When James was at the urologist a couple of weeks back, Dr. Starr was still concerned that he was not voiding properly. So he made a followup appointment for him today for a nurse visit and a bladder scan.

(Do not fear, he did well on the test. James has fooled the scanner before, so the nurse used two different scanners, just in case, and he had voided well after visiting the rest room.)

The problem happened before we even got inside. James had worked until 1 p.m. and then we left for the Kaiser Glenlake office, which meant heading east which is a dicey proposition any time of day. Despite the traffic, we arrived with no incident. We lowered the chair lift, and James turned to get into it to drive off the ramp. He said he heard a sharp "pop" and felt it, too, and sat down very hard in the chair. He said something was wrong behind his right knee and that it was suddenly hurting badly.

So we did the appointment, and the urology nurse was very sympathetic to the problem. It did not ease while James was having the test, and he had to stumble into the rest room in pain. So the nurse went over to the orthopedic department (the other side of the fourth floor where we already were) and asked if by any chance they had an opening for a patient who had just hurt himself. They told him that orthopedics was booked for the afternoon, and if James was in enough pain he needed to go to...guess where...Urgent Care.

So he pulled himself into the cab of the truck painfully, and I pulled out my driving pillow and we headed off toward Kennesaw. It was three o'clock and traffic was already a mess. It took us 45 minutes to get there, with James in pain the entire time. Thankfully there was no one waiting in Urgent Care when we got there and James was taken almost immediately to the back. He told them all the particulars of what had happened, and they eventually took an X-ray of his knee. I went back there with him and a good thing, too, as he could barely move, so I helped the nurse position him on the X-ray table properly. By the time he finished his face was red as a beet.

The result was expected. He had broken nothing, and they saw no sign of torn ligaments or tendons. There was a tight knot at the back of his knee joint that you could feel, that's all. They sent us home with some pain medication, an Ace bandage firming up the knee, and instructions to put ice on it if he felt it helped. The line at the pharmacy looked like I-285 at rush hour.

Of course by now it was after six and we had to drive home through rush-hour traffic. James at least had a more comfortable ride as the pain meds kicked in gradually during the 35-minute ride. He was not without pain, but comfortable enough when we got home that I just parked in the driveway, ran in the house for Ken's retirement gift and James' glasses, which he'd forgotten on the outbound trip and had to wear his sunglasses instead, and we went to the Spiveys' house for the party. Luckily in the past couple of years they had installed a sidewalk to the back door (the only other way in the house is through the steep front steps) for the benefit of Ken's mom before she passed away, so James was able to get the power chair to the back door, and over the shallow doorstep and inside.

I was frankly exhausted, aching all over, and headachy by the time we got there and had a good time, but in a bit of a haze. A family friend, Jordan, had made a big feast: baked beans, baked brisket, pork barbecue, pork roast, Brunswick stew, cornbread, and two huge bowls of macaroni and cheese. I got a meal for James and one for me, and chatted to everyone. After a suitable time, we had cake (it is also Ken's birthday on the first).

I ran out of gas about nine. Predictably, James had to take the stairs up to the main floor of the house slowly and it hurt him a lot; we decided Hair Day tomorrow was out. So we went to bed early for a Friday. I helped him take a shower and re-wrapped his knee, and I was never so happy to see a bed.

Labels: friends, health, illness

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 10:48:00 PM

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