Back from the Hospital again...

As I last wrote, I was in the middle of what I thought was another bout with the dreaded C.diff. From the time that I wrote the previous entry, I kept getting worse and the new antibiotics were not working at all. On Saturday night, I was very sick – probably as sick as I have ever been, but I always say that as I cannot remember the previous times. Anyway, I was going to the bathroom very frequently and throwing up. I was feeling both hot and cold and feverish. I ended up waking up on the bathroom floor with the cat licking my nose.

I then went back to bed and woke up Pam and shortly thereafter I was taking another ride in an ambulance to the ER. It was two female EMTs that had a difficult time getting me down the outside stairs to the ambulance. It was raining and blowing and quite a rush in my condition.

After all the usual ER stuff, it was decided that I would be admitted and we ended up spending from Sunday morning until yesterday in the hospital.

Some of the time I was not capable of dealing with, or comprehending, the events that were happening. We had this ‘crazy’ gastroenterologist assigned to us that wouldn’t even speak to me – only to Pam. He wore camouflage long underwear and hunting boots, and is known by the nursing staff for never keeping a schedule, or having any bedside manners. He is also suppose to be the best around or we would have probably selected another option, if any. It was all very weird…

There were days of 'feverish' activity, having all sorts of tests, and then he came in, said what I had and I was released.

All this time, we thought the problem was the common and pervasive hospital bacteria C.diff, but that is not the case. After extensive testing, it now appears to be an Ischemic Bowel that was basically caused by a blood clot from the first surgery, back in December. One of the arteries that feed the colon ended up getting clotted up and has been causing all these problems.

We are now trying to ‘de-clot’ the artery with blood thinning medications, to solve the problem, without having to do another surgery. It is going to take a couple of weeks for this new therapy to work. We are planning on having a service come in, as needed, to deal with my needs during this time.

I must go lay down now – more later…

$700 Anitbiotics...

Well, I am now taking a liquid antibiotic that costs $ 700. Luckily, we only had to pay $ 35 with our insurance, but Pam said that is the actual cost for this 1/2 pint size bottle...

This is day three of the C.diff. The first day I was very sick, had a 102 deg fever and the runs about 30 times. Then, yesterday, I felt pretty good again. No runs, no fever and I just felt like I had been beat up or something similar. Then, today, I again feel horrible, have a 98.0 temperature and have the runs again.

This seems to be the pattern of C.diff. It hits for a day, then it slows down for a day and then it comes back for a day or two, etc., etc. I am thinking that it must flush part of its 'charm' out with the runs, and then has to rebuild back up to have another go at it...

Anyway, I have been gagging down this new antibiotic since mid-afternoon on Monday and I am not impressed with what it is doing yet. It is called Vancomycin - one of the few 'last resort' antibiotics that still exists. I think it is made from some tropical forest mud or something like that. They try to keep it for very controlled use so the bugs don't get immune to it like they have to most of the other antibiotics out there.

Business is going great. We seem to be getting calls from new dealers almost daily. Right now, we have three good sized orders that are waiting on our next needle shipment which will arrive on Monday.

We have been planning a trip to Europe for Pam's 50th birthday, but have now canceled it until later in the year or next year. We thought this C.diff was over with, but obviously not, and we don't know how much longer it will come and go.

Well, its back to bed for me for a while, here in DaHo...

Well, Crap - C.diff Again...

Yesterday, I started having an upset stomach, which I almost never have since my Lary operation 6 years ago. Then a couple of hours later, I started having the runs. In the next 6 hours I went to the bathroom about 30 times - Grumble, Grumble. I also had a fever of 102 last night which makes you feel really wonderful...

It has been 5 weeks since I finished the last course of C.diff antibiotics. I was back to doing yoga and was starting to feel great again. I am still taking the supplement that puts 2.5 billion live cultures of the good stuff in my digestive track every day. I have also been eating Activia, the yogurt that also has the ProBiotic things to build up my digestive track.

And, I guess it was all for not, as yet again I have it. Pam went to the doctors and picked my up some of the last antibiotic that is available to fight this C.diff stuff. It is only used when nothing else works and is not a good thing to have to do - IMHO...

But, whatever it takes finally get rid of this evil C.diff is worth it - I guess.

Anyway, I just wanted to let the readers of this blog to know what is going on. Before this, the business is picking up quickly and I have been very busy.

Well, back to bed, but I just wanted to document this mess as I have will all the other episodes of this fiasco here in DaHo...

More Good News...

I am getting better and better. I started yoga again this week and it was the most painful I have ever experienced. I didn't push anything, but just little stretches hurt as the muscles haven't been stretched in about 3 months. After my second session, I was starting to feel all the 'parts' starting to get realigned again. I should be in good shape after next week.

So far, the C.diff bacteria has not come back. Its been quite a while now, so I am hoping that I am done with it at last. Now, I just have to deal with all the medical bills. The other day, we were at the hospital to see my surgeon and happened to stop by the hospital billing department. They said that my hospital bill for the three operations was over $ 105,000. Then, on top of that, is all the surgeons, radiologists, and other side players that go in on it all.

We played in our pool league playoffs and lost to a good team. So, we are out of it as a team. Now, the only remnant of it all is the top shooters tournament on the 14th.

A week or two ago, we couldn't buy an order for our needles and now business is going crazy. We have 3 new dealers and had our largest single order to date. It was over 300 products. Then, yesterday, we received an order from the Australian distributor that we have been courting for a few months. They said it was just a little starting order and the real orders would be much larger. They also want us to make 5 new needle sizes to help grow our product line. This little starter order was for 750 products...

So, all of the planning and work on making the business much larger is starting to pay off. This last month we will have had more business than all of last year. I just cannot wait for the big orders to start coming in.

Well, I better go rest up for all the orders. That is about all that is fit to print here in DaHo...

No News is Good News...

I haven't written anything in this blog for over a week. And, in this case, No News is Good News...

I continue to feel better and I have not had any new C.diff attacks - so far. Based upon its prior history, I would have expected it to have happened before now, but I could be wrong. It is very un-predictable stuff.

I have been working on orders from a number of dealers. Our largest volume dealer is attending a show next week in Long Beach, and their order was almost 300 products. We shall have to see how many of those get sold as I have an arrangement with the dealer to take back any extra inventory that doesn't sell. I also made up a couple of booth signs for the dealer to allow potential customers to pick up on what was being sold - something I would rather do than have them do it.

We are still trying to drum up for dealers and will have to re-think our marketing letters to make them less of a task to read. I am thinking that having all the 'details' may be too much to read for a lot of the tackle shop owners. We shall have to see how a new, and much simpler marketing approach works.

Over the past few days, I have started drinking alcohol again in very small doses. I have now had about 10 drinks in the past 3 months. I really don't miss it much at this point and have never had much of an issue with stopping it. We shall have to see how it goes for the near future.

We had two pool matches this week. One of our players was leaving on our normal night to go to NASCAR in Las Wages, so we played our first game on Wednesday night and won easily. Then, we had to play Friday night for the next round of the 'end of league' tournament. We played a pretty good team and ended up loosing by 3 points. So we are out of the tournament, but are not too bothered by it. Storm and I will be playing in the top shooter tournament on 3/14 in a couple of weeks. That should be more fun all around.

We went and saw 'The Wrestler' last afternoon. I was not impressed with it. There was too much gore and general wrestling and life realities in it for me to be entertained. I felt sorta beat up by the end of it.

Now that all of the antibiotics and other recent meds are mostly out of me, I am starting to enjoy the taste of food again. It was awful when I was taking the antibiotics for the C.diff. It made everything taste metallic and overly sweet or something. Almost all sauces or spiced food that had more than one taste in it, tasted awful and I couldn't eat it. That really frazzled Pam as she was trying to cook good stuff for me and I couldn't eat most of it or at least didn't enjoy it much. But, that is finally starting to go away now.

Speaking of food, this afternoon we are having Boyd and Annette over for a Prime Rib dinner. And, I just noticed the clock and must go to get it started...

More later from DaHo...