Achilles Last Stand? not so fast..

[Achilles]

"special services"

Spoiler: You really want to know?

Not to be too graphic, but for the entire first week I had tubes coming out of my neck and both arms. I was also so weak I needed help out of bed and a walker to lean on. Using my own hands/arms for ANY chore other than making sure I didn't fall would have been useless.

The entire time I was also having episodes every 45-60 minutes, 24/7, where my gut needed to explode and get rid of the nuclear waste it had been tirelessly generating around the clock.


You do the math - "special services" was them trying to be discreet.....

 

[laxu]

Spoiler: You really want to know?

Not to be too graphic, but for the entire first week I had tubes coming out of my neck and both arms. I was also so weak I needed help out of bed and a walker to lean on. Using my own hands/arms for ANY chore other than making sure I didn't fall would have been useless.

The entire time I was also having episodes every 45-60 minutes, 24/7, where my gut needed to explode and get rid of the nuclear waste it had been tirelessly generating around the clock.


You do the math - "special services" was them trying to be discreet.....

That sounds terrible! Hope you are feeling much better.

 

[Achilles]

That sounds terrible! Hope you are feeling much better.

In all seriousness, I wondered all week why ANY staff (cafeteria folk too) would don a full disposable garment/gloves thing when coming in the room and then before leaving go nuts washing their hands.

Right before I was discharged the nurse told my wife and I that C Diff is highly transmissible via touch/surfaces and disinfectant soap alone doesn't kill the germs - you gotta scrub them off.

You're not only sick as hell but also a full blown leper.

 

[Achilles]

So Sharp just set up a whole new online system and it's pretty nuts. I'm going through all the lab stuff they did while I was in the hospital.
Ultrasound and X-ray results are also there with the actual images.

Anyway, here's my blood work on January 31 which was day two in the ICU.

I guess the same day I went into acute respiratory failure with a lung going downhill.
Don't remember this at all.

 

[Moondog Wily]

Way to nail the MPV, Neutrophils and Monocytes! On the x-ray, I thought at first you had joked and inserted a giant fork in your shoulder in the picture, but after looking a little closer I see it is a wires and their connectors for EKG or something ;~))

Power to the heal!!!

 

[laxu]

Way to nail the MPV, Neutrophils and Monocytes! On the x-ray, I thought at first you had joked and inserted a giant fork in your shoulder in the picture, but after looking a little closer I see it is a wires and their connectors for EKG or something ;~))

Power to the heal!!!

Nah, that's obviously the Devil poking his armpit!

 

[Achilles]

Down at the end, round by the corner
Close to the edge, just by a river
Seasons will pass you by
I get up, I get down
Now that it's all over and done,
Now that you find, now that you're whole

30 days ago was visiting hell wearing only a hospital gown.

Today is better.

 

[la szum]

Glad you've seemingly bounced back and are back to living and enjoying the good things in life.

 

[mavrick102000]

The stomach bug thing turned much worse than thought and ended me up in ICU with heart complications caused by how fucked everything else got. Was admitted for a week and got a few crazy stories to tell!

Wanna guess what getting paddle zapped while wide awake feels like?

It's like every cell in your body getting hit by a Mack Truck simultaneously in a nano second.

I guess I only thought I said, "Fuck no we're not clear" to the trigger man as the versed/fentanyl cocktail hadn't completely kicked in yet. (I hate this shit. Give me old school sedatives)

How "WHOA!" was the only word that came out of my mouth is beyond me. Probably due to the brain reboot.....not a fun time for sure.

ETA: It wasn't really "painful." I just seemed excessively violent. 150 joules of energy in a fraction of a second is the rough equivalent energy of moving 150lbs 1 foot.

 

[Achilles]

It's like every cell in your body getting hit by a Mack Truck simultaneously in a nano second.

Perfect!

It happens so bloody fast yet you feel it for that nano second in every single fiber of your being!

EDIT: Agreed - not painful.
Sure does grab your fucking attention though!

 

[Boudoir Guitar]

@Achilles Joules is a measure of the energy transferred into you.

Why not Watts? Because watts represent power and have a time component:

1 Watt = 1 Joule per second.

So watts are a rate.

To calculate the volts that you were zapped with, we'd need to know what the charge in Coulombs was. And we don't (or perhaps you do).

If you knew what the charge was, then you could calculate the volts easily:

Calculate Joules to Volts with Our Free Calculator | Asutpp

Easily convert joules to volts using our online calculator. Get accurate results instantly and simplify your calculations. Try it for free now!

www.asutpp.com

I know nothing about defibs, but my guess is that the (very short) time of zapping is set on the machine, no matter where you set the "how much juice should we give the patient?" knob. Keeping in mind the maxim that "its the current, not the voltage, that kills you", that current itself is a per-second thing and the wide variation in body composition/resistance, my guess is that these things operate controlled current mode, rather than controlled voltage? All of that is to say that it probably does make sense that the "give 'em some more!" knob on these things set as an energy output, rather than a power or voltage output. Medical literature probably has pretty good tracking of how much energy can restart a heart without frying the human.

 

[Achilles]

Medical literature probably has pretty good tracking of how much energy can restart a heart without frying the human.

This is a good thing.

 

[mavrick102000]

Just be glad we weren't patient #1 for the zap 'em trials.

 

[Achilles]

Keeping in mind the maxim that "its the current, not the voltage, that kills you", that current itself is a per-second thing and the wide variation in body composition/resistance, my guess is that these things operate controlled current mode, rather than controlled voltage?

My doc told me it was 200 joules and @mavrick102000 mentioned 150 so there's some variables.
And how the hell does Ohm's Law apply?

 

[Boudoir Guitar]

My doc told me it was 200 joules and @mavrick102000 mentions 150????
And how the hell does Ohm's Law apply?

View attachment 19653

Okay, I went to wikipedia and skimmed.

On a hospital/manual-mode defib, the operator controls the voltage and time of the dosage, which totally explains why you guys were given the report in joules, not watts or volts:

Power = voltage x current

So energy (joules) = voltage x current x time

Your body's resistance will determine the current flowing through you based on its resistance and the applied voltage according to ohms law.

I have to say, though, given how specific your energy values were, I'm guessing that the operator is actually entering a voltage and an energy value, rather than time. And that the defib is doing the voltage x current calculation and stops application when the total energy delivered reaches the prescribed amount.

A lot of battery charging systems apply a constant current to the battery, so the voltage at which the battery is being charged will vary depending on the internal resistance of the battery in accordance with ohms law.

 

[Mike_samson]

what do you think made your gut so sick initially? red meat?
do you have a history of stomach ailments?

 

[Achilles]

what do you think made your gut so sick initially? red meat?
do you have a history of stomach ailments?

Long story but it all started with a sinus infection which eventually got into both my ears and made me pretty deaf for a bit cause of fluid buildup. So they put me on steroids as well as some hi-octane antibiotic. After taking it a few days I started with just plain old runs - check online and it's the #1 side effect of the antibiotic so I figure no biggie.

We all have the C. Diff virus in out guts. It's lies dormant in most people, most of the time but once in a while the conditions are right for the virus to take over for a while.

In full hindsight I waited at least a week and maybe two in going to urgent care. By the time I did I was so dehydrated with electrolytes completely whacked the rest of everything decided to go south too.

WORD OF ADVICE TO ONE AND ALL!!!!!
Your doctor puts you on antibiotics you immediately go out and buy some of these and use them the entire time you're taking pills.

PRO-biotics to counter the ANTI stuff - at least while it's swimming around in your gut.

 

[mavrick102000]

Absolutely probiotics are critical while on Antibiotics.

They're also helpful when on pain meds after surgery. The opposite issue can occur with Opiates- you don't want to be clogged up either.

 

[mavrick102000]

Way to nail the MPV, Neutrophils and Monocytes! On the x-ray, I thought at first you had joked and inserted a giant fork in your shoulder in the picture, but after looking a little closer I see it is a wires and their connectors for EKG or something ;~))

Power to the heal!!!

Yes connectors for the EKG/Heart monitor. Those are the little dots showing up on his chest.

Also if you look in the lower right, that is one of the 3M adhesive paddles in case the heart starts going haywire, there's another one a bit around the side toward the edge of the middle back- then BOOOM - Full reboot activated!

Those pads and the "kickstart my heart" pads, if you have any hair on your body - you'll be missing some after they rip those bastards off. That adhesive is stronger than duct tape.

 

[Achilles]

if you have any hair on your body......

Speaking of which, I hadn't shaved for a couple of weeks prior to going to the ER. When my BP tanked they had to do the catheter thing in my neck - a cut and then a few stitches to hold the tube from moving around. Being in the ER this was done fast and economically. No shaving the area first and just a big old bandage taped on.

Think it was in for at least 4-5 days and each night a nurse would have to clean and re-bandage everything......

In summary: