[tcb] Re: I am alive

Glad your home.PLEASE BE CAREFULL.



--- On Sun, 9/5/10, Denis Dodson <coocoo@xxxxxxx> wrote:


From: Denis Dodson <coocoo@xxxxxxx>
Subject: [tcb] I am alive
To: tcb@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Sunday, September 5, 2010, 4:32 PM








I am home after 7 days, 6 in ICU. I have some pills and I am toting around an 
oxygen hose and I have the most amazing pain. I have six stitches over my left 
eyebrow that I guess I need taking out or they will fall out on their own. 
 
There is a strange sheen between me and the computer monitor and I need to 
really concentrate to read. I think that this is a combination of drugs and 
oxygen. I am low on oxygen because it hurts to breathe, much less deeply. I say 
this so that you all will know why I didn’t post anything before this. I just 
couldn’t.
 
OK, here is the real story, as I saw it.
 
I had come home from Eureka Springs after stuffing registration bags for the 
show. We ate sandwiches and I had some beers, maybe 4. I had another when I got 
home. It was a beautiful evening with a nice breeze, the temperature, just 
right. I got a quilt and my pillow and was soon happy asleep. Some time before 
4 AM The Hounds, Lilly and Howie, woke me up to say hello and I got up to pee. 
After peeing, I turned around to pet them, or whatever, and stepped off the 
deck and in to a tale of 911, blood, ambulances, ER, broken bones, intensive 
care and hospital rooms.
 
Many of you know that I have had a history of the city boy moving to the 
mountains and getting stung on the forehead by a wasp that made my head swell 
and look like a catcher’s mitt, and bitten by a Copperhead that made my leg 
look like a ham. On the other calls there were 3 or 4 pickups with good ol’ 
boys from the local Nob Hill Volunteer Fire Department, a fire truck and an 
ambulance. There was lots of laughing but I always felt that I was in good 
hands. This time there was nothing funny.
 
After crawling (or dancing or doing cartwheels… I’d be lying if I told you II 
remembered remember) across the yard between the lake and the house, somehow 
getting up the stone staircase, in to the house, up the kitchen staircase and 
in to Jan’s bedroom, where I thought , still, that I had just taken a hard 
fall, and yes, I was hurting, but I have hurt myself before and shook it 
offwhere  I was telling the 911 dispatcher that I could not stay conscious, 
that the dogs won’t bite, that I could not get across the kitchen to the front 
door and that I couldn’t breathe. In my tunnel vision I saw a young guy with a 
radio get through the door,  reach out, touch me on my head and told me that he 
had me now. They worked quickly, quietly, decisively. I remember little, moving 
in and out of being there, but the quality of their care was outstanding.
 
As the ER people were doing whatever they were doing all around me a doctor 
looked close to my face and said that I may think that I have simply fallen 
down, but that he could see, just by looking that I had, at least, four 
injuries that could be fatal and for me to trust them and do as I was told.
 
It was two days before they took off enough braces and restraints to wash off 
some of the blood.
 
I had a clip on my finger, a hose though my nose and into my stomach, a tube up 
my wiener (which you CONNOT remove by yourself!), a high pressure oxygen mask 
(just like Mark’s) on my face, IVs in one arm and blood monitors and a morphine 
injector in the other. I had four “things” glued to my chest and belly with 
wiring running in bundles like a splitty bus wiring harness BUS CONTENT!!!
 
I was not allowed even ice chips for three days. I begged and argued and 
negotiated (no more blood until I get a half cup of ice) and I always lost. 
When I was finally allowed SOME ice, I would smuggle it off to a corner of my 
tables and ask for more and then…wait for it…..(tense music)…when the ice 
almost all melted…you have to time it just right…you could use your sippy straw 
to get… the most perfect and valuable substance on Earth…a tiny swallow of…ICE 
WATER!!!! NEVER IN THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAS THERE A BETTER THING!
 
 
OK. There it is. The first attempts to communicate. If it rambles and/or makes 
no sense, well, there it is.
 
Thanks big big big for all the contacts. The personal visits were amazing, both 
for who showed up as well as when they showed up. The nursing staff made 
comments about the volume of people and calls. They actually brought the phone 
from their stations, since there was not one in my room and they had to show me 
on a monitor how my oxygen intake went down when I was on the phone. The Eureka 
Springs Show brought me a huge (4x6) card of a cartoon Splitty with lots of get 
wells.
 
I got text messages on my phone the whole time. That was great.
 
More soon
 
 

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