wwp@yahoogroups.com:
Re: you never know what's going to happen...
chris 2006-Jul-05 03:16:00
Well, I dunno, maybe should have a vote on whether that's a good enough
excuse (only kidding! :)).
Very sorry to hear, get well and many many thanks for organizing these
events,
cheers,
chris
On 7/5/06, G. Donald Bain <#removed#> wrote:
>
> Dear VR Friends,
>
> This is Don, co-founder of the WWP, embarrassed to admit that not
> only have I not been making my usual contribution to editing this
> event, but I haven't even submitted my own panorama. I hope Landis
> will let me in for late editing :-)
>
> BUT I HAVE A VERY GOOD EXCUSE !
>
> Let me start by describing my situation on Sunday evening, when I
> should have been settling in to begin 24 hours of final WWP editing:
>
> - lying in a fancy motorized hospital bed in a cute (backless) cotton
> gown
> - my left arm sporting a continuously reporting blood pressure cuff ,
> id bracelet, and blood oxygen monitor
> - oxygen tubes up my nose
> - a catheter in my right arm with two sets of tubes connecting me to
> a saline drip and to rotating drugs - three antiobitics, two
> steroids, and morphine
> - a bank of data displays on the wall behind me, dozens of hospital
> staff coming and going, taking blood samples, asking questions and
> filling out forms
>
> So there it is, my excuse!
>
> So how did I get to that sorry state? If you have any further
> interest, read on.
>
> I left work at noon on Thursday with a scratchy throat, anticipating
> suffering with a cold for the long holiday weekend. By Friday I knew
> it was worse than a normal cold and talked to an advice nurse, then
> got an appointment with a doctor for the next day. By Saturday I was
> really bad, extremely painful to swallow, unable to eat, or talk, or
> sleep. When I saw the doctor she diagnosed it as most likely strep
> throat and put me on penicillin and Vicodin, and took a throat
> culture to confirm it.
>
> Another agonizing night at home, then on Sunday the test came in
> negative, leaving mostly scarier and harder to treat (viral)
> alternatives. The drugs weren't working and the doctor (plus my wife,
> my mother and my sister) told me to go straight to the hospital,
> which I was quite ready to do.
>
> Then things started moving rapidly. The emergency room doctor
> examined me for five minutes, then put me in a gown, gave me a shot
> of morphine, put me on a gurney and called the ambulance to send me
> to a larger hospital to see a specialist. Half an hour at high speed
> down the sunny freeway - never viewed before while lying down looking
> out the back window.
>
> Wheeled into another emergency room. The specialist felt the
> painfully swollen glands under my chin, then snaked an endoscope up
> my nose to somewhere way down inside my head - a very nasty
> sensation, but he instantly saw what he needed and gave his diagnosis
> - Ludwigs Angina. He also said I came in just in time, another day
> and it could have been serious (!). Then the nurses and techs swarmed
> in, and ten minutes later I was in the condition described above.
>
> After a night on intravenous drugs (including morphine) I felt much
> better. The next day my family visited me, as did Kat and Landis -
> Landis even shot a pano. Then another night on intravenous drugs and
> monitoring, a morning check-up by the specialist, yet another day of
> drips, and I was discharged in the evening.
>
> And all I expected was a cold!
>
> I have to say my health care system, the Kaiser-Permanente HMO, did a
> magnificent job, totally professional and prepared in every detail.
> The university will pay almost the entire bill through employer-paid
> health insurance. And the prognosis is good for a full recovery after
> another two weeks of outpatient treatment.
>
> But I still regret missing my own event!
>
> Don
>
>
>
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