Re: Hey Jim - Here's to a healthy & safe 2023
Posted by jimw on 1/18/2023, 8:54 am
Thank you all for the well wishes & concerns so I wanted to get you all caught up on my situation. I am recovering after a brutal surgery with an incision from just below chest down to groin to repair leaking colon. So as you all know I was T-boned by a driver that ran a red light while I was on the way to cover Ian in late Sept. The truck was a total loss I got thrown around but the airbags & seal belt definitely saved my life. I got out of the vehicle quickly as it smelled like it was on fire my chest was in a lot of pain & I had a loud ringing in my ears but physically felt OK . My utility truck is a big heavy vehicle & when she hit me it actually pushed the truck off the road into the "welcome to Arcadia" sign which was also destroyed. My insurer is Progressive have handled this poorly since day one because the other driver had progressive too. Believe it or not my remaining balance on truck has not yet been paid off mainly due to ally financial who the loan is through have lost several checks that have been sent by progressive now my credit is taking a hit as I need to purchase a new vehicle. My lawyers on working on this case and when all said & done should be a decent settlement. So forward to December I had a bad cough so did my brother in law who works for me in my paving business. Not covid but some sort of bacterial infection that can spread to others knocked us both out of work for a period of time. Meanwhile he lives with my wives sister she caught whatever we both had & died within several days at age 60. Long story short she had pre existing conditions not in great health but was fine before the coughing started. After we both got back to work Robert still had a lingering cough mine was gone but that would soon change as I once again began coughing a lot especially at night. The day after Christmas I was coughing badly, that same night I had a sharp pain in my stomach. I said to my wife around 3AM this is not just a stomach virus something is wrong. Finally around 6AM I said we need to go to the hospital something isn't right. My wife insisted on Boca regional as Delray has horrible service we got to emergency room they ran some test & did a scan on my belly. They said you need to go into surgery right away as you have leakage a tear & we have to find it right away the clock is ticking. I think of my wife just having lost her sister now could lose her husband all within 2 weeks terrible timing. I wake up in icu thankful i'm still alive dare I look under the covers? I have a drainage tube down my nose wires all over me a catheter and yes as much as I hate to admit it publicly a colostomy bag. I was in the hospital for 6 days wonderful people great care and now back home as of New years day. Forward to where I am now partially back to work just supervising but still slow on my feet compared to normal. I have home health care nurses that visit once a week making sure I know what to do with my ostomy. In June I will go under the knife again to have this reversed back to normal plumbing all back to where it normally goes. The part of the colon damaged is still inside me healing & cant be reversed until it fully heals so I'm stuck with this process until then. I've been reading quite a bit on the reasons something like this happens & blunt trauma is one of the possibilities. I had diverticulosis found on a colonoscope back in 2021 but the DR said only a small % of people with this have this happen to them. He also said it could have been the steroids I was taking to control the cough weakening the colon lining but that alone would not cause a rupture. Several of the nurses treating me said the crash could have initiated all of this because I was perfectly healthy up to that point my lawyers are dealing with this. Today I have to go to an audiologist to find out about this loud ringing in my ears and hearing loss as it has not subsided since the accident. Meanwhile I have to move on & just deal with this but it seems like the hits keep coming. Just yesterday I was walking my dog (barkass has become a therapy dog) across a street and a woman was flying around the bend in the road speeding & not paying attention. I ran off the road she slid off the road towards us just missing me. I feel like I'm in the twilight zone since the accident nothing feels real like a bad dream. I will let you all know what they find with these new test's but hopefully I can be back at 100% by the time the height of next hurricane season.
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Hey Jim - Here's to a healthy & safe 2023 - cypresstx, 12/30/2022, 6:21 am
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