It all started on Friday, January 22nd. I felt a cold coming on. (Or so I thought.) By Saturday morning, I had a slight fever and a bad enough cough that my ribs were starting to hurt. As a precaution, especially as I have a family, I felt I should get tested for Covid just in case. I got in the car and headed for the walk-in clinic.  Within about thirty minutes after "walking in",  I had a racking cough that needed to be seen to be believed. My ribs and chest were screaming so loudly I struggled to stand up. My Covid test was negative, and I was sent straight to the emergency room. (One of the longest miles I've ever driven! I admit, I probably shouldn't have driven myself by that point, but in my defense, I honestly just thought a virus was starting to slap me around a bit. Little did I know that I was about to encounter a beat down the likes of which I'd never imagined!)

I staggered a little as I stepped in the ER, which brought to guys bolting towards me to help me to a wheel chair. From there, things started degenerating quickly! The cough was moving beyond anything I've ever seen before; loud, deep and violent; doubling me over time and again and positively terrifying every sane person in the emergency room whether it be staff or patient! The pain level was making a mockery of any 1-through-10 scale as it kept climbing a seemingly endless ladder. How's this for a benchmark? After two doses of morphine, the pain continued to get worse! 

I quickly lost my ability to draw a decent breath as any deep inhalation set of the coughing. Doctors would come in with a stethoscope and ask me to breathe, and I would ask, "Do I have to?" Every request sent me into more spasms and they soon learned to say "try not to breathe too much" instead.

I had walked into emergency at noon. At midnight, I was admitted to the hospital with what’s called a “binary pulmonary embolism.” In layman's terms, I had blood clots in both of my lungs. As a nurse put it, my lungs were having a heart attack! On Monday, they found a clot in my leg as well. Apparently, they were forming there and "emigrating north" as it were.

I pray to God that none of you ever have to go through this!

I was in the hospital for four days and sent home to recuperate last Wednesday around dinnertime. I've got no stamina at all. Going to the bathroom leaves me winded, and who knew getting a cup of coffee could feel like running a quarter mile! The stairs and I have developed a truly adversarial relationship at this point, and if the shower wasn't up there, I would likely concede defeat and leave them alone entirely.

Far and away, the largest frustration for me is that no one can definitively point to a cause for the clots. Lots of valid ideas were floated around, but there is no smoking gun to follow up on. For example, at first, everyone assumed it was covid-19, including me. But I have had 9 tests in the span of 4-5 weeks, and every one of them was negative. I have no history of cardio-vascular disease and was reasonably healthy. I have my first follow-up later this week and hope to learn something ... anything.

Whatever the case, I am feeling better a week later. I'm still a little weak, and tire at the mere thought of walking down the hall. I sincerely miss the big, strong guy who lived in my house just 10 days ago. He's been replaced by a perpetually tired layabout who can't stand long enough to help my wife with the dishes, but things could have gone so much worse!

The last day in the hospital, another nurse scared the **** out of me when she said I was lucky the clots settled in my lungs instead of my heart or brain! There would have been little or no warning....

I've been struggling to wrap my head around that little nugget for days. By now I owe my guardian angel and impossible amount of really good beer...

'Tis a sobering thought, but the nurse was right. I should be grateful, and I am.

Wow, just wow!  Insane how these things go so bad, so fast. Continued good recovery.  You can do the dishes later 

DVT is the diagnosis for the clot in my leg Cliff. Here's hoping all the blood thinners got pumped into me in time for my own body to dissolve that one before it decides to hit the trail and cause another problem.

Thanks everyone for the well-wishes. When you're stuck at home in a snowstorm during a pandemic, they provide much-appreciated consolation. No joke.