markthefixer Needs Your Support!
- Thread starter Robie
- Start date
- Status
AweDeOh
Long Live Vinyl!
Dear Mark,
I'm new to AK and so we haven't met. I've read this thread from beginning to end and it's clear you are a major contributor to this forum and one of the reasons it is the great resource it is. It's also clear that the members here both Love and respect you, not only for your expertise but also your willingness to share with others and help when and where you can.
No doubt you are facing the challenge of a lifetime and there may be times when you ask yourself, why me? I haven't the answer to that question and I'd be lying if I said I know what you're going thru. To be candid, I haven't a clue but there is one thing I know.
You are clearly focused on getting well, on going home and on staying connected to the people you love and that speaks volumes about who you are. Your continued replies to this thread say in a clear voice that you remain a member of this community and though you may be down, you're not out!
Keep posting and I'll keep reading and in time you'll win this victory and that will be a good day.
Best Regards,
Mark B...
I'm new to AK and so we haven't met. I've read this thread from beginning to end and it's clear you are a major contributor to this forum and one of the reasons it is the great resource it is. It's also clear that the members here both Love and respect you, not only for your expertise but also your willingness to share with others and help when and where you can.
No doubt you are facing the challenge of a lifetime and there may be times when you ask yourself, why me? I haven't the answer to that question and I'd be lying if I said I know what you're going thru. To be candid, I haven't a clue but there is one thing I know.
You are clearly focused on getting well, on going home and on staying connected to the people you love and that speaks volumes about who you are. Your continued replies to this thread say in a clear voice that you remain a member of this community and though you may be down, you're not out!
Keep posting and I'll keep reading and in time you'll win this victory and that will be a good day.
Best Regards,
Mark B...
tsd71
RIP Tom Petty
Keep being positive Mark, good things happen to good people!:yes:
DaWoofer
Super Member
Great to hear Mark! I'm sure your shooting hard for home and don't give up the fight. They said I'd never walk again either. I'm also sure your Dad is behind you going home so "Hell No to Rock Island". I can come up on the weekends to help you out if it is EVER needed. Don't forget that, if it helps you get home I'm there.
Your friend, Bryan.
Your friend, Bryan.
Keep on fightin' the good fight, Mark. Only YOU know what you can do, doctors and nurses are often the worst skeptics.
The Damned Social Workers are the worst! I had a small stroke in '98 (almost 3 years after open heart), and the 1st person in my room the next morning, was the Social Worker trying to push me into the Nursing home system. "You can't go home until you've gone thru our approved rehab facility, etc., etc., etc. I took her book in my good hand and flung it out the door so hard it hit the opposite wall, just missing the Fire Alarm.
Told her in the LOUDEST Voice I could muster at the time... "There's TWO ways I'm going out of this hospital. OUT THE FRONT DOOR, In a Pine Box carried by Marines, or on my TWO FEET going home in MY CAR!!" Your "REHAB" facility is a friggin nursing home that I wouldn't put IDI AMIN's Dog in it's that bad. In 3 days I had pushed myself to walk with a 4 footed cane and proved to the Quacks I could navigate stairs, elevators, ramps, escalators, commercial door closers so that I could go home.
You can beat them at their own game. They will try everything and anything to get you into one of their $$ Traps. Be spontaneous. Be un predictable. But do more daily.
Because, the more you improve the more you can fight the Social Services when it comes time to go home or to a facility.
Give 'em Hell Mark. Keep em OFF Kilter. IMPROVISE, ADAPT, OVERCOME!!
Larry
DRMcD
Member
+1 :thmbsp:
In my experience with elder care, a second opinion is hard to beat. And sometimes hard to get. They wanted to put my mom in a "rehab" facility, and she's still bowling (and pretty damn good at it) at age 78. WTF. Total tug of war between however many specialists and her GP, and the time we spent getting second opinions saved her from the Combine.
Persistence and social engineering skills are key. And judging from past posts, Mark? You got plenty of both.
laatsch55
Super Member
Some audio porn for ya! If you look in the far right corner the Spec 1 waits patiently. and just for shits and giggles, the latest 700 to be converted to the White Oak driver board. That was my 17th conversion, got you to thank for a lot of my skills Buddy. Let me know if we need to break you out.
Attachments
buzshaws
Active Member
Hi Mark,
We've never spoke but I've read many of your posts. I was never able to determine what I was more impressed with, your knowledge or desire to help other people. I'm not a bit suprised by the incredible well-wishes from everyone, so please accept my most sincere wishes for a quick recovery.
We've never spoke but I've read many of your posts. I was never able to determine what I was more impressed with, your knowledge or desire to help other people. I'm not a bit suprised by the incredible well-wishes from everyone, so please accept my most sincere wishes for a quick recovery.
still at same place, things happening, lots still up in the air... ups, but also downs that I didn't want to drag everybody through with me
weaning progressing, after three days I passed the first hurdle, on "spontaneous" only on the vent for those three days i then had a blood gas CO2 level
scratch that they were measuring the Ph of 7.0 down from 7.6 at admission,
thus earning me lengthening sessions off the vent but still on 0.5 O2 which is a blend of room air and pure oxygen. normal air is .19 O2 ( 19 %O2, 80 % nitrogen, 1% other gasses )
I have stood up twice clinging desperately to the walker heavily for 10 seconds which enabled them to first zero the built in bed scale and weigh me at ( barely ) under 500 # and then the second time screw up the bed scale's zero...
on the minus side I am developing a red patch with a blister on my foot...
now I'll try to leverage the foot's condition to stave off a move.
edit- that blister on the foot eventually healed relatively well, slowly, as the foot's skin is (what, about) 20 times thicker than elsewhere, but the ones on my shins have since scarred up. All due to the Warfarin and the thigh injury.
weaning progressing, after three days I passed the first hurdle, on "spontaneous" only on the vent for those three days i then had a blood gas CO2 level
scratch that they were measuring the Ph of 7.0 down from 7.6 at admission,
thus earning me lengthening sessions off the vent but still on 0.5 O2 which is a blend of room air and pure oxygen. normal air is .19 O2 ( 19 %O2, 80 % nitrogen, 1% other gasses )
I have stood up twice clinging desperately to the walker heavily for 10 seconds which enabled them to first zero the built in bed scale and weigh me at ( barely ) under 500 # and then the second time screw up the bed scale's zero...
on the minus side I am developing a red patch with a blister on my foot...
now I'll try to leverage the foot's condition to stave off a move.
edit- that blister on the foot eventually healed relatively well, slowly, as the foot's skin is (what, about) 20 times thicker than elsewhere, but the ones on my shins have since scarred up. All due to the Warfarin and the thigh injury.
Last edited:
I am praying for you and hope you get better soon! Thanks for all of the time that you give to help everyone :thmbsp:
Well, if I may comment, it sounds like you're still fighting respiratory failure complicated by atrial fibrillation and the effects of the weight you're carrying around. From the picture I saw, it looks like the decision was made to provide you with a tracheotomy, which will be the most efficient to get you off the vent. Unfortunately while it's in use, you won't be able to speak. As you progress, you should be able to start using a vocalizing plug to divert the air flow back up through your vocal cords and normal airway passages, allowing you to speak essentially normally. One you get out of the hospital and really get going, the tracheostomy tube can be removed, and the stoma allowed to heal over. Unfortunately, as I'm sure you're aware, there's a long way to go. Just a 4 or 5 day period of lying flat on your back starts the process of muscle and strength loss.
The CO2 retention is another issue that the trach will help. A normal CO2 level is about 40 mm HG or torr. A CO2 in the 70s range means that more than likely, your physicians will try and work on physical and lifestyle changes to address the issues causing the problem. Just so you know, when CO2 levels reach 100 mm Hg, the CO2 itself acts as an anesthetic, let along any other depressive drugs that might be in your system.
The atrial fibrillation, or A-Fib is treatable via either a procedure or via drugs. Essentially it's due to a derangement of the normal spontaneously discharging electrical focus in your atria, or the upper chambers of your heart. Think of it as a small capacitor that once discharges, follows a prescribed wiring pattern that also causes additional caps to discharge along the electrical wave.
Typically there's one of two issues. Either your Sinoatrial (SA) node is sick, which causes other areas in your atrium to discharge spontaneously, a role which they were not meant for, or you have additional, so-called ectopic foci or areas that have aberrantly decided to start spontaneously discharging.
The first cause is typically either treated with drugs, or sometimes with a "reset button", otherwise called a cardioversion, where a small shock is administered to try and get things to reset. The second cause typically gets treated with an ablation, where a team of cardiologists goes, and tries to find the aberrant foci and eliminate them. The bad thing about A-Fib is that one, it reduces the amount of blood your heart pumps by about 10%. The second is that it makes you prone to developing blood clots in your Atria, which can then get thrown to your lungs, called a pulmonary embolism, or elsewhere in your body, causing an infarction or area of dead tissue. Not good when it goes to your brain. Therefore, you may wind up on blood thinners to prevent this from happening.
Lastly, if you really are up around 500 lbs, once you have recovered, you should seriously talk to your doctors about Bariatric surgery. Once known as stomach stapling, there are now other less invasive ways of achieving the same results, which would greatly aid you in not only losing the extra weight, but it reversing some of the problems you're facing. I'm guessing you've also either developed adult onset diabetes, or will develop it, which is another really bad thing that you want to avoid.
Concentrate on your immediate recovery, and then deal with the root sources. One step at a time. If you have any medical questions that you want to run by me, feel free to PM me. Fair trade for at least a few audio questions I've run by you. If I can't answer them, one of my best friends runs the Adult ICU at Duke Medical Center, so I can always get a consult from him if necessary.
Speedy recovery my friend. set your sights on your long term goals, but concentrate on one day at a time.
Robie, please PM me with your PayPal addy.....:thmbsp:
I have had a trach in place ( a hard cure for sleep apnea.) since 2004, and my weight is clearly visible in the few AK (or any) photographs you can find
and I am (so far) diabetes free, both by the fasting method of measurement, as well as watching sugar levels after a meal (but not a formal glucose tolerance test).
I also have been monitoring the state of the art in bariatric weight loss surgery for many many years.
and I am (so far) diabetes free, both by the fasting method of measurement, as well as watching sugar levels after a meal (but not a formal glucose tolerance test).
I also have been monitoring the state of the art in bariatric weight loss surgery for many many years.
Last edited:
Mark, you need to take care of yourself. You need to make the right decisions, difficult though they may be.
You need to make the right decisions.
Clay
You need to make the right decisions.
Clay
- Status