My Big Sick (2018)

Earth people - I come in peace...

You know that bad flu virus they've hyped in the news? Uh... not hyping. It's real. I know because I got it.

First I caught the flu - no biggie. I stayed home, stayed warm, rested & drank fluids. Then I felt better, so I got up and resumed life as per normal.

Three days passed and I slowly realized I felt kind of weird. Not sick exactly - just not quite normal. Not quite up to snuff. My friend Barbara, down in Monterey County, we keep in touch pretty much daily, via text/emails. She was more worried about my so-called flu than I was. She is a worry wart thought, that is what she does, worry. So I ignored her. I was fine damn it!

Nag, nag, nag. I said I'd go to an emergency room if she'd quit nagging. So on Monday morning I got in my car and it started, but wouldn't move an inch. I figured it probably dead from having driven into that puddle a week ago. My trip to the ER was a no go.

Next morning Barb called again. She concluded that I sounded 'weird' and stated, if I did not dial 911 inside of ten seconds, she was going to call the police & have them break down my front door. She started the count down: ten... nine... eight...

She meant it. I called. Minutes later (as in, it felt like lost time) I was wisked away by EMTs in a bright & shiny ambulance.

My so-called 'flu' had morphed into pneumonia. The pneumonia allowed bacteria to infest my lungs and poison my blood. My blood was septic. For ten days I lay semi-hallucinatory at the UCD med center while the good docs puzzled out wtf was wrong with me. They bombarded me with a heavy flood of IV to kill the thankfully easy-to-kill bacterial strain and said I'd need a month of IVs. Yikes.

After ten days of too-much-excitement, I was transferred directly to a gawdawful nursing home, the only one that both my insurance accepted and that would accept me.

You never know how good your family/friends are until you get sick and wind up in the hospital I
guess. If it wasn't obvious to you in 'I am well' times, it sure becomes utmost in your mind during 'I sure as hell am sick' times. Thanks y'all!

Beauties from Cousin Yvonne & her hubby Bill

I took a few pix of my visitors (why didn't I photograph everyone?). Rick & Nancy were my first visitors in the hospital. Ron & Jeannie visited me, brought stuff for me from home and even snuck in an item or two for me (score!). Robbie drove in from Berkeley to visit me often not only when I was in the nursing home, but when I got home too. I was sooo happy for breaks in the neverending tedium of not being able to 'go out and play'. 

And I got flowers - more flowers than I ever have received in my life. The flowers - some were crocheted by friends from the Woolverines - were a touch of beauty in my otherwise depressing & dull nursing home room. And a 'CARE' package of wonderous goodies from my cousin Jonnianne & her fam. My cup overflowed like sob!

From Robbie, Cousin David and Jen

Crocheted blooms from Woolverine friends
I kept them on my IV which cheered it up for me

 Here is the family who used to be Barbara's next door neighbors and I became their friends too. They are wonderful, and they came to visit me. Made me so very happy!

The 'Cute' Family - I love them to pieces!

Dear Cousin David and 'moi' at dread nursing home

The biggest & best surprise was my Cousin David flew all the way out from Denver to visit me! I was soooo surprised & happy!  He had come with friend Jen. He hand delivered me a Carter Family Reunion Tee-shirt, one of many he had made for the family reunion I'd missed in San Diego. I love my Cousin David!


There were many things that were done wrong at the hospital and David volunteered (!) to go to bat on those issues, so that hopefully future patients will not go through the stuff I went through. I'll always remember and be grateful to David for that. In future, others will be grateful without even knowing they have David to thank.

And while I'm on the topic of grateful, I also thank Barbara for being 'my person' who nags me when necessary, and also Dru, her support back up.

My stint in the Nursing home lasted three of the longest weeks of my life. UGH! I couldn't wait to get out of the nursing home, and the day I did was epic. Everything that could go wrong, went wrong. But eventually I got home where Barbara and her friend Dru were at my house waiting for me. I was grateful to them too for being there when the oxygen supply guy arrived to set things up.

Yummy fresh 'blooms' from my Sister Dolores

[UPDATE: I was on external oxygen for three long months. Everytime I left the house I carried along a little oxygen tank in my favorite backpack. That gave me a total of 3 hours or so I could 'BE FREE!' and out of the house. Eventually my oxygen saturation was fine if I was seated, so that meant I could stay out of the house longer, for example, I could go to the movies where I didn't need the extra oxygen while seated watching a movie. Finally in May I was off the oxygen tank. Whew! Do NOT ever want to go through anything like that again. 
OH! And I'd mentioned my car not starting when I wanted to drive myself to the ER? Turns out, I'd turned on the ignition, but did not engage the reverse gear, so guess what? The car wouldn't budge. How freakn' sick I was? I hadn't the brains to back my car out of the garage. When your oxygen is that low your brain doesn't work well. DUH. Thank heavens I couldn't get my car out the garage. If I had, perhaps I'd have caused a ten car pile up on Highway 50. Yep. Glad that is all in the past tense now.]