wwp@yahoogroups.com:
Re: you never know what's going to happen...
Luis Benitez 2006-Jul-05 14:56:00
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> 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
>
Estimado Don,
M?s que una buena escusa, es una buena noticia el saber que est?s mejorando
en tu salud despu?s de este delicado evento. Te deseo que pronto recuperes
completamente tu bienestar y vuelvas a estar acompa?ando a esta magn?fica
comunidad de pan?grafos que has contribuido a conformar. Es una l?stima que
no te llevaron flores a tu habitaci?n en el hospital, porque el panorama que
hizo Landis hubiera sido perfecto como tu contribuci?n al tema de ?Gardens?
:>)
Que est?s muy bien Don.
Saludos desde M?xico.
Luis Benitez
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