I AM BACK
Those who have possibly been watching my blog will have noticed that I have disappeared for quite some time.
Not by choice. In the past two months I have experienced what it is to stare death in the face. So what has happened?
On the fifth of December I went to emergency to deal with rather severe shortness of breath, something fairly normal in people with congestive heart failure. After all my vital signs proved normal, I was sent home with the direction that if I felt worse, I should return to emergency. That was the next day.
I ended up in a hospital bed for further observation because the doctor there had noticed a blood clot in my left atrium (heart), not a good sign because that clot had already been there since early May.
On the evening of Dec 7 my left leg suddenly went completely dead, All the muscles cramped most painfully and the leg went completely white. Luckily the best vascular surgeon was in the hospital at the time. He took one look and declared emergency. He told Sharon and Jennifer that he would save my life, but could not guarantee saving the leg.
I woke up after his surgery to discover that all my parts were still connected, and that I was alive.. Our family had discussed our final wishes and have made provisions for any situation. However, it is one thing to do that when all is relatively well. It is altogether something else when faced with the immediate prospect of dying. We found out that despite the pain, we were ready for whatever came along. That in itself is worth the time we spent mulling over the possibilities of the future when and if something dire would come along.
It is now two months since that evening. I am on the mend, though I have likely another two months of recovery to face. The wounds in my leg are not completely healed and I have lost a lot of weight. I have seen my surgeon to see what the next step is, and we decided on a skin graft. That will take place on Feb 25.
Right now, I am home, hooked to an interesting technology which has replaced the use of leeches. It is like a small vacuum cleaner, sucking out all the dead tissue from the wounds in my leg and promoting the growth of healthy tissue. That requires frequent bandage changes (every two or three days).
I am hoping that I will be able to post more of my writing on this blog as time goes by, so for the moment a lot of things are on hold.