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The mother of all thrombosis - "Tough it out, you just have the flu" - date with fate post 67
This entry was posted on 10/20/2011 1:30 AM and is filed under Fate Fairies.
It was the fall of 2001. The attacks had just recently happened at the World Trade Center. I had just transferred to the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater from technical school that summer to finish my bachelor's degree. Whitewater was some 65 miles from our home in New Glarus. Mom had died in March just before I started my journey in UW-Whitewater. The ordeal with Mom had left me tired and drained. I still pulled shifts at the Ambulance and I was still taking one last class at the tech school in Madison. That class was 45 miles from our home in New Glarus and about 45 miles from Whitewater. I had myself quite a triangle of long commuting going on - a lot of sitting. Plus that one last computer class at the tech school in Madison I was finishing up required a great deal of time at the computer screen - more sitting.
Long story short...., a perfect storm for an illness.
In my case, I knew what it was like to have blood clots. I would never forget the episode in Dallas in late 1990 when I almost kicked the bucket. At that time it had been mostly in my legs..., and it had initially been misdiagnosed as an infection in my right leg. Periodically, in that ten years between the 1990 Dallas episode and 2001, I would occasionally pop into the emergency room due to feeling some symptoms similar to that original ordeal. But it was always a false alarm.
This time all the progressive signs had befallen me. Since 1990 and my Dallas bought with blood clotting, I had severe atrial fibrillation (irregular heart beat) in 1996. In 2000 I landed in a wheel chair because my circulation was so bad in that right leg. In the summer of 2001 my irregular heart beat returned.
Now just a few months later in 2001, I had a really, and I mean really bad feeling. I had constant bronchitis, even what I suspected was pneumonia. My right leg ached like it had in 1990 and in 2000 - perhaps even worse. My doctor's clinic was just around the corner from where I had worked at the YMCA.
Since 1990 and my first round of blood clots, I had joined an ambulance service and done a good bit of other medical training and jobs. Also, the medical world had rapidly changed in 10 years. Now a creature called a physician's assistant had entered the game. The day in question I was to see one said physician's assistant who was helping out with patient load for my real doctor. These physician's assistants take a lot of doctor classes but are far from real doctors but they do however see and diagnose patients. The one I saw in late fall of 2001 had a god complex.
Before me sat a young woman more interested in her hair than my plight. She frowned at me when I mentioned my sorted history with blood clots and irregular heart beats.
"You have a good case of the flu; I am going to send you home to tough it out. No Mister Keith, antibiotic or medications are not a good idea. You need to let this run its course," she said with the confidence of a sixth grader making up game rules on the playground.
The one time I did not go to the emergency room to have my fears checked out proved folly. For a week or so, like a fool, I toughed it out. We had been through all this drill before. Heide begged me to get help, but, sometimes doctor visits panned out, yet often I was blown off. Finally, one night, I gave Heide some phone numbers from work, college, and a friend or two at the ambulance. And then I said I was heading to the emergency room at my hospital. From our experiences, it was important Heide stayed home to hold down the fort. Heide later said she knew I was in trouble, just by looking at me.
I arrived at the same hospital I had taken many patients to on the ambulance. I recognized several of the staff. The check-in triage nurse said, "You drove in here? You can't be that sick. Have a seat in the waiting room."
I was striking out with the medical people.
Once in the cubical however, the tune changed. "You ain't got no flu son, you're going to be here awhile," the old wily ER doc said. I was gradually becoming sicker by the minute. I had waited too long to seek real help.
"You need to get your wife in here," the intensive care doctor told me; he paused, stiffened his lip and continued, "And one other thing, son, You need to be aware you may not make it."
I felt creepy after what that doc said, and I could feel the blood rush to my head as I contemplated the worst.
When I awoke in intensive care the next morning, my regular doctor at the time was siting at the end of my bed staring at me with a sick look. My wife sat to my side.
"You just about did not make it," Heide said quietly. My regular doctor from the clinic just looked to the side and shook her head. Clots had invaded every part of my body but my brain - lucky me. The pain was excruciating - blocked veins bulged with clots in my lungs and legs - that type of pain is extrodinary. Two weeks later I struggled home with a cain.
Never did see that physician's assistant again - don't know what became of her...,
..., perhaps she is selling used cars now.
Note: This blog "Fate Fairies" Category does not list the brushes with fate chronologically - I write about the experiences as they pop up in my memory and I often revisit an older event. Go to the Cooldadiomedia Web site and the Fate Fairies Page for an ordered chronology.
Wisconsin Military Service Person Special Mention of the Week
(each week Cooldadiomedia mentions a Wisconsin service person killed in Iraq or Afghanistan)
Navy Reserve Petty Officer Second Class Michael Charles Anderson, 36, Daytona Beach, Florida (Formerly lived in Oshkosh, Wisconsin) was killed on Sunday, May 2, 2004 in Ramadi, Anbar Province, Iraq. He was one of five sailors killed in a mortar attack on their base. Anderson was attached to Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 14, out of Jacksonville, Florida.
An Associated Press article posted on militarytimes.com notes Petty Officer Anderson was a member of the Navy Seabees construction force. He had only been in Iraq for around a month. Michael Anderson was a 1986 graduate of Oshkosh North High School, in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. Anderson had been married for eight years and had a 7-year-old daughter.
The Web site news-journalonline.com out of Daytona Beach, Florida, mentioned Anderson was born in Daytona Beach and moved to Wisconsin with his parents and his sister. An obituary posted on americanmemorials.com said Michael Anderson had moved to Wisconsin in 1969. Michael had joined the U.S. Navy after graduating from high school in Oshkosh in 1985. He spent time on the USS Forrestal aircraft carrier out of Mayport Naval Station in Jacksonville, Florida. The Orlando Sentinel indicated Michael Anderson left the regular Navy in 1992. Michael later worked at the Baylor Plastering & Drywall in Holly Hill, Florida. There he worked overseeing installation of the acoustical ceilings that are standard in most offices. He joined the Reserves a few months after the September 11, 2001 terrorism attacks. Anderson's Reserve Unit deployed to Iraq in April of 2004. Another article in the Web site news-journalonline.com mentioned that the 730-person Seabee unit out of Jacksonville Naval Air Station, was charged with carrying out humanitarian aid that included water treatment, sewage treatment, and re-establishing electricity. Around 400 sailors from the unit, including Michael Anderson, were sent to Iraq. The journalonline.com also noted Michael Anderson had served in the first Gulf War.
At the time of his death, Petty Officer Second Class Michael Anderson was survived by his wife Karen; two daughters, Brandi and Amber; his mother Sylvia Anderson; sister Sandy Anderson; two nieces, Jennifer Berry and Crystal Berry; and mother and father-in-law Connie and Tom McGlone.
Navy Reserve Petty Officer Second Class Michael C. Anderson the 95th military service person that has been identified by Cool Dadio Media as having Wisconsin connections and that has died in Iraq since the Spring of 2003.
As of this blog entry's posting date:
102,953 Iraqi civilians have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003 (actually documented).
10,125 Iraqi Security Forces have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
4,481 Americans have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
1809 Americans have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
318 Coalition soldiers have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
955 Coalition soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
1 American/Coalition casualty in Libyan "Operation Odyssey Dawn" since March, 2011.
32,209 U.S. troops have been wounded in action in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
592 Wisconsin military service persons have been wounded in Iraq since Spring 2003.
14,455 U.S. troops have been wounded in action in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
192 Wisconsin military service persons have been wounded in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
107 Wisconsin military service persons have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
36 Wisconsin military service persons have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
3 Wisconsin military service persons have been killed in the U.S. related to "The War on Terror" since September, 2001.
150 journalists (several nationalities) have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
22 journalists (various nationalities) have been killed in Afghanistan since September, 2001.
5 journalists (regional and independents) have been killed in Libya since March, 2011.
Wisconsin military service person special mention of the week, military casualty, and journalist casualty information sources: Committee to Protect Journalists; cnn.com; Milwaukee Journal Sentinel; washingtonpost.com; thehighground.org; Wisconsin Department of Veterans Affairs; iraqbodycount.org; www.defense.gov/news/casualty.pdf; and, icasualties.org .
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