What’s Next No. 5
FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO ASKED: ON DECEMBER 27, 1997, I took a detour and it was a long and bumpy road. Had not been feeling up to par for some time. Had been to the clinic and taken an antibiotic prescription, but some of the problems just did not go away, although it seemed to help a bit.
When Maurice came over that morning, he said, ‘Ella, are you all right?’ (He has built-in radar. Can’t hide anything from him). Then he called Jo Ann and talked to her about it. Then she called back and said my doctor was on call at the hospital that Saturday and that I should go see him. She made the necessary calls and we were on our way.
In the emergency room at Scott Co. Hospital, an exam was done. They did chest X-rays. The lung did not look good. Then Doc put a needle in my back on the left side and drew out about three quarts of fluid that had been in the sack around the lungs. He announced that the left lung had collapsed and soon I was in the back of the ambulance on oxygen, JoAnn was in front with the ambulance driver and Maurice was following in his pickup. We were on our way to Garden City St. Catherine Hospital where Dr. Miller awaited.
Things aren’t too clear to me from then on for the rest of the day. I was admitted to the hospital. But they tell me, they inserted a tube into my chest, then a small balloon through the tube and inflated that lung. Then they left the tube in, laying along side the lung and fastened a suction pump to that. The pump rested on a little table with wheels. It had two big bottles on the bottom shelf and I took the little green table on wheels wherever I went.
On January 18, 1998, the tube was finally removed and I started to see if I could get along on my own without the pump. I had another leak in the lung and delayed my coming home. But this healed quickly, and finally I am coming home.