I'm back!!

Well, I am home and feeling much better!!

Thank you, all of you, for the support you have shown for myself and my family. Not long after word got out that I was in hospital, I started to improve at a remarkable rate. The flood of support for us has been truly amazing and really wonderful. Of course, having some very talented healers in our circle of friends, and a bunch of fervent prayers in our family and wider circle of friends, helps a bunch too!!

Misti has been a tower of strength through all of this, to the point that she is now pretty thoroughly worn out. In many ways, this weekend was harder on her than on me. She not only had me to fret over and Jack to look after, but she had to deal with her own angst and keep everybody posted. She works like a trojan, does my Misti, I am very lucky to have her as my wife.

Jack has been truly remarkable. His behaviour has been exemplary and, as boring as hospital is, he didn't want to be anywhere else. His dad was sick and he was going to be there until I came home.

I think it has helped that Jack has been with us when visiting hospital as some of our closest friends have had major crises, and we have, as a family, done what we can to see them through. Hospital is not his favorite place to be, but it doesn't phase him.

We operate as a family unit. We stand by each other, we support each other, and we do the hard yards when they need to be done. That's the way Jack sees the world, and I am impressed a the depth with which he has internalized it all. It has taken its toll emotionally, though. I think he'll need a couple of days of no-pressure-at-all to just unwind and be "nearly 5" again.

So, the whole story from my perspective, goes something like this...

I had been fatigued for a couple of days, and figured I was fighting off a cold or some other undesirable bug (the only reason this is important is that Jack insists that the afternoon's events sparked the evening event). I was clearing the driveway of snow, and it had taken a l lot more effort than it usually does. I uncovered some "black ice" on the concrete which, of course, looks just like the concrete.

I slipped on the ice and landed hard. I had bruised my rib by falling on my arm, but thankfully I had the presence of mind to throw the shovel away from me. I didn't think too much of it, but it unsettled Jack, who was standing on the porch waiting for me to be able to shut the gate (which is another story).

I finished the driveway off (which totals about 1200 sq feet) and proceeded to free the gate, which had been frozen in place all winter under about 8 inches of accumulated ice.

I was pretty wiped out, so when Misti arrived home a little while later, I wasn't up for cooking dinner. We eventually went out to a familiar restaurant for a familiar meal.

As we arrived home after dinner, I became aware that I was "coming down with something". I had that nasty chill that often portends a raging fever.

There was no doubt in my mind I was sick, and while I had been off color for a couple of days, this hit like a ton of bricks.

Misti grabbed a large thick blanket for me and I lay under it (and my regular blanket) for at least an hour and a half shivering hard enough to shake the bed.

During this time, my breathing became increasingly difficult, and I developed a rattling wheeze. My lungs have been compromised for many years, so I am accustomed to fighting for breath on occasions when I push myself a little harder than usual, but this was quite different.

Misti became concerned, and I suggested a wait-and-see approach, there were a couple of things I hadn't tried yet.
Still fighting for breath and shivering, I put my c-pap on, figuring the extra pressure would open the airways, and the warm, moist air would help things along as well.

The shivering eventually gave way to the expected fever, but I never stopped fighting for breath. The rattling wheeze became worse over time, and the shortness of breath remained.

After giving it a couple of hours, I managed to calm my breathing to a regular, though still very forceful pattern, and any movement at all resulted in 10 minutes of heavy panting, trying to catch up.

It did not improve from there. I figured I probably had pneumonia.

I made it clear to Misti that I was unable to think straight, and not improving at all.

She immediately rang the hospital, and set the wheels of industry in motion - very slow motion as I recall. It seemed to take most-of-forever to get upright, dressed, downstairs, and into the car. Sitting upright required considerable recovery time, as did every other step in the process.

Misti managed to take care of my needs while bundling Jack into the car and preparing everything else for the journey across town. it was snowing and another inch had accumulated on the driveway.

The drive over was slow and somewhat slipery. I thought about pneumonia, and the probable recovery time for that. I thought about the bruised rib and hoped I hadn't done the extremely improbable, and punctured my lung. I thought about the amount of time Misti might have to take off work, and whether or not we'd have to cancel our Australia trip (the cancellation alone would cost 600.00).

We arrived at the hospital and they ruled out pneumonia or any other form of lung trouble with a chest ex-ray. At that point I began to really be concerned, because anything else I could think of was really serious.

They gave me oxygen, which helped a lot, and a breathing treatment, which helped further. However as soon as it was removed, my blood oxygen dropped and breathing difficulty returned, though it was nowhere near as severe as before.

They then ruled out out blood clot in the lung, which required a CT scan. Next on their list was heart disease, which required a longer time to test. At that point, I was admitted to hospital, and Misti and Jack finally went home.

Of course, I am a substantial guy, (and at 4 am in distress, I look pretty unkempt and disreputable) and the first thing anyone else thinks of is heart disease. I know my heart to be strong and healthy, so heart attack is never high on my list of probable causes, but "atypical chest pain" nevertheless turned up front-and-center on my admission papers.

Once they had ruled out heart disease, the remaining possibility, was laryngal spasm, the type of thing associated with anaphylactic shock.

We hadn't considered this because there had been no obvious cause, and I have no history of anaphylaxis at all, but the symptoms did point more clearly to that than to anything else.

We eventually put it down to a cross-contamination. The most likely culprit being the fish I had for dinner being something other than the cod it was advertised to be (there are certain fish I cannot eat), or cross-contaminated with the shellfish (which is abundant in lent, and I can't eat that either).

Anyway, that is the full story, it was a very harrowing time for Misti and Jack, and it was no bunch of roses for me either.

I'm glad that the problem turned out to be something that is largely avoidable. I'm also very glad that my general health hasn't deteriorated further, as I have been working hard at mitigating the damage done by many years of hard living.

Now its time to set about doing those things that only I can do, because I've got a long list of things to accomplish, and none of us can be sure of how much time we have.

Take Care

Rod