Greetings everyone. I hope this posting finds you in great spirits as well as health.
Health. We take it for granted sometimes. I mean, if we see a speeding truck we instinctually take the initial action of jumping out of the way. I'm talking about how we take for granted we will not get sick until we get sick. We go throughout our day not even thinking about what is out there that could harm us. I can't say I blame humans for being this way. When we feel good we just go about our lives. Three weeks ago I had one of those health scares that knocked me on my butt and made me slow my life down to a halt.
It started out on a Saturday. I woke up, had breakfast, went and worked out. Just a normal Saturday. After working out I came home, ate lunch and decided to have an afternoon nap. When I woke up I felt achy, almost like I was being hit by the flu. I forced myself to eat later that night and that was when it hit me like a ton of bricks. I went to bed early and didn't get out of bed all day the next day. It wasn't until later that Sunday night that I showed my mom my leg. She's a nurse and when she looked at my leg, which was getting extremely red and puffy, she and immediately said I should go to the hospital. So I went.
I am grateful for the health care system we have in Canada. The downside to it is the long waits in hospital emergency rooms. This particular night was very busy for this particular ER. I was there for 3 1/2 hours, feeling totally ill with a sore lower right leg. To me it looked like an allergic reaction. That being said that I must note that I don't have any allergies. So I was very nervous to say the least. After that 3 hour wait I then decided to just go home and see a doctor the next day.
The next day, I saw the doctor. This MD looked at my leg, said it was an infection called "cellulitis," and she immediately put my on some powerful antibiotics. I went home, took my medicine like a good boy until I realized the next day that this so called bacteria was now tracking up my leg. I then went to a different hospital hoping the wait was less. My leg was a real mess. Red, swollen, and excruciatingly painful. Every time I went from laying down to sitting/standing up made my leg feel like a million spikes were being driven down through my leg towards my foot. No word of a lie, it was the most severe pain I have ever felt in my entire life.
The doctor I saw in the hospital ER (I was seen almost immediately) immediately changed my meds and ordered an ultrasound to make sure I didn't have any clots. My leg was very swollen. As you can see this was turning into quite the nightmare. I had my ultrasound, no clots but they immediately put me on an IV antibiotic that I had to go back and get administered once a day for 6 days.
This was the most sick I have ever been in my life. I really did feel like dying. It was so debilitating. It turned my life upside down and slowed it to a halt. But then, like everything else that ever happens to me, I started thinking to myself at how grateful I was to have all the things I have going for me. I have a job at a company that allows me to take the time to heal myself. I also have a phenomenal group of friends that worried about me and are cheering me on to recovery. I'm being told by the doctors that it will take me up to 3 months to fully recover from what it took this bacteria 3 days to damage. So now I have to endure leg wraps every three days for 2 weeks and then special pressure stockings for 2 months after that. I never once thought that I would have been effected in this way by anything. Its all because I was feeling good. I worked out 4 days a week, I didn't smoke, I ate well, I didn't have any major stresses to bog me down. To go from that to having to prioritize creditors because now I have an illness and have more expenses...you get the picture.
This brings me to the second part of my post. The more I talked about my illness, which I had to explain it to people because I was cancelling out on acting engagements and having time all this time off from work, the more I found out that more people I knew have had this illness. It was more common than a cold in some instances. But why don't people talk about it? I mean, here I was in the midst of a health crisis where, from the research I did, could turn into meningitis, flesh eating disease, coma inducing infections. I could have even lost my leg! It was like 6 degrees of separation through illness. I was shocked that I never heard of any of my friends actually getting this awful sickness until I talked about it. I was expecting shocked looks when I was actually seeing heads nod with understanding.
I am grateful that the survival rate of this illness is high. It knocks us down, expects us to neglect what is happening while making us seriously sick. One thing I can personally say is that it didn't break my spirit. When I was in the midst of feeling ill, I kept on thinking about everything that made me feel good. My son, my family, my friends, my job, my acting, my writing....and the list goes on. Thinking about having all these positives in my life made me put a sense of urgency into making sure I was getting the care I needed. I have lots to live for and I have had a lot of people tell me they were worried. How can I not get better with that kind of support?
I'm on the mend now. 2 weeks of special compression leg wraps and then 2 months of the "special stocking" It would be hoped that I should be back to normal after all that. This whole situation has left me with a sense of being thankful I have had the ability to do all the things I do. It made me appreciate that I have been feeling good enough to do all these things as well it humbled me to know it can be taken away at a moments notice.
That's the underlining moral of this story. Never take for granted all that is positive that you have surrounded yourself with. Support the people that support you and embrace the things that you cherish. Life is very fragile.
Have a great week everyone and Happy Thanksgiving to all my fellow Canadians!
G.
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