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Here’s an account of a very recent health experience. I'm finally on the mend now, but I had a scary and unpleasant time of it.
Here’s an account of a very recent health experience. I'm finally on the mend now, but I had a scary and unpleasant time of it.
1
The context is that my wife
and I had bought a new home in a Midwestern city, and without even listing it
we'd sold our outstate New York home, with the closing set for May 2. The moving van was scheduled to come take all
our stuff away on Thursday April 26.
Packing had gone well; we
had just enough time left to put away the things we'd been living with right up
until the end. Also, about three weeks
before, I'd started a new, potent osteoporosis drug. Looking back it’s clear that it wasn't just
coincidental that I started having insomnia and irregular heartbeats shortly
after starting the new drug.
Finally, from all the
packing dust, I had also become quite congested, wheezing, short of breath at
times, and that sort of thing.
The heart arrhythmia wasn't
debilitating, but it was a little disconcerting... especially when I confirmed
that it had been caused by my response to the new drug. So on Monday April 22 we went to consult with
my cardiologist. He got me scheduled for a little procedure to realign the
heart rhythm late Tuesday: cardioversion, it’s called. I'd done it before; it takes about an hour,
even including getting over the anesthesia.
However, this time it did
not go simply.
I stopped breathing! but
the heart was strong, so putting an oxygen tube down my throat into my lungs
worked well enough to restore my breathing. I had tubes down my mouth and nose: I. V.’s into
me hanging all over two metal poles. I
had no sedation for two days this way, with my hands tied down so that I wouldn't
unconsciously mess with the tubes.
Of course, I couldn't talk.
Couldn't move. Frankly, I don't know how I got through it. On
the third day, the radiologist had a look into my stomach through a catheter in
my groin. Since he couldn't find evidence of fresh bleeding in my stomach, the
pulmonologist was authorized to decide whether or not to pull out the breathing
tube. What a blessing it was to be able to talk and move my upper body again.
On the other hand, I was
still immobilized for five hours more so that the catheterization could heal
up. I knew I had a lot of self-discipline, but lordy, it was put to the test in
those long days.
I still was getting my only
nourishment via I.V. I could talk and
read and control the tv. Finally
although I still was receiving oxygen - not to mention lots of meds by I.V. - I
could get up enough to sit in the chair beside my bed. That was surprisingly
delicious.
Eventually the I. V.'s
dwindled enough that I could use a walker and shuffle around the I C U. I might
wake up at 3 a.m. and announce I wanted to go for a walk, and two staff (at
first) would accompany me pushing the I. V. poles beside me. This movement sped
my recovery quite a bit.
4
I was making good progress
until the stomach specialist had a look down my throat into the stomach and
discovered I still had a lot of fluid there - including blood - so a new tube was
installed (through my nose this time) to drain it away. That was a little set-back, but a day later that
was finished so I went back to getting better.
By Friday morning, May 3,
the day after the rescheduled moving van in fact cleaned out our NYS home, the
doctors said I was stable enough to be transferred to the hospital in the
Midwest. My wife and I were carried to
the airport in an ambulance, where we were placed in a small medical jet and
flown to our new home city.
5
Three hours after lift-off,
another ambulance took us to the new hospital... not to ICU but to a regular
room. I was getting oxygen and was limited to eating (drinking) clear fluids. I
could sit in a chair but could not move around other than that.
After a couple of days,
though, I was issued a walker and taught how to release myself from the oxygen
feed, so I was back on the move again. Everything was pretty stable, but I
could not be weaned off the oxygen altogether. Finally on the third day I
achieved that milestone. On Tuesday, May 7, I was released and joined my wife
in our new home.
Since then – a week ago - I
have continued to get stronger. I have three home care providers coming to
visit twice a week: a nurse, a physical therapist, and an occupational
therapist. Tomorrow (May 15) I will meet the man who will probably become my
new heart guy, and on May 28 I will be linked up with a new Personal Care
Physician. After that point I will probably be left to continue to recover on
my own.
Why did all this happen to
me? How did I get through it?
Some questions just cannot
be answered, I guess.
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