Special Request - chainsaw accident

This note is for a friend that wanted to know more about Daniel's redneck accident. I was going to just link to the original post about Daniel's chainsaw accident, but I just searched for it and it basically just gives an update that we were at the hospital and asked for prayers.

So here is the whole story (for those of you who have yet to hear it or read about it)... let's just say that accidents and trips to the hospital occur more than we would like them to.

On March 4, 2007, Daniel and I were working on one of our many house renovation projects. This particular project had us outside building a fence. After several hours of digging holes for fence posts, we were ready to cut down the split rails to the right length.

Daniel was using a chainsaw for this process since the posts were large, cumbersome and old. I held the posts in place (a human clamp of sorts) while Daniel trimmed the posts. They had to be cut to taper at the ends to fit in the holes of the vertical posts.

We were on the last post and Daniel was having to force the saw because the wood was really old and hard. Also the blade was probably starting to dull after an afternoon of cutting posts. At the last moment, Daniel was putting a lot of pressure on the saw and the wood broke and the saw jerked out of the wood and into Daniel's leg.

We both looked down and saw shredded blue jeans and blood. I was pretty freaked out while Daniel remained calm and collected. Daniel immediately dropped the saw and clamped his hands around his leg. I ran inside to grab wallets, insurance cards, towels, cell phones and was soon back outside helping Daniel into our car. I sped us to the ER - we figured that was the fastest (and cheapest) thing to do.

We got to the ER and soon Daniel was being wheeled into in an ER room for examination. Initially they thought the would be able to stitch up the gash in the ER and let us go home. But after xrays and several different opinions, the doctor's found that the saw had gone down to the bone and they decided surgery to close the wound would be the most prudent thing to do. There was fear of infection in the bone.

The most interesting thing about this particular ER visit were all the people working in the ER that dropped by our room to see the "chainsaw" victim.

Daniel got 21 stitches in his leg to form an upside down V shape on the inside of his calf. He was very lucky that the chainsaw did not hit any muscles, tendons or bone. He was in the hospital for the weekend and on crutches for 2 weeks while he recovered.

Now we say that Daniel is a real redneck because he has a chainsaw story to tell...

Insurance Woes...

The bills from my week of ER visits and the hospital stay are finally trickling in. The whole process is seems like it is going to be a pain and I have full insurance. The insurance company wants to say that the hospital I visited is outside of my coverage so that the deductible will be higher. On further investigation, this really just means that we have to prove that my visits to the ER were legitimate and not for something dumb.

On top of that, it seems that we have to prove that my problems were not pre-existing AND we have to keep on their case to make sure that they are paying what they are supposed to be paying.

I am thankful that I have a wonderful husband who is dealing with all of the phone conversations... he is less likely to buckle than I am.

Anyways, we are hoping that all will go well and we will only have to pay the ER co-pays, the lower deductible and the 10% of everything else (which is what my benefits say they cover)... whether or not that actually happens is another story.

It is also frustrating that I have to get my protime checked weekly because my INR levels are low ... this means a weekly $20 co-pay :(

ER De Ja Vu

So I am sitting in the ER (again) waiting on a final explanation as to what is wrong with me. I fear that there is no definitive answer to that question.

Sometime around 10, I started to experience severe pain in my chest whenever I breathed in. Fearing that my pulmonary embolism had gotten worse (since being discharged from the hospital yesterday) Daniel and I headed back to the ER.

Thankfully I got right in. My blood pressure upon arrival was 144/80. They quickly gave me oxygen, did an EKG on me followed by inserting an IV. Before I knew it, I was on my way for a CT scan (the second in a week). After the CT scan came a chest xray. Then the doctor told me that the scan cleared me of any clots in my lungs - which is good news, but still does not explain the pain I am experiencing (he suggested pleurisy, but this seems to be a catch-all explanation).

He gave me some meds for the pain and then got me in for an ultra sound on my leg. And now I am waiting for those results and to go home. My current BP is 112/60. This just shows that my pain when I came in was real, but it has subsided for the moment.

Mostly I am just tired. I need sleep and I want to be in my own bed. Daniel is pretty exhausted himself. I will be so glad when this ordeal is over...

Sleep please... and no more pain...

Just got update from doc - I am outta here as soon as the nurse comes to unhook me from everything and my ultra sound showed that the blood clots in the leg are also getting smaller.

Hospital

It would seem that Daniel and I were due for one of our yearly visits to the ER. It has, afterall, been almost a year since Daniel's last fiasco involving a table saw...

Here is a recap of this week for me...
Sunday night around 10 pm I had severe abdominal pain, but went to bed hoping to sleep it off. Around 1:30 I woke up in even worse pain. After doing some internet research, I took a bath which temporarily relieve said pain. Soon after I was sitting in the hallway crying. After a call to Daniel's dad, we were on our way to the ER. The ER didn't really have a definitive answer for why I was in pain. They sent me home with a pain killer prescription and orders to rest.

Monday was a day of rest for me and I felt fine.

Tuesday I went to work feeling fine. Sometime after lunch I began to experience pain in my right foot and calf muscle. It really felt like a leg cramp, so I ignored it. Tuesday night brought more pain. I tried calling my sister for advice. When she didn't answer, I sent her an email listing all of the reasons I felt that I was "falling apart."

Sometime early Wednesday morning I woke up in severe pain in my leg. I wrapped my heating pad around it and tried my best to sleep. I woke up for work around 7:30 and found that I could not stand up. The pain in my right leg was excruciating. Daniel helped me into the shower and the pain subsided. Daniel made me call his dad who told me that he thought I had a blood clot and to see a doctor immediately.

I called my friend, LaCinda, who referred me to her sister Kathy. Kathy told me to walk in to her clinic. She agreed that she thought that I had a blood clot in my leg and referred me to an imagining center for an ultrasound of my leg.

After the ultrasound, they told me to go immediately to the ER. The ER checked me in and soon had me taking a CT Scan where they discovered the clot in my leg had broken and small parts of it were now in my lung. Then they left me to hang out for 3 hours while they found me a room to check into. By 11 pm I was finally checked into the hospital and in my own room.

Last night I felt very much in the dark with little communication, but today my nurse has been much more informative. They finally let me know that any danger seems to have passed. They are keeping me for observation while they transition me from injections to a pill. The pill has to build up in my system so I am hanging out at Presbyterian Hospital while they transition me from one medication to the other.

The pain in my leg has subsided substantially. I can get up and move around and I no longer have to be inverted in bed. The biggest thing I may suffer from is boredom. I am enjoying the extra time to read and cable television is a nice (albeit expensive) benefit.

Trip To The ER Part II

Daniel's bandaged thumb.

 

We had our second trip to the ER today when Daniel cut his right thumb on a saw blade.

I was out running some errands and received a call from Daniel at 2:45 saying I need to get home as fast as I could. 15 minutes later, the house was locked up and we were on our way to the ER.

The ER was pretty busy - we had to wait almost an hour before we were actually called in. We spent a total of 4 hours at the hospital - a lovely October day wasted waiting on people to see us.

Daniel is doing fine - he had three stitches put in his right thumb. He is worried about how to do the following things with his left hand:

1) Shave
2) Take care of business
3) Brush his teeth
4) Use a keyboard and mouse
5) Write

Home from the hospital.

We are home from the hospital and Daniel is doing pretty good. He is on crutches and able to get around. The stitches in his leg should come out in about 10 days and he should be able to walk on his own again. It took over 4 hours for him to get discharged - we waited over 1 hour for them to bring a wheelchair! So we basically spent our weekend in the hospital watching cable.

Visit to the ER

I have a quick prayer request o share. Today we were working on finishing a fence we are building and Daniel accidentally cut himself with the chainsaw. It is not really bad, but I did have to take him to the ER and the cut was a bit deep so they did surgery to clean it out and close it up. They are keeping him until Monday. It has been a very stressful day but he seems to be doing fine. He sent me home to get some sleep and so I could pick up some stuff to take to him in the morning. He seems to be doing really well and we are very grateful that it was not worse. They are expecting him to start using crutches tomorrow, so that is a good sign.