot of patients who were bedfast for weeks. Some were on traction with fractured femurs, others had had heart attacks and eight weeks total bedrest was the treatment then - not even allowed to feed themselves for the first three weeks! So we would wash their hair by pulling the mattress down the bed then bringing them up until their head was about on the edge. A rubber sheet was spread over the top of the mattress (under their shoulders) and the end draped into a bucket under the bed. Then we would use a bowl to scoop water over them as they lay there. (I actually described this in my {ahem} novel!) Patients would feel sooo much better afterwards. But sadly, we didn't often get the time to do it for them. Was very physical and time consuming.

 

[Pattipoo]

OHHHHHHH....don't you know they're little eyes were rolling back in their heads??.....in such pain and all of a sudden something won......der.......fullllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll. I bet you had guys proposing marriage!!

 

[Josephine]

Naahh! Too busy eyeing up the young doctors!

 

[Nursepair]

I remeber doing that for our bedridden patints Josephine. We often did it duing visiting hours, for those who had no visitors, you know how it was we always had to be busy at all times, no sitting talking at the nursing station like now eh?

The patients alway appreciated it.

 

[gatiger]

I have always thought nursing required a special person. I think now with all the talk about 'nursing shortages' that there has become too many folks that just wanted a job; not really cut-out for the tasks. It takes alot to be able to puut up with folks like me, not just any body can do it.

 

[Nursepair]

I have always thought nursing required a special person. I think now with all the talk about 'nursing shortages' that there has become too many folks that just wanted a job; not really cut-out for the tasks. It takes alot to be able to puut up with folks like me, not just any body can do it.

You are so right, it is only a job to a lot of nurses now, I found that out this past stay in hospital. The trouble is you need lots of qualifications nowadays. Years ago they only required you to have had a good education, commonsense, and be able to be compassionate. Apparerntly nurses are no longer allowed to give you a bedpan if you need one during the change over of shifts as they will miss the report. In my day, we went straight there and read what we missed afterwards. I was hoping I could have called for one at that time, I would have loved to see what their reaction was when they came to clean up the mess!!!

The shortage of nurses thing is ****, we only had 4 nurses to 28 patients often during the dayshift. We would bed bath, shower or give bowls to all in the morning (after we gave them meds and a cup of tea,) dish up breakfast, feed those who needed it and collect the dishes.(That included all meals of course) Then do the dressings all before 10am. We also had to admit the new patients, clean the beds and lockers when we discharged them . We also did backs 2-4hourly, cleaned all the bedpans daily, and took the time to get to know all our patients and give them all the tea and sympathy they needed. If it was a surgical ward, we washed and changed every patient after surgery as well as doinig 1/2 and hourly obs, and checking I.V.'s, catheters and drains. We also did fluid charts to make sure the patients were drinking and P.U.ing enough. Then we had to prepare the unfortunate ones if they died.... etc. etc.....Oh dear, I got up on my high horse again, I'm sorry, I miss that kind of nursing actually. Always busy, but loved it. Josephine will remeber those days I think.

 

[Pattipoo]

Bless your sweet heart! Nowadays....it seems...there's a different person for every duty! I love the "old school" nurses. I had very caring nurses....we all know how phenergen burns like fortyleven doodoos going into an IV!!!....One of my nurses would plunge that syringe in and go about her business...it would burn like hades....my favorite, Denise, would stand there...insert it ever so slowly...talk to me...ask me questions to get my mind off of myself and it barely burned at all. I loved her. Won't ever forget her.

God Bless YOU, Nursepair!!! You and Jose are sorely missed!!

 

[gatiger]

It is sad in alot of ways. I was burned in an accident once and spent 2 weeks in the hospital. Silvadeen(sp) cream twice a day and showers to sluph-off the dead tissue. Anyway there was one nurse, third shift, that I swear put the cream on like she was spackling a drywall. Forgive me God, I hated that woman.

 

[Nursepair]

It is sad in alot of ways. I was burned in an accident once and spent 2 weeks in the hospital. Silvadeen(sp) cream twice a day and showers to sluph-off the dead tissue. Anyway there was one nurse, third shift, that I swear put the cream on like she was spackling a drywall. Forgive me God, I hated that woman.

I can't even begin to imagine the pain she caused you on top of what you were already going through. I hope she has to retire early, she shouldn't be allowed to be a nurse!!

 

[Nursepair]

Bless your sweet heart! Nowadays....it seems...there's a different person for every duty! I love the "old school" nurses. I had very caring nurses....we all know how phenergen burns like fortyleven doodoos going into an IV!!!....One of my nurses would plunge that syringe in and go about her business...it would burn like hades....my favorite, Denise, would stand there...insert it ever so slowly...talk to me...ask me questions to get my mind off of myself and it barely burned at all. I loved her. Won't ever forget her.

God Bless YOU, Nursepair!!! You and Jose are sorely missed!!

It doesn't take a lot to talk to your patient, but it makes a hell of a difference doesn't it?

 

[gatiger]

I worked for a landscape company in Birmingham, AL that used the motto of "The details make the Differance". That is never more true than in nursing. An untrained guy off the street can dump a bedpan, it takes a special person to be able to do it and leave the patient with dignity.

 

[Josephine]

I wanna tell you a story - and I don't mean to blow my own trumpet here cus I was really aghast at what happened but it was like this ...

A couple of years back I was looking after a little old lady who had just had her fractured hip pinned. She was about 88 and had spent the previous several years in a nursing home on top of which she had been on the surgical ward for almost 2 weeks. She was suffering from dementia so not only was she 'out of it' mentally, she was also fidgety and restless. She kept taking the pulse oximeter probe off her finger so I decided to put it on her toe instead. Except when I looked at her feet .... well, poor darling, you could have grown potatoes in between those poor little toes!

So I got a bowl of water and some soap and paper towels and set to washing her feet. Now I knew she had no idea what I was doing for her but I could not have left it for anything.

So imagine my shock when a male nurse, Australian, about 30 years old, who was sitting at the nurse's desk watching me, remarked as I passed by to dispose of the washing materials, "Well, that was above and beyond the call of duty!!" I asked him what ever he meant adding 'forgive me but I thought you were a trained nurse'! He said "I am but you still wouldn't have caught me doing a thing like that."

I was, to put it mildly, gob smacked! I mean, HOW could a person train to be a nurse and not be prepared to do stuff like that? It's what nursing is. They seem to spend all their time entering stuff into computers nowadays, and doing hand overs. Nursing? They don't know the meaning of the word!

Give me strength!

Please, someone shove me off my soapbox before I can't be stopped!!!