I’m sitting in a new recliner in my new two bedroom
apartment working on a new laptop. This
is the first time I’ve been out of a hospital or rehab facility since the 22nd
of August, and I am feeling particularly grateful to the universe and some of
its denizens. So how did we get
here? Well, it’s not a funny story, or a
particularly positive story, but it is something I promised I would share when
I got back to the typing machine.
So, the week after I got back from Gen Con I was feeling
under the weather with what I now recognize as symptoms of critically high
blood sugar. I was an undiagnosed, and
more dangerously, untreated diabetic.
During the middle of that week, I had a blister that developed and
popped, spilling bacteria down my leg. I tried to treat with Neosporin and band
aids, as I have been taught for any, many years. I wasn’t thinking very clearly because of the
high blood sugar, and this also complicated my body’s ability to heal and fight
off infections.
My business partner was concerned when I didn’t call her on
a Thursday night so the following Friday morning, I was greeted by Police and
Paramedics in my house. The paramedics
informed me that I was not in good shape, that the blister had degenerated
tissue in my foot and it had gone septic.
I was also informed that my blood sugar was right around 400 (that’s a
bad number by the way). I went to the
ER, and was admitted to my local hospital.
The prognosis wasn’t good. I had
multiple infections eating away at my foot, and if I had waited any longer, it
would have probably killed me. Oh, and I
was diabetic.
I spent 5 days at that hospital and had one surgical
procedure where the doctors went in and cut away and removed dead and dying
tissue from my foot. My sister in law
was concerned that I wasn’t getting the care I needed, so I transferred to the
University of Kansas Medical Center in KC and spent another three weeks
there. During that time I underwent two
more surgical procedures to clear away dead tissue. The possibility of amputation was very real
during the first few days at the hospital and they weren’t sure I was going to
get to go home on two feet.
Luckily, I ended up with a very skilled surgical team who
specialized in orthopedics and they were able to save the foot and clear out
the dead tissue, though I do have a surgical scar on my right leg that runs
basically from my knee all the way down the front of my shin to the ankle. I had one more procedure to close up the
wound area as best they could and scheduled me for a skin graft. I had lost enough tissue that without the
graft, the wound on my foot would never heal over.
After three long weeks in the hospital, I ended up with a
Wound Vac attached to my leg (it’s a miniature vacuum pump that does two
equally important things. It a,
maintains a seal over the injured location and b, sucks out dead cells and
fluids to promote healing. This is about
as fun as it sounds. I was also on three
different antibiotics to kill the infections, and thankfully, they did their
jobs. They also trashed my sense of
balance which would become an issue later on at rehab.
After my hospital stay, I ended up at rehab hospital/skilled
nursing facility. I needed both sides of
this, because I wasn’t exceptionally mobile on my one good foot, and the
dressing on my wound vac had to be changed three times a week. That was a roller coaster of an experience,
with ups and downs involving my diabetic diet, a room mate that needed a hobby
(and a CPAP Machine) and misadventures with a wheelchair. I’m still using a wheel chair as my primary
means of locomotion, but I am much better with it than I used to be. I am also capable of standing on one foot for
short periods of time.
Now while I was staying at rehab, I had a 5th
operation, the aforementioned skin graft.
That was not as good an experience as the first few as I woke in
blinding pain and I think the pain coupled with stress and anesthesia gave me
one of the worst bouts of nausea I have ever had. I ended up staying at the hospital that night
and heading back to rehab the next day.
The prognosis looks good at this point. My leg/foot are healing in the best possible
way according to the Doctors and nurses.
I am out of rehab now and like I said at the start, I am sitting in a
new chair in my new apartment. The next
appointment I have is on the 26th and that’s to see if I need to
have another skin graft (for a spot over my tendon. The Doctors were hoping that spot might heal
on its own naturally, so we’ll find out if that faith is rewarded when I go
back up to see them.
On the diabetic front, everything is looking good. My blood sugars are under control, and I am
currently embracing the diabetic diet.
I’m also off pop, which is a nice change of pace for someone who’s been
addict for over thirty years. Soon I’ll
be getting back to work, both here on the blog and at my day job. That’s where we are now, and we’ll get back
to making content for you guys soon. You
can expect a pretty deep dive into Wild West Exodus, Doomtown, and
some other games we liked a lot from Gen Con.
Hopefully we get some original content published as well, and we are
really hoping our friends over at Pinnacle send us a copy of the new edition of
Savage Worlds to check out.
Also keep an eye out for new features, some old ideas
getting new polish and an overall return to form for the Blog. (We’re going to be trying out Kill Team and
some other things along the way). Expect
pictures and maybe some more videos in the soon to near future.
Game On, Game Fans.
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