Saturday, September 25, 2010

Home Again...

Torrington, Connecticut

...or...not down the drain yet.

Yesterday I went to the hospital for a procedure to correct my coronary arrhythmia problem. It was supposed to be outpatient surgery, but didn't quite work out that way. A series of emergencies tied up the operating rooms specially equipped for catheter procedures, so we waited nine hours to get in. The procedure itself, I'm told, went extremely well and test results indicate a high probability I'll be able to resume full normal activity. But spending over four hours under anesthesia during the procedure and recovery, flat on my back, set off a sciatic nerve problem that left one leg inoperable—think of having an arm or leg "go to sleep" on you, raised a couple orders of magnitude. Of course nobody knew yet what was causing the partial paralysis, which was...awkward. The terrible risk of uncontrolled arrhythmia is the possible "side effect" of having a stroke.

Unable to stand or walk, I had to spend the night at the hospital. Around midnight, my leg "woke up." When that happened, I immediately recognized it as consonant with my decades-long experience of lower back/sciatic nerve difficulties. Just a new way to enjoy them. By late morning, my arrhythmia specialist who had performed the procedure—and was more than a bit disturbed by reports about the leg—concurred with my amateur opinion that my sciatica was the probable cause of the temporary problem, so I got to go home.

I'm now going to take an undetermined number of days off.

5 comments:

promenadeur said...

My best wishes for your recovery Carl.
Hope you're soon back again.
Good luck!

Scott Kirkpatrick said...

Carl, your medical explorations are pretty scary, even when you report them so calmly. Hope you are back to full health soon (at the very least, in time to vote!).

scott

David said...

You definitely deserve a some time off. I hope that you are back on your feet and back to taking pictures again soon. In the meantime, rest.

Don and Sher said...

Take your time and get well soon.

When I had my knee replaced a few weeks ago my sciatic acted up real bad due to the stop of blood flow during surgery, I had either no feeling or numbness for three days it was scary.

Carl Weese said...

Don, thanks for that input. I guess I was lucky with it, I've been fine since my leg "woke up"--no continuing sciatica symptoms.