At Mon, 27 Jan 2003, Karla wrote:
>
>Hi All,
>
>I just wanted to let you know that I am finally home, albeit in an
>extremely weak state. Actually, I am not at my mom's, but at my
>sister's and getting the best of care. I will try and explain all that
>transpired. I may not be able to do so in one sitting, but I will do my
>best.
>
>On January 10th, I last posted that I had developed sepsis during the
>night and was having rigors (uncontrollable shaking). My doctor ordered
>me to go to the ER and be admitted. Everything there was handled very
>quickly, thank heavens. I was running a temp of 103.8 and they did find
>me to be septic. I don't know alot about what transpired after but I do
>know that they transferred me to the ICU the next day. As part of their
>trying to flush the infection from my system my lungs filled with fluid.
>Basically, I was drowning. I now have a new diagnosis....Adult
>Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS). I wonder now if that wasn't a
>problem when I went into Respiratory Arrest back in 1999.
>
>On January 12th, I was placed on a respirator. It went against
>everything I believed in when I signed the permission slip. I had
>already been a Do Not Rescusitate but had just assured my urologist that
>if something happened during the surgery they wanted to attempt, I would
>not be adverse to maybe three days on the respirator. How could I
>change my mind now? Once on the respirator I fought it pretty
>vigorously. At one point they took me down for a CT scan and despite
>having my hands wrapped, etc., managed to rip part of it out. I would
>also become extremely aggitated when people came around me...my heart
>rate would race along with other things. My blood pressure dropped to
>60/30. I was dying. They then placed me in a drug-induced coma. My
>family was told that if I came out, I would not remember a thing.
>(That's not true at all!)
>
>On January 21st, after a couple of unsuccessful attempts at removing me
>from life support, they decided to make the big step and just go right
>ahead and remove the respirator despite the fact that my blood levels
>didn't really indicate I was ready for it....I was either going to make
>it or break it. Thank the Lord, I made it. I think its because I kept
>hearing this one doctor repeatedly say that he had to keep looking for
>an answer because it would be one thing to lose me, but then they would
>have to deal with delivering a 24 week pregnant woman. Having already
>lost a son, I didn't want my daughter to lose another.
>
>I spent the following 5 days trying to gain strength and cope with the
>ordeal that I had been through. It wasn't just a matter of getting
>better....there are a lot of psychological issues involved. The biggest
>one was going back to my original DNR status. I WILL NOT go through
>that again. This brought some arguments from family (particularly my
>daughter). Since I had survived this time, why wouldn't I do it again?
>Though I spent many hours of wonderful "travel" in my drug-induced
>state, it was an awful experience. I will not put my family through
>that again.
>
>All the nurses were shocked when I walked into the halls. They kept
>telling me I was a cat and kept asking me how many lives I had used up?
>
>I came home on Saturday. I have done nothing but lie around. I still
>cannot eat. I developed an awful case of thrush from the respirator and
>all the antibiotics and it has not gone away despite two different
>medications. I am now gargling with a hydrogen-peroxide solution in
>hopes that it will help. It hasn't yet, but with a call in to my doctor
>hopefully I can get somewhere. Having lost over 30 pounds in this
>ordeal and still being unable to eat, I am stuck drinking ENSURE (yuk)!
>Anyone with ideas on how to improve the taste let me know.
>
>I must ask that no one email me personally at this time. I haven't had
>the strength to go clean out the box...I'm sure its overfull. I will be
>back to read here though.
>
>I must give my heartfelt thanks to everyone for all of their thoughts,
>prayers, cards and words of encouragement throughout this time. I would
>also like to say thank you to my secret angel, Audrey :) for keeping you
>all updated.
>
>God's blessings to you all!