Continuing Things (and old things)--and NEW Things, Too!

Dateline: Columbia, Tennessee USA

I am sitting in a friend's home, just outside Nashville, Tennessee. Sitting in a friend's home is a very and (if I were honest) highly dangerous thing for me to do. The last time I sat anywhere near a friend's home, I wound up in a homeless shelter (at their insistence). I also lost two of what I had considered to be more than twelve years worth of very good friends while I was about it! I was painfully, surprisingly, and more to the point, homelessly wrong about that. I tellya, the things we survive in this world, huh? 

I've been here for nearly two weeks. So far, I have neither voluntarily (nor otherwise) been evicted. I'm getting nervous. We have known each other as "true friends" since about 1972. We had a thirty-plus year absence. We have re-connected. That's just incredibly nice. While I am here, I will have internet access. She is very angry with me at the moment. She says I am spending too much time on the computer. "I cannot", she says to me, "keep your legs higher than your heart while you are online."

That is a true statement. I cannot keep my legs higher than my heart while online. I walk for about five (5) minutes every hour. I am seriously hoping that will suffice my body--and my friend. Ummm, I'm not feelin' it....

I have developed serious blood clots in my legs, thighs, groin and pelvis from a condition known as Deep Vein Thrombosis (DVT). My Doctor sent me home from my last hospital admission to six months of absolute bed rest. (Yeah, right!) It has been a rather serious time. The options (as I understand them) are limited to only one: bilateral amputation of the legs. That could put a serious dent in my social life, if you know what I mean. The Diabetes (Type II) is pretty much uncontrolled, and uncontrollable at the moment.

My friend, an R. N., is valiantly screaming, begging, and pleading with me to do several completely rational things--unless you figure in the unique equation that is ME! I have been, for nearly one full month now, doing everything I could which she has asked me to do. She's had an extrremely rough time of helping me. She is a brave soul, who seems determined. We shall see! LOL 

That includes, for any of you who might somehow give a rip, almost one complete month (Yeay, ME!)of not smoking--at all! I have 21 mg Nicotine patches which are, 3+ weeks into the 12 week program, doing quite nicely thank you very much. My friend purchases them for me. In fact, on several days, I have "forgotten" to change patches at all. I've only had one slip. and that was before the current count began, so it doesn't count at all. (My rules!) I'm wondering if I have simply replaced one addiction or two with another addiction. Those darned patches! Who would have ever thought those monstrosities would be the cheapest way to smoke! :)

Life got very complicated in April of this year. On March 31st, I had to go to the hospital and stay for about ten days, until April 10th. Bad blood clots (I mean a LOT of them) had taken aim on my legs, and ground themselves to a halt at my descending vein junctions in my groin. No descending circulation, and very little arterial return circulation. They got (and, I am told, will forever be) very discolored and extremely swollen. Pain was and is intense, and I could not walk--at all. I currently use a wheelchair and/or a walker. But, mostly, I just sit or lay down. Imagine!

The Doctors actually tried to scheduled the amputation surgery at Barnes Jewish in St. Louis about two days into this last stay, but were informed that I was not a viable candidate for surgery of any type at all. (This is NOT news, sports fans.) With no insurance, no ability to pay...I got sent home with the treatment of choice to do nothing...you know, like as in NOTHING--but keep my feet above my heart for six months! Ah, better living through Chemistry! Know what I mean?

Diabetic Neuropathy has overtaken the total numbness in my legs. They are hoping this time of absolute bedrest will allow my body to establish new "collateral circulation" and save the legs. Okay, but do they not know that I KNOW that collateral circulation only, at best, provides for 10% of the original bloodflow of the pathways it replaces? Interestingly enough, the filter in my leg, that keeps the blood clots from my heart, lungs, and brain, is also clogged@ Collateral circulation around the filter just seems, to me, to be antithetical to the purpose. Call me synical....

Well, I was going to explain a bunch of things, but if it's alright with you, I'll stop at this point and get my feet higher than my heart. After all, it's Doctors' orders!

Keep Smilin',

Budroe

P.S. Here's some really nice reading music for you as you take in all this...umm, well...wisdom. Yeah! :)