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Post by magnusgreel on Dec 3, 2008 3:34:34 GMT
I thought I'd give a brief account of recent medical events, now that the whole thing's stabilized. I've posted and e-mailed some people about all this, giving blow by blow updates, because frankly I was too out of it at the time to deal with it all by myself. It felt wrong to comment here though, since it's such a young board, and it would have given many here an uncomfortable sort of helpless feeling, more so amongst the younger members (can't quite explain what I mean at the moment). Anyway, it was unseemly to blab about all this until it was under control, I guess.
Short version, strange gastrointestinal thing, reached a head, had colonscopy and endoscopy, got some relief, that's under control.
Simultaneously a more mysterious problem was happening. Friday before last, I was at Mickey Finn's brewpub in Libertyville (awful name!) Illinois, had just had a vicodin an hour and a half earlier, had one good, potent beer, with friend Mark, then passed out on the floor, then it happened again, all in the space of a minute or two. I had to be told it had happened, I was oblivious. Got taken out on stretcher to ER, pumped with fluids, had head and lungs scanned, nothing, all they could say was dehydration, and the pill-beer combo didn't concern them.
Horrible intolerable feeling beforehand, bartender said I looked alarmingly pale. I remember saying "Something very bad is happening." I came to on the floor, got helped up, all without knowing I had fallen, I had to be told. People really were speaking to me from the other end of a tunnel, that isn't just some TV cliche.
At least there was no hideous tumor or anything in my stomach... the GI tract stuff could have been anything, from how it felt. Next I make follow-up appointmenrs with a cardiologist and neurologist. I felt better after 3 liters of fluids via IV, but the next two days after the ER, I felt alarmingly bad and thought I'd have to go to the hospital again... then I just "got better"...
This wasn't exactly the short version, sorry. Anyway the thing I most feared was having to be in the hospital proper, in daytime, because I just can't, because of the light hypersensitivity. I've dreaded that for 25 years or so.
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Post by Stripes on Dec 3, 2008 3:42:14 GMT
I didn't get one thing you said. I am sad by this because I am thinking of becoming a nurse. :/
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Post by clocketpatch on Dec 3, 2008 4:07:41 GMT
That all sounds absolutely awful, and all the while through I was thinking of the light problem. Hopefully it wasn't too, too bright? I hope that they figure out whatever it is that was making you pass out (or that it was just the dehydration, and therefore nothing serious).
In any case, I'm glad that you felt well enough to post.
*tackle huggles*
keep your head up Magnus, we're rooting for you.
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lynda
Auton Daisy
Posts: 480
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Post by lynda on Dec 3, 2008 4:55:59 GMT
Man, that sounds nasty. At least it sounds like it's under control now. *hug*
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Post by Aldebaran on Dec 3, 2008 5:27:01 GMT
Oh Magnus... I don't know what to say other than we're all sending you as much positive energy as we can. I hope, beg and pray that it all stays under control. Be strong, friend. We're thinking of you always.
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Post by magnusgreel on Dec 3, 2008 8:20:31 GMT
Everyone's avatars are different now that I'm back! Did I travel in time? What year is this?
Thanks, everybody. As for the ER, this was the one and only experience with a team of medical people where everyone was nice and respectful, and accommodating with regard to the light problem, no contempt, no argument, no begging needed from me. The doctor actually understood why I was leaving "against doctor's reccommendations". The problem was that she was saying I should stay there in the hospital proper for a neurologist and cardiologist, and she couldn't guarantee the light problem would be taken seriously there.
Anyway, I had to stop and thank her (and I admitted this would sound strange) just for being "nice", since I no longer thought this was possible from a doctor. Everyone was concerned with making everything easier on me. She spoke to me as an equal, intelligent adult, too. That's unheard of.
Newton-- I wasn't saying anything technical, so it must be my jumbled storytelling. I'll clarify anything you want me to.
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Post by clocketpatch on Dec 3, 2008 8:50:21 GMT
Er... the year of the Rat at last check?
Reading this update made me so happy Magnus. After all that it's good to here that something good happened. Sometimes one kind person is all takes.
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Post by magnusgreel on Dec 3, 2008 9:22:14 GMT
Er... the year of the Rat at last check? Aaaaaaaa!!!! We're not using numbers to refer to years anymore!! What hellish numberless post-apocalyptic future have I become exiled in??! Well, that was fun, wasn't it?
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Post by merrythemad on Dec 3, 2008 17:04:45 GMT
Magnus! Light hyper-sensitivity, really? Wow, this must wreak havoc in your day to day living. Glad you are feeling well enough to post though, out of curiosity for what condition are you on the pain pills?
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Post by jjpor on Dec 3, 2008 21:06:55 GMT
Glad to see you back, Magnus, and I hope you're feeling a bit better now and continue to be on the mend. It's hearing about things like this that makes me think how lucky I am, really, all things considered. Anyway, I know we've all missed your contributions here over the past few weeks, and you'll be pleased to know you have attained near-legendary status among some of the newer members in your absence.
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Post by magnusgreel on Dec 4, 2008 0:02:44 GMT
Magnus! Light hyper-sensitivity, really? Wow, this must wreak havoc in your day to day living. Glad you are feeling well enough to post though, out of curiosity for what condition are you on the pain pills? Hi merry! You're officially the New Member for me, since you were that just when I had to scale back my participation in DBA, as people who say that sort of thing say. All the people who joined since then seem like strange, ghostly, impossible future people who shouldn't exist yet. Don't take that at all personally please, everybody, it's just that I'm a bit slow at catching up with change! I have a lot of eye and head pain from an eye/neurological problem, undiagnosed for a quarter century out of lack of interest from doctors mainly. Any light or near-focusing (to read print, say) cause severe pain, muscle cramping in eyes and then elsewhere (it travels through the nervous system), and severe, worse, indescribable neurological effects, that are like electricity in a way, but the brain and in particular capacity for emotion are affected most. Attached to this is another enormous problem called Environmental Illness or Multiple Chemical Sensitivities (EI or MCS). Bet you feel even luckier now, eh jjpor? Thanks very much... I've been worried about it possibly being a new board now that so many new members are here... It's good to hear I'm "legendary" (!), that gave me a lift. Besides, it means I'm legendary and therefore not real, and I've had me a hankerin' lately for a good existential crisis that I can really sink my teeth into!
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Post by magnusgreel on Dec 15, 2008 3:17:21 GMT
First alcohol in three weeks. Three swallows, so far so good.
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Post by Stripes on Dec 15, 2008 3:28:37 GMT
First alcohol in three weeks. Three swallows, so far so good. Why are you drinking?
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Post by clocketpatch on Dec 15, 2008 3:31:48 GMT
First alcohol in three weeks. Three swallows, so far so good. Why are you drinking? Don't do it Magnus! Not in front of the kids!
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Post by Stripes on Dec 15, 2008 3:32:50 GMT
Don't do it Magnus! Not in front of the kids! I'm not a kid!
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Post by clocketpatch on Dec 15, 2008 3:39:32 GMT
Don't do it Magnus! Not in front of the kids! I'm not a kid! Didn't say that you were... if you could hear my tone of voice of the interwebs the joke would become clear. Alas. No! Not in front of the kids! is a catch phrase from... something.
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Post by magnusgreel on Dec 15, 2008 4:03:22 GMT
A few more swallows... feels odd, but everything does, increasingly.
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Post by merrythemad on Dec 15, 2008 14:38:54 GMT
I hope all went well for you, Magnus. *raises mug in spirit*
Clocket, I think it was a fifties sitcom that has woven itself into the collective consciousness. Donna Reed or Leave it to Beaver or the like.
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Post by magnusgreel on Dec 24, 2008 18:59:57 GMT
Thanks merry. First alcohol in three weeks. Three swallows, so far so good. Why are you drinking? Well, one reason was to find out if I could... Since my blood pressure dropped at that brewpub a few weeks ago, I needed to know. I was supposed to go out for egg nog to make Christmas tolerable, but I'm semi-snowed in. That was pretty funny actually....
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