Haven't penned this down, but I had another hospitalization just a week after my birthday in March just before Easter camp.
I had a severe skin infection called cellulitis. It made me have a high fever, super sore arm and leave untreated it can lead to septic arthritis.
So I went and had high dose of IV antibiotics. Just a two days admission. No biggie.
Now leading to that, I somehow developed an adhesive capsulitis or frozen shoulder.
I began to lose my range of motion (ROM) and my left shoulder is very sore.
Over the months, i lost more and more of my ROM. What should be an easy task has become impossible now. Like undo-ing my bra. Or change the gear when driving. Even putting shampoo on my head is impossible with my left hand now.
So I went to my lovely GP. She immediately knew it was frozen shoulder and sent me to physiotherapist. I went. But no pyshio can be done because the pain was too severe. So the therapist referred me to a specialist doc.
The doc, Theo, then agree that this is a case of severe frozen shoulder.
He inject a small amount of corticosteroid on my posterior left shoulder and asked me to come back in 4 weeks to see him.
It didn't get better. So onto the next step.
Hydrodilatation. This is pretty much another injection but done under X-Ray and a doctor specializing in radiology has to do this.
This procedure is to inject steroid mixed with saline directly into the joints. This will then "release" the shoulder and I should be at least pain free (getting my ROM back still require a physiotherapy).
So I did that last Tuesday. The procedure itself was pretty fast. 15 mninutes prep, 15 minutes procedure. Done. I can go home
But that night I was so sore. Yes this was expected. I knew it was gonna be sore for at leadt 48 hours. But I had that "hunch" that something was not right.
I even told my brother I worry this was another infection, but I tried not to think about it.
So when Andi took Sonia to see Shona to check her red gum (new tooth coming out) on Thursday, I asked him to ask Shona whether it's normal. And I did have low grade fever.
Shona immediately asked andi to make me see her tomorrow morning!
Something rang her alarm bell.
As if that wasn't enough, she called me at 8:15 pm that night. Asking how I was. (On this note, I really salute her for going above and beyond her job description and act out of her compassion).
I was still making it light... told her it was nothing, the fever hasn't reached 38°. Then she gave her usual PLEASE GO TO ED IF THINGS GET WORSE speech. But she always added, I knew you were going to see me tomorrow. Yep. She knows me well.
So 945 on Friday I came to see her. And ofcourse, my shoulder has swollen, warm, red, and my fever shot up. Sigh.
She insisted to call Andi. But I said no coz he has a meeting. Then she said she'd call an ambulance for me. Heck no!! Then she offered to call a taxi. I said i needed time to think. There is no time to think candice! She said. This is serious. If the infection is on your joint, you're in big trouble. Go now. Then I was upset. Another tearful conversation between me and my GP.
She asked me to calm down and have a cup of tea, abandoning her many patients outside. She even asked whether I needed Sandy to comfort me.
So after I promise her I'll go, I went home.
My initial plan was to drive to Andi's office or even ask him to meet me in ED.
But by that time, I could no longer have the ability to move my arm and I know there's no way I could drive. So I spent a good 15 minutes sobbing on the couch. Partly because of the pain, but mostly because I was pissed.
Then I called andi, apologizing and feeling sooooo bad for making him miss his important meeting with the Board. I needed him home to take me.
He didn't think twice. He took off with a cab and he's home within 15 minutes.
Off we went. And here I am now. They tried 4 days with aspirations (which made me sobbed... i had high pain tolerance, but that was too much), they tried ultrasound aspirations while pumping me with IV AB.... still I had high fever, and very high heart rate. I had 2 MET call in less than 24 hours.
Finally I had to had a surgery yesterday to washed up all the infection. The next 2 days are crucial. It will tell whether the infection has gone into the joints or not. If it has, a big surgery to remove my capsule is needed. Let's hope not. I have a good feeling about this.
One good thing, I just had a confirmation that I just landed another "prestigious" job with the Aviation Security New Zealand. More about that in separate post maybe if Im in the mood. (And it's a wee bit difficult to type with a sling on my arm).
Frozen shoulder or not. Celullitis or not. AvSec or not. At the end, Im still grateful for everything.
I have an awesome God.
I had a severe skin infection called cellulitis. It made me have a high fever, super sore arm and leave untreated it can lead to septic arthritis.
So I went and had high dose of IV antibiotics. Just a two days admission. No biggie.
Now leading to that, I somehow developed an adhesive capsulitis or frozen shoulder.
I began to lose my range of motion (ROM) and my left shoulder is very sore.
Over the months, i lost more and more of my ROM. What should be an easy task has become impossible now. Like undo-ing my bra. Or change the gear when driving. Even putting shampoo on my head is impossible with my left hand now.
So I went to my lovely GP. She immediately knew it was frozen shoulder and sent me to physiotherapist. I went. But no pyshio can be done because the pain was too severe. So the therapist referred me to a specialist doc.
The doc, Theo, then agree that this is a case of severe frozen shoulder.
He inject a small amount of corticosteroid on my posterior left shoulder and asked me to come back in 4 weeks to see him.
It didn't get better. So onto the next step.
Hydrodilatation. This is pretty much another injection but done under X-Ray and a doctor specializing in radiology has to do this.
This procedure is to inject steroid mixed with saline directly into the joints. This will then "release" the shoulder and I should be at least pain free (getting my ROM back still require a physiotherapy).
So I did that last Tuesday. The procedure itself was pretty fast. 15 mninutes prep, 15 minutes procedure. Done. I can go home
But that night I was so sore. Yes this was expected. I knew it was gonna be sore for at leadt 48 hours. But I had that "hunch" that something was not right.
I even told my brother I worry this was another infection, but I tried not to think about it.
So when Andi took Sonia to see Shona to check her red gum (new tooth coming out) on Thursday, I asked him to ask Shona whether it's normal. And I did have low grade fever.
Shona immediately asked andi to make me see her tomorrow morning!
Something rang her alarm bell.
As if that wasn't enough, she called me at 8:15 pm that night. Asking how I was. (On this note, I really salute her for going above and beyond her job description and act out of her compassion).
I was still making it light... told her it was nothing, the fever hasn't reached 38°. Then she gave her usual PLEASE GO TO ED IF THINGS GET WORSE speech. But she always added, I knew you were going to see me tomorrow. Yep. She knows me well.
So 945 on Friday I came to see her. And ofcourse, my shoulder has swollen, warm, red, and my fever shot up. Sigh.
She insisted to call Andi. But I said no coz he has a meeting. Then she said she'd call an ambulance for me. Heck no!! Then she offered to call a taxi. I said i needed time to think. There is no time to think candice! She said. This is serious. If the infection is on your joint, you're in big trouble. Go now. Then I was upset. Another tearful conversation between me and my GP.
She asked me to calm down and have a cup of tea, abandoning her many patients outside. She even asked whether I needed Sandy to comfort me.
So after I promise her I'll go, I went home.
My initial plan was to drive to Andi's office or even ask him to meet me in ED.
But by that time, I could no longer have the ability to move my arm and I know there's no way I could drive. So I spent a good 15 minutes sobbing on the couch. Partly because of the pain, but mostly because I was pissed.
Then I called andi, apologizing and feeling sooooo bad for making him miss his important meeting with the Board. I needed him home to take me.
He didn't think twice. He took off with a cab and he's home within 15 minutes.
Off we went. And here I am now. They tried 4 days with aspirations (which made me sobbed... i had high pain tolerance, but that was too much), they tried ultrasound aspirations while pumping me with IV AB.... still I had high fever, and very high heart rate. I had 2 MET call in less than 24 hours.
Finally I had to had a surgery yesterday to washed up all the infection. The next 2 days are crucial. It will tell whether the infection has gone into the joints or not. If it has, a big surgery to remove my capsule is needed. Let's hope not. I have a good feeling about this.
One good thing, I just had a confirmation that I just landed another "prestigious" job with the Aviation Security New Zealand. More about that in separate post maybe if Im in the mood. (And it's a wee bit difficult to type with a sling on my arm).
Frozen shoulder or not. Celullitis or not. AvSec or not. At the end, Im still grateful for everything.
I have an awesome God.
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