One More Cat Life Gone
Ed Barna
My apologies for not maintaining this blog with the frequency that I’d like, but I’ve been busy losing one of the nine lives I’ve inherited from living with many generations of cats.
I’m 60, the age at which prostate glands start turning into prostrate glands. On a followup to a previous operation known in the trade as a “laser turp” (high-tech roto-rooter job), my urological surgeon detected a slight abnormality that we agreed justified a biopsy to see if it was cancerous. Negative—but during the procedure, somehow E. coli or a similar bacterium got into my bloodstream. A couple Fridays ago, I woke up barely able to walk, barely able to talk, and pouring sweat. Was I simply tired from the operation in Colchester taking place right after a very heavy bout of round-the-clock work? Or should we go to the emergency room at Porter Hospital, just across town?
Here’s an example of the difference health insurance can make: had I been alone and uninsured, I might well have dropped back in bed, then dropped off the face of the earth. As if was, Irene took me to Porter, where they immediately set up two intravenous antibiotic lines and a hearth monitor, and took samples to send to Burlington. Temperature 104 F., blood pressure 40, heart rate 200, and a huge stress-related blood sugar spike.
I spent the first day in the ICU (intensive care unit), crowded around by so many beeping and blinking devices that I half expected the commander of this submarine to shout “Ready forward tubes!...Fire one!” The only reason they sent me to a regular room was that someone else needed the I-See-You-And Everybody-Else-Does-Too worse than I did.
One of the antibios worked, and as I write this, a little more than a week later, I’m still taking some heavy duty stuff. But at last I feel up to blogging. . Blood-uglies or not, the show must go on.
ps
From now on, I’m going to start each blog with a notice that anyone who wants an email alert that I’ve posted something else can tell me so via [email protected], and get on the email list.
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