Apparently blogging isn’t a thing anymore, at least in the form that it was back when I started this blog back in 2010. It has been almost 2 years since I last published an entry here and it has been a tumultuous two years indeed.
I have experienced not one but two medical crisis is since my last post. The first came in April 2021 when I had what for all intents and purposes was a heart attack. Everything but the chest pain happened to me on a Wednesday afternoon in late April and I spent a week in the hospital. The end result: I now have blockages in my heart and I am being carefully monitored by my medical staff for future cardiac situations.
I am calling it a heart attack because my medical representatives will not pull the trigger and say that it was but I have taken many CPR classes in the past 30 years through employers to know that by the criteria that we are taught in those classes I had two of the possible three determining factors that would declare what I had a “heart attack”.
I am not a doctor as you well know, but I am using the “swag method* to come to this determination. Since that time I can honestly say that my diabetic situation has moderated, my weight is down to numbers that I have not seen in nearly 40 years and my blood pressure that was all over the page is under control.
Keep in mind that that medical crisis only cost me nine days off work start to finish. It also cost me a pair of eyeglasses but that’s another story for another blog entry.
In October came another medical crisis and this was actually more serious than my heart attack if you can believe it. Two weeks into the month, October 14 to be precise, I noted that one of my toes on my left foot was the color of a newly ripened plum and was weeping blood and fluid. I also felt beginnings of what people would consider to be the flu.
Fever, chills, bodyaches. Basically everything that you would feel when you have been exposed to the flu. The problem being of course that it was not flu season and with this in mind I was also showing the symptoms that were present when I lost my right foot so at that point I decided to takeoff work and drive to the hospital.
The problem being of course that it was not flu season and with this in mind I was also showing the symptoms that were present when I lost my right foot so at that point I decided to takeoff work and drive to the hospital. At the very least, I was going to lose the toe and I was ready for that.
The doctor however had other things in mind.
I was under medical supervision from October 14 at St. Francis Hospital here in Tulsa and then I was transferred at the end of October to Forest Hills rehab and skilled nursing Center in Broken Arrow where I remained until December 17, 2021.
I was under medical supervision from October 14 at St. Francis Hospital here in Tulsa and then I was transferred at the end of October to Forest Hills rehab and skilled nursing center in Broken Arrow where I remained until December 17, 2021.
This was the longest period in my life that I was gone from my home & family under medical care probably since my birth. Once I was discharged I had to spend another two months at my house under home health care.
For someone who considers himself to be a very patient man my patience was definitely strained to say the very least. All of this time was spent off work with no money coming in with the exception of what people would donate to me through crowdfunding operations like go fund me in Facebook fundraisers.
All of this time was spent off work with no money coming in with the exception of what people would donate to me through crowdfunding operations like go fund me and Facebook fundraisers.
Needless to say the whole experience was quite humbling. Prior to these events I used to tell people that the last time I stared the Grim Reaper in the face is during the time that I lost my right foot and I don’t think I’m too far off base when I characterize that experience as being “near death“.
I was nowhere near that point in either situation though having a heart attack does have its own “near death“ implications. At least I didn’t feel like it like I did before. Sure, life has taken a few turns for the not so great but I am alive. I feel like the whole situation is humanize me and brought a certain amount of realism to my life right now.
And gave me one big reality check: things need to change with me. I often harp about being just six years removed from the year of life that my father departed his. I want to live longer than my dad did.
Hopefully that will happen.
*”Swag method”: Scientific Wild Ass Guess method.
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