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A Small Matter of Life and Death
Happy New Year, everyone.
I am home now, taking a day to recuperate after a three-day stay in the hospital--an unnerving and unpleasant experience.
Why was I in the hospital?
Let's go back about a month.
The family and I were taking a walking tour of the Brooklyn Botanic Garden's annual light show. It's about an hour and fifteen minutes end to end, so you need to sit down and rest once in a while. But I wasn't sitting down. I was worked up (for a variety of reasons), so while my wife and kid sat down, I paced relentlessly. By the end of the tour, I felt something pull in my right leg; it was a severe muscle strain or a small tear in the calf muscle.
I was hobbled for a while and the leg was swollen. But I didn't think it was a big deal; I'd dealt with strains and tears before. You keep off the leg as best you can, elevate it, and take an ibuprofen for any occasional pain. And for the most part, it worked: the strain or tear or whatever healed, and I regained full mobility. But here's the thing:
The swelling never went down.
After the new year, it started to dawn on me that the muscle strain/tear/whatever might be covering another condition--water in the tissues (edema) or, worst case scenario, a blood clot. So this Saturday, I finally had an ultrasound to find out what was happening in there...
It's a blood clot. Deep vein thrombosis.
If you're not familiar with DVTs, they are a tricky, highly dangerous condition. Blood clots don't necessarily disable you and sometimes, they aren't even painful. But a clot can come loose from the leg and travel straight to the lungs or heart. It could be--potentially--fatal.
The advice from my doctors? Go to the hospital. NOW. So I did. I checked into the emergency room at NYU/Langone in Brooklyn. I spent a full day on a stretcher squashed against a nurse's station in the hallway. In that first stretch, I frankly had no idea how long I would be there. I had read or heard that sometimes, a hospital would keep you for weeks while they safely wore down the clot.
On Sunday, they gave me a proper room in the ER and started me on IV drips of saline solution and blood thinners. It severely limited my movements--not great when I had to go to the bathroom--but by Monday morning, I could feel the combination working. The swelling was going down. I was confident that I'd be released Monday afternoon, and put on pills on an outpatient basis.
But they threw me a curveball. Monday afternoon, I was transferred to a semi-private room upstairs. They attached me to a heart monitor. I wondered what the heck was going on: is my condition worse than I thought? Is my "short" hospital visit just beginning? (I was trying not to panic.)
Fortunately, my original assumption turned out to be right: I was started on 10 mg of Equilis and I was set to be released on Tuesday morning...
Then, the inevitable insurance foulup kept me just a little while longer. The hospital didn't have the right insurance information. My wife's ordinarily bulletproof insurance package didn't cover the drug. My wife had to race to a local pharmacy next to the hospital before they closed at six. (Six?! Who closes at six?! Walgreens closes at ten!)
Anyway, I got the pills I needed--no cost for the first month. I was released at 7pm, and we drove
through the rainstorm to finally, FINALLY arrive home.
Home. My couch. My bed. The cat (who apparently was looking for me out the window for days). I am so happy to be back.
I'm not out of danger, though. I need to take blood thinners for at least a month or two, to make sure the clot is gone completely (and doesn't come back). I have to be on guard for side effects and I can't cut myself, because (as one person put it) I would "bleed like a motherfucker."
On the plus side (trying to be optimistic here), my blood pressure and heart are pretty good for a guy my age. I saw a ton of movies in my semi-private room: Elemental, Matrix Resurrections, Super Mario Bros., Quantumania and Dungeons and Dragons. (Some of them were good!)
But mostly, I'm alive. And I'm home.
I am home now, taking a day to recuperate after a three-day stay in the hospital--an unnerving and unpleasant experience.
Why was I in the hospital?
Let's go back about a month.
The family and I were taking a walking tour of the Brooklyn Botanic Garden's annual light show. It's about an hour and fifteen minutes end to end, so you need to sit down and rest once in a while. But I wasn't sitting down. I was worked up (for a variety of reasons), so while my wife and kid sat down, I paced relentlessly. By the end of the tour, I felt something pull in my right leg; it was a severe muscle strain or a small tear in the calf muscle.
I was hobbled for a while and the leg was swollen. But I didn't think it was a big deal; I'd dealt with strains and tears before. You keep off the leg as best you can, elevate it, and take an ibuprofen for any occasional pain. And for the most part, it worked: the strain or tear or whatever healed, and I regained full mobility. But here's the thing:
The swelling never went down.
After the new year, it started to dawn on me that the muscle strain/tear/whatever might be covering another condition--water in the tissues (edema) or, worst case scenario, a blood clot. So this Saturday, I finally had an ultrasound to find out what was happening in there...
It's a blood clot. Deep vein thrombosis.
If you're not familiar with DVTs, they are a tricky, highly dangerous condition. Blood clots don't necessarily disable you and sometimes, they aren't even painful. But a clot can come loose from the leg and travel straight to the lungs or heart. It could be--potentially--fatal.
The advice from my doctors? Go to the hospital. NOW. So I did. I checked into the emergency room at NYU/Langone in Brooklyn. I spent a full day on a stretcher squashed against a nurse's station in the hallway. In that first stretch, I frankly had no idea how long I would be there. I had read or heard that sometimes, a hospital would keep you for weeks while they safely wore down the clot.
On Sunday, they gave me a proper room in the ER and started me on IV drips of saline solution and blood thinners. It severely limited my movements--not great when I had to go to the bathroom--but by Monday morning, I could feel the combination working. The swelling was going down. I was confident that I'd be released Monday afternoon, and put on pills on an outpatient basis.
But they threw me a curveball. Monday afternoon, I was transferred to a semi-private room upstairs. They attached me to a heart monitor. I wondered what the heck was going on: is my condition worse than I thought? Is my "short" hospital visit just beginning? (I was trying not to panic.)
Fortunately, my original assumption turned out to be right: I was started on 10 mg of Equilis and I was set to be released on Tuesday morning...
Then, the inevitable insurance foulup kept me just a little while longer. The hospital didn't have the right insurance information. My wife's ordinarily bulletproof insurance package didn't cover the drug. My wife had to race to a local pharmacy next to the hospital before they closed at six. (Six?! Who closes at six?! Walgreens closes at ten!)
Anyway, I got the pills I needed--no cost for the first month. I was released at 7pm, and we drove
through the rainstorm to finally, FINALLY arrive home.
Home. My couch. My bed. The cat (who apparently was looking for me out the window for days). I am so happy to be back.
I'm not out of danger, though. I need to take blood thinners for at least a month or two, to make sure the clot is gone completely (and doesn't come back). I have to be on guard for side effects and I can't cut myself, because (as one person put it) I would "bleed like a motherfucker."
On the plus side (trying to be optimistic here), my blood pressure and heart are pretty good for a guy my age. I saw a ton of movies in my semi-private room: Elemental, Matrix Resurrections, Super Mario Bros., Quantumania and Dungeons and Dragons. (Some of them were good!)
But mostly, I'm alive. And I'm home.
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And yeah, what you had - killed my favorite Aunt in 2000. She was 59. And it was because she didn't have it immediately checked out and didn't go to a doctor. Blood clots are nasty and not to be taken lightly. My father was on blood thinners for years to prevent them.
So glad, you're okay.
Curious as to what you thought of - all the movies but Super Mario Brothers. (I really don't care about that one.) I've seen three of the five (basically everything but Super Mario and Matrix Resurrections). I liked Elemental (more than expected), and Dungeons & Dragons was much better than expected and a surprise.
Dare I ask why you were so wired and pacing at the Brooklyn Botantical Gardens?
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Why was I so agitated on that walking tour? Well, we were all fighting with each other that weekend, and if we hadn't already paid for the tickets, I doubt we'd be on a family outing. I didn't want to sit with them. (In retrospect, I guess I just should have found a separate bench.)
I didn't know that about your aunt or your dad. Sorry your family had to go through that. As CW said, these clots are serious business.
Movie reviews coming up!
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Sorry you were all fighting with each other - possibly why you injured yourself? That's how I horribly injured myself back in 2009, I was angry and not thinking about where I was going. (I was fighting with Wales at the time). While it's a good idea to walk when one is angry - it's also important to be mindful about it?
I talked to mother just now - and it was a heart flutter - it can cause blood clots, which if they travel to the brain - can result in stroke or death. My father never had clots or stroke - but he had a heart flutter that he monitored.
Looking forward to the reviews! (Oh, I saw Barbie with Wales, we both felt it was too long and a bit preachy, or lacked subtly. Also Saltburn (Talented Mr. Ripley meets Brideshead Revisited). I'm waiting on Marvels to pop up on Disney +.
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Reviews almost done.
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I have an allergist appointment at the Levit's Center One in Kings Highway.
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So very glad you're okay now, or at least on the way to okay. (These conditions that take an often lengthy while to fully recover from can be maddening. I've been dealing with some gastric issues that started after an antibiotic dose for a sinus infection back in August. I am just now seeming to get better from it, as I think I was inadvertently eating things that I thought were healthy and helpful, but in fact were making it worse. Won't go onto details here, not that important, and nothing like what you faced).
As others have commented, the fact that you got help fairly promptly is so important. I'm the sort who tends to cautiously fear the worst, so if I have any question about anything even possibly serious that pops up, it to a doc or the ER ASAP.
But I'm so, so glad you're OK, did I say that before? S'OK, worth repeating.
Movie reviews, huh? Elemental is th eonly one of those I've seen ( I posted some quick comments back after it was released) and I really loved it. Did you only see it on the little hospital bed screen, not previously in a theater? IMO it truly does need to be seen on the big screen to realize how magnificent the visuals are. The issues you pointed out do have validity, but I easily handwaved them and many of the moments of the characters were genuinely touching for me. I gave it a good solid 8 on my 10 scale, 9.5 for the visuals.
Get better soon dude!
Take care,
-the other CJ
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Thanks, CJ.
What's truly a blessing about my close call is that I'm usually the opposite: I never want to go to the doctor. I put off or ignore nagging symptoms, hoping they'll go away. This time, I didn't. Maybe my internal medical radar is better than I thought.
If Elemental ever comes to DirecTV, maybe I'll give it another shot on a bigger screen. Won't solve my problems with the characters, though.