Thanks again to all the kind words of encouragement, you all have been a blessing to me, and I thank you all.
I have spent a lot of time this week reading about Lyme disease, and thinking about all that has happened in the past few months.After one week of antibiotics, I am happy to say some of the worst symptoms are disappearing. Heart racing is almost gone, and for once my blurry vision has dissipated enough that things snap into focus without me having to strain to see something. Although there is still a lot of joint and back pain, I find myself looking forward to life once again as a normal guy. Although I have still been able to work every day, it has been taxing, and often find myself heading home earlier than usual and crashing in my chair. My wife told me last night as i sauntered in at 7pm she is not so sure she likes the idea that I return to full strength, because at least in the past few months she has evening time with me, but still is overjoyed that I am on the mend.
However, I cant help but think of someone else in my life many years ago that suffered an unknown illness, and how it could have been avoided if folks were a little more careful with taking care of themselves, and if our doctors in this country were a little more educated in dealing with illnesses experienced around the world. This is the story of my grandfather.
My grandfather was a Swede in every sense of the word. Short, strong, stubborn as the day is long, worked hard all his life, and had very little patience for lazy folks, liars, thieves, and men without honor. He adored my grandmother, and insisted that women be treated as women.
As grandpa aged, he eventually dropped his axe and life in the lumber camps of the pacific northwest, and bought himself a small dairy farm and retired at the ripe old age of 74. As in any farm, grandpa had chores to do, hay to haul, manure to spread, and be all accounts was a pretty successful farmer. That all came to a crashing end in 1981.
One evening Grandpa showed a sliver in the palm of his hand to grandma, and she spent several hours attempting to dig it out with a needle, but never could retrieve the entire thing.She insisted that grandpa go see a doctor the next day, but in his usual style grandpa refused to see a doc for something as trivial as a splinter.The days dragged on and his palm grew swollen and painful, and eventually three days later he agreed to go in and see the doc.
At the clinic, the doc looked at his palm, then advised him to go home and soak his hand in warm water and continue to pushing on the palm in the effort to push the splinter out. The wound was still open, and the splinter was still visible to some extent. Then he was told to wrap the hand after applying some antibiotic cream to the open wound.
Grandpa returned home and followed the docs orders for another week, and eventually the wound healed over.But then strange things began to happen. While eating, his jaw would often spasm, and he would kid grandma about her cooking. His chest felt tight, and abdominal pains began to occur.Finally after a week of grandma riding him hard about seeing the doc again, he caved and went into the clinic.
At the clinic, they told him he had a fever, and the doc figured he had some infection of one sort or another, and gave him some antibiotics and sent him home. Six days later grandma called an ambulance when she found him unconscious in the bathroom.
In the hospital, the docs had no idea.Iv's were strung, and he got worse.His legs turned black, and in an effort to save his life they amputated both his legs.Then his arms turned black as well, and those as well were amputated. Docs were certain at that point he had rabies, and treatment was rigorously applied to save his life.
I was eleven at the time, and was not allowed in the ICU, but we all spent many long hours in the waiting room as the adults took turns sitting with him. The docs admitted that the medication that was pumped into him was having little effect, and death seemed eminent. Finally in desperation, the docs overseeing his treatment invited several visiting doctors to take a look at him, and here is where the irony comes in.
The visiting doctor was from India, and was spending time in the US to learn from our doctors to complete his education. He spent thirty minutes looking over grandpas chart, and declared that the treatment was wrong, he didnt have rabies, he had tetanus.
Our doctor scoffed at the idea.Who gets tetanus anymore?Its as common as scurvy. But grandma, remembering the splinter, insisted they run the test for tetanus and 24 hours later it came back positive.
It was to late to save his life, he passed away without ever regaining consciousness, but now as I think about all the quack doctors that overlooked some of the most obvious signs of my symptoms, I cant help but think how things went so wrong for my grandfather. If he had taken the time to get proper treatment right away, he might have lived many more years.If the doctor had taken the time to properly treat him, he might have lived many more years.It all could have been so easily avoided, but nobody including my grandfather took reasonable precautions.
I am not advocating that every time you get a boo boo to rush off to the doc, because you and I both know that aint happening. If I rushed to the doc every time I got a gash instead of stitching it up myself I would have to pay rent at the docs instead of a house payment. But, are you up to date on your tetanus shot? I know I aint, but I can tell you one thing. The next time I go in to the doc, I am going to request one!
As I grow older, I have realized that if I want to be around for another 44 years, I am going to have to take better care of myself, at least REASONABLE better care.Get your tetanus shot if you havent had one in the past five years. If a wound looks bad, forget the suture kit and see a doc. If what the doc is telling you sounds unreasonable, go home and do some reading and get a second opinion. Go see that second doc armed with some education and ask lots of questions.
It appears to me that in this day and age, the only one really interested in your health and welfare is yourself, so take care of yourself.Looks like, to me anyway, you are about the only one that has a vested interest in you being around for a few more years.
Take care everyone and again,thanks for sharing your experiences and your kind words. You are all appreciated.
