The Diagnosis

I was wheeled into the ER at OHSU. I believe I was lifted off of the stretcher, after they unstrapped me, and heaved onto the ER bed. What is your name...Amy Gishifu. How old are you...25. Where does it hurt...in my back and my hips. How did this happen...I fell while rock climbing. Are you in pain...yes! Let's get something for that...yes!
They decided to take xrays and a CT Scan. In order to do that, they had to take off my tshirt and my pants.
Sorry, Amy, we're going to have to cut your tshirt to get your robe on you.
(What tshirt am I wearing...2003 La Jolla Half Marathon...that's ok)...Ok, you can.
Sorry, Amy, you're sports bra too
(What sports bra...old cotton...not dri-fit...)...Ok, that's fine.
They got the hospital gown on me and heaved me once again onto a stretcher and took me to another room. I saw the ceiling of different hallways, and apparently arrived in the CT scanning room. The lady asked me to put down my legs because I wouldn't be able to fit through the tunnel. I painfully lowered my knees and lay my legs flat against the bed. It hurt a lot. The CT scan was much less claustrophobic than the MRI machine that I went into about 10 years ago when I had to get my knee scanned to see if there was any muscle damage. (Wow, that was 10 years ago?!? turned out it was only a sprained knee). Then it was off to the xrays. They heaved me over onto my side, and xrays were taken. I was taken back to the ER, and hoisted back onto the bed.
Kristina was there. I was still blind from not having my glasses with me.
Is there anyone you want to call?
My manager...503-532-4233.
What about your parents?
NO!!!! Don't call them!!!!
I talked to John, and I think he knew what happened because I think all he said was that I had to go all the way. I told him I didn't know how long it would be, but that I was ok.
The pain was still there. Kristina was at my bedside now. They asked if the painkillers were working, and I said not really. It still hurt. So then they decided to give me morphine...that totally worked. I didn't understand why they didn't give me that to begin with. =)

That's when I met Dr. Yoo. He is the spine specialist at OHSU. He proceeded to tell me about his credentials and what his background was. He told me in his doctorly voice: Hi Amy, I took a look at the images, and there's some good news and bad news. The good news is that nothing hit your spinal cord, and that is fully in tact. The bad news is that you have an L1 burst. (Holy shit!) You have a couple of options. You can let it heal on it's own, but there is a possibility that some of the vertebrae can hit the spinal cord. The other option is to have a surgery and get the fragments out and fuse the bones together. He proceeded to tell me the success rate he's had with this surgery, and I heard a lot of 99%'s and less than 1%'s, so I figured I was in good hands.
I will do the surgery. (Oh, my gosh...surgery...)
Ok, then the other thing is that we can go into your hip and scrape bone off from there, or we can use this protein in order to fuse everything together.
Give me the protein (I don't want another incision)
Ok, that's good. But the drawback to using the protein is that you can't get pregnant in the next 12 months.
Oh, don't worry about that! (haha...like THAT's going to happen in the near future....I wanted to burst out laughing if I wasn't in so much pain.)
Ok, well then, we'll try and get you scheduled for surgery.
Holy moly...surgery...

The nurse came up to me, and she said, you should really call your parents. If I were your mother, I would want to know that you're going through surgery.
Ok
I called my dad
Hi Dad.
Hi Amy. How are you? Are you sore?
(Sore? How did he know I was sore?)
Aren't you sore from running this weekend?
(Oh, yeah, I ran). No, I'm fine. But I fell. I fell while I was rock climbing, and now I need surgery.
Oh. Ok. Well, I won't call your mom because she's at work. I'll tell her when she gets off of work.
Ok, here's the number to the hospital.

And so I gave my dad the phone number to hospital. And then I was told that I would have to wait til Thursday for the surgery. Crap.
When was the last time you ate?
Err...Monday night at 7:30pm.
Oh, maybe you can go through surgery today.
By now they had hooked up a jeopardy style clicker thing to the IV thing so that I could inject myself with morphine anytime I needed it. I clicked it now. I was still in pain, and I didn't want to think about how long it would be before I would be out of pain.

I was then carted away to ICU (intensive care unit) 7A. (They were kind enough to take my glasses with me, which they labeled with my name, so when I wore them I looked like a complete idiot) They then told me the good news, that I would be able to get in surgery this afternoon! Yes!!!!!!!

Kristina was with me the whole time, and managed to ask the doctor if I could make a full recovery, and the answer was yes. So the good news was also the fact that I could go back to doing my thing soon enough. Nice!

At some point during this diagnosis, I was told to roll on my side, and the doctors started applying pressure down the length of my spine, starting at my neck. Does this hurt? no. How about this? nope. They went down my neck and my back, and around my mid back I howled in pain. Does this hurt? YEEEEEESSSSSSS!!!!! They went down a little further, and the pain was there, but not as bad. They hit my tail bone, and it was slightly sore. And then, I don't think I imagined this, but I think someone poked me in the butt with a needle! Ouch! yes, that hurts!! Ok, well, at least you can feel that.
Great..I am laying on my side, my backside exposed to anyone in the ER, and I get poked in the butt with a needle. Great...