Here we were at the VA Hospital in Atlanta the day after Michael Jackson, Farah Faucet and Ed McMahon died.. CC was totally an asshole since getting within five miles of the hospital. I wanted to jump out of the car and just say, "fuck it, I don't need this," but it being the middle of Atlanta, this is not feasible. He is in combat mode and can't accept any information I try to convey.
Walking into to the "Surgical Clinic" a woman commented to me about CC's nice wheelchair. Her son had a similar one. She wanted to know if CC played sports in his; her son played basketball. I asked her if her son had been wounded in Iraq. "No, he had diabetes. His pancreas did not function at all anymore. He has already lost both his legs and had retinopathy.
My father died in this hospital nearly thirty five years ago over the July 4th weekend from complications due to diabetes. I have not set foot in this place in all these years.
__________
We see the Ortho Nurse right away.
"Are you in pain?"
"I'm always in pain"
"Why are you here?"
"What do they have me down for?"
"The knee"
"No, I am here for my hip."
"But look at all the shrapnel on the knee. Oh, there is shrapnel in the hip too. Is it your left hip that hurts."
"No my right side hurts more than the left - see the shrapnel there."
"Well both hips are bad - see the bone on bone. Can you walk at all? Look how your left hip is higher than your right. You will be seeing a physician's assistant. You know they could shoot pain medicine directly in that spot."
"Well, I need my wheelchair adjusted. It pulls to the right."
"You will have to go to Prosthetics for that, we have a good department there."
"I know, I have had to twist arms to get here."
"You should have been coming here all along, there are good doctors here, doctors from Emory. This is a good place. My grandmother lives in Willowchee Creek south of where ya'll live. I have some land down there too. Ya'll have a garden?"
"Tomatoes, collards, okra,"
"Me too. Oh my, your blood pressure is high 150/104."
I believe this. He was unbelievably awfully ugly to me as we drove up to this place. High blood pressure. Why don't I just know that intuitively?
"We won't hold it against you if you are a few minutes late. Did you know that National Enquirer said Michael Jackson only had six months to live in January?"
CC rejoins, "I bet he was waiting until next month to sue them"
"You are so sick. I like you. But all those family tragedies. And he had fifty dates to play. All of his records are sold out in California. What kind of pain do you have?"
"Like a knife"
"OK - stabbing pain."
Back in another waiting room, CC attempted to apologize for his display of temper at me. "I want to apologize."
"For calling me stupid?"
"I said you acted stupid."
I stared at him.
"Hey look, they have handicapped parking under the TV. That was the first time anybody ever went over the X-rays with me. I like that guy."
Another very old Marine wheeled in and commened on Michael Jackson's image on TV. "He looks like a ghost."
"Yeah, he is more important than the president. Is there any other news?"
"Ed McMahon died. He was in debt, too."
"And Farrah Faucet died too."
"Wasn't she married to Lee Majors - he was gay. You can see a little gay in the guy in his old movies. Rock Hudson, he was gay too."
"Michael Jackson was a gorgeous young man. But he wanted to look like Diana Ross."
__________________________
We'd been there two hours before we see the PA.
"What's wrong with you?"
"I was blown up in Vietnam - why does it say I am here?"
"Something about your knee."
"No, I am here for my hip."
"You just have a little arthritis in your hip - compared to some I see - You are actually doing pretty good. What has been done this far for your hip?"
(We've been on this hip quest since April a year ago.)
"They gave me a wheelchair."
"Maybe a knee replacement."
"They will do that with me having Osteomyelitis in my knee?"
"Well, that wouldn't be my favorite thing."
"I haven't had any drainage from the knee since 1988."
"Never say never. This hip, it isn't so bad? You take anti inflamatories?"
"No, just oxycodone. I have been on different kinds of meds, but this makes the pain tolerable. I have only been in a wheelchair for a month. My shoulder gets irritated by crutches. They did a nerve check. Lot's of my nerves on the right side are hypersensitive. That's my theory. But I have only been practicing medicine since 1969."
"Hahahah. Least you admit it."
"They have sent me to water therapy and it helps. Now it only hurts where the bone hits the bone."
PA: type, type, type, type, type, type. "OK, the main issue is the hip."
He examines the leg. You are still spitting shrapnel. Hmmm, not much motion in the hip. Are you looking for surgical intervention. You have Osteomyelitis in that limb, surgery puts you at risk and you may wake up with it in your hip. Your knee may be referring pain to your hip. Your hip degeneration is not as bad as your knee."
"I know how to live with the knee pain. It has always hurt. It's the hip pain that bothers me the most."
"We could send you to radiology and put some cortisone in that hip. The adhesions in your knee don't bode well for surgery. I will talk to my joint guy and see what they think. This knee and hip are post-traumatic arthritis. Your Osteomyelitis puts you at risk. And there is the shoulder wear and tear.
"Of the three things, the hip bothers me the worst. I have a long leg brace with drop foot hinges."
"I'll get you a consult with Prosthetics so you can see about your wheel chair pulling to the right. And I will see what options you have for joint replacement."
I told him about the heart ablation and how that leg had formed clots overnight. He noted that.
"I need a cushion for this wheelchair too."
"Do you do anything for your shoulder?"
"Water therapy."
"Well all of this should give justification for more water therapy. Your situation is unusual. You know this VA hospital serves one third of the nations veterans. The doctors here are pretty aggressive. We'll pin them down to the risks. It is doubtful we could do a knee replacement. We could do a tumor prosthesis on the knee - cut the end of the bone off and replace with metal.
____________________
Later, prosthetics.
"Take a number."
Wheel chair tech -" It pulls to the right? Maybe one of the wheels is too tight. I'll call Dublin about the chair." Goes away.
Another man, a Marine, shows up in a chair, a quickie. CC and him compare notes. He was in the cold war. I am guessing he had a spinal injury. CC guesses he jumped out of a helicopter to get it.
Another man wheeled up who takes my breath away. He was coming straight from intensive care. Had tubes with blood in them running everywhere, a hospital gown, a neck collar. He is complaining very much, extremely angry with the way he has been treated. It is obvious he has lots of drugs in his system, and that really, good god, maybe he should go back to intensive care. But his neck brace doesn't fit and he is fighting mad about it.
The Prosthetics technician brings CC a cushion and gloves. He can't help him with the wheelchair. It will have to be taken apart and put back together.
We left. The journey home was not so tense. CC has nightmares for days about the man from Intensive Care. When I get home I finished packing and left for Tybee Island for my week long writing retreat. It was life altering.
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the traveler
Chuck A. Stetson
Tom Slick
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Comments
and a greasy pair of Marine needle nose pliers in his mouth.
He'd a mess?
He may have been a baseball star like Casey Stengel or Babe Ruth. Remember Dizzy Dean from the Cardinals? Lefty Gomez played in the depression.
Maybe toss a ball?
Play catch. Oh Flop.
A sound of leather!
A ball meets a glove!
Grease wheelchairs!
Silly Dizzy peached!
Good luck. Soon the VA will pull all the yellow corn cob teeth and he can hang out in a MD's medical clinic. He can pretend he's in a huge cavernous church with a beg aspiring authoritarian grand Editor P's !
O Chosen One. Wonderful!
We can pray we all get well.
We all get a E.P tooth pick?
O front pew seat Yippee Hi!