Another Scare

Tuesday I had a bladder and prostate biopsy. I'd had a urological exam that appeared suspicious enough that they felt this was necessary and we wanted to get it in before my knee replacement.

It's a pretty simple outpatient surgery. You do get general anesthetic (thank god......you aren't doing this to me with me awake and survive:) You go home an hour later and sleep the rest of the day.....so no big deal....well not usually.

I slept just about around the clock from Tuesday after the procedure until Wednesday morning. I was scheduled to speak at a local conference that morning. I got up early that morning and wrote my speech, cleaned up and was ready to go. I knew I wasn't feeling that great, but what the heck, I imagined it was just lingering after effects of my anesthesia still working its way out of my system. I arrived at the conference center and found myself with an overwhelmingly urgent need to urinate. I tried to make it inside and as I entered the rest room, I lost full bladder control and completely wet myself. The walk back to the car was humiliating. Thank god I encountered no one I knew and the few folks who were in the hall not in sessions acted as though they didn't notice, although you could not have seen me and not known. I went home, showered, and changed. Fortunately the conference host, a Vice President of my Board, whom I certainly didn't want to disappoint, was flexible and worked me into the afternoon schedule and folks seemed to value my presentation. So all was well, except I was exhausted and continued to feel not vibrant. I assumed if I got through the rest of this challenging week I'd rest up this weekend and all would be well. I was having no more continence issues.....likely just some sort of bladder inflamation from the procedure.

The next morning I was supposed to be back at the conference at 8:00. I tried to get up but I couldn't. I was just tired and had no energy. I slept in and finally dragged myself out of bed and went in. The afternoon activity there was an experiential exercise that I really didn't need to participate in, and I felt horribly tired. My Board was meeting at 7:00 that night. I came home about 2:00 and went to sleep for a couple of hours before getting up to eat and get ready to go for the Board meeting. I felt some better after my nap but still was feeling funky. I drove into the meeting with sue. The meeting lasted until 10:00. By the time it was over I felt dreadfully ill. Finally the Board members left. Sue drove me home. I didn't feel well enough to drive. We stopped to pick up some snacks to eat with T on the way home and, watiing for them to be ready to go, I drank about fifty ounces of diet pop and water. I was ravenously thirsty and it seemed like no matter how much I drank I couldn't get satisfied and now I was not needing to urinate. We ate and I collapsed into bed. As the night passed I felt worse and worse. I felt so weak that rolling over in bed felt like a monumental feat. Sue took my temperature in the middle of the night. It was 101.9. She remembered the post-operative directions that if I spiked a temp of over 101 we needed to call them immediately. She did, but it took them 3 hours to respond. She was afraid. I just slept fitfully and from what she tells me whined and fussed. It dawned on us. MY GOD I HAD A POST-OPERATIVE INFECTION.

We spent much of yesterday in a nearby hospital emergency room. They ran tests and give me IV fluids and antibiotics and sent us home finally late last night with oral antibiotics telling us that that should take care of it, but that if I became that ill again to return and they would admit me.

Today I am not entirely well, but I am probably 90% better than I was twenty-four hours ago.

At one point they were imagining hanging me with a diagnosis of toxic septi-semia. We were very worried, knowing that if that had occurred two weeks before a knee replacement, they'd never be able to perform the procedure. Hopefully this is just a blip on radar screen and a further example of the way the gods have chosen to tease and play with us all this year to make our life "interesting."

I promise this Blog is not going to disintegrate into a chronicle of middle-aged health problems. If on the other hand you are reading here with a less than informed or experienced history of BDSM life, you can see that it is not all whips and restraints. We have the same challenges as anyone else.

Thanks again for all the support people have been giving us.

Tom
Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you've imagined.

Link