WyzWmn's World©

OK, so here’s my story… On the fourth I fell in my front hallway… falling is not an abnormal occurrence for me. It’s the reason I had initially reached out to my doctor to be referred to a seniors program at one of the local hospitals called the balance clinic.

What was abnormal for me was my falling backwards. I landed on my butt and for a change I was able to get myself up off the floor… at that point, my butt was sore, but I assumed it was bruised and did not go to the doctor.

Fast forward to the 12th when I was supposed to start my balance clinic program and I was sick for the first day… but was ok for the next offering except of course for my tail end.

The program runs on Monday and Wednesdays, so come Wednesday the 14th I still have a sore butt which I believed was a bruised coccyx.

Because all of the seats that they use in the program are not well padded the objective being teaching you to get up and down without falling I discussed the situation with the trainer and she advised (likely for liability purposes) that I needed to see my doctor and get his permission to start exercising.

So I went home and called my doctor’s office and got an available appointment for Friday to get a requisition for an x-ray. This is where things get interesting….

I went to the hospital to get the x-ray done… The x-ray tech comes back into the room and tells me that my tailbone is broken but they would like to do a CT scan to confirm…. So I toddle off to the CT scan room…. And they performed a CT scan…

The CT scan tech advises that she does not think my tailbone is broken. She thinks it’s just bruised, but because the x-ray tech suggests that it’s broken the pictures will have to go to a radiologist for confirmation. (Don’t they always have to go to a radiologist?). At which point they will send a report to my doctor to let him know whether it’s broken or bruised.

So I go home and make an appointment for the earliest chance I can see my doctor next week…. Which is Wednesday.

By this time my butt is sore enough that I had had to take a fistful of Tylenol and as you all know when one area of your body is sore… it moves to other areas because you’re trying to protect it unconsciously. So now my whole back is sore and I’ve got a rip snorting headache. In retrospect, I realized I haven’t eaten all day, which is kind of stupid.. so I had a snack and a big glass of water.

And here I sit for five days to find out whether it’s broken or bruised….no further diagnosed than I was before yesterday.

My butt is of course sore today, but nothing like it was yesterday because I haven’t been moving around a lot. The real kicker is it’s not like they can put my ass in a cast should it be broken.

I wonder if I can teach Tink how to cook breakfast?

I have been working with a group of research students on a study on brain injury via the University of Victoria.

I had to go in for blood sampling and saliva sampling, and to answer a bunch of questionnaires today…. this is about the fifth or sixth time that I’ve gone in and done it.  It’s all a volunteer and it’s pretty interesting to me to see a couple of early 20s young women that are so interested in brain injury and what makes people tick.

Two of the questionnaires we did today I have never seen or done before.  The second last question of the last questionnaire was, “do you ever suffer from any nausea as a result of your brain injury?”

I’ve suffered with nausea for most of my adult life, more so, the last 10 years or so.  Although we do chalk my brain injury up as a result of cumulative concussions and we know that I had my first concussion when I was three or four as a result of a retired police dog, a homemade skating rink and the dogs chain lol (it was a story mom like to tell).  We also know that for many years of my life, I was an accident, looking for a place to happen four whiplash injuries.  Falling into a cement staircase in Merritt. Getting kicked in the head.  Falling through the 2nd floor to the first via a heating grate (twice no less)

It’s kind of interesting to me that my nausea has been a focal point for my seeing doctors as often as I have in the last 10 years my GP, three different gastrointestinal specialists, a couple of sports medicine doctors and a couple of surgeons and not one medical professional has suggested that there’s a possible connection between my brain injury and my nausea. 

In fairness, brain injury is one of those situations where no two people are the same and no two injuries are the same but boy oh boy I’m some kind of tired of taking the highroad. I really think I would like to scream and holler and stamp my feet if it made me feel better.

Knowing this doesn’t change anything….but maybe it can change everything….we shall see