Back From The Dead

Hey all, It’s me, I’m alive and kicking. Sorry it took me so long to to let you all know I was alive and kicking but I really wanted to make sure that I WAS GOING TO STAY ALIVE AND KICKING for at least a little while before I opened my mouth. OK, so here it goes, (the edited version) let me just first start off by saying that being in an induced coma for 3 weeks really sux @$$ and I would strongly recommend avoiding it if at all possible ...LOL/CRY. Definitely an experience I could have lived without. (Hmmm, actually, literally, it was an experience that I wouldn’t have lived without) I spent a total of 28 days in John Muir hospital, 21 of which I was being kept alive by life support in that aforementioned induced coma. One day I’ve got a bit of a soar throat and less than 6 days later a simple head cold turned into a life threatening case of pneumonia. (Multilobar Pneumonia w/ Subsequent ARDS w/ Acute Respiratory Failure) Laying on the couch, feeling like crap and I took my temp. 103.6 degrees, Hmmmm, that’s not good, ... called a friend to drive me to the hospital. With the exception of a few other small details the only thing I remember is someone in the ER holding up an x-ray of my chest. Wow, where did my ribs go. Oh, they’re being covered up by those two big solid white blobs that used to be my lungs. Again I thought to myself, that’s not good. Didn’t take a brain surgeon to figure out that things were far from good. Next thing I remember is waking up in a bed uncomfortable as hell with tubes everywhere. Couldn’t really put any kind of thought processes' together, couldn’t move very well and couldn’t walk. I had literally forgotten how to walk. I had no Idea that 3 weeks had passed. Felt like it was a bad night’s sleep with some really horrible dreams and the most vivid hallucination I ever had. Probably took me the better part of 2 or 3 days to actually wrap my brain around the concept that I had just been unconscious (sort of) for 3 weeks.

It wasn’t my time. Ventilator was pulled at the 3 week mark, which is the maximum time that the vent can be left in the throat due to esophagus and vocal cord issues. As per my DNR (Do Not Resuscitate) no further life support was administered and I was not trached. I was left on my own to survive, .... Or not. Seems my body just wasn’t ready to go yet. Off life support, alive, feeling like crap, brain function significantly slower than my usual slow self, unable to walk, still eating through a tube in one nostril, (Mmmmmm, Similac, my favorite) O2 in the other nostril, 30 pounds lighter than I was 22 days prior and facing the probability of months of rehab and O2 in an assisted living facility. Then after a few absolutely horrible days, you don’t want the details, believe me, I managed to keep my first solid meal down. Mind you, I yanked the feeding tube out a few days prior, SORTA BY ACCIDENT, kinda, .... Nurse said that’s gotta go go back in, .... “Yea, over my dead body!” Anyhoo, next morning I got up at 5:45 (I will never forget looking up and seeing the clock, ...5:45) and everything seemed better. Hungry as hell, needing to take a leak (go potty) Kicked my legs around in bed and they seemed to work as well. Got out out bed, walked to the bathroom and took my first standing leak in 26 days :-) Ahhhhhhhhhhh. It just all, well most, came back. I could eat, I could breath, I could walk and I could almost think. Later that day the hospital doctor walked in with a huge smile on his face and said, “So I heard you’re walking,” I jumped to my feet, did a little dance and walked across the room. Still smiling, like a 6 year old in front of the ice cream truck, he said, “You’re outta here! Go home.” A little bit surprised I asked, “But don’t you want to observe me for a few days and make sure I’m not gonna just kick over and die?” and he replied, “You just survived something we didn’t think you would, you’re walking, you’re eating, you're breathing on your own, you’re feeling good. If I was you I’d get the hell outta here as quickly as I possibly could.” The next afternoon I was gone. Homeward bound :-)

Fast forward exactly 3weeks and 1 day from being released from the Hospital, yesterday, I saw my Pulmonologist, Dr. Cheung, the woman/Dr. responsible for me being alive. I had not seen her since the day before my release from the hospital. Before entering the room I was waiting in she examined my most current x-rays and the results from a pulmonary/respiratory function test I had taken last week. The door to my room opened and there she stood with an ear to ear smile and as she walked in she said in an excited, almost giddy voice, “You have no idea how happy I am to see you.” She sat down next to me and the very next thing she said was, “In all my years of being a Dr., you are the only patient I’ve ever seen that was in that bad of shape that actually left the hospital on his own 2 feet.” We chatted for quite some time. I swear she had a shit eating grin on her face the entire time like I had just made her day/week/month/year???. She informed me that there was still a little bit of minor scaring on the lungs but other than that everything was perfect. I was healthy and getting stronger and stronger and that was also her only prescription to me, .... Keep getting stronger. She gave me a big hug (when’s the last time your Dr. hugged you) and sent me on my merry way.

So what caused a healthy, fit 44 year old man to get that severe a case of Pneumonia? What’s causing that same 44 year old man’s tendons to be tearing like tissue paper? That search still goes on. 2 different tendon surgeries still await me. Nerve blocks next week. Contrast MRI’s, appointments with hematologists, blah blah blah. All I know for sure right now is that I (and my little dog) hiked 5 miles today with a vertical incline of about 1800 feet, in 2 hours at an average heart-rate of 141 BPM with a max heart-rate of 175 BPM which I hit about 5 times during the hike. I’m feeling good and glad to be alive :-)

I definitely have a renewed attitude towards life now. Definitely glad to still be here. Definitely grateful to my Dr. for being so skilled and so stubborn. Definitely grateful to everyone that had good thoughts for me and DEFINITELY grateful to a select number of people who really showed what they were made of and what length’s they would go to for me. Those people know who they are and I can’t thank them enough for what they have gone through and what they have done for me. Thank You. That said, I really do have to mention an extra special thanx to my sister Erika, who literally put her life on hold to take care of me. Thank You and I love you.

Live every day like it’s your last!
Live every day like if it is your last, you will have nothing to be forgiven for!

Signing out for now,
Back From The Dead,
Joe


PS. Have no doubt that by next summer I will be back to hiking up Half-Dome and clearing every gap-jump that Northstar has :-)