Page 236 - Total War on PTSD

bowel, small and large intestines, possibly my liver and gall bladder had suffered major damage too. Additionally, I had developed bed sores on both my legs and my lower back. I felt helpless as I would lie there and watch the nurses change the dressings on my chest, the dialysis technicians sit there and run their machines, all the while internally wondering if I was going to survive another day. Additionally, some of those doctors, nurses, and technicians were indifferent to cruel, and I believe that contributes to the fears and bad memories many people have regarding medical care. One of my brighter moments was when Sonia would stop by and give me a vegetable smoothie to drink about four to five times a week. A few weeks later, a nurse noticed there was urine in the Foley catheter drainage bag. My kidney function was returning.
After a few months, I was transferred to the nearest Veterans Administration Hospital (VA) and the medical staff labeled in the transfer documents my condition “good”. But my first night at the VA was far from that. First, I was given two units of blood. The reason that is important is because a normal human being carries between 10–12 units of blood, and the loss of twenty percent of blood leaves the patient dangerously vulnerable. Remember my wounds that were formed at the first hospital? The report said they were healed, yet the wound care specialist at the VA removed the scab tissue and found the ulcer had deteriorated almost all the way to the bone and was infected. If these wounds had not been treated and I had been simultaneously given antibiotics intravenously (IV), it was possible I could have died. My condition was far from good. Yet, co-incidentally my insurance stopped paying for my hospital stay, so a miracle occurred, and my condition was stable enough to be transferred to the VA hospital. As it turns out, that transfer saved my life. If I had stayed in that hospital another week, I have no doubt I would have perished, and no one would have known why.
Did I have PTSD? Most definitely. However, I had other issues to worry about. I had to heal, and undergo two more surgeries, this time for the wounds that occurred while I was in the hospital. Then I had to listen and absorb the news that due to the nature of my injuries I would most likely never walk again. That’s when I learned my next lesson,
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