02/01/2022
Thank you friends for all your heartfelt support and the power of your collective thoughts!
You pulled me through 34 days in hospital in the last two months!!! It has been a long but successful journey !
On Dec. 11th, two days before I was to present my proposal for a new 57,000 sq.ft. Covered Multi-Sport Facility convertible into a Business Exhibition Center to the Town of Smiths Falls Council, I had a hernia explode inward creating a hole in my stomach and driving it up into my lungs. The stomach contents released and made me septic.
The ambulance took me to Perth Hospital where they analyzed my condition and they shipped me by ambulance to Brockville Hospital for surgery. During the procedure the surgeons accidentally perforated my main vein going back to my heart and they could not stop the bleeding! Bob and Linda Chaplin kindly drove my wife Maureen to Brockville to be there for the surgery. When the doctors informed Maureen about the bleeding Maureen suggested they fly me to Ottawa. They were skeptic that I would survive the flight but they flew me by Air Ambulance to the Ottawa General, a world renown hospital.
At the General the surgeons stopped the bleeding, secured the stomach and completed numerous drainage tubes. They medically induced a three day coma, shifted me to the ICU then up to the Thorasics Surgery Department. I recovered well and they released me on Dec.23rd to be home for Xmas.
While healing at home I developed spiking hot temperatures so after a cat scan discovered I had a large bacterial infection behind my left lung.
During another 20 days in the Ottawa
General Hospital, the Thorasics doctors installed two drains in my back to drain the bacterial infection. This was a slow, tedious and painful process and the doctors thought I would need another surgery to finish clearing out the infection.
Thanks to the power of your collective thoughts I ended up not requiring the surgery which would have required another week stay.
I returned home last Saturday after 20 days with little sleep, exhausted! Two days later I am 200% better and finally with Maureen and sleeping in my own bed with my sweetheart. With Maureen’s superb care and cooking skills, I hope to regain the 30 lbs I lost over the next several months. It is absolutely amazing to be home at our home on Otty Lake!
Thank you again for all your kind messages, phone calls, emails, texts, warm thoughts and encouragement!
LOVE YOU ALL ❤️❤️❤️
Riley
