Rumors of my demise have been greatly exaggerated!

I'm still in this Skilled Nursing Facility rehabilitating physically so as of today I'm on the road to recovering from this latest episode which clearly was the worst one that I have experienced besides what I went through after the liver transplant I received almost 18 years ago... (an usually long sentence!)

My laptop is finally working as it should which is great news because I'm reconnected to the world out there... The reason why I couldn't previously log on was because my laptop antenna went on me and so my brother had to purchase a replacement antenna which works via USB2. Since I was using my desktop at home before I became ill again, there wasn't a need to use the laptop and I needed to perform some lengthy maintenance on it so it would work in an optimal, efficient manner... So I apologize to everyone...

The only word or words I can come up with besides "Thank you, Thank you everyone." was "Wow! This is awesome!
What I'm referring to is the overwhelming posts, the e-mails, cards and prayers which were given to me so that I could get better...
I mean even 46.00 wrote some very kind words on my behalf!!! Wow! I hope Glynn is okay because that's not like him to post kind words about me and I really do appreciate those words coming especially from him...

So back to my present condition... I can now get up out of and back into bed on my own with no help... I can go to the bathroom with no assistance by walking with one of those walkers and I'm gaining more strength everyday so that I can soon walk without any assistance... The daily physical therapy is really starting to work it's magic in getting me to improve much faster than I or they had anticipated and that's just fine with me! I can also dress and undress on my own... I still need assistance from the wonderful nurse aids in taking a shower to keep me clean... They come 2 at a time to help me shower and I just sit there and they do all the work while I tell them stories and jokes to entertain them... I was supposed to have a shower every Tuesday and Friday but now it's everyday and girls don't seem to mind either...

Every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday I have to go on a dialysis machine for 4 hours each session which kind of wipes me out afterwards and when I get, back to the facility all I want to do is take a nap for an hour or so... I have what is called a tunneling catheter which surgically joined to blood vessels located near my collar bone with 2 tubular female connectors and this is how they connect me each time to the machine which cleans my blood which my Kidneys no longer can do anymore...

Sure there's a lot more to this but, I'm not going to go technical and explain all of the details... The main thing is now we know why my lungs and heart were so messed up... The kidneys were becoming very close to failing completely or close to it...

Ever since my initial dialysis session, so far 137 lbs of fluids have been drawn out of my body via the blood stream!!! 137 lbs!!!
I feel so so much better now that I'm no longer carrying all that excess weight in my body!!! Heck, this is so much better than a gastric bypass! At the present time I'm on a restricted fluid amount of 1500 cc per day until they get every last amount of excess fluid out of my body... I'm keeping my throat and mouth clean with the use of Biotene and citrus spray which does help along with some occasional sugar free throat lozenges...

I got my beard shaved clean and have mixed feeling about this because I had gotten used to having one... They had to shave it off because the full face mask kept leaking which at the time had to be avoided because I was ventilated and needed a higher than usual amount of air and Oxygen until my lungs and heart stabilized... The girls love it so I guess for now I'll keep it shaved, but I still have my Mustache!!!

Now I know what nitro glycerin does to you when you're having heart difficulties such as severe A fibrillation or a heart
attack and it does help to stabilize the person long enough to work on the person to find the root cause of whatever difficulty the individual is going through... They had to give me around 6 or 7 pills to stablize me and they must be placed between the bottomof my tongue and the lower inside of my lower jaw in order for it to work it's magic or they don't work at all...

Why did my Kidneys fail so suddenly? Well, for the last two or so years my kidneys were showing weakness in function and a steady increase of a substance it makes from the blood passing through them called Creatnine... The count for a normal relatively healthy person is around .5 to 1.1.. My count started to increase from normal to 1.7 2 years ago and through diet and the lowering of my blood sugar kept it from increasing but this could only go on for so long especially if I was on lasix which is a diuretic, a diabetic, and daily use of Tacrolimus which after seventeen going on eighteen years would also create considerable strain on them after so many years... As far as the Tacrolimus or Prograf is concerned, it is the anti-rejection drug I must take daily in order to avoid rejection of my transplanted liver... I was forewarned about this possibility before my transplant so it didn't surprise me at all for it to be one of the main reasons for my kidneys to fail...

Everything else that started to fail was a direct result of my kidneys failing as they did and now that I'm on dialysis, my need for oxygen at the level before my hospitalization has lessened in half so I'm currently on 3 lpm's instead of the 6 lpm's I was on beforehand... I can also be without oxygen for up to five minutes which is so much better than a minute or less before I would start to strain to breathe and this is very promising because if my lung function continues to improve, I may one day no longer have to be on Oxygen on a continuous basis... This would be fantastic because it would mean that I could have a portable oxygen concentrator and travel with so less restrictions than I currently have...

My heart is getting back to normal again also... The Tricuspid valve in my heart is no longer leaking and the A fibrillation has ceased all together, and my blood pressure has normalized once again so much that I'm no longer considered having pulmonary hypertension!!! Of course I must take many pills in order for all of this to happen, but this is only a temporary annoyance...

So pretty soon I'll be back on as a regular and out of this place which isn't bad, but there's no place like home... Now If I could just convince one of the nurse aids to come home with me to visit every once in a while then that would be icing on the cake with sprinkles!!! So once again, thank you all for your continued prayers and support and you're all in my prayers also.

Respectfully,
Henry

Henry, your proof that when the going gets tough the tough get going!
Hope everything is going good for you.
Dick