medical

A Gift of Life

February 7, 2023, I received a gift from God. It was one of the greatest gifts I have received. On that day I was afflicted with a gigantic blood clot between my lungs. The surgeons gave me three options. The first was attempt to use medication to break up the clot. The second was to go up through the groin into the artery using anesthesia. The third was the same procedure but the patient stayed awake without going under anesthesia. They said they had the best results when the patient stayed awake. I picked that option. The most painful was when they cut into the artery to insert their equipment.

Somewhere in the procedure I was feeling very bad. I was at the point that I thought this is my last breath. I must have passed out and sometime later I woke up and was starting to feel better. The remainder of the procedure took about forty-five minutes. after completion the surgeon talked to me and he said, “Tom I think the right decision was made to stay awake. I am afraid if you would have gone under anesthesia, I would have lost you”. At that moment I realized I just received a gift from God!

After three days in ICU and an additional day in the hospital, I went home. Doing some research and I find that only three to five percent survive a clot of that size. Also, most patients die within six months after. Well, it has been over a year now and I am still here! This has truly been a gift from God. How long this gift continues only God knows.

https://tomt2.com/2023/08/10/my-blood-clot/

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MY BLOOD CLOT PODCAST

It has been over ten months since I survived a life-threatening blood clot. The survival rate for this kind is three to five percent and forty to fifty percent die withing five months after the clot. I consider myself very fortunate to have beaten the odds and I consider this a second chance.

PODCAST

For about 2 months I have been having periodic aches in my left calf. It would come and go and had no specific time or length of ache. I just thought it may be part of aging and didn’t think about it much I

On the night of February 5,2023, I had to go to the bathroom and stood up and a shooting pain went up from the ball of my left heal up through my calf. I could hardly walk to the bathroom. After finishing I came back to bed and laid down. The pain was not bad when no weight was put on the foot. I went back to sleep and woke up the following morning. The pain was not that bad when weight was put on the heal. It felt very similar to the same pain I had when I was diagnosed with a Bakers Cyst back in 2012. I emailed my PCP relaying my symptoms, she responded suggesting I come in and get it checked out. Ironically there was an appointment available the same day at 4:50PM and I took it. After the examination she deduced that I had Plantar Fasciitis and Achilles tendonitis. An ultrasound was not taken. She set me up for PT and showed me how to do some home exercises. I went home satisfied 

On the night of February 6th and morning of February 7th I went to the bathroom twice with no problems. Then about 4am I went again and experienced this shooting pain from the ball of the left foot with serious pain in the calf. Again, I could hardly walk to the toilet. After going back to bed, the pain from the ball of the foot went away, but the pain in the calf was still there. I massaged the calf to try to lower the pain and about 4:30am I began having trouble breathing. I woke my wife and told her to call 911, thought I was having a heart attack. She freaked out but did call 911. The operator told her to open the front door. However, in her panic she turned the key the wrong way on the security door dead bolt and jammed the lock so she could not get the door unlocked. I knew about the problem for about 2 years but learned how to live with it. I will now see that I fix it for good. Because of that the paramedics had to come through the garage.  

The paramedics get here and check me out and determine that I can survive a trip to Swedish Medical instead of taking me to St. Anthony Hospital, which is the closest to our home. I am put in the ambulance through the garage. Put an I V in me and start giving me fluid and oxygen. The siren was used during the trip to Swedish. I would estimate it took 10 to 20 minutes to get to the ER. I went into an ER waiting room immediately. 

First thing they do is have an ultrasound on my left calf area. The ultrasound shows DVT (deep vein thrombosis), in the leg from the knee down to the ankle. Next a CT scan was done in my lung area, and they found a large clot located between my lungs. This is called pulmonary saddle embolism.  With that finding an I V Heparin drip was ordered to start reducing and preventing additional clotting.  

After a period, a doctor came to discuss the situation. He explained that there were three choices that could be made. First choice is to attempt to use medication to clear the clot. He did not recommend this because of the size of the clot. Secondly, go in through the groin, up to the lung area and remove some of the clot and put me under anesthesia. The last option was for me to stay awake during the procedure. He said this option is the one they have had the best success. After discussing with my wife and 2 stepdaughters, I decided to stay awake during the procedure and gave the ok. 

They wheeled me to the operating room. I am in the room before the room is prepared and I am just amazed how much equipment and items are used for a medical procedure. Towels, clothes, pillows, tubing and items I can’t even explain. Finally, they are ready to start the procedure. The doctor told me that they would use a local anesthesia to help endure the pain. The most painful part was when they cut the vein or artery on my right groin. They didn’t bother to tell me that they needed an incision on both sides of the groin. The incision on the left groin was just as painful as the right side. I am glad they used a local anesthesia. I don’t know how intense the pain would have been without it.  

Anyway, the procedure has started and after a period I am starting to feel bad. I shout out, “how much longer?” The doctor says maybe 20 to 30 minutes. I groan. I am continuing to feel bad. I hear from someone in the room, “his blood pressure is dropping doctor”. I am really starting to feel bad, and I get to the point, I don’t know whether I can continue. I was at the point of giving up. I thought I was breathing my last breath. I don’t know what happened or what they did but I started to recover and feel better. The procedure lasted maybe 20 minutes and then I heard the doctor say we are finished Thomas. I was relieved. 

Maybe 5 or 10 minutes later the doctor started talking to me saying the clot they removed was one of the biggest clots that they have dealt with, and I was a good patient compared to some of their previous patients. Apparently, some patients get to the point where they must be restrained because they want to get up before they are finished with the procedure. I asked the doctor, “I heard my blood pressure was dropping”. I asked him “how low did it go?” There was a pause, and he said, “you don’t want to know, and I am not going to tell you.” I never did find out how low it went. As the conversation continued the doctor said, “you know Thomas I think we made the right decision. I am afraid if you had gone under anesthesia, I am afraid we would have lost you.” I didn’t know what to say about that comment. Now I can say I was standing in front of deaths door and Dr. Death was holding the door open. I was given a second chance in life.  As my wife says, “your room wasn’t ready yet. Now my job is to find out why I was given another period of life and find out what is expected of me with this second chance.   

One of the assisting doctors takes over and apparently, they are having a difficult time stopping the bleeding from the right groin incision. I guess they can’t use sutures like normal and being loaded up with blood thinners they must use compression on the wound and wait until it starts to heal. The doctor put pressure on the wound for about 45 minutes before it stopped bleeding. After it stopped bleeding, they wheeled me to an ICU room. During the trip to the ICU room, I attempted to raise my head and the doctor yelled at me “don’t do that, you must remain flat on your back until the incisions heal.” 

It is still Feb. 7th when I go to the ICU room and stay there until the afternoon of Feb. 9th. They wanted to get me to a normal room sooner, but a room was not available until late Thursday afternoon the 9th. I do not remember much about the time in ICU. The worst part was having to lay flat on my back all the time. I could not lay on my side, and I am not accustomed to laying on my back while sleeping. This was pure misery, a time I will never forget. I understand the reason for that is to keep the strain from the incisions and allow them to heal and not break open and start bleeding. Another item I discovered during this stay was a condom catheter, it was like a condom with a tube that went to a bag below the bed and whenever nature called you let it go and the urine went into the bag via the tube at the end of the condom. Since I was receiving blood thinner through the I V, they drew blood every 2 hours to make sure I was not getting too much blood thinner. There is always a concern about internal bleeding.  

Finally, they discharged me from the hospital on Friday afternoon February 10th. Ever notice they want to discharge as many as they can before the weekends. Anyway, in the following months I have follow up appointments, wear a heart monitor, and tested for sleep apnea. The last test was an echocardiogram. They wanted to make sure the blood clot did not leave any long term. Damage. All the tests showed there was no long-term damage.  

In conclusion, it is near the end of July, and I feel pretty good for being over eighty and just dodged death. The only thing I have noticed is that my endurance is shorter now and I tend to get tired sooner. The moral of the story is that if you ever wake up in the middle of the night with a painful cramp in your calf, do not massage the calf to attempt to relieve the pain. The speculation is, when I massaged my cramp a large portion of the clot broke loose and migrated between my lungs and with the constriction and the blood flow slowing down the clot just became larger. The doctors said I was very fortunate to survive a clot of this size. Now I must figure out why I was given another chance of survival. 

FLU SHOT, YES OR NO?

Podcast

Since 2006 when I retired getting a flu shot has not been an issue. This year is different. Thanks to the Covid pandemic I no longer have confidence and trust in the medical governmental agencies. Are the pharmaceuticals more interested in making billions instead of what is best for the population. Older medications that may have helped in the pandemic were suppressed or even made illegal.  

The CDC, Center for Disease Control, was far from being consistent. One day you would hear recommendations and a while later they would be saying the exact opposite.  My trust and confidence in this branch of government has disappeared.  

Then you hear about the NIH, National Institutes of Health, and their highest paid government employee. Anthony Fauci. Also, you hear the rumor that the Covid virus may have escaped from a lab in China and the NIH may have helped fund the lab in the past. Naturally it is denied. One will never know.  

The FDA gives an emergency approval of the covid vaccine, knowing that there may be medical side effects. My question is, how did a vaccine become available so fast. Did someone know way ahead that the virus would become a pandemic? Again, one will never know. Hydroxychloroquine and Ivermectin which may have helped but they are demonized and sometimes outlawed. Is it because the pharmaceuticals had a vaccine to sell to the government and make billions? Recently Pfizer lost billions because they did not have a vaccine to sell this year. 

We all go through the quarantines. Can’t go to church. Restaurants are closed. Small retail businesses are shuttered. Millions start working from home. The country is shut down except the big box stores and outlets classified as necessities remain open. What made them immune from the virus? 

The first time in my life I heard that people are getting fired from employment, the military, health care providers and others. I went through the Swine Flu epidemic in the late 1970’s and I never heard of firings for not getting the shot. Freedom of choice has been stomped on.  

It is a known fact that older people died from Covid than younger people. But suddenly it is decided all ages need to receive the vaccine. Then we are starting to hear that younger people are starting to experience myocarditis at higher rates than normal. The government agencies are saying that the vaccine has no relation to the problem. Also, blood clots are on the rise. I received the first two shots of Covid when the pandemic started. About ten months ago I had a life-threatening blood clot between my lungs. I thought was this clot because of the vaccine. Common sense tells me more than likely not because it was two years after the shots.  

Many of my friends and relatives received the Covid shot. However, after a period many contract Covid anyway even after they were inoculated. What was the purpose of the vaccine?   

With all this I am still undecided whether to get a flu shot or not. I know for a fact I will not get the combination flu and Covid booster shot.   

CATARACTS A FACT OF LIFE

Audio file for listening instead of reading.

Here I am over eighty and twenty years ago I had my first cataract removed. Seven years later my second one was removed. As you age a large percentage of people can expect to experience cataracts. It is just a part of the aging process. As you get older your body parts just don’t function like they used to and start to wear out. What causes cataracts? Professionals say that there may be a variety of causes. In my case I speculate that I have lived most of my life in the Denver area and the altitude exposes you to more ultraviolet radiation than lower altitudes. Also, when I was a youngster, eye protection was not that common. All summer we ran around with no sunglasses and no shirt. Now, I am starting to pay for this unawareness of the dangers of sunshine. I have had two cataracts removed and one suspicious spot on my nose has been removed. My back looks like the moon surface and my doctor have told me to keep a close eye on my back and call him if I notice any changes in those craters. What you did in the past starts to catch up with you sooner or later. 

Cataracts are clouding the lens in the eye. When I first started to notice them, my sight started to show a tint of yellow. Driving at night becomes difficult because the oncoming headlights start to sparkle brightly, and a lot of your view is lost. I think they call that, headlight blooming. After a period of time, it becomes intolerable, and you know it is time to get something done.  

Fortunately, cataract surgery is relatively simple now. I remember in the late fifties my uncle came from Meeker Colorado and had cataract surgery. We went to see him in the hospital, and he was laying there with sandbags placed on both sides of his head to immobilize his movement and he was in a lot of pain. He spent a week in the hospital. In those days they didn’t have implants and he had to wear big thick glasses to replace the cloudy lenses. 

Cataract replacement Lense

The surgery now is an outpatient procedure. The whole procedure shouldn’t take more than four hours. This consists of pre-op and post-op time. The surgery probably doesn’t take over twenty minutes. The procedure twenty years ago was very similar to today’s procedure. Infection is the main concern. I started antibiotics in the affected eye the day before and continued them a week after surgery. You are sedated and your eye is numbed up. However, you are awake and aware of what is going on around you. You do have an IV in your arm and can be put under immediately if needed. You also are fitted with oxygen apparatus just in case. They put this fabric type material over your face and cut a hole in it over your eye. This exposes your eye to the surgeon. I speculate that somehow your eyelid is secured so you can’t blink. Your eye is numbed, and you can’t feel anything in the eye area. The surgeon does his thing, and the most annoying thing is the bright light in your eye. Your cataract lens is removed, and a replacement lens is inserted. The incision is so small that no stitches are normally needed. The surgery is over, and you may spend forty-five minutes in post-op. You are ready to go home, and you need someone to drive you home. 

On the first surgery, I experienced clear vision the first time I opened my eye. The second time I was not as fortunate. It took about a week for my vision to clear up. Now it is clear, and I had to be fitted for new prescription glasses. I am just amazed how technology has progressed and how a complicated procedure has become a simple common event. After a period, the time varies with the patient, the clear tissue that covers the implant may become clouded and a laser is used to remove that tissue so that clear vision will return. It has been twenty years since my surgery, and I have not experienced this yet.  

Finally, if you live to be over sixty, you will more than likely experience cataract surgery. I am confident it will become simpler and simpler as time goes by.  

Originally Published 11/11/2007 Yourhub.com, modified to fit this this format.