Monday November 19, 2001:  My wife took me to the Mayo where Dr. Finck removed the drainage tubes and bottles.

 

I was a total invalid, in constant pain, constipated, able to walk only with the aid of a walker and unable to get in and out of bed without assistance. The medicine to dull the pain, darvocet, was making me feel terrible, bilious and somewhat suicidal.  However, on Friday November 2001, I discontinued the darvocet, felt better immediately and the suicidal thoughts went away.  To clean and dress the wound in my abdomen the Mayo had arranged for nurses to come to my homes.  They also arranged for home visits by physiotherapists. 

 

Because of my collapsed lung I had been sent home with a breathing exercise device.  It was an effort to use it but I persevered and my breathing gradually improved.  I also had invasive candidiasis.  Candasis is a fungus that occurs naturally in one's stomach.  Does no harm in the stomach, indeed it is both useful and necessary, but when it gets into one's bloodstream, as it did in mine (hence the term "invasive") as a result of the Mayo's surgical mistake, it causes many problems. Indeed, four out ten people who contract invasive candidiasis, die from it.  I had to take a medicine, made Pfizer, called Flucanizole for a year.  It cost $700 per month.