Sunday, November 8, 2009

I'm Back!!!! Just when you thought it was safe to enter the Jungle ....

Well I would like to start off and thank everyone who sent well wishes to Mel and I. It is nice to know that we are in your thoughts and prayers during times like this. One does not really understand until you have times like these how much you are loved. It seems like at least once a year I have to test the health care system just to see if it is running smoothly. Well I am proud to report for the most part it is limping along the best it can. I do want to say that I stress MOST of the nurses are wonderful. If they had to deal with a crusty old ape like me, and stay smiling they must have been true angels. Now the Doctors on the other hand they were only batting 500. I had a couple that were great, but I seen a couple I would not send across enemy lines just because I would feel sorry for the care the enemy would get. I am the first to say the system is broken, but for the most part the front line staff is doing the best they can. I do stress that we all need to lobby our local politicians and tell them they need to fix the health care system. As I can say it is broken I think beyond total repair. I will say it once I will say it 100 times, we need to model our system over in Sweden. That is a system that works and that is a mix of public and private. So when you are told that privatization is a bad thing take a look around, and see that private is already here. It just needs to be managed better. That is for another post though. Maybe I will add a suplemental post later. Anyway lets talk abought what we had directed this blog to be as of late a tracking device for my weight loss experiece.

Well you ask how is the whole experience going now that I have been sick and in hospital? Well are you sitting down I am 42 pounds lighter then when we first talked. Now I am a realist and know I will probaly gain a few pounds back just because the last 5 days in the hospital I was on a liquid diet. Hence that is why I had made a post in facebook celibrating my love for Jello...lol So what was wrong with me to result in 5 days of a liquid diet?

Well lets talk about the symptoms before we get to what was wrong with me. I had been hemoraging, and passing blood off and on for a couple of weeks. Now all sorts of things come to mind at least with the old ape anyway as to what this could be. Hemroids are the first thing. The second choice would have been my diverticulites.(I am not sure that is spelt right, but I think I am close) For you who does not know what that is it is in the family of IBS (irratable bowel sysdrome). Now it was off and on, but towards the end it was on more then off and it was looking like small farm animals were getting butured. So I let that go on for about 3 days and generally feeling crappy before I thought it might be time to go visit my emergency room. No the topping symptom was and this was the one I was more concerned with was I lost my left side of my face. My left eye was running consistantly and I was drooling at bit. Now what comes to mind was possably a slight stroke. I did not have any other symptoms. Head ache, weakness, trouble talking, confusion. Well other then the run of a mill of the fact of my usual ape confuson, the fact I talk like a monkey so there was nothing to worry about there, I never had a head ache and I am always in pain so really I am not sure if I would notice if anything was out of the norm anyway. Just to add icing on the cake my doctor does not practice in the city I live. Now you say you dumb ape with your medical problems why do you have a Dr. out of town of your residence, Because I could not get a Dr. in Medicine Hat after my Dr. that I did have lost his licence, and moved away. That is a story all on itself for another day. So I figured instead of going to my Dr. in Brooks 65 miles away from my home, and him panicing and sending me back to Medicine Hat hospital (it is a bigger hospital) I would just show up, and get the Dr. of the day, and see where that took me.

So now that we have all the interesting little details out of the way what as there results on their fact finding mission you ask? Well it turned out to be a bowel blockage, and the numbness in the face was something that I had heard the term, but knew nothing about. It was bells palsey. It is a fancy name for an infection in the facial nerves. Now HOW I contracted that is beyond me. They say it can be caused by cold sores, but I did not have a cold sore so the good lord only nows. So I am on some strong antibiotics for that. Now the blockage you ask, what did they do there? Well four bowel cleansers, and 3 1 liter enemas later I was back on the road, and clean as a whistle. Now the interesting part of this whole experience was the Colonoscopy that I had. Now they say they are not the most comfortable thing to indure. Basicly what they do is they go in the back door, and run your whole intestinal track right to the stomach enterance with a camera and light. It gives whole new meaning to going in a tight end and coming out a wide receiver...smile So they give me a shot in my interevenous and tell me that I should start to feel sleepy in a few minutes, and by the time of the procedure you may not be asleep, but are stoned enough to make it that you don't care what they are doing, or where they are going. Now keep in mind they gave me 100ml of what ever the drug was. Now for a averge person that would be enough to send them to pluto. I am thinking for an ape of my size it should have been about 3X that amount. Oh well what do I know!!! You have to understand I am a big gorilla obviously they never consulted the local vet as to how much to give an ape as 100ml never even made me goofy let alone sleepy. So about half way though the proceedure I looked over my shoulder and said to the Dr. I thought I was supposed to be asleep for this? He and his assitant praised me and kept on traveling saying they were about half way done. I thought I would have some fun and ask him if he could write me a note explaining to my wife that he did not find my head up there. He had a sence of humor though as he did say he come across a set of keys and wondered if I lost a set.lol He was a funny guy!!! NOT!!!! Anyway the procedure finished with the doctor saying my intestinal tract was pretty inflamed from the blockage, and he could see where it had been bleeding. All looked well know so he felt that I could recoup at home. Well you did not have to tell me twice I was out of there Thursday afternoon at about 4:30pm a week ago. I as told to just relax and let myself build up slowly.

Well I have done what the Dr. suggested rest and relaxation. I must admit that is all I felt like doing between the blood loss, and the infection it set the old ape on his butt! Now I am slowly starting to feel like the old ape again. I am afraid that now that I am back on food I might have gain a few pounds back, but I hope this is still a continued trail forward.

Remember life can be dramatic, and funny all in the same day!

Until next time keep smiling

From The Big Ape :-)

1 comment:

Susan Blake said...

Mr. Monkey,
I am thrilled that you only suffered a poop clot - and thank you for checking out the medical communities functionality - it's good to get updates on the crumbling state of medicine.

I'm wayyy too well acquainted with colon distress. I've had diverticulitis - I've had a bazillion colonoscopies and 5 yrs ago had a sigmoidectomy, a good portion of the lower colon removed. It gives a whole new meaning to the crass expression "stupid asshole" - as mine refused to "recognize" and cooperate with the new colon piece they attached to it! Oh this is just TMI -
I'm so glad you are on the mend Kiddo, and yay for the weight loss.
Hugs,
suZen