From perfect health...to perfect disaster. And back to perfect health very soon... - My five days of scary, painful, totally unanticipated germ ride. Freaky frightening detail (if you have light stomach, move one!) After a dinner meeting Thursday, I came directly home instead of back to office work as per usual. Wasnt feeling so good. Woke up Friday and felt quite a bit worse. Worked from home to monitor health and cancelled trip to Detroit Auto Shows annual Charity Preview Party. Throughout the day temp spiked three times to 102, 103, 104 doc. Tried to get into my doc but was unable to and was scheduled for annual checkup Monday morning so decided to wait it out through the weekend. Temp spiked during night and again Saturday to as high as 105 degrees. Went to an Urgent Care center at 5pm...They determined it was NOT flu, and thought is was a GI bug but not knowing which one couldnt prescribe anything. By 2am Sunday temp spiked to 105 and even 106 degrees once. Beverly called 911 and I got the ambulance ride, ER room visit and 2 1/2 days at Denvers new St. Josephs Hospital, Within first hour there, ER docs said it was probably a Urinary Tract Infection (UTI) that started in kidneys or bladder and spread though-out system. And that the infection had jumped to blood stream and had turned into Sepsis. I lead a pretty sheltered life ...so I had I never heard of Sepsis and how many people had succumbed under its evil march. Too many! Upon arrival at ER, I was pretty much in-coherent, and felt like I was at deaths door. All vital signs were off the charts in danger zone. ER pumped 1/2 liter of antibiotics and eight liters (yes 8) of fluids through me. I was almost totally and dangerously dehydrated. My platelet count which should be at 150,000, was at less than 50,000. Summary: I was a basket case! ER doc told Beverly that she called 911 just in time. I had about another six hours! Whew...dodged that bullet. Some good news:The original bug was one called Klebsiella,originally identified in Europe and in the Pneumonia family (nothing similar in symptoms). Its totally treatable and 100 percent curable. Every hour of the 2 1/2 days in hospital my vital signs improved, Recovery by the numbers: - Vital sign checks - 60 - Blood draws - 30 - Needle punctures - 69 - Hospital visits by attendant staff - Countless - First sick days off work in 29 1/2 years - 2 (the others I worked from home but will take as vacation). Told the doc he could keep me until Tuesday (yesterday at 4pm), but I had to be released by then to take a 6pm flight to the NADA Convention. Im a pretty good lobbyist, but I didnt win that vote. What do good lobbyists do when they lose a vote? Compromise! We agreed on Thursday. Though I know that I cannot push myself on this, I might stay in town until Friday. We all have to count our blessings....I had a 29 1/2 year run with only few major cycle accidents. Im a lucky guy and passed this challenge. Those that think I should be ambulatory in order to recover need to know....I thrive on my job, family, friends and fast-paced, action-packed, results-oriented work. Getting back to serve our members and association will be my absolute best therapy. . .
Posted on: Thu, 22 Jan 2015 05:18:42 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015