Latest / RealTalkwithMikeD / Episode 7 - Medical Emergency that Nearly Killed Me!

Transcript

Episode 7 - Medical Emergency that Nearly Killed Me! · RealTalkwithMikeD

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Welcome to Real Talk with Mike D. All right. Welcome
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: back to Real Talk with Mike D. I am Mike D.
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: Thank you for being here. Thank you for listening, as always.
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: And boy, do I have a good one for you today. Oh, boy.
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: We're going to talk about my past history with pulmonary embolisms,
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: otherwise known as blood clots. And how a misdiagnosis nearly
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: took my life. So, without any further ado, let's get started. Okay,
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: so this is about 23 years ago. I was a
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: maintenance technician at Tyco Electronics. And I was moving office
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: furniture and a desk had fell on my left foot.
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: severely causing traumatic injury. It had caused bruising. The swelling
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: on my leg was twice the size as it normally should.
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: It was hot to touch, painful to walk on. Very,
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: very bad situation. So I had to go to the
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: emergency room. And the doctor who treated it at that
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: time said that it was an infection and treated it
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: as such. Fast forward about two weeks, I was back
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: at work, eating lunch with a coworker at a pizza shop.
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: We had to go back to the job site and
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: finish what we were doing. But we were sitting there,
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: and I had this sharp pain come through the center
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: of my chest. So I took my fist and held
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: it tight and fell over and thought, man, this is
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: some really bad indigestion. Well, it happened a second time. Again,
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: grabbed my fist, put it over the center of my chest.
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: I fell over, got up, and at this time, I
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: know something's terribly wrong. You know, this is an indigestion.
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: I need to be seen by a doctor immediately. So
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: my coworker calls our supervisor and says, hey, Mike's not
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: doing too well. He's not feeling well. We got to
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: get him to the hospital. So we hop in our
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: work truck, start heading to the medical facility. This part,
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: I was told, This is what happened to me because
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: I had blacked out on the way there. So my
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: coworker was driving me to this medical facility and he
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: told me that your eyes rolled in the back of
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: your head, you turned pale white and you became unconscious. Now,
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: I don't know if I was actively dying, if I
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: had just blacked out, whatever the case may be, I
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: don't know. I didn't have an out-of-body experience, none of that.
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: The only thing I do remember is when we got
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: to the medical facility, I was greeted with, I think,
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: three doctors and about eight nurses and a gurney. They
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: took me out of the truck, put me on the gurney,
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: got me in the medical facility, did an EKG, found
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: out I had fluctuation in my heart, sent me by
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: advanced life support to the hospital. And after lots of tests,
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: they determined that I had multiple blood clots pass through
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: my heart and into my lungs. nearly killing me. By
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: all accounts, I should have been dead. But by the
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: grace of God, I was spared and was still alive.
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: So the doctor who had originally told me that I
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: had an infection in my leg was completely and utterly wrong.
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: It turned out that I did have a blood clot
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: and it just about killed me. Doctor came in and said, Mr. Devine,
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: do you realize how lucky you are Most people who
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: have blood clots fall over dead immediately. You are one
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: lucky individual. So the good Lord was with me that day,
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: and it was not my time to go. But, you know,
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: life after that was dramatically different. I was on a
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: special diet. I couldn't eat any vitamin K. I had
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: to give myself injections in my stomach, blood thinners. Had
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: to go get my blood drawn every day. But I'm
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: still alive. I didn't die. Now, fast forward to today.
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: I still take an aspirin every day for my blood
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: to keep it thin so I don't develop any more
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: blood clots. That's something I'll do for the rest of
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: my life. But back to that time, my daughter was
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: about one year old when all this transpired. So I
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: had a journal and I would write in the journal
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: periodically saying, I know your daddy's really sick right now.
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: He doesn't know if he's going to live or die,
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: you know, but always know that I love you and
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: I'll always be here for you and think of you
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: because I was scared. I didn't know what was going
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: to happen. You know, yeah, I was alive at this moment,
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: but at any given time, I could get another blood
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: clot and I may not be as lucky. But I
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: am now 54. Had no other blood clots. And I'm
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: doing pretty good. So, all in all, I consider myself very,
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: very lucky. So that is the story of me having
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: blood clots. And how it affected my life. I hope
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: you enjoyed this. And if you like it, please leave
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: a comment. Otherwise, I will see you all in the
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: next one. Have a great night. Peace.