138 – Circling the Drain, Part 5: 5 January 2025

I took this photo of a group of kangaroos at Morialta on Wednesday 18 August 2021.  My final period of hospitalisation had started on Saturday 3 July and it ended when I went home in the morning of Thursday 15 July 2021.  I had been home for exactly five weeks when I took this photo while walking at Morialta.

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As well as the kangaroo photo, I also took this photo of First Falls on that Wednesday in August.  In winter, the Falls carry a great deal of water.  In our South Australian summer, First Falls is usually water free.  A trickle of water was flowing down First Falls this morning (5 January 2021).  It is unusual to see any water flowing down First Falls in January.

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My friend Mario used to love seeing the image of The Madonna at First Falls.  I took this image of The Madonna on Wednesday 18 August 2021.  Can you see her in the middle of the flowing water?

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My symptoms were extremely severe for the first five days of my first hospital stay.  I doubt I would have lived if I had been anywhere except the hospital. 

As indicated in Blog 137, my grimmest day in hospital was Tuesday 4 May.  My memories of that evening are still very painful. 

By 11:00 pm on that Tuesday, my breathing difficulties were particularly acute.  I was also in extreme pain from stomach bloat.  To try and calm my body, I began slow, methodical “Perimeter Prowling” of my small hospital room.  While I was “Perimeter Prowling”, the night duty nurse knocked on my door and entered.  Seeing my distress, she immediately inserted tubes in my nostrils and placed me on oxygen.  Approximately every four hours during the night, she made me sit up and use an “aerator” mask over my nose and mouth.  The aerator was loaded with medications to open my airways.  The nurse told me she had come into the room because she thought something might be wrong with me. 

I was in extreme pain from the stomach bloat and I asked for stronger pain relief than Panadol, but the night duty doctor refused to authorise any additional pain relief.  The duty doctor did not bother to come and see me.  The nurse then gave me intravenous Panadol – liquid Panadol given directly into an arm vein.  Perhaps the intravenous Panadol worked.  Perhaps I simply got used to the pain.

I had an extremely hard night.

When Margaret visited me in the morning of Wednesday 5 May, I was walking in the passageway leading to the lifts.  She said she saw a very old looking man but did not recognise the old man was her husband until she was much closer.

I think the universe originally intended me to die that night, but changed its mind when I refused to co-operate.

Sometimes the only answer to impending death is a grim, mindless refusal to die.

I refused to leave Margaret and force her to battle the cancer on her own.  I have no other explanation for my own survival.

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After that dreadful Tuesday, my symptoms began to abate because of a medication called Prednisolone.  The Prednisolone completely eliminated all of my symptoms.

Johns Hopkins Vasculitis Center says this about Prednisolone.

Prednisone is a corticosteroid. In contrast to anabolic steroids (used by “bodybuilders”), corticosteroids are used in inflammatory conditions for their anti–inflammatory effects. They have a rapid onset of action, and profoundly affect many parts of the immune system as well as most other body systems. Corticosteroids are a cornerstone of treating most types of vasculitis, and are often used in combination with other immunosuppressive medications. Prednisone is often used at high doses at the time of initial diagnosis to bring vasculitis under control, and then reduced over time (“tapered”) while another immunosuppressive drug is started for long term treatment.

The Mayo Clinic provides this information about “Vasculitis”.

Vasculitis involves inflammation of the blood vessels. The inflammation can cause the walls of the blood vessels to thicken, which reduces the width of the passageway through the vessel. If blood flow is restricted, it can result in organ and tissue damage. There are many types of vasculitis, and most of them are rare. Vasculitis might affect just one organ, or several. The condition can be short term or long lasting. Vasculitis can affect anyone, though some types are more common among certain age groups. Depending on the type you have, you may improve without treatment. Most types require medications to control the inflammation and prevent flare-ups.

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My treating doctors believed my health issues were the result of the malfunctioning of my immune system.  Prednisolone was prescribed to alleviate my symptoms – and the symptoms disappeared.  After 4 May 2021, I became free for the first time in nine months.  I was discharged from hospital on Friday 7 May, after I had been symptom free for two complete days.  As the Johns Hopkins extract makes clear, Prednisolone is a powerful medication and doctors are very careful in its administration.  Prednisolone can cause side effects and once Prednisolone has served its medical purpose, doctors terminate its use as quickly as possible.  After my hospital discharge, I followed the detailed instructions on “tapering down” my use of Prednisolone.  Three weeks after my discharge, my use of Prednisolone had finished.

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Once I had been symptom free for two weeks after my hospital discharge, there were no symptoms to put in the diary, so I stopped making diary entries about my “allergy” symptoms.  I made my final diary entry about my symptoms on Tuesday 18 May.

During this period, I was able to complete all of my scheduled exercise and I was able to eat all main meals.

As my life returned to normal, I resumed work on the Postcard Book and I regained some weight.  This Table shows my weight during May 2021.

Date	Weight
Saturday 8 May	75.4 kilograms
Friday 14 May	76.5 kilograms
Friday 21 May	75.6 kilograms
Friday 28 May	76.5 kilograms

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I should have maintained my diary entries for my symptoms.

My circling of the Death Drain still had many weeks to run.  The Angel of Death had not been banished at all.  It had merely retired to regroup so it could be far more effective in taking me down.