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Dr. Mabuse
Septic Fiend
Sweden
9688 Posts |
 Posted - 11/02/2007 : 07:03:12 [Permalink]
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Those of you who attended the Wednesday chat know a little about my car stereo project...
Wednsday morning I finished building a carboard model of my intended subwoofer-box. Last time I had a custom built box for the same model car, I had severe problems getting the woofer into place. The purpose with the carboard box was to double-check that it would fit through the lid of the trunk.
Guess what? It was too large! A few centimeters here and there. Liselotte joked a few days ago that I might have to build a ship-in-a-bottle woofer. Now it seems that she was right. I think I've figured out how to solve the problem of making it in two pieces to be (hopefully easily) assembled once it's in the trunk.
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Dr. Mabuse - "When the going gets tough, the tough get Duct-tape..."
Dr. Mabuse whisper.mp3
"Equivocation is not just a job, for a creationist it's a way of life..." Dr. Mabuse
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Dr. Mabuse
Septic Fiend
Sweden
9688 Posts |
 Posted - 11/02/2007 : 07:26:00 [Permalink]
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I had an appointment with the orthopaedic doctor today about my hip.
As my condition is slowly, but surely, deteriorating the pain is getting worse and worse. When I sleep, I rarely get one single uninterrupted sleep-period, but wake up from pain every 1½ hour- or 3 hour- interval.
The doctor looked at my x-rays, pointed out to me the problematic areas with necrosis, and explained what was happening to it, and also the different likely causes to it. Though he pointed out that the exact reasons and processes for some of it is still unknown.
I got some bad news, and some good news.
The bad news is that the Birmingham Hip Resurfacing Method that I had such high hopes for, seems to be out. The level of necrosis, and the way it is spreading indicates that the risk for complication is way too high to warrant that method. It would most likely not hold for more than a few months maybe a year before I experience a new break beneath the implant.
The good news is that the new "conventional" Total Hip Replacement it getting better. The new plastic material in the joint is proving to last much longer than before, and that the doctor no longer thinks I'm too young for this kind of surgery.
With the level of necrosis, he was not surprised that I'm having trouble with the pain.
"Hey, wait... These x-rays are from 2005? We don't have anything more recent?" I said "No, -05 was the last time I was here, and my company doctor didn't order new x-rays."
He made some adjustments in his report, and said he'll set up for a more thorough x-ray session. Currently, there's an 6-8 month queue for hip replacement surgery, but he said he'd look into it and see if something could be done about that.
To sum it up, it looks like as of now, I'm in on the waiting list for a hip replacement.
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Dr. Mabuse - "When the going gets tough, the tough get Duct-tape..."
Dr. Mabuse whisper.mp3
"Equivocation is not just a job, for a creationist it's a way of life..." Dr. Mabuse
Support American Troops in Iraq:
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pleco
SFN Addict
USA
2998 Posts |
Posted - 11/02/2007 : 07:29:39 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by Dr. Mabuse
To sum it up, it looks like as of now, I'm in on the waiting list for a hip replacement.
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I hope that works out for you, and that you can get it done sooner rather than later!  |
by Filthy
The neo-con methane machine will soon be running at full fart. |
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
 Posted - 11/02/2007 : 07:43:27 [Permalink]
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I've got a Total on the left side. Recovery from the surgery ain't fun, but brother, it has me back on what's left of my feet and walking again.
I highly reccommend it.
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist! 
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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
Posted - 11/02/2007 : 08:12:26 [Permalink]
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Good luck, Mab! I'm with pleco and Fil. The sooner the better. What's causing the necrosis, anyway?
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“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
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bngbuck
SFN Addict
USA
2437 Posts |
Posted - 11/02/2007 : 11:45:47 [Permalink]
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Dr.Mabuse.....
As you may remenber, my daughter has had recent hip-replacement surgery - both hips, both total replacement. She is 36.
As I am her primary care-giver at home, I have great empathy and also great interest in your situation. Have you written here in more detail about your hip condition? Or could you post me some description of it's history? Do you suffer from rheumatoid arthritis? Holly has had RA for about 10 years.
I would greatly like to hear from you and perhaps offer any information I have on the subject, as I have researched it deeply.
If you would care to speak about it here, or in PM or to bngbuck@roadrunner.com , it doesn't matter to me!
With respect and empathy,
Bill Buck |
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Dr. Mabuse
Septic Fiend
Sweden
9688 Posts |
Posted - 11/02/2007 : 15:55:11 [Permalink]
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Having searched the archives a bit, I can't seem to find my history, so I could as well give it here.
20 years ago when I still lived in the town I grew up, I went to the Pentecostal Church.
On Fridays or Saturday evenings we used to go to a school's gym, and play floorball.
I wasn't very good at it, mediocre at best compared to most I played with. I didn't have a good ball handling, and my endurance is poor. But I'm a good strategist, and am very good at reading the play, anticipating player movements over the field and quickly see opportune moments and pathways.
As I drifted away from the church, my participation in these activities came less and less frequent and finally I gave it all up.
In January -95 I moved to my current town to work for the company Ericsson, which at that time manufactured mobile phones. As the company expanded, they expanded the buildings to triple the size in 3-4 years. And employees increased from 700 to 3500. At that time, management decided to build a "health centre", with two kinds of work-out gyms, and a field large enough for indoor football, or tennis. All employees were encouraged to use the facilities to keep healthy.
Some of my co-workers started to play floor-ball one evening every week, and after a while they started nudging me to come along. By that time, I had gained weight to somewhere between 85-90kg, so I agreed I really could use the exercise.
One day in early December 2000, I decided that it's now or never. I was working early morning shift, which means I go up at 5:00 and start work at 6:00. Finish work at 14:00, get home and eat and fix stuff and get back to the health centre at 16:00 for a two hour game.
We started to play, and I started off easy, as I used to when I played with my Pentecostal friends. Back then, I used the strategy of letting them work themselves out, and save my own strength. That way, when they got tired I would be on more or less equal footing with them stamina-wise if not ball handling. But that didn't matter as much since I had my game-reading to fall back on. Anyway, to my surprise, my coworkers weren't as good player as I was used to play with. Their stamina was still better than mine, but not so much better. Their ball-handling weren't as good as I expected, I suddenly found myself fairly in the middle of the bell-curve.
I scored a quick goal, something I didn't expected and here was my error: My heart raced for suddenly playing with equals gave me an opportunity to really prove myself. To myself, and to my coworkers. This is a physical sport I could kick some ass! I'm going to show them how to play this game, I'm getting the ball and side-steps, just wait and...
. . .tripping. . .I'm falling... OUCH! Damn that hurt!
I'm lying on the floor and my hip hurts as hell. Everything stops around me, friends walk up to me... -Are you alright?
I say I don't know, let me rest a while. Eventually I sit up and hop on one leg off the field and sit down beside the field waiting for the pain to subside. It never occurred at that time that the neck of the femur could be broken. After a while, the worst pain subsided, and I started to half-walk half hop on one leg, and the bad one offered minimal support. I realised that I couldn't start playing again, so I went to the shower room and had a good sauna instead. Then limping out to my car and drove home.
At home, my girlfriend came over (we didn't live together back then) and she asked several times if she shouldn't drive me to the hospital for a checkup. I was stubborn and thought that it was only temporary. It didn't hurt as much as when it happened, and I'd feel better in the morning. Around 21:00 she went home and after a while the pain started to get worse. I went to bed, but found that even though it was a water-bed, I couldn't find any way to lie down and find a position that didn't hurt. I had to go to the bathroom to pee, and almost fainted from pain twice. That's when I realised that the situation was unsustainable, and cursed myself for not listening to Liselotte.
I called for a cab, had to wait for transport but wasn't at the hospital until 01:00. I found that sitting in a wheelchair supported me in a way that reduced much of the pain. I had to wait for 1½ hours before the ER doctor came and took care of me.
She bent and turned my leg this way and that asking where and how the pain manifested itself. Finally she gave me a shot of Keobemidone, for pain relief, and sent me to X-ray for pictures. |
Dr. Mabuse - "When the going gets tough, the tough get Duct-tape..."
Dr. Mabuse whisper.mp3
"Equivocation is not just a job, for a creationist it's a way of life..." Dr. Mabuse
Support American Troops in Iraq:
Send them unarmed civilians for target practice..
Collateralmurder. |
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Dr. Mabuse
Septic Fiend
Sweden
9688 Posts |
Posted - 11/02/2007 : 17:12:34 [Permalink]
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Part 2:
At 03:00 friday early morning I'm rolled into the X-ray. I look at the clock on the wall and thinks to myself that in two hours, I'd been awake for 24 hours. Taking the x-ray was a major pain, and I unsure, but I may have said the the girl in charge of X-ray that I thought the bitch at the ER game me a shot for the pain, it must have been placebo saline sollution or something.
After the x-ray I experienced something I found very peculiar.
When I was lying on the bed with the leg raised on a number of pillows to alleviate the pain, I started sensing small muscles in the area around the hip-joint. They were contracting one after another. Fist one muscle tensed. One to two seconds. Then it relaxed. Then another muscle tensed. One to two seconds. Then it relaxed. Methodically, it was like someone else in charge of muscles I'm never aware of, was starting to troubleshoot the hip. Pulling first this muscle, then that, one by one to see if tensing one of them might alleviate the pain the broken bone was giving me.
More waiting... at 06:00 the ER doc came by and said she had news. The x-ray confirmed her suspicion, the neck of the femure was broken. It was a relatively clean break, and the jagged edge of the bone had helped holding it in place, so there was nothing that needed to be set. I had emergency surgery scheduled for 9:00 in the morning. Another shot for the pain, and more waiting. I telephoned my parents to tell them what happened, but decided to wait until after the surgery to call my girlfriend.
The doctor in charge of the analgesia during the surgery asked me if I wanted local analgesia, or if I wanted to sleep through the procedure. I told him I'd been awake for 28 hours, just make me sleep because I don't want to know what they going to do to me. I know it was drilling and hammering involved in getting the two steel rods in place, and I didn't feel like sitting through that.
They put on an oxygen mask, and made sure it worked, then I saw from the corner of my eye when the analgesic asistant connected a small syringe to the needle I had in my left hand. I saw her compress the syringe, and then everything went black.
When I woke up, I was lying on my left, broken side, and my bed was moving. I opened my eyes and looked straight in the face of the female analgesic asistant.
"Hey, I know you. You're Christina. I think I'm getting car-sick." then puked my guts out.
The bed stopped moving, and she pulled up a nossle which blew pure oxygen in my face, I puked some more then asked for forgiveness for behaving like this. She said puking is fairly commonplace, and not to worry about. After a short while, they started to move me again, sending me to a post-op ward in another building at the hospital.
I was pretty out, even though I was still awake. Noone thought about it, but the bed they transported me in went head first all the way to post-op. And I got car-sick again. This time partly because I am sensitive to movement, and easily get motion sickness.
Once I was set up in my new room, I got access to a phone and was able to phone Liselotte and tell her where I was. Her mother had passed away in cancer 3-4 months earlier, and from that I knew she had a bad experience with hospitals. This way, she wouldn't have to walk around at work worrying about me and what would happen. At first she was a bit put off, but then she realised that I had done the right thing. Shortly after that my parents turned up to check on me.
Eventually, after a number of days I was good enough to be let home, was on sick-leave from work 2 months, and then worked a month at 50% before going back full time. I gained most of my mobility but there was always one way I couldn't bend my hip without pain. The doctor said it was probably because the cartelage had taken some damage in the accident.
The problem I have now is a complication from the initial accident. When I broke the neck of the femure, a few of the bloodvessels that supplies the ball of the femure with blood and what-not got damaged as well. They didn't heal properly, and this means that the bone doesn't get enough blood. That is where the necrosis comes from. It took two years before I started experience nudging pain, especially if I moved and walked around for a longer period of time. It wasn't until 2003 I was back the the hospital for a new x-ray to see what was happening to the hip. That's when the doctor saw beginning necrosis in the ball. The 2005 x-ray showed it had progressed more, and it was now clearly a matter of time before it got severe enough. That doctor said that I'm still too young for hip replacement surgery, because I didn't feel enough pain, the x-ray wasn't severe enough, and we should wait because of the limited life span of a hip replacement.
Today, now that I can't use NSAID medicine anymore because of the ulcer I had because of it, tramadol is what I get. And it isn't enough. I can't sleep more than 1½ hours or 3 hour-periods before I wake up from the pain. Then I fall asleep and sleep for another one of these intervals. I thinks the intervals correspond to the sleeping cycle. The sleep is fairly light after the REM stage, and when I turn around in the sleep the pain cuts through and bumps me to consciousness.
Well, that's the story of why I need a hip replacement.
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Dr. Mabuse - "When the going gets tough, the tough get Duct-tape..."
Dr. Mabuse whisper.mp3
"Equivocation is not just a job, for a creationist it's a way of life..." Dr. Mabuse
Support American Troops in Iraq:
Send them unarmed civilians for target practice..
Collateralmurder. |
| Edited by - Dr. Mabuse on 11/03/2007 14:03:58 |
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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
Posted - 11/02/2007 : 17:56:10 [Permalink]
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Thanks for the well-written narrative, Mab. I feel for you. And thank you or explaining the necrosis. You should be a whole lot better off without relying upon that deteriorating bone. Good luck!
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“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
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bngbuck
SFN Addict
USA
2437 Posts |
Posted - 11/02/2007 : 19:18:05 [Permalink]
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Dr. Mabuse.....
Thanks for the story. It is amazing how closely your experience of pain sensations after the break matches what my daughter related to my wife and myself. Including the part about the muscles "taking over" and testing your hip for minor changes in position to alleviate the pain. Exact same thing with her!
I offer this in hope that it may help ease any concerns you may have about the replacement surgery. It has been 9 weeks since her right hip was replaced, and 6 weeks since her left hip was replaced.
She is walking well with vitually no limp and minimal pain, using a 'walker' (rolling frame with two wheels). She can walk unassisted for short distances, but needs a companion because of concern about falling. She intends to go back to work, where she must climb a long stair case daily, about December 10th. She has had relatively little pain after the surgery, and has practically none now!
I wish you well, and hope that your recovery from surgery is as good and rapid as hers has been!
Is it common in Sweden to have to wait many months for a surgery such as total hip replacement? |
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Dr. Mabuse
Septic Fiend
Sweden
9688 Posts |
Posted - 11/03/2007 : 12:07:34 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by bngbuck
I wish you well, and hope that your recovery from surgery is as good and rapid as hers has been! |
Thanks!
| Is it common in Sweden to have to wait many months for a surgery such as total hip replacement? |
Unfortunately, yes. I'm not sure you can chalk it down to just bad management though. Governing is a complicated task. But there are short-cuts through the waiting line on a case to case basis. I hope mine will be handled that way (don't we all?)...
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Dr. Mabuse - "When the going gets tough, the tough get Duct-tape..."
Dr. Mabuse whisper.mp3
"Equivocation is not just a job, for a creationist it's a way of life..." Dr. Mabuse
Support American Troops in Iraq:
Send them unarmed civilians for target practice..
Collateralmurder. |
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Dr. Mabuse
Septic Fiend
Sweden
9688 Posts |
Posted - 11/03/2007 : 12:21:57 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by HalfMooner
Thanks for the well-written narrative, Mab. |
Thank you. It's always been a dream of mine to write. Fiction...
I guess I'm not a completely hopeless case?
I feel for you. And thank you or explaining the necrosis. You should be a whole lot better off without relying upon that deteriorating bone. Good luck!
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Thank you. I'm looking forward to it. I know I will never play floorball again, as it is a rather intense sport, but that haven't stopped me from dreaming about playing. In fact, I was playing in a dream I had just the other week.
Talking about dreaming. I busted my knuckles against the night stand again. There's something with the tramadol that makes my dreams feel more intense. Some invisible hostile alien that I was fighting tried to escape into a commercial building sized elevator. Because it was invisible, I ordered a friend to get a fire-hose. Sprayed it into the elevator and as soon as I saw the splattering water outline the contours of the invisible alien, I hit it with my left fist, and *BANG* in the table and the alarm clock beside my bed. I felt my knuckles starting to throb and I was wondering if I woke Liselotte from the commotion. She was still snoring beside me, so I turned over and fell asleep again.
The thing is, this isn't the first time this has happened. Similar things happened last time I was on tramadol, back when I originally broke the neck of the femur.
When the dreams are extra intense, why can't they be erotic?
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Dr. Mabuse - "When the going gets tough, the tough get Duct-tape..."
Dr. Mabuse whisper.mp3
"Equivocation is not just a job, for a creationist it's a way of life..." Dr. Mabuse
Support American Troops in Iraq:
Send them unarmed civilians for target practice..
Collateralmurder. |
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marfknox
SFN Die Hard
USA
3739 Posts |
Posted - 11/03/2007 : 20:10:02 [Permalink]
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I have some new prints posted to my art store. One has monkeys!
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"Too much certainty and clarity could lead to cruel intolerance" -Karen Armstrong
Check out my art store: http://www.marfknox.etsy.com
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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
Posted - 11/03/2007 : 21:34:18 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by marfknox
I have some new prints posted to my art store. One has monkeys!
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Monkeys, you say? I'm so there!
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“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
Posted - 11/03/2007 : 21:56:34 [Permalink]
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Hey, Marf monkeys are scarce on the ground there, dammit! What a scam! I counted just one. There are plenty of cats, though, some acting like monkeys. Some of those are frighteningly feral in aspect. And I noticed you had a self-portrait that showed you with Apocalytoes ®.
Some really nice art stuff there. Seriously, I will save up my pennies for "Pinky Looks Up," which I am anxious to frame and hang.
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“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
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The water cooler, part 3
