wwp@yahoogroups.com:
Re: you never know what's going to happen...
G. Donald Bain 2006-Jul-05 05:35:00
Thanks, chris! I appreciate your concern.
BTW, your entry has been disallowed pending a vote.
Hah!
Don
On Jul 4, 2006, at 8:16 PM, chris wrote:
> 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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