There was a complication in my surgery to have the feeding tube inserted. The complication was having my heart and breathing stop, my throat swell shut, calling EMS to revive me in an operating room, and then transport me through a couple of parking lots at Wesley to get to the ER, so the doctors could finish saving my life and inserting the feeding tube.
Yes, I died from having a feeding tube inserted. I'd rather not go into all the details, because there is some inevitable "he said, she said" stuff in there. The only thing I'm certain of is that I was given a sedative that has killed me before, and I wasn't wearing an allergy bracelet when I finally came to after the surgery. That's the first surgery I've had that didn't have the bright red allergy bracelet.
I've recovered from death pretty well. I might point out that when the firemen show up and you're not breathing and your heart isn't beating, they don't seem to care much if they hurt you while getting that stuff going again. I have some sore ribs and my chest is on the tender side. It's not like screaming in agony to do a situp, but that's not far removed from where I'm at.
That led to the tracheotomy. I have this wonderful hole in my throat that lets air go straight into my lungs without going through my throat. That hole will remain there until all the chemo and radiation treatments are done.
At about this point in the whole process, the doctors began working on why I went "code blue". They had me breathing, an airway opened, and my heart was beating. They called in heart specialists. Nothing wrong with my heart. They called in lung specialists. Nothing wrong with my lungs. At least I got some free checkups. Eventually they figured out it was an allergy to sodium pentathol. This is the second time I've died on an operating table when sodium pentathol was involved.
I'm healed up pretty well again. I start back up with radiation and chemo next Monday (July 13). There are 3 weeks of that left.
I'm on a feeding tube, which pretty much restricts my mobility. I have a humidity-producing machine that I use a couple of hours a day to try to keep my lungs hydrated. My lungs are producing a lot of "stuff" that I have to cough up. If my lungs get too dry, that coughing gets pretty difficult and painful. The sound of that machine is like running an air compressor inside the house.
Right now I've got 3 weeks of treatments and pretty much being restricted to my couch. After that, I get the feeding tube out, the trach closed up, the catheter removed (that they're using in place of cozens of IV insertions spots). Then I should be on the road to getting back to "normal". It's been an ordeal so far.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
Oh crap.
You seem to have 9 lives, but you really need to stop using them up.
If that last statement seem flip in the circumstances, well, I figured dark humor beats expressions of horror.
I don't really know what I can say. "Hang in there" (like you've got a choice)? Just remember that a lot of people are pulling for you.
Holy Shit! Holy Shit! Goddam it, Merlin! I wrote to Marilyn and asked if you had passed away, because I knew you would be blogging if you were at all able. She said she didn't know, she hadn't heard anything.
Dammit, man, apparently you've already passed away twice! I haven't heard of sodium pentathol being used for many years here. There's no excuse for the anesthesiologist not knowing that you are allergic! That just sucks.
I'm not a doctor, but I think the radiation is too damaging. Take the chemo if it doesn't make you hurl too much of the food you haven't eaten. But it seems to me that the prevention of possible reoccurrence is worse than the cancer! If you managed to do some healing, wouldn't it be better to continue?
Merlin... You are not a cat! Quit pushing your luck and get better! We miss having you around. Please let us know if you need anything regardless of how small..
Matt
Post a Comment