Putting my life back together again... [Dan]

1/20/2016

One week shy of three months ago my life was rudely interrupted. A long medical rodeo ensued which I don't want to describe here as its still a bit too close. Now that I am doing much better, am off the morphine and pretty mobile which means I am much more alert and time passes much slower in the hospital. At the same time I don't have much structure to go back to when I get home as I don't have a job (I quit my job 1 month prior to this all starting). So there are two challenges that I am facing that are non medical at the moment. First, what can I do each day in the hospital that keeps my head engaged and helps pass the time. Sitting in bed or in a chair or walking and only thinking about my medical situation drives me nuts and I know I need to make a change.

The second challenge has to do with how do I set up my life when I get back home. When I go home I will be on TPN which is food fed intravenously.... this means that for 8-14 hours a day I'll be hooked up to a machine at night/evening/early morning and the rest of the day I will be free to leave the house and lead a normal life. The plan is that this should allow my guts to continue healing to a point where I won't need the TPN.

So some big stuff. So this blog is a way for me to help feel connected to you my friends and family and anyone else who finds interest in my story/experience. Plus it gives me some structure. This should help with the increased anxiety that I have been having.

If anyone has any suggestions for other things that I can do to help pass the time that engage the brain and provide value to others that would be great. You can leave them in the comments section.

3 Comments

Cathy Wilder

1/20/2016 12:21:18 pm

Hi Dan -- first!! Happy Birthday-- since you kept yourself alive!!??&$/$@&$ YES!!
Second -- perhaps email Rachel Davie - [email protected] --- and see if there are jobs tasks you could do (later today I will write an email IF you think you want to explore this. Xoxo - one step, breath and absorbed nutrient at a time!! With you buddy!! -- cathy

Dylan

1/20/2016 04:12:30 pm

Hey bro,

Rubbing a few stones together here: you're great at helping people, you're really good at breaking things down and explaining them, and you've got very, very valuable firsthand experience of what it's like to have an extended stay in a hospital/ICU, how to interact with medical staff, how to stick up for yourself, how to prepare for big transitions and medical procedures...

I bet you could write *the best* blog posts on a number of these issues/events that would be tremendously helpful for people like you (and me) who really want to understand all the details beforehand.

Even for things like: how to entertain yourself in a hospital. I looked for info on that and was only able to find patchy/scattered resources.

I really think a lot of people would feel less anxious if they had access to your knowledge.

Kelly Buckler

1/20/2016 10:00:07 pm

First of all Happy Birthday Dan!!

Second why not start a biography or a book about the engineering/gardening project that you've been working on?

I'm glad that you are getting passes and able to get out of that stinkin hospital every so often...at this point you could probably write a book about hospitals! :)

a blog about my experience reconstructing my life after a rough medical rodeo ride.