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My thoughts released; a mind set free |
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These pages contain my thoughts, from meandering ideas and persuasions to deep cerebrations and serious mentations. Why, for what purpose? To release my mind and set creativity free. Somewhere inside the constraints of my mind dwells a writer, a poet, an artist who paints with words. In here, I release those constraints and set the artist free. Perhaps, lost somewhere in the depths of thought, is a story or a poem, waiting to be written. |
| I'm a little behind but doing pretty well after a recent illness. I stayed home for Christmas instead of attending a family gathering at my sister-in-law's. Why? Because I didn't want to catch any bugs from anyone; with a weakened immune system, I'm more susceptible to catching illnesses. Who would have thought that I would catch one of those nasty bugs from the food that was sent home for me to enjoy? My wife, knowing I have a cat allergy, showered and changed clothes as soon as she got home. She was also concerned because a couple of people who attended the get-together were still recovering from illnesses. (I don't understand why anyone who is ill would attend and risk spreading their illness, but some people don't seem to care.) But, with my wife's precautions, I did not react to the cat dander she likely brought home, and neither of us contracted any of the illnesses she was exposed to. What we didn't know was that some of the food sent home would expose me to food poisoning! Nobody else got sick, but the leftovers sent home for me did sit out after dinner instead of being refrigerated right away. No matter what the cause was, I enjoyed the food, but by that evening, I was feeling sick. Mostly, I was suffering from abdominal cramps and pain, something I endure quite often as an after-effect of chemo. Therefore, I didn't give it much thought. But by the following day, I couldn't eat anything. The thought of eating made me feel nauseated, and even trying to drink water resulted in it coming back up. I did use the anti-nausea medication I have, but it didn't do any good. I was also losing a lot of fluid through diarrhea. My wife had to work the day after Christmas, so she didn't get home until after eleven that evening. She was concerned about my well-being and called the hospital. If my condition didn't improve by the next morning, she was to bring me to the emergency department. By the next morning, I had slept very little and was sicker than hell; she helped me to the car and took me to the hospital. The first diagnosis was severe dehydration, so they plugged me into a bag of saline water while they ran more tests. While I was being rehydrated, I started suffering from dry heaves; I was throwing up, but there wasn't anything to come up, I was also feverish, weak, and suffering a lot of abdominal pain. They injected a few medications through the IV. It stopped the dry heaving, and I think lowered my fever, but I don't remember much after the initial diagnosis; I passed out. I woke later that afternoon in a hospital room. I was wired to an EKG monitor as a result of going into Afib and having some breathing problems. I had my port accessed, and a couple of bags hung from the IV tree into the pumps that dispensed their contents into my port. The doctor came in after an hour, but my wife had already told me that I had some type of food poisoning and was severely dehydrated on top of that. The doctor further explained that my weakened condition from chemo and my lowered immune response had made things much worse. He insisted on my staying in the hospital until my blood tests came back normal and I had more fluids to counter my being so dehydrated. In the end, I spent three days in the hospital as they treated me for the toxins in my blood, rehydrated me, and fed me nutrients and lipids through an IV. I was only able to have clear liquids for the first twenty-four hours I was in the hospital, then I was moved up to soft foods until I was discharged on December 30th. Even though I was told, "No alcohol!" I did have a couple of brandies with water for New Year's Eve. I've also been enjoying solid food. I firmly believe it was one last attempt of 2025 to do me in before it died and the New Year arrived. |
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