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He’s Ba-aaaaack!

Posted on January 22nd, 2010 by Retired-Ed in Daily Life

Well, did you miss me? I think it has been more than a month since I posted to this blog, and much has happened in my life. I will try to go chronologically and not bore you too much.

Our family visited for Christmas. First, Allison arrived on a Sunday, but she was delayed for several hours because of weather. Evidently, the bad weather was on this end, and flights leaving the States for Frankfurt were delayed in taking off. The weather really was pretty bad. The normal trip of 1 hour and 45 minutes to the Frankfurt airport took me  3 hours and 35 minutes to drive. Driving in the dark in the middle of a driving snowstorm is not my idea of fun. At that time of year, in these northern latitudes, it gets dark early. And she arrived on the day before the winter solstice, so it got dark very early. We didn’t get home until 11:00 pm for a flight that was scheduled to land in early evening. I had hoped to be home by 6:00 pm, because I had to leave early the following morning to pick up Wendy and Drew.

But that was not to be. Wendy phoned and said that their flight was delayed from Newark. Later she emailed, and if I leave out the curse words, I think it said that even though they knew that their flight would be delayed by at least 4 hours, they had to go to the airport anyway so that their seats would not be given away. Have I mentioned that I think that all airlines suck? But  I digress. All told, Wendy and Drew spent 9 hours in the Newark airport waiting for their flight to take off. Finally, they arrived in Frankfurt…..and I was not there to meet them. I had determined that I was going to take the train because of the traffic delays that I had faced the day before when picking up Allison. Well, guess what! The much-vaunted German high-speed train was delayed. I figure that if I had to fork over many Euros for one round-trip and two one-way tickets, the least I should expect would be for the train to be on time. Oh well! I got there about 15 minutes after they cleared customs. We raced back to the train station (located in the airport) and caught the next train back.

We had a really nice visit. We dined in,dined out, drank some champagne, opened presents, visited Christmas markets, played games, and just celebrated being together as a family. Drew is a new addition (and a welcome one) to the family, and it was his first visit to Germany, so I hope he enjoyed it. He’s visiting another “foreign” country now. He’s in Vancouver, B.C., helping his network cover the Olympics (assuming that that particular network hasn’t imploded by then). My plan was to post pictures of some of the Christmas markets that we visited, but it seems a little “after the fact” for that. I still have pictures of the Wuerzburg  Christmas Market as well as the one from Rothenburg ob der Tauber. Maybe I can get those on the site later if anyone is interested.

All of them left on the same day, December 27th. The Queen and I had a couple of days to do things on our own, but circumstances got in the way. On the afternoon of December 31st, the Queen found me unconscious and having a seizure in our bedroom. Honestly, I can’t relate very much of what happened, because I have absolutely no recollection of that afternoon at all. She found me in bed, and I had taken off my bluejeans, so I must have planned on taking a nap….but that’s only conjecture. I can remember sitting on the couch downstairs, earlier in the day, and checking email, but I do not remember going upstairs at all. I have never had a seizure before, and it was caused by severe hypoglycemia. I take insulin for my diabetes, and I can now piece together what must have happened. Normally, I get a “warning” when my blood glucose drops too low. I must have not recognized the symptoms this time. The Queen force-fed me an entire tube of glucose tablets that we can buy in the German Apotheke. She also fed me two larger glucose tablets that I kept in a jar on my nightstand. I was non-responsive and apparently was flailing around all over the place. At some point, my glasses got bent up, and I got some minor injury to my hand (which I believe was cause by the EMTs trying to insert a line into my vein while I was seizing….but I could have struck something…or someone). The EMTs and the Notarzt (emergency doctor) finally did get an IV line inserted and began infusing me with glucose. After all of that, my blood glucose level only measured 30. Imagine how low it must have been earlier! I’m lucky to be alive.

After I was roused, I felt fine, but they told me that I needed to accompany them to the hospital. I was able to dress myself and walk to the ambulance for the ride to the hospital. I was taken to the ER where I stayed for about 4-4 1/2 hours until I was released to a ward. Because it was New Year’s Eve, not much happened that night other than to make me comfortable and to monitor my glucose level about 300 times. Well, it felt like that many times. Here in Europe, the New Year is rung in with fireworks, and I got a spectacular show from my 4th floor (third floor in European terminology) room.

With the next day being a holiday, and then the weekend after that, I didn’t start any treatment until Monday. But then things began to happen quickly. After the admissions office determined that I wasn’t a deadbeat and really could afford the treatment, I was asked if I wanted to be treated by the Chefarzt (chief doctor). “Sure,” I said, and he came later on to take over my case. I saw a diabetes counselor and went to “diabetes school”, which is probably something that should have happened 20 years ago when I was first diagnosed. They were reluctant at first to criticize the care that I had been receiving from various military hospitals and clinics, but later told me what they thought. The standard of care wasn’t the issue, but the type of insulin that I was being prescribed gave them pause. They changed the type of insulin that I use and changed the schedule. It seems that the NPH insulin (a type of long-lasting insulin) that I had been using made me hungry, which caused me to eat more, which caused me to need more insulin, etc. it became a vicious circle. One result of the new insulin is that I have lost 16 pounds so far and am not hungry at all.

The doctors also got me on an exercise program which has made me feel better than I felt before, and I didn’t even realize that I felt bad before. This is really nice. I am taking Apidra insulin before my meals, and I have to calculate the dosage based on my blood glucose level and what I will be eating. Basically, I am counting carbs, but here we use BEs, which is short for Brot Einheiten, or “bread units”. I even bought a book which gives the BE details on many foods. As the book is in German and listing German foods, I also have another book in English which lists many American foods, but I have to convert grams of carbohydrate to BEs. Not much of a problem. Twelve grams of carbohydrate equals one BE. Even I know how to divide by 12! I also take Levemir, a 24-hour insulin, right before I go to bed. I think I need to tweak that dosage, but I’ll talk with my doctor this coming week about that.

I was in the hospital for eight days, and it certainly helped my German. They knew that I spoke German, so they did not use English with me. On day 3, I believe it was, I got a roommate…another American. He was a young soldier who had some stomach pains. When these same nurses were speaking English with him, I was astounded that they could speak English.  After that, they would speak English with me if I requested them to do so. It was fun trying to stretch my German. Many of the nurses were also speaking German as a second language, just as I was. They came from Eastern Europe or Russia, so they were stretching their ability too.

The hospital bills have started to roll in, and I paid four of them today. I’m still waiting on the doctor bill, the bill from the ambulance, the bill from the emergency doctor, the bill for the ultrasounds that I had to undergo, and the bill for EKGs that were administered. There are probably more bills that I haven’t even thought of yet. It’s part of the normal course of business here to bill for things separately, so I might still be getting bills in this coming summer. I’ll pay ‘em. I’m glad that they fixed me!

Some of the Queen’s colleagues lent me some DVDs while I was in the hospital, and I am still enjoying them. I’m just finishing up NCIS and about to start on JAG, but I have seen many of the JAG episodes. I thought I had seen many of the NCIS episodes, but they didn’t seem familiar as I watched them. Maybe my memory was affected by the “incident”. We’ll see.

And that’s what I have been doing. I wish everyone a Happy New Year, even though I’m a bit late with my wishes.

Retired-Ed

6 Comments

6 Responses to “He’s Ba-aaaaack!”

  1. Sue Says:
    January 22nd, 2010 at 10:41 pm

    It is so good to read you again. I have missed your blogs. Glad to hear you are feeling better.

    You just glided over the comment about the NBC debacle…I would love to hear Drew’s point of view, although I am sure it would not be professional to tell the world over the internet about his boss’ dirty laundry so to speak….but that doesn’t stop a new father-in-law does it???

    Look forward to your next post..take care of yourself
    Sue

  2. Allison Says:
    January 23rd, 2010 at 5:23 am

    Glad you’re back! I’ve been checking everyday. I’d love to see the photos.

    Now that you’re out of the hospital and not expecting relatives, what are you doing to keep busy?

  3. Retired-Ed Says:
    January 23rd, 2010 at 10:19 am

    Gosh, Allison, what will I do? Let’s see. I guess I can amuse myself by watching Oprah and getting pedicures. As far as the photos go, I can post them, but don’t forget….you were there in person. Why would you need to see the photos?

  4. Kathi-in-Iowa Says:
    January 24th, 2010 at 3:22 am

    Good to hear that you are doing well. I’ve been checking the blog every few days, too, and was wondering why you hadn’t written since you got out of the hospital. Does this new system of eating make it more difficult to eat out in German restaurants?

  5. Retired-Ed Says:
    January 24th, 2010 at 2:55 pm

    Kathi,
    I didn’t post right after getting out simply because I wasn’t inspired. It will probably be a couple of more days before I can post again. I have subscribed to Carbonite (the back-up system), and I am doing my initial backup. It takes days. In fact, if my computer keeps shutting itself off at night, it may take weeks. Meanwhile, I don’t want to have many processes running to slow things down.

    Yes, it was a bit more difficult to go out to dinner. However, my book is in German and it lists lots of German foods, so my task is to estimate the weight of the items. Actually, my science background gets offended if I say “weight” when dealing in grams. I should say “mass”. Anyway, after the first couple of attempts, I’m getting better at it. And, just to make you homesick, I’m counting down the days and weeks until Spargel season.

  6. Candice W. Says:
    January 27th, 2010 at 12:29 pm

    Wow, Ed. What an ordeal. Glad you are better. Stay that way!

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