Yesterday I was discharged from the hospital after 22 days recovering from what started out as regular old Pneumonia!
It all started out in Jan. I would get just a little sick then get better after a couple days. This would repeat a number of times until I finally went to the Dr. and was prescribed the typical drugs for Pneumonia. Fast forward 5 or 6 days and I was feeling very well when it hit me, a pain in the chest so great that it put me to my knees. An ambulance took me to the local emergency room where they thought I was having a heart attack. After ruling out a heart attack they put me into a CAT Scan machine and came back with the news that they thought they saw a large mass on my right lung and was sent to a larger hospital in the area.
Once at the new hospital they did another Cat scan and found that the right side of my chest was filled with fluid, placed 2 chest tubes and began what they called Lytic Therapy For a condition called Empyema Link to Empyema . After days of flushing my chest cavity with clot busting fluids and no real results it was decided that Video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery was needed to remove the remaining stuff. Well they ended up splitting me wide open after taking a peek and found that the fluid had hardened up to a point that much of it had to be peeled out of my chest cavity like removing the peel off an orange!
Now due to the extent of the surgery I am restricted from even driving my car for 4 weeks and am pretty much home bound. I can't even change my own oil!
Well 22 days later and I am home and have a few words of wisdom.
1. If you are sick, take care of yourself before it gets really bad.
2. After all the checks. You will only get a couple hours of sleep a day at a hospital.
3. Hospital beds are the most uncomfortable creations ever made by man.
It all started out in Jan. I would get just a little sick then get better after a couple days. This would repeat a number of times until I finally went to the Dr. and was prescribed the typical drugs for Pneumonia. Fast forward 5 or 6 days and I was feeling very well when it hit me, a pain in the chest so great that it put me to my knees. An ambulance took me to the local emergency room where they thought I was having a heart attack. After ruling out a heart attack they put me into a CAT Scan machine and came back with the news that they thought they saw a large mass on my right lung and was sent to a larger hospital in the area.
Once at the new hospital they did another Cat scan and found that the right side of my chest was filled with fluid, placed 2 chest tubes and began what they called Lytic Therapy For a condition called Empyema Link to Empyema . After days of flushing my chest cavity with clot busting fluids and no real results it was decided that Video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery was needed to remove the remaining stuff. Well they ended up splitting me wide open after taking a peek and found that the fluid had hardened up to a point that much of it had to be peeled out of my chest cavity like removing the peel off an orange!
Now due to the extent of the surgery I am restricted from even driving my car for 4 weeks and am pretty much home bound. I can't even change my own oil!
Well 22 days later and I am home and have a few words of wisdom.
1. If you are sick, take care of yourself before it gets really bad.
2. After all the checks. You will only get a couple hours of sleep a day at a hospital.
3. Hospital beds are the most uncomfortable creations ever made by man.
