The saga continues......

Ok, so I'm now home from the hospital. Feeling so much better, but still suffering from the pneumonia. I take it easy. Eat some soup and watch some tv. Feels good that I finally have the meds I need to get over that crap that wrecked me for OH so long. I decide to take a nap and get some much needed rest.

I wake up early in the evening. I get up to use the bathroom. By body feels kind of sore, but I just blow it off as a side effect of still being sick. When I crawl back into bed, I notice my nose is kind of tingly. Once again, I chock it up to being sick. I sleep some more, but I wake up shortly after because I just don't feel right. My nose is REALLY tingly, and it feels like it is going numb. I call the hospital, and they tell me if it gets any worse, stop back and they will check it out for me.

Tuesday is more of the same. Tingly nose and fatigue. Other than that, no worries. I eat a little, take my massive dose of meds and relax the day away. I venture out of the house for awhile, just to run out of energy right away. At this point, I'm starting to question if everything is ok. I know I'm still sick, but something just does NOT feel right. I end the day with more meds, and some food.

Wednesday. Something is wrong, I know it. My nose is completely numb now and my cheeks feel tingly. I have a horrible taste in my mouth, and my head is just pounding like an subwoofer. I decide to go to the hospital to get checked out. I'm really getting freaked out. I wait for about 30 minutes, and I go into the room. Blood pressure is high, but no big deal as I m stressing out they tell me. The doctor comes in and talks to me. I tell him about the numbing of my nose and the tingly cheeks. He gives me a script for the pain, and tells me that it's just a side effect from the pneumonia.

"Go home. You'll be fine."

No tests, no blood work no nothing. Just go home.

I would regret that advice. At that moment, I was dying and never even knew it. A simple blood test would have shown there was a SERIOUS problem, but it was never checked. It was never even discussed.

So I get the script filled, take the meds and it has no effect on my splitting head. It is now 4PM and I'm remembering what the doctor said. It's just a side effect and I'll be fine. My friend Bryan comes over, and by this time I am so tired, I can't walk right. I make a joke that I'm walking like a 2 year old, all clumsy and stumbling. I now need to support myself when I walk because my legs are so week. I laugh it off with Bryan and I end my day.

During the night I am really hurting. My body feels like it is on fire, and I am having a serious problem breathing. No amount of asthma medication is working. I go upstairs and run a bath. I get in the water and it feels like a million needles being shoved into my body. Oh my GOD! it hurts so much. It takes me 30 minutes to climb out and stumble downstairs. I wake up my then wife, and tell her what is going on. She helps me to the couch, where I will spend the rest of the night trying to relax. I am scared to death now.

I awake Thursday morning, and I know I have to go see the doctor. This time I choose to go to Quick Care in Petoskey. Bryan drives me there as I can no longer even work the clutch on my Pathfinder. They get me right in and run x-rays on my lungs. They also draw blood, but results won't be in for awhile.

Dr Lo sees something that he does not like. He tells me that he thinks he knows what is happening, but he isn't positive. He tells me that he is going to get me admitted to the hospital on Friday. He's very concerned and tells me that if I need to go there tonight, not to hesitate.

Bryan has to help me walk to the car. I can no longer walk on my own as my legs are crumbling under me. My fingers are now numb as well as parts of my legs and my back. I have no strength left.

 I arrange or my friend George to pick me up Friday morning and take me to the ER.

I am in such pain. I cannot describe the feeling, because it wasn't normal pain. It was something I had never felt, and I couldn't stop it. It was like a tremor wave. It would originate from my neck, and roll down to my toes. Over and over. Like a rolling pin with nails stuck in it. Every 2 minutes it made it's rounds down my body.

Now for a joke! There is a bear and a rabbit taking a crap in the woods. The bear looks uncomfortable. He looks at the rabbit and asks, "Do you ever had trouble with poop sticking to your fur?" The rabbit says, "No, why? So the bear wipes his butt with the rabbit.

Friday January 22 1999. 7AM. My day of reckoning.

A small plane had been lost near Pellston the day before. It had been a crappy icy day, and the plane went down, but nobody knew where. This was the day after, and the weather was still the same. It took me 30 minutes to get dressed with the help of my ex-wife, and another 15 minutes to climb 12 steps. I plopped down in the chair and awaited George to come get me at 9am. She left for work, and I sat there....waiting. Crying from the pain. I now had lost all feeling in my legs and lower torso. My feet were KIND of numb, but they were going fast. I had the phone on my lap just in case I needed to call anyone, but my fingers were dead. I couldn't even flex them anymore.

Then it happened. I suddenly couldn't get air out of my lungs. I could breathe in, but out...not so good. I picked up the phone and dialed 911. With my nose.

That's right. I tried 3 times with my dead fingers and I could not press the buttons. I used my nose. It took sevral attempts, but it worked.

I was panicking. I was told that they would send the EMTs to get me but because of the weather and the fact that alot of rescue personnel were still looking for that plane, the ambulance would be coming from Charlevoix. 17 miles away. Help was coming.....but would they make it before I passed out?

Dispatch kept me on the phone as best they could, but I was going out. I remember dropping the phone and trying to reach it, but I couldn't move. I blacked out. I kind of came too and the EMTs were putting me on the stretcher. I felt the cold air outside hit me, and the sleet bouncing off the roof of the house. Everything was foggy. I heard the paramedic say that my lungs were shutting down, and they put a mask over my face forcing air in to keep me alive. I then blacked out again.

I woke up in a hospital room, on my stomach. George was sitting there talking to a nurse. I can't remember if I called him, or if he just showed up to get me and I was gone. No idea. I asked the nurse what was happening. I could now breath a little better but it was hard to talk. My mouth was loosing the ability to form words. She told me that I was very sick and they were getting ready to run some tests. George kept me calm, bless his heart because I was FREAKING out! Then they asked him to wait outside, and here came the spinal tap, and I'm not talking baout Fat Bottom Girls making the rockin' world go 'round. I had never seen a needle like that.

OH MY GOD THE PAIN as they put it into my spine.

Afterwards I asked if I was going to admitted. I don't know if her expression was a stunned look of disbelief, or a look of "What are you, an idiot? look. yeah, i was being admitted and a room in the ICU was being prepped. By all of the activity going on around me, you would have thought it was Grand Central Station.

I blacked out again.

I awoke and it was 4 hours later. I was in the room, and they were setting up machines and gizmos the likes of which I have never seen before. I tried to talk, but my mouth just didn't work anymore. i could move my neck and my head, and that was it. I was now paralyzed from whatever was wrong with me. Everything from the neck down was dead. I started to cry. The nurse tried to calm me down....but I cried like I had never cried before. I was so scared. a fear that I had never known, and to this day, never have felt again. I was helpless.

3 days went by and I remember almost none of it. I remember having a sort of mask with tubes in my nose because I couldn't get enough air in by myself. I also remember hearing the doctor to call my parents who were on vacation in Mexico to come home because I was not going to survive another 48 hours. I was dying, and they didn't know why. They couldn't stop the progress of the paralysis, and it was starting to strain my heart. I accepted the fact that I was going to die. I just felt horrible that I could not say goodbye to anyone. I was never going to be able to see my friends and family again. this was it. I accepted it, but I was hoping for a miracle.

Then I passed out. this was it I thought. I was about to die.

The saga continues later. I get to tell you the part where I woke up in the middle of getting a hole drilled in my head!