I got very sick on December 20, 2017, and took an ambulance ride to Meritus Medical Center, the greatest hospital in the world, and spent over a week in intensive care.
I had a lower G.I. blockage, which resulted in a severe and nearly deadly infection. The infection caused me to go into Diabetic Ketoacidosis.
You do not want to go into Diabetic Ketoacidosis.
When I got to the hospital, I was severely dehydrated. While in the hospital, I was on an intravenous drip of saline and other substances the whole time. My arms, feet, legs, and hands are puffy and feel like over-inflated balloons. I weighed myself this morning, and I have an extra 16 pounds in water weight. I’m still on steroids, so that might be part of the issue too.
If you look at the photo, the large rubber hose in my nose was draining the toxins from my body.
Oh, and when the good people at the hospital offer to install a catheter, take them up on it. It makes it easier for people caring for you, and it makes it easier for you.
Pride is something best left in the parking lot at the hospital.
It’s so good to be home. Most of my time in the hospital was a blur. It involved a lot of hallucinations and not the good kind. I missed Christmas, and Sheri is telling me it’s already 2018. I would be lost if it wasn’t for Sheri. She was there the whole time for me and remains so now.
I’ve discovered the nicest thing I can ever tell anyone is that I hope they have someone like Sheri in their life. The greatest curse I could lay upon someone’s feet? That they will never have someone like Sheri in their life. She’s wonderful, my best friend and I love her so much.
Dang Rick, I fell your pain. I was in ICU as well after my heart attack in 2016. I too have a “Sheri.” It was difficult for my wife because she had to make all the phone calls to my family and I don’t remember a thing because they zonked me up with Ativan. It sounds like you’re doing better though.
There’s a lot a don’t remember because I was just so out of it. I guess the toxins from the G.I. blockage… I don’t know. A lot of what I’ve been dealing now with getting out of the hospital is trying to figure out just what happened. It’s hard for me to wrap my mind around.
The GI blockage is very serious in its own right. I had a smal bowel obstruction once and it “kicked my butt.” I couldn’t keep anything down so I went to one of those “doc in a box” urgent care clinics. They told me it was renal colic (kidney stone stuck in the ureter) so I had to get a CT scan. That’s when they found the obstruction but no stone. It cleared itself eventually. I’m still paying off the hospital bill from 2016. $4000 to go.