But in the early morning hours of Sep. 16, a deep exhaustion I had been desperately fighting that week turned lethal. My temperature approached 106 degrees during the night; when I closed my eyes, I was overcome with hallucinations of dead relatives. My partner David called 911. Only weeks later did I find out how close to death I actually had been; had I waited a mere hour or more later and a true zombie I would have become.
Septicemia, or septic shock, transported me from fairly normal to comatose in the space of five to six hours. I fought to breathe. I was given maybe a five to ten percent chance of survival by the medical staff; people simply did not come back from such serious cases of septic shock. How I pulled through is still a mystery to me, and came as a shock to my doctors. When I awoke three weeks later, I quickly became known as the miracle child throughout the hospital. When I looked down at my blackened feet and legs, I quickly learned how I would be paying for my life.
October 8, 2011, both feet were amputated below the knee along with assorted fingers from my right and left hands due to blood flow stoppages which occurred while in a coma. My kidneys failed, I faced months of intensive care and extensive rehabilitation. I was fitted for the first "training" prosthetic legs. Morphine, dilaudid, fentnyl, and antibiotic cocktails combined with several more surgeries extended my stay through January 2012.
It seemed an eternity would pass before I healed enough to simply lift my own head off the pillow; indeed that was the case for a long while. Gradually I improved, and soon I was ready to attempt the impossible -- walking. Hurt? There are no expletives grand enough to describe the pain.
Above is a short short short video of my first steps.OUCH.
To the left? This is Miss Stumparella, complete with lipstick and a very trendy weave.
When introduced to the nurses' station at around 1:00 am one morning, between the laughter and and looks of incredulity, you can be sure they double and triple checked my dosage of dilaudid!
Thankfully, at this time -- September 3 -- I can say my dexterity has returned for the most part, and I am typing at near my old speed of really fast with 6 whole fingers and 2.5 partial ones.
I'm not walking as well as I should be mainly because I've been lazy and enjoying lots of Netflix and eating .well; too well. My legs are very very tight -- but all is so much better than what could have been the alternative.
I do love George Romero and his zombie flics -- I was too close to actually being one.
No comments:
Post a Comment