|
My New Year’s resolution was not to let myself do anything stupid that might harm me. In the past I’ve done things that were somewhat south of intelligent, so this was going to be my year of a sane and comfortable life, free from dangers or medical bills, caused by me doing something unwise. That noble idea lasted until sometimes in February when I learned the hard way that breathing in sanding dust is not good on the lungs and heart. If I had just worn the mask I had bought the day before, maybe I wouldn’t have had to go to the hospital. Visit Bluemarlinbob.com While I was using electric sanders to finish some wood projects I had started and I forgot to use a surgical mask to help filter out the dust. It seems that the wood dust I inhaled sat in my lungs and set in motion a whole chain of unwanted events. I had various symptoms for over a week before I visited the hospital. I coughed a lot, but I just thought it was allergies. My symptoms were swollen legs and ankles. I had no idea why this was happening. After sleeping at night I would wake up in the morning short of breath. The heart muscle was weakened because of the extra work in helping my lungs cope with the sawdust I had inhaled that was now festering in my lungs. At least, that was the cardiac doctor’s diagnosis. By the time I visited my family doctor, my breathing had deteriorated enough that he was adamant that I see my heart doctor. In fact, he made an appointment for me the next day. That visit landed me in the hospital that afternoon with congestive heart failure. While submerged in an ocean of confusion and stress due to the fact that I could barely breathe, I distinctly heard my cardiac doctor say that he wasn’t really concerned with fact that my heart rate was in the low 40s. He might not have been concerned, but my stress level went into outer space with that news. Because the weakened heart was not pumping well enough to create an even and sufficient flow of blood and oxygen to the brain, the body was shutting down. That’s a lay version of what was happening to me. Problems with my heart have been plaguing me for about five years. First, there was the heart attack the doctors resolved by inserting a couple of stints in my arteries. Next, there was the erratic heart beat that wouldn’t beat normally even with medication. The doctor had a procedure for that and the actual process took about 45 minutes and my ticker returned to its normal rate of beating. Last year I had a stroke that left me with diminished mobility on my right side. The hardest part of the whole deal was the rehabilitation after I escaped from the hospital. Kudos goes to an excellent staff that had to cope daily with patients such as me. Not that I was hard to manage, they just couldn’t understand my jokes because I couldn’t talk well enough to be understood. A good joke loses something in the translation when you have to say it by sign language, and then with only one arm because one wasn’t moving correctly. Five days and $36,000 later I escaped. We all do something stupid from time to time, but waking up dead or in the hospital shouldn’t be your punishment for minor indiscretions. John Wayne wouldn’t have worn a mask either! Bob Alexander is a son of the south. Besides having great knowledge in the workings of the female mind, he has gained expert status in eating barbeque, telling fishing stories and leisure living. Visit his site at: http://www.redfishbob.com
Related Articles -
heart, heart muscle, allergies, swollen legs, swollen ankles, congestive heart failure, cardiac doctor, weakened heart,
| 
