Last time I wrote was in April, after my fall. It's time to catch up on me and on the house. This is running a bit long, so the house will be covered in the next post.
Recovery is going fine. I go to the kiné (PT) a couple or three times a week for half-hour or hour-long sessions and I walk, more or less, without a limp. I may be a bit slower than before, but that might also be due to the heat. I can stand on one leg and kee okp my balance for about a minute. The right leg, the more recent hip replacement, is even better at that than my left leg. I'm able to do the other exercises, as well. I think PT will be ending, soon.
I didn't describe the hospital stay in the previous post. When I fell, a little after 6 p.m., I hurt my leg and my elbow. It took a long time for the fire company EMTs to arrive, so I didn't get to the nearest hospital until at least an hour after I fell. The EMT stayed with me until the ER person came to get me and transfer me to one of their gurneys. I don't remember how long that took, but there were quite a few of us in the passageway waiting. In the meantime, Louis had come to the hospital, but could not come to where I was, due to COVID restrictions. Those same restrictions were enforced in the ER, so I convinced him he should go home.
Once in the ER, a nurse took my vitals, swabbed my nose for a COVID test, and told me I'd have x-rays. It was about 10 when I was taken down to the x-ray, but there was a long, cold wait, there, too. It was hard getting into the position on the table, but they x-rayed my leg and my elbow. I was eventually taken up to a darkened room to sleep. I don't know how many beds there were; we were well separated by curtains. There was one person (doctor?) in front of a computer and one nurse for us all. At some point, I was finally given some pain medication and I dozed. At 2 in the morning, the person who had been at the computer came over to me and told me that I had a hip collar fracture. She did not mention the elbow. I dozed off, again, and at 3, an orthopedic resident (intern, in French) came over and told me I was going to be operated on some time in the morning but since there were no beds available in the ortho ward, I'd stay in ER until the operation.
Before they took me to the OR, I managed to alert the club that I wouldn't be able to do the scorekeeping on Saturday. I also wrote to postpone another procedure that was scheduled and sent an email to the surgeons who had done my shoulder and hip (left) replacements. I was afraid I might have harmed the shoulder. Paul also asked me to take care of a few things, which I did, all from my phone.
Then, it was time to relinquish my things, about 10 a.m. Valuables -- cash, credit card, Sécurité Sociale card -- were put into a bag and taken away to be locked up. My clothes, which had spent the time thrown into a plastic bag at the foot of my bed, were taken somewhere else. My handbag was left with me until we reached the elevator to go to the OR. One of the aides said she'd take it up to the 3rd floor, where I was going after surgery. And that was the last I saw of my possessions.
After surgery, I was taken up to the 3rd floor. Louis was there. I asked if he could find my things. No luck. The rest of the day, I dozed. On Saturday, I had visits: Paul, Louis, and Anne. Even one of the grandchildren snuck in with Louis.
Ah, the weekend -- wherever my things were, they were not going to be found until Monday. I saw the post-op doctor, who assured me nothing was wrong with my elbow. It was the bruising. Still, I couldn't move my arm much. I couldn't turn my palm upwards, which was what the nurse needed to draw blood. I couldn't get food all the way to my mouth; I had to push my head forward to meet the fork. I couldn't extend my arm. Paul had brought my crutches (from the left hip replacement) and I got up to sit in the chair.
Monday, I managed a few steps across the hall but almost fainted on the return. Turns out I was anemic.
Finally, Anne spent the better part of her visit on Monday trying to find my things. They weren't at the ER; they weren't at the desk in Ortho. They weren't anywhere anyone could think of. They were declared missing, except for the little bag with my cash and cards, recovered from the ER. No clothes, no handbag with my wallet, my glasses, my phone, etc. She persisted. And miraculously, they all turned up at the hospital pharmacy!
Tuesday morning, I was looking forward to being released in a day or two. My release had been delayed because of the anemia. My roommate was leaving for rehab. Before her release, they did another COVID test on her in the morning. After lunch, they took her to a private room; she had tested positive. They didn't test me until later in day, but they did not place anyone else in the room with me, either. The next day, I was told my test was negative, but that I was going to a private room and would not be released because I needed to do a full quarantine "as if" before going to rehab.
It took a few days, but I was managing on crutches pretty well, so we managed to convince them to release me to home instead of to a rehab center on Saturday. That whole week, no one really listened to me when I asked what was wrong with my elbow.
The care at the hospital -- the nurses, the nurses' aides, the cleaning staff -- was always good. Staff was short, though, so waits were long. I was not happy with the doctor who came every other day and was only interested in my hip. This was a major Parisian hospital. COVID has created staff shortages, as it has all over the world. I made appointments to see my surgeons about 6 weeks after the fall. The hip guy gave me a thorough exam and said the hip is fine. The shoulder guy, who is also an elbow guy, had me have another x-ray. He saw something and prescribed an MRI. That was done in mid-June and there is a little unconsolidated fracture, which explains the ongoing discomfort. Mobility is getting better and he expects the discomfort to go away by September, when he wants me to check in with him, again.
At home, we had our favorite nurses coming by every evening for a few weeks to give me my anti-coagulant shot, change the dressing, take the blood for tests -- to do whatever was needed that day. Paul dropped me off at the kiné on Tuesday for my first session of massage therapy. But the following week, I was making my way on crutches: 550 m. each way! And between PT sessions, I was walking around the block.
Cost: All of the hospitalization expenses were fully covered by Sécurité Socialé (surgery, medicine) and the mutuelle (the €24/day food charge, the private room charge for the last few days); the home nursing was fully covered. The only out-of-pocket expense has been a few euros for each Kiné session because he charges above the Sécu-approved rate, my private consultations with my own ortho surgeons, and some of the x-ray, MRI, and CTscan cost. And that €500 will be covered by our accident insurance.
