Is this the end? Well maybe not.

Completely non-poker related experience.

About two weeks ago I get a reocurrance of a nasty cough that has been going around. After about five days of suffering through it I finally decided to go to the doctor to get some meds and get checked out. In the past this cough was a result of Asthma and the Doctor put me on the standard stuff that has worked in the past as well as an antibiotic.

Five days after that (Monday) I still wasn't feeling better so the called the Doctor and she had me make a trip into the office on my way home from work. At that visit, she decided that a chest ex-ray was in order. So off to the Lake Forest Hospital Gurnee location. After waiting about an hour I finally get the chest X-ray and on my way out I'm told by the reception desk that I am to wait for the results to be phoned into the Doc. Thinking this was a little strange I sat down wondering when I was going to get lunch (it was about 3:00pm) and damn did I have a lot of work to catch up on. The results were ready in about 20 minutes and the Doc called into the reception desk to tell me that everything looked normal. Great I think, time for lunch. But no, the Doctor says "you need to get a CT scan of your chest with contrast (this is where they pump some iodine into your veins and take some pictures)." So I have to fast for two hours before hand and head on over to the Lake Forest Hospital Facility in Grayslake.

At 5:30 I start the CT scan which was completed in about 1/2 hour and if you have never had Iodine pumped into your veins, it sucks. You actually feel like you are pissing yourself. Also holding your breath for 20-30 seconds when you are coughing every 3 seconds tends to be a bit difficult.

Finally 12 hours after breakfast I head over to the Wendy's to grab a sandwich and head home to go to sleep. Well, that was not going to happen!

At around 8:00pm I get a call from the doctor. Strange I think, I would have guessed that I would get the results on Tuesday. "Dave, we have the results back. It looks like you have a Pulmonary Embolism in your right lung". Interesting, I have heard that term on ER, but have no clue what it is. She goes on to explain that it is a blood clot in my right lung. OK this sounds serious. "Ok," I respond, "how serious is this?"

"Well, Dave it is serious enough that it can Kill you. You need to get to the emergency room immediately. You get ready and put Angie on the phone. "

So we explain to the kids that I have to go the ER and that I am probably going to be there for at least five days. Jeremy (the 10 year old) looks at me and says "Pulmonary Embolism? Dad, that is pretty serious. Those can give you a stroke or a heart attack. Are you going to die?"

Well, I have to tell you, up to that point, I did not contemplate that outcome. I guess hearing something like that from your kid makes it a "little more real" than coming from the Doctor. I pack a quick bag and Angie and I jump into the car and head off to the ER.
Needless to say the ride to the ER was rather quiet.

We get to the ER and go to the reception desk. "Can I help you?" asks the girl at the desk. "Yes, my Doctor called and told me to come in immediately.". Before I can give her my name, she says "Oh yes, are you Dave?". OK, this really isn't sounding good. "Have a seat and we will be with you in just a moment."

After a short period of time, we are called into the office with a nurse who is to take vital signs and she is reading through my chart. She must have been new as the admitting order said reason for admittance "PE". She looking up and said, "PE I wonder what that is?". I said "Oh, it stands for Pulmonary Embolism." Man did her eyes get big. "OK, let's get through his fast!" And I'm escorted into an ER room next to a room with a screaming 4 year old.

The ER Doc comes in and explains what is going on and that they are going to put me on blood thinners to make sure the Clot doesn't get any bigger and that in the morning I would meet with my Doctor and the Lung and Heart Guy. Also, I would be getting an ultra-sound of my legs to look for additional clots, an Echo-Cardio Gram (I think that is what they called it) to check my heart as the EKG they ran came back irregular and a Renal ultra sound for good measure. Then they proceed so suck 12 vials of blood out of me.

"Have you noticed an rectal bleeding?" asked the ER Doc.

Uh oh, "um no."

"Well since we are putting you on blood thinners we have to check." It was at that point I noticed that the ER Doc has a pair of monsterously large hands.

After surviving the "exam", the IV was set up and I was rolled up to the critcal care unit, put on a heart rate monitor and snuggled into a room next to some old snoring guy (I was by 25 years the youngest person on the floor). Needless to say I didn't get much sleep. No real surprise I'm sure to anyone who knows my regular sleeping habits. In addition, to flush the Iodine out of my system from the CT scan, the Doctor cranked up the dripon the IV so I had to take a leak every hour to two hours. Nothing makes you feel like more of a man than to repeatedly call a nurse to help you take a pee.

Now, this whole ordeal was not a complete disaster up to this point. Everytime they came into check on me the nurse had to check my legs for swelling. Generally this check started at my groin. Now, this might not seem like a big deal, but as a 37 year old out of shape balding male, any time a pair of female hands gets within two feet of my groin it is time for celebration.

The morning roles around and I get visit from my Doctor who does a quick check up, including the now standard groin and leg check. She has a very soft grip.

Then off to 3 hours of ultrasounds starting with the leg ultrasound (damn no groin check). Anyways, this goes well and no additional clots are found. The person doing the ultrasound was very good at explaining what she was doing and what she was finding. For anybody who has ever done these usually you leave with no information and a comment, "your Doctor will get back to you."

Then off to the Echo exam. I was originally told this would take about 1/2 hour. Well it lasted for 1.5 hours and included 3 different technicians double and triple checking the previous persons work, with three pow wows between the techs on the other end of the room in hushed tones. The only things I would make out were "scar tissue" and "hole in the......." So when this ended, I asked the standard question, "well anything of note." Two of the three technicias looked at the third and she said, "yeah, well we will need to have the doctors look at this and somebody will get back to you."

Shit!!!!

So back up to my room for my first leak in over 3 hours. It was a monster. Even the nurse was amazed. Oh for small victories.

Shortly after a highly mediocre lunch of Spaghetti, the Lung and Heart guy roles into the room. "Well, I have reviewed your CT Scan. In addition I had four other Doctors take a look without leading them in any direction. In addition we have reviewed all the blood work from last night. I don't believe and the other Doctors concur that the "Clot" on the scan is a Clot at all, just a slight irregularity in the lung. It isn't anything to worry about and we are taking you off the blood thinners."

Damn that is good news.

"But," he continues, "your EKG is still irregular so I can't tell you when we can let you go until we get the ECHO back. Also, I want to give you a couple of breathing treatments for the Asthma. Those will happen after dinner."

OK not out of the woods yet. But it doesn't look that bad.

But then it got worse again. I met Al...... Albuteral. The drug in the breathing treatment. At 8:00 PM I began the breathing treatment. Bascially, they give you an inhaler with Al in it and you breath it in for about 5 minutes. Didn't seem to bad until my body reacted to the drug about 10 minutes later. I knew something wasn't right when my hands started shaking uncontrollable. If you have even seen Khyle betting with pocket Aces, multiply that shaking by 10. Uh oh, then after about 1 minute of that my heart rate shot up to 130 beats a minute and my heart rate monitor in the nurses station started making a lot of noise. The nurses station was about two doors down from my room, but when I heard the noise I knew what it was related to. Rebecca (the hot late 20's nurse who is a master at the groin check) came hustling in and asked how I was feeling. I said take a guess. She nodded an put me on oxygen. So I settled back and watched Mobsters, Rocky I, Rocky II, The Ghosts of Mississippi (I think that was the title) and the beginning of Mobsters again before my heart dropped to the low 100's and I could finally fall asleep somewhere around 4:30 Wednesday morning. Of course they woke me up at 5:30 to suck more blood and for a new nurse (sob sob Rebecca was off duty) to apply the groin and leg check. As of this writting I now have 4 hours of sleep from 6 AM Monday morning to 6:30PM Wednesday evening.

At 8:30 my regular doctor and the Lung and Heart guy came in to talk about the Echo. They wanted to do another test, this one a Echo with contrast. The contrast is they inject you with a bunch of saline bubbles and watch how they go through the heart. This is to determine if there is a hole, and if so how big. My Doctor said that if this went smoothly I would be able to go home, but would have to meet with her the next week to discuss the irregular EKG.

Well since I am writting and posting this to the blog, I must be home and you can probably tell everything on that end came out OK. Really, I just wrote this to get it all off my chest (no pun intended) and reflect on the week. Never having been in a situation where I had to reflect on my own mortality really made me think about my life and my family and where my job should fall into the mix.

Well thanks for listening (actually reading), if you got this far. Just remember that Family, Health and Friends are more important than your job and should be first priorities in your life. I have spent most of my professional career with these priorities in a different order. I am going to endeavor to reorder these priorities and become the father and husband that I should have been from the beginning. Hopefully I will be able to keep this promise to myself and not again get caught up in making that next dollar to the expense of my family.