another surgery and infusion being delayed

I'm sorry you have to go through this, Dawg, but am glad your doctor caught it before your hands curled into permanent disability.

I can't offer direct Rem experiences, but I thought it might help you to know what has happened with me on the several occasions that my Humira injections have been delayed. I've found that it is easier to cope with a delayed injection the longer I've been on the drug: when I was only just established and getting stabilised, a delay of ten days had me going into a proper flare, with bms 16 x a day and getting worse every 24 hours. I had another delayed injection a year later - once again due to govt bungling - and had far, far, fewer problems. It's never fun being late on an injection, but I have found that it gets easier the longer I can go without an interruption to my regime.

I hope this helps.

I seem to remember that you'll be in a private room while in hospital, with your own bathroom? I expect that will help tremendously, should you start to flare after the surgery.

You might also like to think about implements that will help you wipe while one of your hands is out of action (knowing hospitals, they'll put an IV drip in your good arm!!! ). A squirty bottle might help with cleaning up, as well as some bottom-soothing creams, and you can also get (and perhaps the hospital might provide) a long-handled sponge thingie that you can use to wipe if you can't turn and reach your bottom the way you normally would.

If you have some sort of pre-surgical appointment at the hospital, it might be worth discussing your d and arthritis-related concerns with them before you are admitted. They might be able to present you with some things to help you as soon as you arrive, then, instead of you having to wait while they source & deliver them. If you *really* start flaring and are woozy from anaesthetic, even a commode near your bed might be helpful.

All the best to you.

Ivy.

Thanks for the support, I really appreciate it. I just heard back from my G.I. and she wants to delay it for a week after my surgery. I am sure that I can handle an extra 10 days( adding the days before the surgery). Ivy, even though my insurance does require private rooms for us, this will be an outpatient surgery. Sometimes it blows me away when I hear about all of the surgeries that are done outpatient now. My wife had her appendix out in Feb and was released to leave that night at 9 pm after her 2 pm appendectomy. She really should have been kept overnight because she was not doing well but insurance companies are trying to save money at the patient's expense. When I had mine out a 7 years ago, I was kept for 5 days even though it had not burst yet.

Mrs. Dawg lol I like that. She is actually a really healthy person and had her first medical situation of her life when she had her appendix out. She is just really busy due to the fact that she works full time and is in nursing school. Luckily, I have been through these surgeries so many times now that I should be alright to take care of myself while she is at work. I also have a huge family on both sides and a lot of church members from my church that live very close by if I need anything.
As for the whole going home so soon, it has it's pros and cons. It is always nice to be in your own home and bed when you do not feel well but it is also difficult when you feel like a burden on your family while recovering. There are a lot of surgeries like this one that really do not require a person to need 24 hour care but surgeries like appendectomies and abdominal surgery should require atleast 24-48 hours in the hospital in my opinion. There are just so many complications that can occur when you have major surgery and you would think that it would be common sense and a legal risk to send a patient home too early. Unfortunately, insurance companies make our health care decisions through telling the doctors what they will and will not approve to pay for. They told us that the only way most insurance companies will allow appendectomy patients to stay as an inpatient is if the appendix bursts or they have major complications in recovery. I really could have used 24 hours when I was helping my wife because I was in a major flare and just had my remicade when she had her appendicitis. Her family was great to help out but I really wish that she would have been able to stay in the hospital that first night when they needed her woken up every 2 hours. It would also have been great for her pain control to have her on I.V. meds for the first day like I was when I had mine out.

Luckily, when my wife has a baby, our insurance covers for a few days in the hospital to recover. Hopefully it stays that way when or if she ever gets pregnant. I was supposed to have my gallbladder outpatient(pred crohn's diagnosis) but I ended up with a high fever in the recovery room and spent the next week there.I envy a public system like yours because all are helped but both systems have great things about them.
As for the recover time, I am not completely sure how long it will be. It really depends how bad it looks once they open my elbow up. If they have to completely move the nerve to the other side of the elbow or shave the bump on the underside of the elbow, it will be a long recovery of months before I get use. If it is a simple procedure and they just have to loosen the band above the nerve and clean out the elbow, I should be good in a month or so.
Painwise, this is supposed to be a painful surgery because it is nerve based. My primary care switched me from hydrocodone 10's to oxycodone 10's for the next months so that my body can have a new opioid that it is not used to. He also put me on flexeril along with my neurontin to hopefully stay on top of it.
I am really fortunate to have that good support system to help me through this. The members of my church in my local area are organized into a grouping called a ward. Each ward has a bishop and other men and women leaders that are responsible for helping the members. In addition to our leaders(these are all volunteer and part time) each member a partnership with someone of the same sex called hometeachers and are given the responsibility of watching out for the welfare of a few assigned families. It is a good way to make sure that all of the members are helped in times of need. It is really nice to have hometeachers check in with my wife and I atleast once a month to make sure that we are doing good. They have helped out in the past when I needed help and when I have been sick. My wife also has a couple sisters from our ward that come and visit her and have brought over dinner many times when either she or I have been sick. It always makes you feel good when someone helps you out because they care about you and are doing it out of the kindness of their heart. It has been a huge blessing to me to have the opportunity to also be the person helping another family.

Post Edited (tsitodawg) : 4/28/2011 1:27:19 AM (GMT-6)

ps. 'cos I have the impression that RS meets weekly, instead of a monthly home teaching visit... Just wondering if you have a more regular source of church support than monthly (not counting Sunday services, of course).

I.