Laying on my side waiting for the nurse to come with my pain medicine. They occasionally will just ignore you not because they are bad people no they just are not the same person they were a couple days ago. They are annoyed and impatient.
Seven months ago I was on top of the world or at least on top of the heap. I was running my own flea market and art gallery. It was an exciting time. I ignored all the signs that there was something going wrong. The dizzy spells, constantly being sick and gagging.
One fateful day I cam walking back from the men’s restroom and got to Bird’s booth and passed out. I fell right into Bird’s displays and Big Mac caught me before I hit the ground.
I’m not a small man or at least I wasn’t then. I fell kind of small now that I have lost so much weight but anyway, Big Mac caught me and picked me up like a sack of groceries. I was really quite impressed. Well I did after a period of time when I remembered and wasn’t out of my mind.
I was transported by para-medics with the attitude that I was going to die. This was my first bout with sickness and near death.
Apparently my blood count was dangerously low, I had renal kidney failure with high blood pressure and my blood sugar was actually low. The new meds were doing what they were designed to do but the damage was already done.
I went from Lima Memorial to The Baton Rouge Nursing and rehab.
In the beginning the place was cool. I was still able to walk and I felt hopeful that I would be out and about again.
Something strange happened. I was taken to Lima Memorial and was given an operation by Dr. Ollie that was supposed to dig the infection out of my spine. Something went very wrong because when I came to my legs were curled up under me and I could not move them. I was paralyzed from the waist down.
Baton Rouge’s next step of therapy was to keep me comfortable and over medicate me and leave me to my own hallucinations and magical thinking. I was out there for a while.
Through an intervention with my daughter and brother and a decision finally made by Dr. Ollie I was life flighted to OSU Hospital where a Dr. Ull performed four back to back operations that were designed to fix the botched job of Ollie. Dr. Ull saved my life but this meant I had a solid month of just being out there in my make believe world due to pain and the subsequent meds I was put on. This also meant that I was going to live but may never walk again or have a normal bowel movement or just have a good pee.
This was the second recovery from death. My recovery did not go well in the beginning and I was in ICU for eight days. I was finally assigned a room and my new life began, eating, sleeping, physical therapy, my daughter visiting three times a week and my brother driving up from Lima whenever he could. My mom isn’t well enough to come and see me and my other two bothers just can’t emotionally handle what has taken place. We always had dreams of playing music together. I guess dad dying and me getting so sick has really torn the immediate family apart and out of all of those goofballs from the market art gallery Bird has stayed a good source of love and peace and TC has stayed a dear and wonderful friend.
My daughter and brother, sunflower and Dear Brother have been the heroes in my life. My brother was always there while I was still in Lima and my daughter took up the reins and showed me unconditional love and caring once I got to Columbus.
I have such a difficult decision to make after my next rehab adventure in another location. Once the rehab is done I have to decide whether to go back home to Lima where I have made some friendships and have a family with Dear Brother his wife and two kids or to stay here in Columbus close to my daughter, my grandson and Sunflowers partner Legend. They are my family here. I’m also closer to my mom and other two brothers. The truth is that I made Lima my home. This is one of the hardest decisions I have ever had to make.
I find it ironic and sad that an individual such as myself who as a young man was always in pursuit of that ultimate high would end up in a hospital and then a rehab facility with all the drugs I had ever dreamed of. Eighteen or more pills a day, IV antibiotics, IV pain medicine and none of it makes me high. Oh some would make me sleepy and some of the meds were designed to make me normal. You remember from the bipolar song and dance. Three of them were giving me low blood pressure, finally and the rest were for making sure I didn’t get any blood clots and a lot of supplements and vitamins which I was grateful for the most part. I was a groovy smooth laid back kind of guy. I had learned how to swallow three to five pills at a time without gagging.
That brings me to where I am now and where I am going next.
Today and for a few months I have been staying at The Select Specialty Hospital located in Columbus, Ohio. It’s a fully functional hospital along with things like physical therapy for me and of course not just for me but it’s a relatively cool place with only a few selfish and lazy nurses, ego saturated doctors and outright abusive aides. For the most part I would have to say I lucked out.
cool peace
hippy mike
love