We see and hear of such awful things in the course of a day as a nurse, it's sometimes difficult to get worked up over what appears to be a minor symptom at home.
 |
| Love this icepack? Get it here |
I ask him the usual questions you ask when a person thinks they are having one.
Nada.
I told him to take a couple of ibuprofen and put ice on his head. I also told him to stop chewing gum, for goodness sake.
I didn't hear anything more about it after that, and like most of us - when there were no further complaints, assumed the problem was resolved.
I assumed wrong.
Last night my husband was obviously restless and when I asked him what was going on with him.....he replied that it was the same pain as before, only now there was "tingling" in his scalp and he couldn't sleep. His CPAP wasn't helping the situation either.
"Did you put ice on it like I told you?"
"Well, no."
"Well....go and get some ice and put it on the area. If you actually do that - you might get some relief."
He goes downstairs to the kitchen.
I could hear rattling and banging doors and a crash of a dish.
He comes back in the room empty-handed.
"Where's the ice for your head?"
"I couldn't find it so I guess I can do without it. I'll be fine. " Big *sigh*
Obviously not.
I get out of the comfortable warm bed and head for the kitchen. My toes are freezing cold.
The sacrifices we make.
I get out a litre ziploc bag, put a half kilo of ice in it and just cover with water...press the air out and seal. I find the cloth container expressly for such things and put the icepack in it and head back up to the bedroom.
"Here you go. Stick it on your head where it hurts."
I snuggle back down under the covers, trying to warm up.
I hear rustling around on the other side of the bed for about another 10 minutes while he fiddles with and adjusts his CPAP over his ice pack.
Finally - Silence.
At two am I am awakened by snoring and look over to see the CPAP is off.
It takes me another 3 hours to get back to sleep.
In the morning....my husband apologises profusely....
"Thanks sooooo much honey, that ice pack really did help and I am so sorry I didn't listen to you when you first told me to use the ice ... but I didn't feel like it would help."
I am used to family not listening to me at this point.
"Oh....and honey? Sorry about taking the CPAP off last night. It just didn't fit very well with the ice.....but....good news I am feeling great now - right???!!!"
I yawn.
"Great, honey. Nice to hear. I am happy for you - really - Now let me get a little more sleep."
11 comments:
Men...lol Mine was stubborn when I told him that he needed stitches in his head. He wanted me to take regular super glue and glue it shut...um no
ALL of my family don't listen to me....and I have proven myself right on many occasions. I guess it comes with the territory. :(
That's so funny! I go to the other end of the spectrum though, especially with my kids. That means I go to worse case scenario. It's partly the personality I was born with- high strung and panicky:) and the rest is my areas of expertise- ortho, neuro, and spinal cord injury. So that little bump on the head from the coffee table means a trip to the doctor. Thank goodness my non-nurse husband balances me out. He grew up one of six kids, and four of those were boys, so nothing alarms him.
H: Ahhh! I am not a type A...however, I do tend to err on the side of caution, if there is evidence ....
Head injuries are a whole 'nother ball of wax...and with little ones....well.... :) can't be too careful. ;)
Yeah, I pretty much have no sympathy at all when it comes to my husband. I feel pretty bad about it, but the answer to just about any medic complaint is "take some damn Motrin like I told you to." In my defense, it pretty much always helps when he listens, though.
Men.
You can't live with them...
And, you can't live without them!
I was ROFLMAO reading this.
Especially the part of the BIG SIGH when he came back empty handed.
Very funny and all too familiar.
NNITH: I know! It's funny how resistant families can be with advice given, and when they do listen, they are surprised...
Phiddy: My man's a good one, but sometimes it's just exhausting! :) All in all, he's not an awful lot of work ;)
My family never listens to me. One of my sisters will ask me what I think and then proceed to tell me that isn't what it says on google. I give up.
I hear ya Rachedy!
It's funny, but my patients are already starting into that now too!
Just a thought if it happens again - amongst other things, TMJ pain and scalp tingles are found in giant cell arteritis and it has to start somewhere, the visual signs and severe headache often don't appear (about half of cases). I work a lot with a pmr/gca support group so any mention of that sort of discomfort registers. As he's a man I DO appreciate that the other aspects are just as applicable as I have one at home too ;-)
Funny thing, now he stopped chewing gum and followed my instructions....it has never come back! :)
But you are correct...the body is so interrelated and symptoms for different things are so similar that it is difficult to figure out what is going on a lot of the time.
Post a Comment