swalker
Very helpful member
- Joined
- Dec 11, 2014
- Messages
- 1,547
- Reason
- DX MND
- Diagnosis
- 07/2014
- Country
- US
- State
- CO
- City
- Vail
We wound up making a trip to the emergency room earlier this week.
I was woken up by significant pain in my ankle. I have a rheumatological condition (mixed connective tissue disease) that causes periodic joint pain, so a bit of an issue with a joint is not something I get terribly excited about.
But, this seemed different. The pain was quite a bit worse than I have experienced before, my ankle was warm to the touch, and I was running a fever.
After much discussion with my wife, we decided to call my primary care physician. She was out of the office and there no one else in the practice available to see me. That practice also runs an urgent care clinic and they encouraged us to go there. So, off we went.
That pactice was purchased by our local hospital and within the last week it was relocated to be physically in the hospital. It turns out that the urgent care clinic is now in the same suite in the hospital as my primary care physician's office.
I arrived and checked in without issue. Since I know they take folks based on order of severity rather than order of arrival, I was very glad to see that they took back someone who needed stitches removed. So, my issue was obviously less severe than getting stitches removed.
I was even more relieved when they took back a family of 6 for covid vaccine booster shots. My issue must have been judged to be really trival! Things were looking good.
Eventually, it was my turn. They examined me and then left the room to consult with their colleagues. They came back and encouraged us to go to the emergency room. They said the likely diagnostic options were either a septic joint or gout. They escorted us to the emergency room and made sure I got checked in OK.
We spent about 5 hours in the emergency room. Along the way, they were strongly leaning toward a diagnosis of an infected (septic) joint. They briefed my on what I could expect when the tests confirmed that. If it was septic, I was looking at being admitted to the hospital, etc. etc. None of that sounded good at all.
After many tests, a bit of poking and prodding, and examining some fluid they extracted from my ankle, they concluded that I had gout.
They sent me home with some drugs and asked that I contact my primary care physician the next day.
I am improving and seem to be doing pretty well. I sure hope this is a one-off attack of gout and not something that will happen again!
Here are some interesting tidbits from the ER visit:
1. I did not bring my bipap, as I usually don't need it when I am sitting up in my wheelchair. But, I did start to feel pretty short of breath. Saying you are short of breath in the emergency room sure gets you lots of extra attention. I had to communicate that my breathing normally sucks and that, while I was short of breath, I was not in tremendous distress.
2. They initially requested that I transfer out of the wheelchair onto a bed in the ER. My wheelchair is very comfortable and the bed looked very uncomfortable (no support for my arms or my thoracic area). They were fine when I explained my needs and let me stay in the wheelchair.
3. While I have been using a wheelchair for over 7 years, I can still stand a walk a few paces on my own. The affected ankle is in my "strong" leg. It is amazing how much that affected my mobility. I should have anticipated this and had things in place before hand, but I did not. We are working on that now. Meanwhile, getting from my hospital bed (at home) to the bathroom has been a bit more adventurous than normal.
Steve
I was woken up by significant pain in my ankle. I have a rheumatological condition (mixed connective tissue disease) that causes periodic joint pain, so a bit of an issue with a joint is not something I get terribly excited about.
But, this seemed different. The pain was quite a bit worse than I have experienced before, my ankle was warm to the touch, and I was running a fever.
After much discussion with my wife, we decided to call my primary care physician. She was out of the office and there no one else in the practice available to see me. That practice also runs an urgent care clinic and they encouraged us to go there. So, off we went.
That pactice was purchased by our local hospital and within the last week it was relocated to be physically in the hospital. It turns out that the urgent care clinic is now in the same suite in the hospital as my primary care physician's office.
I arrived and checked in without issue. Since I know they take folks based on order of severity rather than order of arrival, I was very glad to see that they took back someone who needed stitches removed. So, my issue was obviously less severe than getting stitches removed.
I was even more relieved when they took back a family of 6 for covid vaccine booster shots. My issue must have been judged to be really trival! Things were looking good.
Eventually, it was my turn. They examined me and then left the room to consult with their colleagues. They came back and encouraged us to go to the emergency room. They said the likely diagnostic options were either a septic joint or gout. They escorted us to the emergency room and made sure I got checked in OK.
We spent about 5 hours in the emergency room. Along the way, they were strongly leaning toward a diagnosis of an infected (septic) joint. They briefed my on what I could expect when the tests confirmed that. If it was septic, I was looking at being admitted to the hospital, etc. etc. None of that sounded good at all.
After many tests, a bit of poking and prodding, and examining some fluid they extracted from my ankle, they concluded that I had gout.
They sent me home with some drugs and asked that I contact my primary care physician the next day.
I am improving and seem to be doing pretty well. I sure hope this is a one-off attack of gout and not something that will happen again!
Here are some interesting tidbits from the ER visit:
1. I did not bring my bipap, as I usually don't need it when I am sitting up in my wheelchair. But, I did start to feel pretty short of breath. Saying you are short of breath in the emergency room sure gets you lots of extra attention. I had to communicate that my breathing normally sucks and that, while I was short of breath, I was not in tremendous distress.
2. They initially requested that I transfer out of the wheelchair onto a bed in the ER. My wheelchair is very comfortable and the bed looked very uncomfortable (no support for my arms or my thoracic area). They were fine when I explained my needs and let me stay in the wheelchair.
3. While I have been using a wheelchair for over 7 years, I can still stand a walk a few paces on my own. The affected ankle is in my "strong" leg. It is amazing how much that affected my mobility. I should have anticipated this and had things in place before hand, but I did not. We are working on that now. Meanwhile, getting from my hospital bed (at home) to the bathroom has been a bit more adventurous than normal.
Steve
