wwp@yahoogroups.com:
you never know what's going to happen...
G. Donald Bain 2006-Jul-05 03:05:00
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