[tcb] I am alive

  • From: "Denis Dodson" <coocoo@xxxxxxx>
  • To: <tcb@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Sun, 5 Sep 2010 16:32:12 -0500

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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