Being hit in the Chest by stretcher

[Happiness]

So back in Dec I was placing the stretcher back into the ambulance. I was not squared up and accidently hit the locking mechanism and in turn I walked into the stretcher hitting my upper chest area aka the boob. It really didn't hurt and I didn't think to much of it.

Later that evening as I was getting dressed to go out, and I noticed swelling and some bruising. This happened on a Saturday so not thinking it was a big deal waited until the following Monday to go and see the doctor. After a good exam the Dr. stated that yes there was a hematoma and to come back if necessary. I also had made a follow up appointment as it was a WCB incident.

So through out all of this there was no pain, but the area felt heavy and a bit lumpy but I was in the mind set that well it will take a while to heal and my body to absorb the blood.

After the holidays I took a bit more notice and it really wasn't getting any better but it really didn't feel any worse so I patiently waited for my follow up appointment. The day of my appointment the clinic called and rescheduled for a few days later as my doctors plane was unable to land. I went in and holly crap I don't think I'v seen a Drs. eyes bug out so much and have him run out of the room to make sure the ultrasound girl could fit me in before she left town. To be honest this kind of scared the crap out of me. I went and had the ultrasound and when the girl said to me "how are you doing and I want to know if you are in a good place" I am assuming mentally. She sent the pics out right away and the doctor grabbed me to go to his office so we could have a conversation with the surgeon. Getting a bit more freaked out. We couldn't talk to him at that time but about an hr. later I was summoned back to the hospital. I had an abscess that had developed around the hematoma and was going to be put on IV antibiotics. If this did not work I was going to be medivaced to have it drained.

I went into the emergency and the Dr. there started to ask me some questions. This is were the light bulb really started to light up.

Have you been running a fever? I have been feeling a bit of chill in the past few days but I have not taken my temperature to confirm. Also In the past week I have had menstrual cycle and I take heavy doses of Motrine for pain. (Im old and it gets worst).

Have you been tired? Yes but that is normal for this time.

Have you been experiencing any pain? I have had no pain in the area.

Have you been experiencing any night sweats? Yes but Im at menopause age and have chalked it up that.

One thing that I had not mentioned to the Dr. is that for the past month or so I have had joint pain. Now this is not the flu type of pain, and to be honest I thought I was getting old and maybe starting arthritis. This pain was getting worse but never thought much of it. The best way to describe it is if you ever watch a 80 year old get off of a couch and how it takes a bit for them to straighten up and get going, that was me.

So I am now an out patient with IV therapy every 8 hrs. and after the first dose, I can say I was feeling much better. I also slept for about 24 hrs. straight keeping in mind I was awake only for the treatments. Today is the first day of oral antibiotics.

After 2.5 days of this I noticed that my joints were not aching and how much better I was feeling. I truly didn't realize how sick I was and was only a day or two away from being septic.

It was also explained during the conversations with the Dr. that when women injure this area a lot of the time the body will calcify around the injury and that may prevent the hematoma from being absorbed back to the body. So there for it will abscess and in turn because of the calcification the body is unable to attack the infection.

So the Moral of the story girls is if you ever experience this type of injury make sure you keep a better eye on it than I did, take the symptoms of infection very seriously and recognise like in my case there are other things that may be happening that will make you think nothing of it. The boys will be happy that you did

Now the funny part of this is I have also discovered I am not as shy as I was before and had the flashing down to a tee. I think I traumatized the Dr. as by the 3rd exam he stated he did not need to see them anymore This also might be the best WCB claim ever lmao

[paramedicmike]

Cripes! Glad you got this addressed and are feeling better!

Edited January 20, 2014 by paramedicmike

[island emt]

Thats really scary Happiness , glad your Doc recognized the problem when he did.

Hope your on the mend know.

I can just imagine the WC forms now. ::: type of injury?

Busted Boobage