My Brush With Death, Hospitalization

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danieLion
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My Brush With Death, Hospitalization

Post by danieLion »

Hi folks,

Just wanted to let you know that I was admitted to the hospital on Tuesday the 19th. I just got home.

I got the flu on the 3rd, which gained a cough on the 7th. I went to the doctor on 12th after I started coughing up yellow/green sputum occasionally with some blood in it. They prescribed home-remedy expectorants, rest and codeine cough syrup (which just gave me headaches). I languished for a week like that, then went back to the doctor who sent me to a hospital lab for a chest x-ray and blood test. Thirty minutes later I was escorted to the ER where they quarantined me and took TB, MRSA etc..., precautions by isolating me and wearing masks. They sent me to get a chest cat scan with dye which revealed pneumonia with a necrotizing cavity about the size of a golf ball in the lower lobe of my right lung. The ER doctor told me I had TB but was immediately contradicted by the admitting doctor but who would not get more definitive. They started me on IV fluids and antibiotics, drew blood from my veins and an artery. They took a sputum sample and moved me to an observation unit. They took several more sputum samples and scheduled me for a bronchoscopy to get a deeper sputum diagnostic which eventually revealed the pneumonia and necrotizing cavity were caused my MRSA (Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, a.k.a. A Super Bug, a.k.a. The Anti-bacterial Bug). They adjusted my IV antiobiotics accordingly and I slowly sarted showing signs of improvement.

There was a moment of grave concern for me and my wife right after I was discharged today when our insurance company refused to pay for the most important antiobiotic I'm to take at home ($2,500 for a two week course!). They then refused a pharmacist override who requested they contact the prescribing physician for a diagnostic code which did the trick.

I missed being able to get on Dhammawheel and am glad to be back. I will pick up where I left off as energy allows.

:heart:

Daniel
daverupa
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Re: My Brush With Death, Hospitalization

Post by daverupa »

SN 22.1 wrote:"So it is, householder. So it is. The body is afflicted, weak, & encumbered. For who, looking after this body, would claim even a moment of true health, except through sheer foolishness? So you should train yourself: 'Even though I may be afflicted in body, my mind will be unafflicted.' That is how you should train yourself."
:group:

I had my large intestine removed when I was 15, and learned half of this lesson early. The other half is truly a boon during such times as these.
  • "And how is it, bhikkhus, that by protecting oneself one protects others? By the pursuit, development, and cultivation of the four establishments of mindfulness. It is in such a way that by protecting oneself one protects others.

    "And how is it, bhikkhus, that by protecting others one protects oneself? By patience, harmlessness, goodwill, and sympathy. It is in such a way that by protecting others one protects oneself.

- Sedaka Sutta [SN 47.19]
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retrofuturist
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Re: My Brush With Death, Hospitalization

Post by retrofuturist »

Take care Daniel.

Metta,
Retro. :)
"Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things."
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Modus.Ponens
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Re: My Brush With Death, Hospitalization

Post by Modus.Ponens »

Good to know that you're recoverinh. Best wishes.
'This is peace, this is exquisite — the resolution of all fabrications; the relinquishment of all acquisitions; the ending of craving; dispassion; cessation; Unbinding.' - Jhana Sutta
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cooran
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Re: My Brush With Death, Hospitalization

Post by cooran »

May you be healthy and strong
May you be free of mental and physical pain!

With metta
Chris
---The trouble is that you think you have time---
---Worry is the Interest, paid in advance, on a debt you may never owe---
---It's not what happens to you in life that is important ~ it's what you do with it ---
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manas
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Re: My Brush With Death, Hospitalization

Post by manas »

Glad to hear you are on the way to recovery, Daniel. Now is the time to allow others to care for you. Just focus on rest and recovery.
:anjali:
To the Buddha-refuge i go; to the Dhamma-refuge i go; to the Sangha-refuge i go.
SarathW
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Re: My Brush With Death, Hospitalization

Post by SarathW »

Hi Dan
Get well soon. May Dhamma protect you!
“As the lamp consumes oil, the path realises Nibbana”
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Ben
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Re: My Brush With Death, Hospitalization

Post by Ben »

Welcome back Daniel and I hope your health improves completely and rapidly.
I am sorry you have to go through that awful BS with your insurance company.
Take care of yourself.
with metta,

Ben
“No lists of things to be done. The day providential to itself. The hour. There is no later. This is later. All things of grace and beauty such that one holds them to one's heart have a common provenance in pain. Their birth in grief and ashes.”
- Cormac McCarthy, The Road

Learn this from the waters:
in mountain clefts and chasms,
loud gush the streamlets,
but great rivers flow silently.
- Sutta Nipata 3.725

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danieLion
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Re: My Brush With Death, Hospitalization

Post by danieLion »

Thanks all.:)
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DNS
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Re: My Brush With Death, Hospitalization

Post by DNS »

Wow! Glad to hear you are recovering now. Get well soon!

:heart: :group:
Mawkish1983
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Re: My Brush With Death, Hospitalization

Post by Mawkish1983 »

How could an insurance company refuse to pay for that treatment? The world we live in is a strange place. I'm glad you're getting better Daniel.
sattva
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Re: My Brush With Death, Hospitalization

Post by sattva »

Glad you are recovering. Remember that your body needs time to gain its strength back. So, take it easy for awhile!
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mikenz66
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Re: My Brush With Death, Hospitalization

Post by mikenz66 »

Hope you have a speedy recovery. Look after yourself...

:heart:
Mike
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tiltbillings
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Re: My Brush With Death, Hospitalization

Post by tiltbillings »

danieLion wrote:I missed being able to get on Dhammawheel and am glad to be back.
Frightening as hell, the loss of control, the deadly threat to one's body and the resulting confusion and fear, and being at the mercy of not always good judgment.

Being so sick is difficult but good Dhamma practice.

Glad your back. Be patient with yourself and take it slow and easy.
>> Do you see a man wise [enlightened/ariya] in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him.<< -- Proverbs 26:12

This being is bound to samsara, kamma is his means for going beyond. -- SN I, 38.

“Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?” HPatDH p.723
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