10 large surgical procedures in my life, 4 ER visits within the last 7 months.
Spent my whole life in orthopedics (4 surgeries); in AFOs for 16 years, at least 4 dozen castings, hip dysplascia that may get me one of those spiffy fake hips very popular in the geriatric crowd before I hit 30, so many fun x-rays I wonder about my fertility
and in the woman's 25 years of experience she's never seen fibulas as small as mine for a full grown adult (I was quite impressed myself with that stat!), currently have 2 staples as well as 4-3 inch screws total in my small children's size 3 feet, fused foot joints (plus the stupid toe I tripped on and broke in the great Ramen Noodles Accident of 1998
), the inability to walk for 3 months to not damage my newly fragile fused feet from surgery (and it's horrible when you're home alone, and the parents move your favorite food to the TOP shelf of the fridge--I swore for those 4 hours I was going to starve), 3 diagnosed stress fractures in the tibias, insensate feet that refuse to heal wounds, 2 holes on the bottom of my feet due to blisters that broke open but ended up taking 4+ months to heal, shattered kneecap... I know I'm leaving stuff out, but that should suffice for now
1 reconstructive plastic surgery. Got to go through that oh so wonderful experience of liposuction. Those tubes they put in for the excess blood burn like all he!! when they're pulled out.
A urological patient my entire life; had a bladder-ureter reimplantion surgery in which I got to meet the Baltimore Oriole
, another to remove a blockage, refluxive bladder, 3 separate kidney infections that came with a nice bladder stone (consider going into uro if you like video games... my uro and his resident went in after this stone with a camerea and a laser, they said it was even more fun than playing space invaders and blowing up aliens), something they couldn't pinpoint a diagnosis for last month but somhow made all better, born with a 3rd siamese kidney that's attached to the left kidney but fully functions (have a U/S done, have the tech leave to get the resident to write up a report, come back with the resident for another look--and by the time you know it an hour has passed, and the entire staff is in your tiny little room staring at this screen... then they think you have a tumor latching onto your kidney, but it's not a tumor and they're dumbfounded--makes you think something is really wrong when it's just SUPER BOB! The feirce crime-fighting third kidney).
Being female, those wonderful gynecologists every year for the past 4 years. Endometriosis and a scalpel-happy physican forced me to seek more opinions... I've seen at least 8 (doctors just love to retire when they see me coming
). At least I avoided another surgery for the time being
Plus I have gotten to see the other side of wonderful Hopkins at another location where they stick you a THOUSAND times to see what makes you all red and blow up. I already KNEW I was allergic to peanuts, I just really needed that extra poke or else I wouldn't be able to go on with my life.
I'm lucky enough to go to schools with people who refuse to stay home for a day when they're hacking up their lungs. I had bronchitis, which was diagnosed as "just a little infection" and had I gone to my practioner a day or two later, I would have had pneumonia. Get that all taken care of, and I get strep. Stay home, don't pass it on. Brainiacs refuse to stay home, it hits quite a few people at the school, so when I'm all better and come back the next week I get strep again.
And can't forget neuro, although I haven't had to tread that water for a while. One surgery for thatt with a surgeon who was alive to experience Jurassic Park firsthand.
So maybe I qualify as being a frequent patient
As my doctors have put it, I spend as much time in hospitals as their med students do
-Liz
