The rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated! (Just Harlan checking in)

[Harlan (Deceased)]

Hi guys!

Sorry I’ve been mostly out of contact for the past couple of weeks.

I’ve been fighting a long battle with a problem I’ve had with my pancreas for the past four months. I’ve been in and out of the local ‘Mega’ hospital near my home three times for extended periods each over the past three months and each time they put me on a program where I couldn’t eat or drink anything at all. They’d think I was better after a few weeks of having no food and the readings from my pancreas would go to normal and then they’d send me home. I’d eat a liquid diet for a few days at home and then come down with pancreatitis again and end up back in the ER in terrible pain.

The second time I went in, they removed my gallbladder when I went in and it didn’t help anything at all.
(Who needs a gallbladder anyway?)

I had been taking my laptop with me and kept up with threads while sitting on my rear end doing nothing other than losing lots of weight that I could ill afford to lose, and taking lots of morphine for the pain.
Morphine is pretty good stuff, but it isn’t available by six packs at the corner store and I was pretty miserable each time I was sent home after they ‘cured’ me for a week or so.

After I went back in the third time with a new case of pancreatitis, and they said they were putting me on an ‘extended period’ of my only nourishment being fed through a tube in my arm, I began to get an attitude and wondered if they had the best solution.
I was down to 100 pounds by that time, and they wanted me to go for as long as three months with no real food, so I checked myself out and went to a different hospital to get a second opinion from a specialist who had a good reputation.

The new specialist found that I had a duct inside my pancreas that was broken in two that was causing the whole problem all the time. I could have gone without food until I was a bleached skeleton and it wouldn’t have helped anything!
It took the new specialist about an hour to locate the problem on a Saturday afternoon. He showed me the CT scan he took of the broken duct and he said it needed to be ‘repaired’ as soon as possible and he worked on me that Saturday evening.

He was able to go in with a probe with a camera attached and he repaired it without any surgery at all. I was able to start eating real food again the next day. He released me a couple of days later. That was a few weeks ago, and my pancreas is working fine now, but I was so down from having no food for so long from the ‘Exemplary Job’ they did at the first hospital that I could hardly walk on my own with my now bony legs.

I’m recovering now, but it’s been very difficult to put on any weight. It’s been very slow because my stomach was shrunk down so much I could only eat a few bites of food at a time, and didn’t have much of an appetite anyway. I think I had been working from ‘nervous energy’ for a long time, but a couple of weeks ago I started feeling very, very weak and I had to take a break from everything and just try to eat, drink lots of ‘Ensure’ drinks and start trying to put on some weight and rest.

Doug (Badger) gave me medical leave from my web site duties with full pay and benefits!
(Nice guy!)

I’ve not been doing much of anything for the past two weeks but eating, watching TV, reading while sitting on my rear end in my easy chair, and sleeping a LOT. I think everything finally caught up with me, but there were times a week or so back where I felt like I couldn’t wake up even after sleeping twelve hours!

I didn’t think I’d be missed for a week or so, and I didn’t tell most people about all my woes, and hardly even opened my email last week. I just took a break from the world and got lazy I guess. I started logging on again a couple of days ago and found there were several people looking for me -
No Bill, NOT the police! (This time)

I’m really sincerely touched there were people concerned about my well being and I’m sorry I didn’t tell everyone about the problems I’ve been having. The medical stuff was frustrating to me and became a mess, and I didn’t know myself what was going on half of the time. I just wanted to get well and keep going on. Bill Hollinger called me last night and suggested that I leave a note to let everyone know I’m doing OK because a few people were asking in some of the threads, etc.

Again, I apologize that I’ve been out of contact. I’m up to 120 pounds now and starting to feel better over the past couple of days. I’ll probably be back full time in a week or so if I keep feeling better.

Take care guys, and always remember to never be shy about asking for a SECOND OPINION!

~ Harlan (AKA) CAFDFW

Information

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[Emri]

No apologies necessary Harlan ! Glad you are on the mend and gave up on the so-called experts and got that 2nd opinion. If you want, come on over to the Alabama coast and I'll fatten you up. Due to borderline diabeties ( having a little trouble with my pancreas also ) I have had to give up cooking all kinds of foods that I really enjoyed cooking and eating. It would give me an excuse to get another deep fryer and go to town cooking !!

Again, glad you are getting better,

Emri

[painter777]

Hey Harlan,
That second opinion probably saved your life. I know how laid back you are, but there are times when YOU have to make demands.
Remember back when I broke both wrists, left collar, Dis-located shoulder, 3 vertebrae, blew 2 disc, broke 6 ribs, sternum, left hip, both ankles, crushed both heals and my left leg was estimated to be in 19 fragmented pieces?
Remember when they put 36 screws, 3 - 7" plates and 26 pins in my left leg and ankle?
After a year and a half of sitting in a wheelchair wearing the hardware they removed the plates, screws and pins. Finally I was given the go ahead to stand up freely. In the first week of full weight bearing my left leg crumbled apart. That's when my wife and I started trying to get a second opinion but found that most of these other surgeons were contacting the first Orthopedic to see what was up.
What kind of second opinion is that?
I finally went a few counties over and feel lucky I found the right Dr.
This Orthopedic re-broke the rest of my left leg and inserted a rod inside from my hip joint in to the top of my knee, then knee to the ankle joint. Along with some bone grafts and fusion he had me walking a week after the last of a total of 13 surgeries.
He got me back to working, when the first Dr. wanted me to sign off on Dis-ability. In fact the first Dr. refused to release me back to the construction field that I call home. Not needing his OK since I've been self employed since I was 18 I moved on. Dis-ability at 24 years old with a 3 month old first born at home, yea right.
There are just times you have to take the reins my friend. Don't be affraid to get 3 or 4 opinions when it comes to your health. I'm sure others will agree.
You don't know how happy we are to finally hear that you're on the right road to recovery.
After adding some weight, your next concern will be dealing with your OGBD- Obsessive Gun Buying Disorder.

Cheers My Friend,
Charlie

[phil441]

It's a big relief to hear from you!
Hang in there and get yourself built back up so we can go back to picking on you.

Phil

[old crow]

Hello, Harlan. I'm sorry to learn of your pancreas troubles and happy to hear that you are on the mend. I'm new here so you don't know me but my best wishes are heartfelt.

[gunner]

Glad to hear from you Harlan! And i´m really glad that you´re getting better! Missed you and the conversation with you. Now, get up buy an huge T-Bone have it and be at 122 pounds!
Hope to hear from you!

All the best, Buddy

Ulrich

[frankderrico]

Harlan, smother that T-Bone in pork chops, ala Errol Flynn in "Objective Burma".
Glad to here you're recovering.....Frank

[gunner]

I believe he needs a Schnaps after all of that! Prost!

Regards

Gunner

[smellie]

Dark rye bread with bacon grease, old cheese, pickled herring with onions, smoked salmon, smoked eel, fat ham, toss in a big plate of perogies with sour cream and bacon.... and a glass or two of ice-cold snaps. That will take care of the weight problem.

For the rest, keep in contact. FRIENDS are what make life worth living. You have friends.

Welcome back!
.