Well, just two weeks ago I was telling you how I had fallen approximately four times since my Deep Brain Stimulation surgery.
Make that five!
Two Saturdays ago, I was cleaning the pool in my back yard. I was doing the skimming and brushing to get out the yellow blossoms from the area palo verde trees.
I had to get it clean for grandson Hunter, who was flying in from New Jersey that evening to spend the first half of spring break with us. The pool water was a brisk 79 degrees but he said that would feel good to him after experiencing one of the coldest winters in that state’s history.
I had just finished getting all of the little blossoms out of the pool and was walking back to the house, when I tripped and said to myself, “Oh no, I‘m going down.”
I fell on my left side with my left arm between me and the cool deck. My watch was smashed and I had blood dripping from the tip of my little finger.
Diane came running across the yard to my as-sistance.
“Don’t try picking me up, Let me lie here for a while,” I said.
After a few minutes I had Diane assist me in getting up.
I felt a little sore that first day, but nothing serious. My little finger turned purple and I had some soreness in that hand.
I went to the airport with Diane to pick up Hunter, who arrived on a 10 p.m. flight.
The next day was Easter. We took him to Denny’s for breakfast (Sunday breakfast at Denny’s was a tradition that started when he was a young boy. Now almost 16 we didn’t know if he would remember. The first thing he asked walking across the airport parking lot¸ was “Grampa, are we going to breakfast at Denny’s tomorrow? I gave him a positive reply and he said, “Awesome.”) Diane prepared his favorite dinner that evening for Easter – prime rib.
On Monday we took him to see the very popular movie, Fast and Furious – 7.
Tuesday, he packed for his afternoon return flight.
It was a nice visit and through all of that, I didn’t suffer too much discomfort.
That night, however, it all started to happen.
I had excruciating pain in two places in my ribs all night long. I got no sleep.
Wednesday, I went to the Mayo Clinic, I had X-rays taken and they showed I had a fractured rib.
I slept on the couch the next night and actually got five hours of sleep.
I was getting violent cramps in three spots in my ribs. We phoned into the doctor the next morning and learned the muscle spasms are quite common with fractured ribs.
The doctor gave me a prescription for a muscle relaxant. As of Monday when I wrote this column, I only have a little improvement. The doctor said it takes four to six weeks to heal a fractured rib.
I said in my column two weeks ago that a DBS pa-tient needs to be extra cau-tious about falling.
I came within six inches of hitting my head on the heavy metal lawn chairs that we have by our pool.
If I had hit one of the caps where my leads go through, the results could have been disastrous.
