Respite and Recovery

I have been at home now for about four weeks, and every day my stamina and thought processes seem to improve. The insurance company arranged for a weekly home nurse visit and a physical therapist twice a week which has vastly improved my condition. I can now walk about 200 yards, and I no longer feel dizzy each time I stand, although I periodically have moments when I do feel a bit light headed, especially when I leave out the front door for my walks around the yard. Somehow gazing out at the spectacular Catalina Mountains to the north disorients me somewhat and it takes a moment to steady myself.

All this time I have only left the house once, to visit my primary care doctor about three days after I was discharged from the hospital. This was not as difficult as it seemed since the clinic arranged for an Uber driver and, once the visit was over, the nurses themselves gave me a ride back home. How’s that for service! The rest of the time I have spent doing the many exercises that the physical therapist has taught me, watching television, and reading. Lately I have felt well enough to help with some household chores like the dishes and taking out the trash, too.

One thing a serious illness will teach its victims, I would hope, is a sense of gratitude for things we often take for granted. The beauty of a fall morning in the desert, the night sky with its bright moon and stars, the loving concern of friends and family are all things I now hold so dear. Jayne’s careful nursing of my shattered body has been a godsend, and she monitors my medication with a careful eye. My brother has helped take Jayne to her own doctor appointments and grocery store runs, and our good friends have also pitched in to help with these things. It is quite humbling to consider how dependent we are on such freely given mercies, and again, gratitude is an overpowering emotion when considering our good fortune in this regard.

My brain is working again. I am able to read, which is something during the early days was impossible, and I can follow conversations with ease. This new found clarity has allowed me to reach out to old friends on the telephone and either inform them of what happened to me, or to give them an update. I suppose that is what I am doing with this entry to the blog as well, and I am very glad to be able to compose and post what I feel is a milestone on my way to full recovery.

A Near Death Experience

In early October, I had a dress rehearsal for the final days of my life, and I didn’t like it. A lowly mosquito caused this event, having bitten me after feeding off of some bird that carried the West Nile Virus. Within days, I was suffering muscle aches and pains, headaches, and eventually, complete paralysis which resulted in Jayne’s call to 911 and a visit from the sturdy fellows of the Tucson Fire Department. They stabilized me, called an ambulance, and I took a $1,600 ride to the Tucson Medical Center a mere five blocks from my house.

For the next three days, all became blurred and confused. I lay on an uncomfortable hospital bed with more tubes coming and going from my by then useless body that I care to remember. When at last the fog cleared, there followed more than a week of languishing in that bed, alternately vomiting and feeling the room spin about. Eventually it was complications with my digestion that delayed my discharge home, but once here I find I am so weakened and my brain in such a confused state that I sometimes despair of every fully recovering.

During those first days in the hospital I, along with my family, wondered if I would live, and I was asked by the staff if I wanted to be resuscitated. I said yes, but at the time I almost felt like giving up. I am writing these lines under some pretty severe strain and will stop, but I wanted to at least pass on what I have learned these past four weeks. The mosquito is the most deadly animal on planet Earth, and each one of you needs to take notice. Do not, do not, do not get bit, and take all precautions to prevent it. Believe me, your life may depend on it.