More clumsiness results in ER and other doctor or clinic visits

My visit to the BMT clinic on April 7 was 2 days after I had fallen in the yard trying to pull out a choke cherry start and the damage to my left forearm was so severe that Emma did not want to try dressing the wound so we went to the Alta View ER for treatment.  I had to repeat my sorry story several times during and prior to receiving their ministrations.  The story goes: that as I tugged on the half inch diameter start its root broke off in the ground and I tumbled backward until I collided with a 3-inch diameter choke cherry and hit my left arm just above the elbow.  Inasmuch as the ground was quite rough and sloped in the opposite direction that I was trying to get up I bruised my forearm and then with continued efforts to rise I scraped the skin off the bruise and the resulting wound was ugly indeed and I agreed with the decision to go to the ER.  The nurses spread some Lidocaine jelly on gauze pads and had me rest the arm on the pads while they gathered supplies, during which time Dr. Smart examined the arm and tested it for possible bone damage and found none.  I was given a tetanus shot before being discharged and told to come back in 2 days, but when I told them that I would be going to the BMT clinic at 10:00 Monday morning they said to have the nurses look at it.

The nurses at the clinic on Monday morning  may not have wanted to look at the damaged arm because I was told they didn't have right material to bandage it, but after some time Jennifer, a more senior nurse, walked in and asked how I had hurt myself  and then found the proper material to bandage the arm.  Camille soaked the non-stick pads off with saline syringes and then after it was bandaged they told me to call our Family doctor and they gave me saline syringes in case we would need them, but no new dressings because I had told them that we had a good supply from the ER.  They did not collect any blood so there was no wait necessary before they could give me the Velcade infusion and I was ready to leave shortly after 11:00.  I did call Dr. Kuo's office after I had my lunch and got an appointment for 10:00 AM today.  I would have liked to see him sooner so that he could make the next change of the bandage, but we had to do it ourselves yesterday morning and found that it did not seem to look any better.  I had been told that it would be good to leave the bandage off for awhile, but decided not to do that.  Dr. Kuo was pleased to see that there was no sign of infection and that the part of the would nearest the elbow had dried up enough that it can be bandaged with dry dressings but suggested I keep non-stick pads on the other part of the wound.  He did not see any need to come back before my next regular appointment in August.  But he said that we should re-bandage it Saturday.

My next regular visit to the BMT clinic will be on April 28 at which time they will only collect 2 or 3 vials of blood.  Dr. Atanackovic said during the visit with him on March 13 that they will only determine the myeloma markers in my blood (and urine) every 3 months instead of the monthly determinations that have been done in the past.  They had been collecting 5 or 6 vials on Day One of each cycle in the past and I always had to wait at least an extra hour for the lab results and couldn't get the myeloma marker results until I went to the clinic the next week.

Emma keeps finding excuses to not go to the Cottonwood Heights Rec. Center for aquasize just as I use my damaged arms as excuses not to go to the Silver Sneakers exercise classes that I was going to on Tuesdays and Wednesday.  I did go on April 3 and could not tell that I had been missed, but I may be well enough by next Tuesday to start again.