Random News: February 6, 2024

DISCLAIMER: Zak's Random News is very random and doesn't cover many things, and not everything may be accurate, because I'm just some guy. Go find a real news source.

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Good morning. It’s February 6, 2024, and it’s a Tuesday. I’d like to be having a normal morning and writing my news bullets as usual, but life has a funny way of negating a person’s plans from time to time. Just so I don’t have to write this multiple times, let me tell you how I ended up in an ambulance and then spending a good portion of the night in the ER.

• For those of you who hadn’t been following along, back in December, I decided that I’d finally get some of my ongoing dental issues fixed.
• I had some pretty major work that was necessary. Multiple root canals, and the extraction of two teeth — an old broken molar, and an impacted wisdom tooth that’s been rotting in my head for some 30 years.
• Due to the fact that I had a big business event at the end of January, I decided to wait until that was complete before scheduling the major work. It ended up being yesterday, on February 5.
• It was… very difficult. I was fully awake and alert throughout, and the procedure took over four hours. But — and this is important to note — I felt like my dentist did a great job. He started on me at 2PM and powered straight through until 6:00.
• I was not in pain during the procedure. I was numbed by a lot of novocaine. He and his assistants all seemed very professional and kind.
• Was it difficult for me? Yeah, of course it was. A multitude of bone grafts, work on my gums, constant drilling for hours on end, and then the coup de grace at the very end, getting the impacted wisdom tooth out, which proved very difficult.
• But I hung in there throughout. My dentist even commented on my relative toughness compared to most of his patients. After it was over, I was pretty beat up, as one would expect. But I walked out of there into the cool rainy night and was glad it was finally done.
• Here’s where things started going south.
• Christina drove me home, and I was starting to feel a little… off. Obviously, with what I’d just been through, that’s no surprise. I had prescriptions to pick up; an antibiotic, a pain killer, and an anti inflammatory. Normal stuff.
• Christina then went over to CVS to grab those while I waited at home. Then she texted me; the office hadn’t gotten the prescription in before they closed, apparently, or perhaps sent it to the wrong CVS. That part is still being resolved. I was annoyed.
• But for reasons that are still somewhat murky, as I sat here and the anesthetic wore off, I was feeling worse and worse. It came on fast and then, next thing you know, I had the unmistakable feeling that I was about to pass out.
• I don’t want to go into the scary details, but I did manage to call for my son from down the hall. At the same time, Christina was returning from CVS, and apparently both of them came to my aid.
• I lost consciousness. When I came to a minute or so later, my son had already called 911, and I immediately realized I was terribly nauseous.
• Christina was very concerned that I’d had a stroke, or something similar. Again, I don’t want to discuss the details, but I’m sad that I put her and my son through seeing me that way. I have no recollection of those terrible few minutes.
• After waking up, I made it to the bathroom where I threw up a ton of blood. See, blood is toxic to the stomach, and during my unconscious episode, I’d apparently swallowed a lot of it that was the result of my surgery.
• So, I was a pretty picture at that point. I couldn’t stand and sank down on the bathroom floor, with sweat soaking through my clothes. As if being covered in sweat, blood, and vomit wasn’t lovely enough, I also managed to piss myself at some point. So when the paramedics arrived, that’s how they found me.
• Being the macho macho man that I am, I insisted on walking down my stairs to the living room, where they sat me down and ran some triage tests. Among other alarming states, my blood pressure was super low. Like, “so low that I didn’t know that number was possible” low. As soon as they saw that, I was loaded on a gurney and pulled out into the rain, then put into the ambulance.
• I’ve never, in my 54 years of life, needed to be put in an ambulance before.
• I’ll interrupt myself here to say that I was very, very impressed by the paramedics and staff who treated me. I was very out of it at that moment, obviously, but they were all kind, professional, and treated me with dignity and respect.
• They also got my ass to Little Company of Mary hospital in Torrance, CA quickly and efficiently, despite there being torrential storm happening at that moment. I always have good timing for things. 
• Not gonna lie; I was not a happy puppy at that moment. When you’re not 100% sure that you’re going to live for the next hour or so, it leaves you sort of questioning the choices you made in life up to that point.
• Not to overblow my health situation at that moment, but I can see how some people go through big changes after a near-death experience. I really can.
• Back to the story.
• If you’ve never been to an emergency room in a densely populated urban area, there’s an understandable order in which you get treatment. It’s actually a good sign if others go before you; it means they are way more likely to die than you at that moment.
• My gurney was parked in a loading area for awhile, and then brought into the hospital proper, and parked in a hallway. This is not unusual for my area; getting an actual room is rare and reserved for much more acute cases. I took being left in a hallway as a good sign.
• During that time frame, I was hooked up to an IV to start getting my BP up (they also did some stuff in that regard in the ambulance, but I was too out of it to recall exactly what it was). Various needles were being shoved into me at all points in the process.
• I also explained what had happened to a multitude of people, including nurses and doctors. Oh, I should add that by then, 100% of my local anesthetic had worn off, and I was feeling the complete pain of multiple teeth having been ripped out of my head, others drilled, gums cut, all of that.
• I had arrived at Little Company at about 8PM, and there I stayed until 1:30AM. I have to note, first and foremost, that everyone there was great. Special hats off go to the nurses. I can’t imagine doing that job… not for all the money in the world.
• They ran a ton of tests. I have about a thousand marks on my body this morning where various blood was drawn, IVs were attached, monitors were taped, and so on.
• The good news: other than one specific finding, I am absolutely fine. No heart attack, no stroke, important organs still in surprisingly great condition.
• The only concerning aspect was a very high white blood cell count. The normal range is 4,500 to 11,000; mine was north of 20,000. But considering that my dentist had told me that there was a huge infection associated with the wisdom tooth, that is likely the culprit.
• Also, extreme trauma itself can raise your WBC count too. God knows I’d been traumatized.
• I let the nurses know about the pain I was feeling in my mouth and head due to the surgery. They came back and shot me up with the much-maligned fentanyl. I have to tell you, while I avoid all opiates in normal conditions, I was very happy to receive that relief from the pain.
• Before I left, the doctor sent down some amoxycillin for the infection, which I took. I will be continuing on that antibiotic for awhile, which I would have received from the dentist’s prescription anyway had things worked out better.
• So why did I pass out like I did? It’s difficult to know for sure. I’d gone a big portion of the day without eating, obviously. The stress of being operated on for over four hours while fully conscious probably didn’t help either.
• But I am fine. I am alive. And other than a shitty infection that is being treated now, I seem to be in healthy condition overall.
• I got home at about 2AM and settled in, Christina made me some soup, which I ate before popping a bunch of ibuprofen, and then went to bed. I would have slept in some more today, but the memory of what had happened yesterday, combined with the urgent need to shower the entire experience (and the combined smells of all I’d been through) away, got me out of bed at about 7:30 this morning.
• And here I am.
• I’ll take it easy today; I’m not entirely in denial or a complete idiot. I know I’m still recovering from all that shit.
• More than anything else, I’m happy to be alive and grateful to those who helped keep me that way. I’m not mad at anyone, including myself. Not everything in life requires a culprit to blame. Sometimes shit just happens.
• Now that I’ve written this down, I’ll carefully eat this banana and sip my morning coffee and enjoy being alive. You all should enjoy being alive. Most people who ever lived are not alive. For now, in this brief period, you, and I, are.
• Today in history… James II of England and VII of Scotland is proclaimed King upon the death of his brother Charles II (1685). New York became the third state to ratify the Articles of Confederation (1778). Massachusetts becomes the sixth state to ratify the United States Constitution (1788). Forces under the command of Ulysses S. Grant and Andrew H. Foote give the Union its first victory of the war, capturing Fort Henry, Tennessee in the Battle of Fort Henry (1862). British women over the age of 30 who meet minimum property qualifications, get the right to vote when Representation of the People Act 1918 is passed by Parliament (1918). The five-day Seattle General Strike begins, as more than 65,000 workers in the city of Seattle, WA, walk off the job (1919). Elizabeth II becomes Queen of the United Kingdom and her other Realms and Territories and Head of the Commonwealth upon the death of her father, George VI (1952). Jack Kilby of Texas Instruments files the first patent for an integrated circuit (1959). In testimony before a United States Senate subcommittee, Lockheed Corporation president Carl Kotchian admits that the company had paid out approximately $3 million in bribes to the office of Japanese Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka (1976). Michael Jordan makes his signature slam dunk from the free throw line inspiring Air Jordan and the Jumpman logo (1988). SpaceX's Falcon Heavy, a super heavy launch vehicle, makes its maiden flight (2018).
• February 6 is the birthday of mathematician/astronomer Mario Bettinus (1582), British queen Anne (1665), mathematician/theorist Nicolaus II Bernoulli (1695), US vice president Aaron Burr (1756), physicist/cryptographer Charles Wheatstone (1802), French prime minister Alexandre Ribot (1842), MLB legend Babe Ruth (1895), screenwriter Michael Maltese (1908), actor/US president Ronald Reagan (1911), Hitler’s wife Eva Braun (1912), anthropologist Mary Leakey (1913), actress Zsa Zsa Gabor (1917), actor Rip Torn (1931), actor Mike Farrell (1939), journalist Tom Brokaw (1940), singer-songwriter/keyboardist Willie Tee (1944), singer-songwriter Bob Marley (1945), singer-songwriter Kate McGarrigle (1946), singer-songwriter Natalie Cole (1950), actress Kathy Najimy (1957), drummer Simon Phillips (1957), singer-songwriter Axl Rose (1962), and actress Alice Eve (1982).

Back to normal news and stuff tomorrow. Enjoy your day.