Kraken: Blog

111 Followers
Back to Kraken's Blog

I Won!!!!.....

Posted at
 

Yep, I won an all-expenses paid extended staycation at ‘The SPA’. It’s not exactly what you’re probably thinking though. You see, ‘The SPA’ is the acronym for the local hospital and the expenses were paid for by my health insurance.

Let me back up a little to a few weeks after my last blog post and my story will be a little less murky.

I’m muddling along happily following my doctors exercise plan getting stronger and stronger as I went when one morning, I nearly fall flat on my face trying to get out of bed. My left knee is swollen up to the size of large grapefruit. By the time my wife gets me to Urgent Care it’s even larger. Turns out I have Bursitis, which can’t be cured, and the only real pain reliever is Naprosyn, which can’t be taken with Ibuprofen. Hmm…Naprosyn for the bursitis or Ibuprofen for the arthritis in my right knee and hip. Decisions, decisions. Yes, I know. Naprosyn works for Arthritis as well, but it takes a lot longer. No one has ever, nor will they ever, accuse me of pursuing delayed gratification.

I finally get over that, have a new exercise plan from the doc and beginning to feel better when the doc tells me it’s time to get my COVID shots. I had a really severe reaction to the second shot. It knocked me on my ass! To say my holidays were blown would be an understatement. Eventually I did start feeling better, but it took a few months, and even then, I had a lot of little health issues, like spring pollen allergies, that needed to be addressed.

Fast forward a few weeks. I woke up one morning short of breath. I mean I was really having a problem catching my breath. Off to Urgent Care we go…no I wasn’t driving…that’s my wife’s job. Urgent Care took one look at me and called the ambulance for transport to ‘The SPA’ where I was admitted for Congestive Heart Failure, Acute Diastolic Heart Failure, and Atrial Fibrillation. Two days later, just to add insult to injury, they added Covid to the mix, which seems to be standard for the times here in the US.

A few weeks later, I was sent home with a large bag of pills and inhalers, a portable oxygen compressor, and a nebulizer. I was told that Atrial Fibrillation was the only thing still wrong and that either my body will reset the heartbeat within the next few months or the Cardiologist will correct it with an electrical shock. The oxygen and nebulizer are just in case I need them until I have a few months of follow-up with a Pulmonary Critical Care Specialist.

So, here I am now, right back where I was a little over two years ago. Rangers remains a Work in Progress. I’m ready to start my revised and improved exercise regimen and, hopefully, start back to writing in the next few weeks. I certainly can’t make any promises or forecast a date when I’ll start posting, but the intent, not to mention the need, is there.

As always, I want to thank all those who sent messages and emails asking about my health, although, I will say that there were a couple that, to paraphrase Mark Twain, exaggerated news of my death. I trust that this blog post lays to rest the question of whether I’m still alive or not as well as answers those messages and emails as it would take me forever to respond to them all individually.

It’s been a rough two years, health wise, but as I started out this post, all things considered, including the alternative, as far as I’m concerned… I Won!

Close