Hi, guys and gals - I'm BAACCKKK (sorta). It's a long, gory story, but I'll leave out the ugly stuff and thank all of you for your thoughts and prayers (and the MOUNTAIN of cards that accumulated); special thanks go to my dear friends Werner Meier and John Davin, who visited me as I bounced to and from hospitals, ambulances, rehab facilities, and, ultimately the Hospice, and tried to keep communication channels open when I could not, and were of great assistance to my wife Linda.
It's great to be back among the living - I came perilously close to the other side several times in December, after 14 weeks of five middle-of-the-night screaming ambulance rides to Emergency admissions for gastrointestinal, heart, lung, and kidney failures (singly, and in combination), and only four days at home in four months, professional in-patient rehab following "You'll be fine now" discharges that went bad almost immediately, and 8 weeks of in-patient private Hospice care after the doctors in the bilion-dollar hospitals gave up (and still don't know what's wrong).
That got to me for a while, and then I decided it was MY decision, and with the emotional support of the Hospice folks, your thoughts and prayers, and the continuous encouragement of my wife Linda and many of my closest friends, about the third week of Hospice care my health took a dramatic upturn, I walked for the first time since September, the "crisis" in my medical condition faded, and things continued to improve, to the point that I left the outside Hospice facility two weeks ago, standing and walking by myself, and came home, 25 pounds lighter than when this medical nightmare started on Labor Day weekend.
I'm up and around and on supplemental oxygen 24/7 (concentrators in the house and in my garage office with hoses and nasal cannulas (no bottles), and my new buddy-for-life urinary catheter (Foley) in addition to my usual insulin regimen as a diabetic. I'm also taking a lot fewer meds than I was before. I have about 14 other things that aren't working right either, but I'm sticking with what we're doing - it's working! You just have to accept that everything is going to take five times longer than it did before, and don't get in a hurry to do anything.
It's great to be back! I'm sure glad I built this attached garage 48' deep 16 years ago - the new 44-foot-long ramp up to the kitchen door works out just fine - even Max the dog figured it out, and some neighbors helped me (like 95% help) hang our new 65" Samsung 4K UHD TV on the fireplace wall Friday and Saturday, just as the racing season begins!
Thanks to all of you for your kind thoughts and prayers and expressions of concern that helped turn this nightmare around - we'll keep up the same plan and work for a better outcome than the medical community was able to provide.
I'm BAACCKK - but in second gear for a while
.
It's great to be back among the living - I came perilously close to the other side several times in December, after 14 weeks of five middle-of-the-night screaming ambulance rides to Emergency admissions for gastrointestinal, heart, lung, and kidney failures (singly, and in combination), and only four days at home in four months, professional in-patient rehab following "You'll be fine now" discharges that went bad almost immediately, and 8 weeks of in-patient private Hospice care after the doctors in the bilion-dollar hospitals gave up (and still don't know what's wrong).
That got to me for a while, and then I decided it was MY decision, and with the emotional support of the Hospice folks, your thoughts and prayers, and the continuous encouragement of my wife Linda and many of my closest friends, about the third week of Hospice care my health took a dramatic upturn, I walked for the first time since September, the "crisis" in my medical condition faded, and things continued to improve, to the point that I left the outside Hospice facility two weeks ago, standing and walking by myself, and came home, 25 pounds lighter than when this medical nightmare started on Labor Day weekend.
I'm up and around and on supplemental oxygen 24/7 (concentrators in the house and in my garage office with hoses and nasal cannulas (no bottles), and my new buddy-for-life urinary catheter (Foley) in addition to my usual insulin regimen as a diabetic. I'm also taking a lot fewer meds than I was before. I have about 14 other things that aren't working right either, but I'm sticking with what we're doing - it's working! You just have to accept that everything is going to take five times longer than it did before, and don't get in a hurry to do anything.
It's great to be back! I'm sure glad I built this attached garage 48' deep 16 years ago - the new 44-foot-long ramp up to the kitchen door works out just fine - even Max the dog figured it out, and some neighbors helped me (like 95% help) hang our new 65" Samsung 4K UHD TV on the fireplace wall Friday and Saturday, just as the racing season begins!
Thanks to all of you for your kind thoughts and prayers and expressions of concern that helped turn this nightmare around - we'll keep up the same plan and work for a better outcome than the medical community was able to provide.
I'm BAACCKK - but in second gear for a while
.
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