A scary half hour around midnight

I've been trying to get used to the night splints I started wearing almost a month ago. I did really good after the first couple of nights and went five nights wearing them most of the night. Then things went downhill, and I was only able to tolerate them for 3 to 4 hours a night before my right leg throbbed with pain.

So, I've been trying to figure out what I need to do to be able to wear them more consistently. I reasoned that maybe some aides were putting them on tighter than others. So I've been trying to "fine-tune" the process a bit.

But last night something must've gone wrong. The splints felt fine and I was able get to sleep in less than an hour after they were put on. They did not feel overly tight.

However, I woke at 12:30 a.m. like I was coming out of a bad dream or nightmare and my right leg was throbbing. I took a couple of minutes to make sure I wasn't dreaming the whole thing, only to realize that my leg was hurting so bad I didn't know how long I could stand it. I put my call light on so that an aide would come to help me.

I wondered which aide would come and what their first comment would be. Some have been very negative about me wearing the splints. They feel they will not help my ankle/foot contracture. But, I want to give them a try to see.

After ten minutes no one had answered my call light. I wondered what was going on. I knew a new male resident came in yesterday afternoon. I wondered if he was anxious and keeping the aides busy with him on his first night.

After a few more minutes, I thought I had better start to call "NURSE" to see if someone might hear me. At first, I thought maybe my call light did not come on. I've had several days recently when it was not lighting up in the hallway. As the minutes passed, I became more anxious. I started to yell a bit louder "NURSE". And I got progressively louder. I wondered where everyone was. But, I am way at almost the end of the hall, far away from the nurses station.

The more I called "NURSE" the more my leg hurt. Then, after thirty minutes, a male aide came in. I asked where he was and he said he was busy. I told him I had been calling for help for twenty minutes and told him I was pretty scared.

After that he loosened my brace and tried to make me more comfortable. I ended up needing to take them off. I never did figure out what caused it to hurt so much last night.