#10- Day Off and Near Prop Chop
We both needed a mental health day off together from our demanding work, Cyndy as Nurse and I as teacher . It was early June, 1978. We had weathered the Blizzard , were immersed in the music making fun and frenzy of SeaBright and making all the detailed plans for our upcoming cross-country family RV odyssey. Bob and Lois had that ill fated pleasure craft detailed in “Joe Cool’s Fishing Adventure” moored at the boatyard just off Southern Artery, and we decided with Joe off to school on this mid-week dazzling morning, to have a day of playing maritime hookey. All packed up with gear and a picnic we parked in the lot and found that the tender was in use which we usually used to row out the very short distance to the mooring float. Somewhat impatient to get underway, I asked the manager if there was another row boat available and he said no just take the marina work boat with the 35 Johnson outboard. Though I had not used it before it seemed basic so we put our gear in. Cyndy took the bow and I pushed off into water deep enough to start the motor. Getting enough depth I pumped the ball from the tank to the motor to get the fuel flowing and then I gave a big tug on the pull start (it did not have the electric key start with the bigger motors we were used to .) As I hoped the motor roared to life - but shockingly the boat took off at full throttle in reverse doing wild corkscrews and to prevent being thrown out and chopped up in the prop we both hit the floor. (The newspaper headline flashed in my mind “Local Nurse and Teacher skip work and end up shredded-let that be a lesson to all! ’) Talk about an out of control malicious machine - shades of “Christine” and “Kill Dozer”! …I’m not sure who thought of it first –perhaps Cyndy , admittedly the more mechanical of our partnership may have yelled, “Pull the gas line out! I struggled on my knees , staying low and holdling on to the seat for dear life and, literally because the motor was closer than the gas can I threw myself upon it and yanked out the gas line like I was tearing its throat out \And just so , in seconds the last life blood gas ran through, it gave a death rattle and was dead. We dizzily got to our feet, shaking our heads at this crazed ride ,we looked up on the shore not 100 feet away and about a dozen guys who had been spectators were standing there with open mouthed dumfoundedness. I did not call out to them to avoid appearing foolish - “No problem we meant to do that” …instead I paddled the damn work boat out to ours and towed it back to the shore. By this time the manager was at the dock…”I guess the last person left the latch over in reverse and the throttle got stuck wide open. Wow,that was wild!”
“Guess so”- I whewed, and feeling quite fortunate that we had not collided with another boat or got thrown out and finely minced, we headed out past the shoreline , all the more ready for R&R. When we came in after a wonderful cruise and much laughter we took the row boat in this time…
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
Our Friend Marty Almost Kills Us and Pat
#9- Our Friend Marty Almost Kills Us and Pat
I remember Dad was driving Cyndy and me to the airport very early around 6AM one weekday morning and our friend Marty- who along with wife Dale bought our Kilby Street home - was kind of poking along in his work van in the left lane on Sea St. As we came up in the right lane where Mitch’s Jenny gas station was, Marty totally and unexpectedly swerved right in front of us, and to avoid a collision Pat in an instant at 30mph steered up on the sidewalk and between a telephone pole and the row of gas pumps, and then back out on the street ,and never touched anything !
Marty just sleepily drove on unaware that he could have caused two of his best friends and their father to have been incinerated in a gas station explosion fireball - if not for Pat’s incredible reflexes and driving skill. We let out a whoop of relief and laughed as we drove on ,but I checked later after our trip and it seemed miraculous as there was no more than a foot of total clearance on either side to make it through without hitting those pumps !
I remember Dad was driving Cyndy and me to the airport very early around 6AM one weekday morning and our friend Marty- who along with wife Dale bought our Kilby Street home - was kind of poking along in his work van in the left lane on Sea St. As we came up in the right lane where Mitch’s Jenny gas station was, Marty totally and unexpectedly swerved right in front of us, and to avoid a collision Pat in an instant at 30mph steered up on the sidewalk and between a telephone pole and the row of gas pumps, and then back out on the street ,and never touched anything !
Marty just sleepily drove on unaware that he could have caused two of his best friends and their father to have been incinerated in a gas station explosion fireball - if not for Pat’s incredible reflexes and driving skill. We let out a whoop of relief and laughed as we drove on ,but I checked later after our trip and it seemed miraculous as there was no more than a foot of total clearance on either side to make it through without hitting those pumps !
#8 Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever
#8- Rocky Mt Spotted Fever (8% mortality and weird) … Joe had given us a night to stay in one of the cabins at the Crane Reservation area in Ipswich which he had enjoyed and thought we would too, for the simple accomodation and silvan experience…deer and birds galore, very nice! Well ,about 2- 3 weeks later I developed what I thought was a tough case of the flu with body and headaches which would come and go,but on a Sunday night I was really feeling tired and really lousy. I decided to go to bed early and woke up about an hour and a half later and my temperature was 103.9. Cyndy gave me some Tylenol and since I was in no real distress thought it fine to monitor things until morning when I had an appointment at Manet Community Health Center where Cyndy worked Monday evening. I had blood drawn et al with no clear diagnosis derived (though I had to confess that several days before to treat some persistent constipation I had done a Go-Lytely clean out (nothing lyte about it!) So we went home and I just felt tired and slept most of the afternoon, but when I got up to pee just before Cyn was to depart for work , I had to call her to “check this out!” – my urine was brown as it turns out a sign of liver dysfunction. Still I was in no distress and Cyndy went off to Manet and conferred with Fred Dolgin who after hearing my symptoms asked if we had been camping recently. “Yes”, Cyndy answered and Fred declared, “I bet Mike has Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever.” The next thing I know Fred is on the phone telling me to go to QMC ER for a direct admit because I need IV antibiotics. Christine dropped me off and within 2 hours I had my first of 4 doses and felt amazingly better and the Infectious Disease expert confirmed my diagnosis as “ricketsial” meaning tick-born, with an 8% fatality rate. And so, though I recovered completely , if I behave erratically at times ,I can claim that in addition to Mike Cotter Syndrome I have had RMSF and am justifiably tick’ed off!
Mike's Ski DVT-"Thanks a clot!"
#7 –Mike’s ski DVT- /“Thanks a clot”
It was school vacation of 1988 – I remember because it was the year Joe graduated, barely, from high school ,thanks to hockey. We were up at Killington , staying at Debbie’s Aunt Ruth’s ski lodge… there was a big troup of us skiing and I went off with Joe and Donna D who got in the double lift chair ahead of me. I went up conversing with a nice high school kid from Cambridge. As we entered the chairlift off zone I turned to him as we stood up and started sliding and said “good talking to you; have a good day” and the next thing I knew my skis crossed and I fell awkwardly in slow motion twisting my left knee…not really painful ,but when I tried to get up it just folded under me, and hurt producing a slight nausea. I crawled myself out of the way and the ski patrol arrived and I became one of those poor unfortunates brought head first down the mountain on the rescue sled as Joe and Donna followed behind. Joe helped me into the First Aid office at the lodge and the on-site MD declared,”Yep, that the classic, simple knee sprain; you just need to use the crutches provided and get checked out back home.” …Well it did not quite work out that way for then and the long run. I hung out in the Lodge until Cyndy and everyone finished skiing. The knee/leg did not really hurt; it was just stiff, swollen and could not hold my weight, but I could get around with the crutches OK. We drove back home the next day,and I saw Schiffman/Heller in the local Ortho practice. “Just use the crutches for a few days to get around; keep the leg elevated; go back to work in 2-3 days and see us in 3 weeks.” I was teaching at Silver Lake at the time Rm 247 on the 2nd floor and I was accustomed to being on my feet most of the time, walking a good bit , so I did not go back until Thurs and for Friday…but it seemed that every time I was on my feet for any length of time my left leg would get really swollen, in fact when I had it raised and then lowered it to the floor it was downright painful. Long story short= over the following 2 weeks I’d go to school for a day or two and the leg would get swollen. I went back to the ortho practice and they gave me another higher tech immobilizer once, prescribed Physical therapy with hot tub another time…I went back on what was to be my 3 week Ortho follow-up, supposed to be completely recovered and mobile,but my leg had continued to swell and I could hardly get a shoe on. The Doc took one look and exclaimed,” Wow, your leg is so fat!” “No kidding”, I replied and I reviewed the evals I had had over the past 3 weeks and he said, ”Well it should not be like this…you need to go home and keep your leg up over your heart all night and in the morning have a venogram; if there are blood clots, you will need to be admitted to the hospital .” So I went home and kept the leg up. That night’s episode of “ER” coincidentally featured a guy who died because of blood clots in the leg that broke off and traveled thruogh his heart and lungs. After a nervous night of sleep I had the venogram; the MD had to try to find a vein 3 times in my left foot (OUCH!) because it was so swollen. The results came back showing the left leg was “loaded with clots”. So I was admitted for IV Heparin and observation. I felt fine, other than hobbled with the left leg bent and the IV pole as a constant companion. This was my first experience as a hospitalized patient and fortunately the room was private ,but there were a few poor demented souls for neighbors. After 3 days Cyndy provided one of the most appreciated creature comforts ever when she brought me down the hall and washed my hair in the janitor’s sink! An idea started to take root that if some of these folks who provided nursing care to me could do it , so could I. The question – what if I decided to follow Cyndy’s inspiring example and instead of organizing health education programs as a teacher, I could become a nurse and give direct patient care. HMMMMM???
After the 5th day I was discharged home on the clot preventer coumadin and physical therapy. My left leg was so frozen and bent backward that it took quite a few PT sessions to free it up. I vividly recall many times lying face down on a mat while a 110 lb female PT applied persistent and strong pressure to loosen my leg back into alignment and flexibility. Man I felt like a was on the loosing end of a wrestling match about to pound the mat as the peanut PT put a necessary hurtin on me! This is where I also got the tip to use large bags of frozen peas as a cold pack to take down the swelling= much more user friendly than melting ice.
Altogether I was out of school for 20 days and learned the very important lesson that no one ,including myself is indispensible…school and the rest of the world goes ever on.
A chain of thought had been set off regarding nursing and the next year I took A&P one night a week at Massasoit, and tried the Regent’s exterior degree exam program. It became obvious that I needed to get the classroom and clinical experience and so I made my teaching farewell in June of 1989, took summer Micro and Chemistry, was accepted to the “U of Q” nursing school and the rest has been an amazingly rewarding history which partly began with that ski fall.
Also – fast forward to 9/30/10 and after having 8 ½ hour neobladder surgery for cancer 9/20 (I did not see that coming!) I had an almost always fatal saddle pulmonary embolus – in fact in my medical record it states that it was fatal. See later Close Encounters episode for graphic details. It was deemed a ‘provoked” clot as was the ski accident and indeed in both cases the clot has provoked a renewed gratitude and appreciation for the wonderful life Cyndy and I share…so “thanks a clot!”
It was school vacation of 1988 – I remember because it was the year Joe graduated, barely, from high school ,thanks to hockey. We were up at Killington , staying at Debbie’s Aunt Ruth’s ski lodge… there was a big troup of us skiing and I went off with Joe and Donna D who got in the double lift chair ahead of me. I went up conversing with a nice high school kid from Cambridge. As we entered the chairlift off zone I turned to him as we stood up and started sliding and said “good talking to you; have a good day” and the next thing I knew my skis crossed and I fell awkwardly in slow motion twisting my left knee…not really painful ,but when I tried to get up it just folded under me, and hurt producing a slight nausea. I crawled myself out of the way and the ski patrol arrived and I became one of those poor unfortunates brought head first down the mountain on the rescue sled as Joe and Donna followed behind. Joe helped me into the First Aid office at the lodge and the on-site MD declared,”Yep, that the classic, simple knee sprain; you just need to use the crutches provided and get checked out back home.” …Well it did not quite work out that way for then and the long run. I hung out in the Lodge until Cyndy and everyone finished skiing. The knee/leg did not really hurt; it was just stiff, swollen and could not hold my weight, but I could get around with the crutches OK. We drove back home the next day,and I saw Schiffman/Heller in the local Ortho practice. “Just use the crutches for a few days to get around; keep the leg elevated; go back to work in 2-3 days and see us in 3 weeks.” I was teaching at Silver Lake at the time Rm 247 on the 2nd floor and I was accustomed to being on my feet most of the time, walking a good bit , so I did not go back until Thurs and for Friday…but it seemed that every time I was on my feet for any length of time my left leg would get really swollen, in fact when I had it raised and then lowered it to the floor it was downright painful. Long story short= over the following 2 weeks I’d go to school for a day or two and the leg would get swollen. I went back to the ortho practice and they gave me another higher tech immobilizer once, prescribed Physical therapy with hot tub another time…I went back on what was to be my 3 week Ortho follow-up, supposed to be completely recovered and mobile,but my leg had continued to swell and I could hardly get a shoe on. The Doc took one look and exclaimed,” Wow, your leg is so fat!” “No kidding”, I replied and I reviewed the evals I had had over the past 3 weeks and he said, ”Well it should not be like this…you need to go home and keep your leg up over your heart all night and in the morning have a venogram; if there are blood clots, you will need to be admitted to the hospital .” So I went home and kept the leg up. That night’s episode of “ER” coincidentally featured a guy who died because of blood clots in the leg that broke off and traveled thruogh his heart and lungs. After a nervous night of sleep I had the venogram; the MD had to try to find a vein 3 times in my left foot (OUCH!) because it was so swollen. The results came back showing the left leg was “loaded with clots”. So I was admitted for IV Heparin and observation. I felt fine, other than hobbled with the left leg bent and the IV pole as a constant companion. This was my first experience as a hospitalized patient and fortunately the room was private ,but there were a few poor demented souls for neighbors. After 3 days Cyndy provided one of the most appreciated creature comforts ever when she brought me down the hall and washed my hair in the janitor’s sink! An idea started to take root that if some of these folks who provided nursing care to me could do it , so could I. The question – what if I decided to follow Cyndy’s inspiring example and instead of organizing health education programs as a teacher, I could become a nurse and give direct patient care. HMMMMM???
After the 5th day I was discharged home on the clot preventer coumadin and physical therapy. My left leg was so frozen and bent backward that it took quite a few PT sessions to free it up. I vividly recall many times lying face down on a mat while a 110 lb female PT applied persistent and strong pressure to loosen my leg back into alignment and flexibility. Man I felt like a was on the loosing end of a wrestling match about to pound the mat as the peanut PT put a necessary hurtin on me! This is where I also got the tip to use large bags of frozen peas as a cold pack to take down the swelling= much more user friendly than melting ice.
Altogether I was out of school for 20 days and learned the very important lesson that no one ,including myself is indispensible…school and the rest of the world goes ever on.
A chain of thought had been set off regarding nursing and the next year I took A&P one night a week at Massasoit, and tried the Regent’s exterior degree exam program. It became obvious that I needed to get the classroom and clinical experience and so I made my teaching farewell in June of 1989, took summer Micro and Chemistry, was accepted to the “U of Q” nursing school and the rest has been an amazingly rewarding history which partly began with that ski fall.
Also – fast forward to 9/30/10 and after having 8 ½ hour neobladder surgery for cancer 9/20 (I did not see that coming!) I had an almost always fatal saddle pulmonary embolus – in fact in my medical record it states that it was fatal. See later Close Encounters episode for graphic details. It was deemed a ‘provoked” clot as was the ski accident and indeed in both cases the clot has provoked a renewed gratitude and appreciation for the wonderful life Cyndy and I share…so “thanks a clot!”
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