Current mood:

cold

I'm Back, Sorta...Part I
Special thanks for all you who sent encouraging words, and to my Rat, who stood behind me all the while.

So there I was, laying on a gurney at Palm Drive Hospital, on my 5th day of 101º fever and not able to eat or drink...terrified...in pain...and what should wander by, but a robot.

No, we're not talking cheap science fiction here, this was real. It was about 5 feet tall with a 12" LCD screen and camera. Antennas poking out of it. The screen talked: "Hi! I'm Dr. Gude...we haven't met in person yet, but we're sending you to ICU. I'll meet you there tonite."

What did I do to earn such a celebrity status? That's due to what transpired a few hours before that. It's literally one of the scariest moments of my life. The ER had diagnosed me with Pneumonia, gave me some antibiotic pills to swallow, and gave me a script for more.

Upon obtaining said script, I immediately went to the local pharmacy, where I began to realize my stomach wasn't really all that great, which was one of the reasons why I was in the ER in the first place.

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Then it hit me. My heart began to race, I grew dizzy, and everything started turning white. I was one step away from vomit. I wasn't sure if I was gonna make it. I told them of my emergency, grabbed the pills, and slowly headed toward the parking lot.

Out there in the sun, everything was blurry. Everything was turning white, like an overexposed film. My legs were turning to jello and my head was buzzing. Was I having a stroke? A heart attack? Was I dying? All these possibilities flashed before me as I directed Rat to go back to the ER.

They quickly pulled us back in, and shot cold saline up my arm. When they connected up the heart monitor, they were stymied at how low my vital signs were. My heart was pumping fast, and very weak.


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Herein lies an area of medical illnesses that most doctors do not understand: A stomach in distress. What part of "I'm on fire, leave me alone" don't they understand? As far as the stomach goes, antibiotic pills are some of the worst offenders in a doctor's arsenal. Nearly all antibiotics carry a warning that sez "Take with food" which means it's gonna irritate the fuck outta your stomach, especially if you haven't eaten in 5 days! It's like adding fuel to a fire.

And so, with the Pneumonia diagnosis, I was wheeled into ICU, where I was told "Anything you want, let us know." Sebastopol is known for it's cute hippies, but I declined, as I was still in mucho pain. However the Morphine was a treat, which they offered a few times, and I accepted.

Talking to Dr. Gude personally was eye-opening. His view is that I should not go for the Fundoplycation operation, as the pain ain't anywhere where the surgery was gonna take place. I'm all for no operation! He's also quite a robot freak, building that thing himself from scratch. It manages to maneuver around the hospital without tipping over or smashing into things, so it's OK in my book.

ICU gave me a massive dose of antibiotics, which seemed to pull the fever down. I still wasn't able to eat or drink, but an IV was at supplying hydration, so they wheeled me out of ICU and put me in the regular part of the hospital...whereupon, I met someone I hope I never see again.



End Of Part I