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So, yeah...that was different
12 years ago
I've been out of touch with you guys for a while -- sorry about that. Weird thing is - it was almost permanent.
On Friday 2/15, while on vacation up in the Rockies to celebrate a friend's 40th b'day, I ran into a few complications. We were skiing at Breckenridge and it was a gorgeous day, full of freshies and powder. The first run was fine. But halfway through the second run, I kinda started to feel funny. Couldn't catch my breath, heart rate all over the place. Figured it was just a fluke, and decided to go for a third run. About 500 yards down the run, I was just flat-out crushed, couldn't breathe right at all.
My friends noticed I'd stopped and waited for me to catch up. I told them it appeared I was finally suffering some altitude sickness after countless years and visits to the mountains. Seemed odd to me, but I told my friends I'd be down in the lodge relaxing, trying to ride it out.
That night, I still felt real wonky. The next day (Saturday 2/16), I felt worse. In fact, it got so bad that I ended up not being able to drink water at all. Around 11pm that night, my friends called the ambulance. The rest of the night was kind of a blur, but I do remember being in an emergency care center up in the mountains and the doctor there saying "Bro, you have so much going wrong with you, there's nothing I can do to help" and getting a inter-jugular line placed, for which I asked the doctor to knock me out.
Woke up in an ICU at a Denver Hospital, where for the next three days, they ran tests to rule out everything that *wasn't* causing my issues, and tried to rebalance my body functions. My heart, lungs, liver and kidneys all failed throughout the course of 24 hours from the time I started to feel wonky on the slopes until my friends called the ambulance. The doctor at the ICU told me it was incredible I was still alive, and that if I had not gotten help when I did, she was pretty sure I would have succumbed to multi-organ failure within a few more hours.
For the next 18 days, I was on the Great Multi-State Hospital Ward Tour '13. Ten days in the Denver hospital (3 in ICU, 7 in the ICU Stepdown Unit) hooked up to oxygen (for the first four days only), IV's and a shitload of monitors. My recovery was so rapid and so unexpected that the doctors there who had initially estimated I'd be in Denver for 4-6 weeks felt confident I could fly home to Pittsburgh to seek additional help, so on Tuesday 2/26 I took a commercial flight home and checked into my second hospital for the next eight days.
All my trauma was caused by an acute attack of pulmonary hypertension. Basically, for the past several years, my heart has been in distress. I ruled some of it as stress from work, and some of it as just being wicked out of shape. The doctors at all of the hospitals and wards said because I was *in* such good shape, it was the reason I recovered so well and so fast.
I'm free from the hospital for a few days, recuperating at momz, sleeping in my old bedroom. It's weird for a 41 year old...especially since the room decor hasn't changed all that much since I was 18. But it's not a hospital, there are no monitors, and I don't have nurses, doctors, and specialists coming in and out of my room at all hours.
Next week, I go back into the hospital for additional treatment and the installation of a semi-permanent subcutaneous pump which will continuously inject me with a medication to help reduce the extreme pressures in my lungs and right ventricle. Pretty big lifestyle change for me. The main change is the avoidance of alcohol (a glass of wine every once and a while is okay) and tobacco. No more cigars, dammit. I'll eventually build my endurance back up to skiing, but it'll be East Coast only for me for at least the next five years. The main goal is to get the pulmonary hypertension under control enough that I can at least visit Denver...and maybe (someday) go back up into the mountains. Just probably not to ski. We'll see.
Anywhooo, just a little update as to where I've been, where I could've been, and where I might be going. Truth be told, it'll probably be a week or more before I can check back into this account. But in the meantime, keep posting those submissions and journals so I have something to look forward to when I get back.
Never take what you have for granted. Live every day like it's your last. And only regret those things which you did that didn't make you stronger.
Just sayin'...
Much love.
~Jim
On Friday 2/15, while on vacation up in the Rockies to celebrate a friend's 40th b'day, I ran into a few complications. We were skiing at Breckenridge and it was a gorgeous day, full of freshies and powder. The first run was fine. But halfway through the second run, I kinda started to feel funny. Couldn't catch my breath, heart rate all over the place. Figured it was just a fluke, and decided to go for a third run. About 500 yards down the run, I was just flat-out crushed, couldn't breathe right at all.
My friends noticed I'd stopped and waited for me to catch up. I told them it appeared I was finally suffering some altitude sickness after countless years and visits to the mountains. Seemed odd to me, but I told my friends I'd be down in the lodge relaxing, trying to ride it out.
That night, I still felt real wonky. The next day (Saturday 2/16), I felt worse. In fact, it got so bad that I ended up not being able to drink water at all. Around 11pm that night, my friends called the ambulance. The rest of the night was kind of a blur, but I do remember being in an emergency care center up in the mountains and the doctor there saying "Bro, you have so much going wrong with you, there's nothing I can do to help" and getting a inter-jugular line placed, for which I asked the doctor to knock me out.
Woke up in an ICU at a Denver Hospital, where for the next three days, they ran tests to rule out everything that *wasn't* causing my issues, and tried to rebalance my body functions. My heart, lungs, liver and kidneys all failed throughout the course of 24 hours from the time I started to feel wonky on the slopes until my friends called the ambulance. The doctor at the ICU told me it was incredible I was still alive, and that if I had not gotten help when I did, she was pretty sure I would have succumbed to multi-organ failure within a few more hours.
For the next 18 days, I was on the Great Multi-State Hospital Ward Tour '13. Ten days in the Denver hospital (3 in ICU, 7 in the ICU Stepdown Unit) hooked up to oxygen (for the first four days only), IV's and a shitload of monitors. My recovery was so rapid and so unexpected that the doctors there who had initially estimated I'd be in Denver for 4-6 weeks felt confident I could fly home to Pittsburgh to seek additional help, so on Tuesday 2/26 I took a commercial flight home and checked into my second hospital for the next eight days.
All my trauma was caused by an acute attack of pulmonary hypertension. Basically, for the past several years, my heart has been in distress. I ruled some of it as stress from work, and some of it as just being wicked out of shape. The doctors at all of the hospitals and wards said because I was *in* such good shape, it was the reason I recovered so well and so fast.
I'm free from the hospital for a few days, recuperating at momz, sleeping in my old bedroom. It's weird for a 41 year old...especially since the room decor hasn't changed all that much since I was 18. But it's not a hospital, there are no monitors, and I don't have nurses, doctors, and specialists coming in and out of my room at all hours.
Next week, I go back into the hospital for additional treatment and the installation of a semi-permanent subcutaneous pump which will continuously inject me with a medication to help reduce the extreme pressures in my lungs and right ventricle. Pretty big lifestyle change for me. The main change is the avoidance of alcohol (a glass of wine every once and a while is okay) and tobacco. No more cigars, dammit. I'll eventually build my endurance back up to skiing, but it'll be East Coast only for me for at least the next five years. The main goal is to get the pulmonary hypertension under control enough that I can at least visit Denver...and maybe (someday) go back up into the mountains. Just probably not to ski. We'll see.
Anywhooo, just a little update as to where I've been, where I could've been, and where I might be going. Truth be told, it'll probably be a week or more before I can check back into this account. But in the meantime, keep posting those submissions and journals so I have something to look forward to when I get back.
Never take what you have for granted. Live every day like it's your last. And only regret those things which you did that didn't make you stronger.
Just sayin'...
Much love.
~Jim
No booze or tobacco, damn, they went right for the throat on that one:P. But, you do what'chu gotta do, in this case, to live! Take it easy dude and hope you continue to make a speedy recovery. Hope you got some good insurance too, woof >>.
You worked at the bar across the street from AC at the bar? Do you remember these derps doing car bombs all night last year?
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/8255820/
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/8255832/
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/8255903/
'Cause that was me and my friends xxxbladewolfxxx and aylastardragon plus others! LOL it was a good time =3
My doctors continue to express surprise at the speed of my recovery, and are cautiously optimistic that an aggressive treatment plan (combination of a pill *cough*one-a-day-Cialis*cough* and a semi-permanent subcutaneous pump...sort of along the lines of an insulin pump) can get my pulmonary hypertension under control in an equally quick manner.
Doberman_Guard -- my insurance plan is pretty high-end, so the damage to me will be manageable
gshep -- I'm game. bring toys.
circuitcat -- sorry, bud...last year I was a non-employee/full-time fanboy who did spend some time at Tonic, but mostly sitting outside and occasionally helping to maintain traffic flow for the poor lone waitress with the outdoor section. LOL
Thanks, guys. I'm not planning on going anywhere any time soon.