Well, y'all got this far so you must not be bored to tears about me. To say that I'm no stranger to hospitals would be an understatement. I was a fearless accident prone child with a pain-related seizure disorder. Anything that could potentially cause an injury, I wanted to do and found a way to do...And somehow I only got injured doing the "normal" things. 'Ya know, like pulling out a loose tooth as a 4th grader, riding my bicycle up the next door neighbor's driveway after crossing the street to avoid the glass in the one prior. I didn't get hurt doing the crazy things like walking along the edge of the Grand Canyon or throwing myself in the waves of the Pacific Ocean when they threw me back upon the shore completely short of breath...That was just fun, purely fun...I climbed trees, ran races, competed with the boys, nothing ever stopped me...Even when I had a broken collarbone. My seizures made it so that I wasn't supposed to do things that put me in immenint danger, so what did I want to do in sports? Play catcher in softball & goalie in soccer...Yeah, I was just a mite bit of a thrill seeker...and that adrenaline junkie hasn't gone anywhere.
As a younger adult I was stubborn, extremely stubborn when it came to health-care. I had GOOD insurance too. I worked for a MAJOR corporation with really good benefits & had no excuse for NOT going to the dr for anything...I was so stubborn that at one point, my roommate had to force me by dragging me out of the house under false pretenses when I had been vomiting for two days...I came to find out I had a really bad kidney infection & was on the borderline of having to be admitted to the hospital...Yeah, I was quite stubborn....
Fast Forward to November of 2003...I was forced to go to the hospital, not under my own volition. I fell 25' while working. I was doing the 'safe' job that day...I was climbing and 80' ladder to use a radio to communicate with the person doing the dangerous work & the people on a ground crew...Earlier in the day I'd been doing really dangerous stuff moving equipment on the same type of ladders & NOT gotten injured, NOT had trouble, but apparently my history of injuries doing the safe things caught up with me...go figure. As a result, I have a Spinal Cord Injury(SCI). The injury in and of itself could have been a TON worse, for that I am grateful. The complications from it can be a pain in the a**. This has been a lesson in going to the doctor. a HUGE lesson...The first lesson I had was while I was still in the trauma hospital & they had to convince me that it was OK to take pain medications...I was so argumentative against taking anything, yet I was in so much pain that I couldn't function. period. They were giving me IV Morphine AND oral Morphine, I was constantly in pain & wouldn't ask for meds...I had several family members and medical professionals lecture me about how I couldn't heal if I was in too much pain. I eventually gave in and got some relief...That was the 1st step in my learning that dr's were there to help & you could ASK for things when you needed it. Now, my rehab experience is a chapter unto itself & didn't teach me any of that...it was a nightmare. Another story for another time...maybe...
Anyway, since then, I've been diagnosed with a handful of other Chronic conditions and the complexity of battling the SCI complications with the Chronic illnesses can be a full time job. Sometimes I meet people & they ask what I do & most of the time my answer is that most of my time lately is spent going to dr's...Lately has been the past 3 years, minimum...7max...Somewhere in between there I've lived with the medical profession. I swear at times I'm a walking pharmacy, others a walking PDR. I know so many drugs and drug interactions off the top of my head it's insane...
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