What is next? Can this year get stranger?

[Land_Owner]

As you know, I am struggling with recovery from brain and back surgeries. The struggle is real. Sunday I went to church. Following the service I was unable to walk to the car. I fell out of breath and became very very weak and had to be wheelchair to the car and taken home. We had a  discussion about going to the local emergency room. My guy thinking is if it's not broken, if it's not bleeding, if it does not need stitching, if it doesn't hurt it's not an emergency.

This was out of breath and out of energy and a soft "emergency". B u t away we went. We presented ourselves at the ER at about 3:00 p.m. a chest x-ray indicated the possibility of pneumonia in the lung a CT scan revealed a pulmonary embolism was blocking a major blood vessel in the lung making the heart work harder and creating less blood volume to be oxygenated in the lung.

I was under the impression that the embolism was the size of a quarter and blocking a vessel. Was I ever so wrong. The local ER had no ICU or surgeon available so at midnight they sent me on a Life Flight to a regional hospital with those capabilities. At 9:00 on Monday morning in what was to have been a one hour surgery this is what was removed over a 2 hour and 20 min proceedure:



I have dodged another bullet. The doctor said it has taken a long time for that level of clotting to build up. And it is unknown from where the bleeding is originating (likely Covid). At the least, the embolism is now removed, the Widowmaker is on the ground, and my chance for recovery is significantly improved.

The doctors have yet to allow me to put my feet on the floor. I have a 1" incision in my right groin that is held together with only the stitching material that God gave me. Yesterday that incision was pulled apart when they took the Stitch out. It was under venous pressure and I got about a 2 ft geyser that had to be controlled for the next 15 mins. That will get looked at by the doctor this morning. To my mind it is no wonder I've had such a difficult road to climb in weariness and breathing difficulties having that mess on top of my lungs.

[Ranger99]

Praying for you here

Sorry to hear of all that B.S.
raining down on you.
I tell myself pretty much daily
that no matter how bad I feel
or how much the pains dig at
me, there's always someone
somewhere that's twice as bad
off as I am.
I can surely sympathize about the
groin hacking.  They did that to
me some years back and it was
a bfm. Just me-  I don't see why
these pinhead medicos don't type
your blood and have a few units
right there on standby jic they
have an uh-oh and lose more
than intended. When they got
done with me, I had a coat of
blood from my belly button to
my knees, and my "procedure "
was relatively trouble free.
Didn't get to see the gurney, but
I imagine that it was coated in
a mixture of blood and sweat.
The thing for me is that randomly
every now and again the incision
spot cramps/hurts/stings/whatever
like a severe electrical shock.
It usually subsides pretty quickly, but
the other night/early morning it
did it about every 15 minutes and
wouldn't stop until I got completely
up and walked to the latrine and
had stopped completely by the
time I got sat down in a chair.
Nary a tingle since then.
Part of living a long time when
you spent your youth thinking
that you'd be in the box by 40


Best of luck. Post when you're able

[Lloyd Smale]

that sucks. sorry about the problem but glad they caught it. praying nothing gets worse!

[ulav8r]

I know about how you felt.  In 2009 I started tiring easily in March.  2 or 3 weeks later we had a big ice storm, then a couple weeks later I started clearing trees.  I would run the chainsaw about 15 minutes then rest 30 minutes.  Did that a couple of days.  Then the 3rd weekend in April I got on the roof and cleaned the gutters.  Got dizzy a couple times and sat down to rest. Went to work the following Thursday and was trying to complete a small project.  Got dizzy each time I stood up so told my boss I was headed to the emergency room.  I went in and described my symptoms, so they decided to do a heart cath.  Told me my arteries were 97% clear and released me at 9:00pm.  Friday my wife took me back to the hospital to get my truck, then we went shopping.  Saturday morning I passed out and my wife heard me exhale from the other room.  After coming to,I scooted down the stairs on my butt and she helped me walk to the car.  I passed out again and she called 911, then just as they answered I came to again and she hung up on them.  As she started to back out they called back.  She explained that I was awake, she was taking me to the emergency room and she thought she could get there as quickly as an ambulance could get to us.


When we got there they took me into the ER immediately and about 5 minutes later they were doing a cat scan of my chest.  Turns out about 97% of my lungs had  blockage from tiny blood clots.  As soon as I got back to the ER, they gave me a bolus of Heparin to dissolve the clots.  After 11 days in the hospital I was released.  The clots had been forming in the back of my thigh and traveling to my lungs where they were trapped.  The first night in the hospital they took 28 vials of blood for tests and discovered I had Proteins C and S deficiencies, a hereditary condition that affects clotting of the blood.  I now avoid Vitamin K and large amounts of dark green vegetables and take warfarin every day to thin my blood and have to check my INR(blood clotting timing) at least every other week.


My younger brother died of a massive blood clot in 1984, that they found during his autopsy.  This was long before they knew about C and S protein deficiency.

[ironglow]

  Prayers sent up..  Hope things clear up soon..

[Tommyt]

 Praying For you I pray for God Speed Recovery, I also believe in modern medicine
I’ve gotten pneumonia twice in the last 12 months thank god nothing like you mine was aspiration
 I wish you well

[moamonkey]

I guess it’s good that it took a long time for that to build to that size. Getting that out probably bought you a good bit of time. Keep on keeping on brother.