Second Week Home // Pelvic Fracture Recovery

June 1, 2021

You can read about my accident here, my hospital stay here, and my first week home here.

This is my second week home from the hospital. I’ve seen vast improvements in pain, movement, and overall outlook this past week.

Pain Levels and Movement

I think my second week home from the hospital and third week since the accident has been the best in terms of pain decrease and movement increase. In the hospital and in week one, I could barely move around my bed and was basically laying at an angle constantly. If I needed to roll onto my side for any reason, someone had to help push or pull me, but now, I am able to roll onto my sides with little help.

I still do physical therapy once a week and I have exercises that I do almost every single day to keep my upper body and legs in shape (or at least as best as I can while on bed rest).

Second Opinion

As most people do when they get into a bad accident, I got a second opinion. My mom called in some favors in the States and found a doctor near her hometown in Naples, Florida who was willing to give a second opinion. We sent him my CT scans, radiology reports, and discharge papers. He looked them over and said that he completely agreed with my doctor’s diagnose. However, he said that waiting 6 weeks until I try weight-bearing might be too conservative.

My mom was so ecstatic but I needed some more time to process. Originally, I supposed to start sitting up at a 90-degree angle at 4 weeks, and then start weight-bearing at 6 weeks. I had been setting all my sights on the 6-week mark and to have it moved was a bit unnerving. But I think I was conflicted because I still felt like I had a broken pelvis. I remembered how much pain I had been in and how much I suffered and everyone told me, in order to protect my pelvis, I couldn’t stand up for 6 weeks. Then, all of a sudden I could stand up at 4 weeks? I felt like my pelvis wasn’t ready.

We asked my doctor about moving those milestones up. He saw the progress that I was making in physical therapy and he agreed to let me try sitting up at 3 weeks and weight-bearing at 4 weeks. We’ll see how this goes.

THE CATHETER IS OUT!

As I’ve said, I suffered from neurongenic bladder from my accident. I lost control of my bladder and needed a catheter to help train my bladder how to function correctly again. We had to clamp and unclamp the catheter every two hours to teach my bladder how to feel full and empty completely. On Thursday, 29 April, I officially had my catheter for two weeks, which meant it was time to get it out. My doctor was kind enough to come to my house after work and remove my catheter. I anticipated the worst, but it actually wasn’t that bad.

The first 24 hours after the catheter was removed, I didn’t have any issues. I mean, it felt weird to physically pee again after not doing it myself for two weeks, but otherwise, it was great. However, the next day, I started having some leaking/control issues. I started having to wear a diaper again, which was disheartening. I felt like I was back in the hospital and had taken 10 steps back in recovery. We’ll see how this goes.

Job Interview

That’s right, I had a job interview while on bed rest for pelvic fractures. They asked if I was able to do a video interview and so, of course, I had to tell them that I am on bed rest. I didn’t want them to see me in bed and think that I am the laziest person ever.

The interview was two-part: interview and writing portion. The interview portion went well, but the written portion was a mess. As I’ve mentioned before, the pain meds I take make my brain all fuzzy and I struggle to focus and think in complete thoughts. I didn’t mention this to the interviewers, but I hope they can put two and two together when they read my horrible writings.

Mental Health? Boredom?

I may not be bored, but I still don’t have a lot going on haha

My mental health has been pretty good this week. I have a tendency to hold things in and then explode once it all gets to be too much (sometimes seemingly over nothing haha, but it’s the straw that broke the camel’s back). That happened once this week. It wasn’t about anything in particular, and I wasn’t even sure why I was crying, but anyway, it came out I felt much better. I had some disheartening moments after the catheter was taken out and I was put back in the diaper, but I am trying to keep things in perspective and remember how far I’ve come.

Still not that bored. Shocking. I think having my mom with me basically 24/7 helps a lot. I am still getting a steady flow of visitors, which is nice. I also started making TikToks, so, yeah…