Reconnecting

A few people wondered why he seemed so he was for it in the hospital. I spend more than a month they are recovering from a stroke. One thing that amazed many people, including my family, including me… was my unusually good mood. Here I was – no income, in the hospital, paralyzed on the right side and unable to walk or use my right arm or hand. You would think that would be a very depressing thing. But I wasn’t impressed at all. My kids and my mother attributed it to some really good rugs they must have been giving me. It wasn’t until I got back home that I realized that I was now taking the same drugs that I was taking in the hospital. There were no magic mushrooms to perk up my mood. Just stuff to keep the blood pressure down, fight off blood clots and keep the gavel under control. That’s it.

What accounted for my usual attitude in the hospital? If you couldn’t walk or use your right arm, if you were scooting around a wheelchair, if you had been fiercely independent and were now dependent upon the people around you – that would seem like a prescription for depression.

After talking with my stroke doctor is, Dr. Hayes, I figured it out. I had lived a high-pressure lifestyle. The highs were enormously high. The lows were cavernously low. Very little time was spent in the middle ground. Although I love my kids and my kids love me, my relationships managed to alienate them. My romantic relationships were volatile. I was an all or nothing person.

The euphoria that I experienced after my stroke wasn’t due to drugs and wasn’t experiential. It was because, for the first time in my life, a really treasured those simple things in life that we forget about when we are busy – family and friends. Disabled as I was, the workforce would have to wait. My kids, my mother, a few of my close friends were the most important things in my life. Their presence, their happiness and their companionship was what made me happy.

It’s a good thing too… while I was sick I lost my house and most of my personal possessions! I had a couple of van loads of stuff. But I had family and friends. As time went on – I realized who my real friends were. My partner at them had been my friend for more than 20 years and he stood by me. My friend and business associate Arnie, ditto. As my recovery progress, I found a few more of those old friends. Bill, Tara, Andrew and Sheila, Jonathan, Mimi, Charlotta, Adam2 and Zannell, Frank, Manny, and more than I can even remember (hmmm… there are a lot of women in there, aren’t there?) have stayed in touch and supported me throughout my ongoing recovery.

That’s worth more than cash.

Stoned again! Redux

When it rains, it pours. Right after I had my stroke, I went to the doctor about a pain in my back on the right side. That doctor sent me to another doctor. The second doctor almost killed me by mixing up my drugs -- but that's another story. The second doctor, we'll call him Dr. X., decided that I had kidney stone. Alas, indeed, that was true. that's the part of the story is true. We'll talk about how Dr. X. nearly killed me in another post.

Well, I had a kidney stone. Fortunately, I have had kidney stones before. Now for those of you who are uneducated, there are two distinct types of kidney stones. The most common kind is caused by calcium buildup to the kidney the second, and by far more rare, is the uric acids Crystal buildup in the kidney resulting from a condition called gout. the symptoms are similar, but the treatments are completely different. For uric acid crystals, they pump you up with fluids and wait. The stone resolves itself. Usually. With calcium-based kidney stones, they generally do a process called lithotripsy.

Mistake number one. I have a history of gout. I told the doctor that. Even so, he still recommended lithotripsy. That's what happens when you go to a surgeon. He recommends what he knows. I talked to a number of people about lithotripsy. Basically, the cure can be worse than the disease. Unless your stones are killing you, don't do it. Based on that advice, I didn't. And, of course, the doctor was not happy. However, realizing that the stones were resulted of the doubt, the doctor prescribed allopurinol, which is fine. However, you do with all my meds and his hands, he prescribed potassium citrate. other than the fact that that drug interacts with every other medication I was taking it was fine. Well, it nearly killed me. It crashed my blood pressure. Everybody asked me what he prescribed. Now I'm debating whether to sue over. I probably won't. Bad karma.

This weekend been suffering for three days with the residue left for the big uric acid crystals. Fine one minute. Flat on my back the next. However, three days of aggravation beats four months of lithotripsy treatments!

The moral of the story? I'm not going to sue the doctor. They call it the practice of medicine. mistakes happen. When in doubt -- do some research. You are in charge of your own fate, ultimately.

Stoned again!

The Roman gladiators were reputed to have had as their motto, " That which does not kill us makes us stronger." I fervently hope that they are correct. since I was a teenager, I suffered from gout. The image we often see is an old man sitting in a chair with his foot raised and wrapped in a bandage. that is one way that gout can manifest itself.

Gout is a form of arthritis. it is a buildup of uric acid crystals in the joints, whereas arthritis is a buildup of excess calcium, or wearing down of the ligaments. However, uric acid crystals have other ways to invade the body. One of those ways is by collecting in the kidney, and manifesting as a kidney stone. Calcium can also do this. The symptoms are identical, but the treatments are very different. Unlike calcium, uric acid dissolves water. The crystals were enough water and they dissolve -- hopefully.

Generally, there are some great drugs they can get people to kill the pain And he said the dissolution of the crystals. Unfortunately, those drugs are incompatible with drugs they give people who had a stroke. So, the solution is drink a lot of water, take massive doses of ibuprofen for pain, and waited out.

It's not likely to kill me. I'll let you know if that makes me stronger. In the meantime, I'm going to lay on the bed and suffer a little.

It couldn't happen to a nicer guy!

It was about 10 AM, Sunday September 14, 2008.

I got up, showered, shaved, and got ready for the weekly pilgrimage to my mothers house. She was in her 80s. I did a couple of odds and ends around the house, and took her to lunch every Sunday. Well, most Sundays anyhow.

Here's the timeline of what happened next:

11:00 AM. I take off in the car. The drive is about a half an hour.

11:05 AM. Get on the highway. Call Arnie -- a Sunday ritual.

11:06 AM. Notice the right eye is bothering me. It's like a dark spot. Decide if the contacts.

11:07 AM. Reminder: make appointment to see optometrist on Monday.

11:15 AM. Call Adam. I still believe you me. But, don't say anything.

11:30 AM. Arrive at mothers. Say hi. Do odds and ends around the house.

11:50 AM. Head to lunch -- Bob Evans restaurant. Standard Sunday drinking lunch!

12:01 PM. My right eye is still bugging me! However, I read the menu just fine.

12:45 PM. Finish lunch, chitchat, take mom home.

12:55 PM. Call wife, tell her I'm on the way.

01:03 PM. Call back Arnie.

01:45 PM. Arrive home.

01:50 PM. Kiss wife, go upstairs to work for about 30 minutes.

01:51 PM. See letters on a computer screen, but they make absolutely no sense.

01:52 PM. Go downstairs. Complaints of life. I have no idea what's wrong with me. But I feel fine.

01:53 PM. Wife insists I lay down on the couch. I think it's stupid, but comply.

02:15 PM. Ambulance arrives! Ambulance paramedics do all sorts of stuff.

02:30 PM. Ambulance rushes me to hospital. Seemed fine on the way there.

Sometime? Arrive at hospital. I remember arms and legs still work. I remember getting there. I remember being wheeled out of the ambulance. Black out. Something steps in my head. consciousness turns off as somebody threw a light switch. It's a couple of days before I regained consciousness and realize what's going on.

In the space of 5 hours I went from thriving, energetic business and family man to blithering, paralyzed, incontinent the vegetable, on the verge of death.

I went from nearly dead, paralyzed, nearly mindless person to a man who couldn't see out of the right side, useless arm in a sling, wheelchair riding semi vegetable in the space of a couple of months.

Truthfully, it was one of the best things that ever happened to me! Sounds weird? You will see why.