BHR episode

BHR was suddenly taken ill last week.
His brother (my best bud - BB) says that BHR is never ill even at the time when BB saw what turned out to be melanoma on BHR's skin a year ago. Thank God that was an early discovery and it was successfully removed.
Anyways, back to the story.
BB and his brothers have what I consider a wonderful arrangement where they meet on Sundays for breakfast. BB has another arrangement with BHR where he invites the latter for dinner every Friday night.
Last Friday BHR called to say that he was feeling unwell and would not make it to the dinner.
Unusual.
Saturday morning after our long distance call, BB drove over to BHR's house and found him lying on the sofa, looking very weak. The house smelled putrid. BHR had thrown up.
I had told BB to bring food for BHR cos my guess is he would not have cooked or eaten much.
BB went to the store and bought chicken wrap, orange juice, bananas and also brought some food that he had made the night before.
BHR said he had food poisoning and had passed out at work on Thursday.
He probably had not had a bath since that day too.
It was difficult for BB to see his brother not in his normal zone.
BHR is a person who has rigid rules for himself.
He lives by the clock and is the most dependable of all of us who vacation together.
No matter what city or time zone we were at he would be up early and be noisy enough that we would all have to be up soon enough too.
There are four brothers in that family and the eldest (BHR) and the youngest (DR) are such contrasts. DR does not know the meaning of time!
BB arranged for his house-cleaner to go to BHR's place and to fully clean the place.
All the brothers also visited BHR.
Through their discussions, BB thinks that BHR got his food poisoning probably from eating too much plums that grew in BHR's garden.
That is a possibility....BHR hates to see food go to waste and might have even eated some partly rotten plums!
As of yesterday, BB informed me that BHR seemed to be on the mend.
BB and BHR are also quite different in their personalities but as brothers, they have stuck by one another over the years.
Their sisters live in central USA but all the brothers have somehow managed to move into one area.
As in all families, they sometimes have their differences. However, this is one family that knows the importance of being a family.
In so many ways they are very much like the family that I come from.
And they are also the family that I feel I belong to.

Being in Hospital

It is not easy being at 'death's window'. Not death's door, but rather close to it.
Even my surgeon felt that I had given him quite a shocker.
Many a time it was like a scene in the series 'House'.
I had the surgeon, the anesthetist, the lung specialist, the heart specialist, my sister (who is also a medical specialist) throwing ideas of what it is, what could it be, why it is not, bla, bla, bla right in front of me in the big single bedded room.
I wanted to scream, "Hey, I may not know the medical terminologies u guys r throwing out but I KNOW that u at this point have no real idea of what is happening to me!"
At that moment, I was taking short breaths, oxygen flowing through my nose.
Syringes on my arms.
Blood being pumped in thru one and some clear fluid thru another.
They were extracting blood for testing about three to four times a day that it was no wonder that I need even more blood to be infused into my body.

My eldest sister (the pious one) kept praying and asking me to do so to.
Why do people think that u need to pray out loud till they can hear u, then God can hear u?
Yes, I remembered God. I said my prayers with the silent voice inside of me
I was ready to go anytime He was ready for me but I also appreciate a little more time here with my loved ones.
I know He heard me.
Please, if u r visiting someone who is very ill, do NOT think that U need to hear his/her prayers.
The communication between him/her and God is a DIRECT channel.
U pray for him/her. That's ur contribution.

Hospitals r a good place for u to find family members that will put themselves out for u.
And I did.
Almost everyone of mine did for me.
Even the ones that I did not expect to.
I am a very lucky person, indeed.

What happened at surgery

Its been just over a month since I last posted.
Been thru more than a life time's experience in a span of one week.

Surgery
It was my second surgery in 2011. The first one in January was a breeze and I recovered within two weeks. In fact I even went to work to do some stuff even when I was still on MC.

At the busy-period, in May/June I was down with a cough prolly due to overwork .I went to the doctor's and she accidentally discovered my myoma just because she pressed my tummy and found it hard. She asked me to get it scanned and walla! Discovery of multiple myomas.
Surgery was scheduled right after my vacation due to my request (Dang! I had paid for the vacation tickets and I was not going to lose those non refundable tickets!)

They half paralysed my body for the surgery but they also continuosly kept me knocked out for practically the whole surgery cos I was not doing so well.
There were several several huge growths that they removed.
Thank God they left my own organs in tact.
That was my instructions - remove only what u need to, but if u see anything bad, then do remove it all.
I also apparently lost a lot of blood during the surgery.

After the surgery, I was diagnosed with pneumonia. My lung was infected and when they drained it, blood filled a whole bag even tho they had expected to see clear or murky fluids only.
That affected my breathing and I was transfused with even more blood.

Its funny but I went into the hospital, a seemingly healthy and strong woman but I left it being a very weak, almost helpless one.

It is now over two weeks post surgery and I am still not even half of what I was before.Rec
Recovery is certainly a slow process but I am working towards it.

There will be more to write on as now I am strong enuff to use my laptop :-)
More laters.