Friday, December 21, 2018

The Crippled Lumberjack

The last week has been a bit tough - nothing too bad, but worthy of a blog update,

The problem started last Friday when I was in NH. A large white pine had fallen and I wanted to try making a very large one piece bowl. I went up there with m chain saw and liberated a few sections. As I was carrying one log - about 18" in diameter and maybe 16" long, I started losing my balance. I tossed the log forward and then allowed myself to fall backwards where I knew the ground to be relatively soft. Unfortunately, I banged my thigh on a bit of a stump. Didn't hurt much, so I rolled the log to the truck - along with another similar log - and was on my way.

The next day, the leg hurt a bit more. No big deal. I drove back to Fox Hill as planned.

On Sunday, it was still getting worse. I figured that there was a bruise in there somewhere and the internal bleeding was continuing. I called my primary care doctor. I asked him if I should stop the anti-coagulants and he said definitely not. I asked him if I should have them check it out in the ER and he said yes.

In the ER, I asked them if I should stop the anti-coagulants and they said definitely not. They took a completely unnecessary x-ray and sent me home.

The leg continued to get worse until I had my regularly scheduled visit with my oncologist. By this time, I was using a wheel chair because of difficulty walking.He took one look at my very swollen leg, which by this time was pretty much all purple colored and asked, "Why didn't you stop the anti-coagulants?"

So, he cancelled treatment for that day, but told me he was happy with my numbers which we had a couple of cycles. I will start up again in two weeks. Meanwhile, no chemo therapy and no anti-coagulants.

So now it is Friday. I seem to be better than I was yesterday and might be mostly ready to give up the wheel chair - possibly in favor of a walker.

What really upsets me is that I have not been down to the wood shop for almost a week. Hopefully in a few days. I have to get back to work on that log I was carrying when I fell.

As you know, I normally like to include a relevant photo or two. I considered a photo of my swollen black-and-blue leg, but decided you might not need to see it.