My Near Brush With Death!

Author's Note:

The following is a true account, it will explain why I haven't been very active online since the last week of September of 2024.

The title is the truth and it is not a sensationalized headline!

TSL

As most of you were aware I was planning on moving to Massachusetts the first week of October. I did move, however, not as planned, I am happily living in Massachusetts and enjoying clear air and the wonderful fall colours. To say that the move did not go off as scheduled or planned would be a major and I do mean a major understatement!

The original plan was for my good friend Jeff P. to fly out to Oregon, load the U-Haul truck that I had rented, and a day or so later, begin the long drive across the country to Massachusetts. Jeff did fly out, and I did rent the truck, and that was when things started falling apart.

Unbeknown to almost everyone especially Jeff, I had just been putting up a front for the last six months or so. I was acting like everything was fine when actually I was just going through the motions. I was in a severe depressive spiral and I was a true hermit in every sense of the word. So instead of a simple cross-country move, the move became an intervention and a rescue.

However, that was only the tip of the iceberg; things were actually much worse than you could begin to imagine. I was letting everything pile up and only cleaning what I needed for the day or a few days. To compound the disaster, my RV was a disaster; there is no other way to put it. Everyone thought that I had only five or six cats when I actually had fifteen or sixteen. I couldn't afford to have any of the cats spayed or neutered, and they did what they do best: make more cats. Most of the time, I never knew when one of my queens was pregnant as they would hide under the couch. That way, I never knew when I had new kittens until they crawled out from under the couch! By the time I knew that I had new kittens, it was too late to do anything about them.

The number of cats that I had in my RV, while the sheer number of them was a problem, wasn't the major problem. Having that many cats put a big sized hurt on my finances. However, again, that wasn't the largest issue, that was caused by the sheer number of toms that I had and their propensity to spray everywhere to mark their territory. They sprayed everywhere, especially if there was a surface that wasn't covered by anything. They would even spray the same spot as another tom had sprayed. Over time, I became nose blind and didn't smell the concentrated urine odour at all or maybe just a little. That much-sprayed urine in such a small, enclosed space caused the odour to permeate every porous article in my RV. The curtains, my clothes, the couch, the air, everything. I didn't realize how bad my clothes smelled until Jeff pointed it out. I had an Air Purifier on my desk that alleviated some of the odour in that area. I will admit that I did notice the odour for a short while when I came back inside after going shopping, but that only lasted for a few minutes until I was nose blind again. We will revisit the cats and the odour in a bit.

The plan for my RV was simple: a friend of mine I thought was going to move his 18-year-old son into the RV and pick up the space rent. Unfortunately, that idea got the kibosh because the RV Park had another tenant for that space already. I had also misunderstood my friend; he was going to have a friend of his tow my RV to another location for his son to live in. So, instead of leaving my RV where it stood, we had to remove all of the skirting around it and crank the slide out in. That also meant taking down the storage shed in the nose of my fifth wheel. Removing the skirting should have only taken a few hours. However, the RV had settled a bit and was now putting more weight on the framing and the skirting panels. That settling and the many different types of screws used took a few days to remove instead of a few hours. While Jeff was removing the skirting, I was bringing out things to load into the truck and deciding what to leave behind. In the end, I didn't leave as much stuff behind as Jeff wanted, so I am dealing with that now.

So now we are almost three days behind schedule, but don't go away there is a lot more to come.

I also didn't have as much packing done as Jeff had expected and not nearly as much tossed out as he would have liked. Through everything so far, Jeff was very patient with me, even though he was obviously upset with how things were not going according to plan.

Due to the delays, we ended up spending several more nights than planned at motels.

Now, back to the cat problem, several weeks earlier, I had reached out to Best Friends, a Volunteer Animal Rehoming Group. Unfortunately, they never got back to me, and I didn't push the issue either. Big mistake, and that caused untold amounts of pain and suffering down the road.

Due to an issue with the toilet in the RV and the cat odour issue, my friend decided to still take the RV and scrap it. He would take out the stacked washer-dryer combo and the full-sized range and either sell them or use them for his son.

Now, back to the cats, Jeff took charge and reached out to Best Friends, and he was able to make contact with them. However, since they were used to dealing with only one or two animals at a time, they didn't give us much hope for a solution.

My friend Jeromie showed up to help us get rid of the debris from the framing and siding. He also made arrangements for the majority of the cats to be rehomed as Barn Cats. Problem solved right? Well, not exactly now, we/I needed to catch the cats and put them into several animal carriers supplied by the RV Park Management courtesy of Best Friends. This wasn't even close to the end, in reality, it was actually the straw that broke the camel's back and caused me to be hospitalized! While some of the cats were mostly or at least partially or mostly socialized, a lot of them weren't while a few of them allowed me to pet them and, in some cases, pick them up and pet them, most of them wanted nothing to do with me. I had decided to take two of the kittens that allowed me to handle them with me to Massachusetts. In fact, one of the kittens, Little Friend, demanded several times a day that I pick her up to pet and cuddle her. She would stalk me until I did. Snowflake, the little tom, would let me pick him up and pet him, most times. The two of them were always together, so they were an easy choice to take with me. I didn't know they were born until they crawled out from under the couch at around six weeks old. Because of that, I never knew who their mothers were. I didn't know whether they were brother and sister or cousins.

Figure 1 Snowflake

Figure 2 Little Friend

Those pictures were taken a few weeks before the big move. Catching those two and putting them into their Cat Carrier was fairly easy, we put their carrier outside near the truck so they would be able to watch everything going on. The plan at that time was to put the carrier on the front passenger seat of my car that was going to be towed. However, as you will see, that didn't quite happen. We put food and water inside the carrier, and the kittens adjusted to being there, they did pay attention to everything that was going on outside of their carrier. Being under the gun, I made a very serious mistake and a potentially life-ending one, although we didn't know it at the time. I set about catching the remaining cats and literally dropping them into the carrier that Jeff was holding up to the door of the RV. I wasn't wearing gloves and proceeded to pick up a few bites and scratches along the way while catching the cats. The biggest problem was caused by the cat that I was chasing stirring up the rest of the cats. I think we got seven or eight cats that day before it became too dark to continue. While we were working, we were catching meals when we could, and I was drinking occasionally and, as it would turn out, not drinking enough. However, we were so busy it was easy to forget about eating and drinking. When we finished work for the evening, I grabbed something to eat, some Bactine™ and some Band-Aids®. I cleaned the wounds with the Bactine™ and applied some triple antibiotic cream and Band-Aids® where needed. The next day, I went back to Cat Catching, only this time, I at least wore a pair of Heavy-Duty Vinyl Cleaning Gloves those helped a bit until one of the queens tried to bite my fingertip off through the glove. She ended up tearing the fingertip of the glove, causing my fingernail to blacken, and putting two puncture holes in the bottom of my fingertip. That was the end of those gloves, I acquired more bites and scratches, mostly on my left hand and arm, and a few that I didn't know about on my left leg. That night, I applied the Bactine™ and Band-Aids® again, too little too late, as we would find out later.

The next day, Jeff surprised me with a pair of Welding Gloves that Jeromie had suggested we get. I have to tell you they were a game-changer the "three remaining cats" didn't stand a chance! I was able to corner them, grab them by the scruff of their neck, and they couldn't touch me, they tried, oh did they try! I even caught one by its tail and then grabbed its head and deposited it into the carrier.

As I would later find out, a few more cats were hiding in the cupboards and drawers that I didn't know about. How they got in there, I have no idea. There were eighteen cats in total!

After catching the last cat, I took a few more things to the truck. Jeff moved the truck to the parking lot, and we then began carrying more debris to Jeromie's Van. After a while of doing that, it started to get dark, and I began to stumble while carrying stuff, I told Jeff and Jeromie that I was really tired and needed to rest. So, I sat down and rested until it was time to get something to eat and head to the motel for the night. I cleaned my wounds and reapplied the antibiotic cream and Band-Aids® before going to bed. Jeff let me sleep in that Sunday morning, and I overslept, I woke up a little after 10 a.m. and received a text from Jeff reminding me that checkout was at 11:00 AM. I quickly got dressed, cleaned the cat carrier, fed and watered the kittens while talking to them the whole time. I took my backpack out to my car, then came back to the room and made sure that everything was out of it. I took the cat carrier outside and left it in front of the door while I took the keys to the office to checkout. Once that was done, I grabbed the cat carrier and put it in my car on the passenger seat. I closed the car door and turned slightly to go around the front of my car so that I could head to the driver's seat. I never reached the driver's side as my world fell apart. I became very weak and extremely dizzy and collapsed to the ground. I blacked out for a bit, and when I came to, I tried to stand. I tried three times. However, the world spun around so violently that it made me nauseous. I wasn't thinking straight, and I didn't call the Motel Office for help, but I did call Jeff for help. He arrived a few minutes later at the same time one of the Motel workers walked by. Between the two of them, they were able to get up onto my feet. Jeff walked me carefully over to the truck, Jeff then helped me up onto the passenger seat of the truck, while I was woolgathering Jeff. with the help of the Motel worker, got my car hooked up to the tow dolly. We then headed to the Emergency Room at St. Alphonsus in Baker City. We ended up with a slight detour as Siri was directing us to St Alphonsus in Boise, Idaho, two hours away. I finally recognized what was happening and redirected Jeff to the correct hospital. This part is a bit hazy for me. When we arrived at the ER, we were met by, I think, two orderlies with a wheelchair. We moved through reception very quickly I think I gave them some of the info they needed, and Jeff gave them the rest, I think. Before I knew it, I was on a gurney, being equipped with a heart monitor and an Automatic Blood Pressure Monitor. Someone listened to my heart and took my pulse and temperature. My temperature was 101º F, and my blood pressure was 60 over 30. In addition to barely being able to walk, I found out later that I was slurring my words. Because of my deathly low blood pressure, I was immediately hooked up to an IV to push fluids into my body to increase my blood pressure and rehydrate me. Yes, I was extremely dehydrated and close to death. The ER Team worked very hard to stabilize me, and thank God they succeeded. I have never been that close to death before, and I never want to be that close ever again! While all this was going on, Jeff was busy getting me checked in and giving the staff the information they wanted. Jeff had a long talk with a Protection Officer (Security Guard) as they went to the truck to get my backpack. I never found out what they talked about. However, the Protection Officer checked up on me the next day and said that Jeff was a great guy.

As soon as Jeff learned that I was being admitted, he got on the phone with Bill in Masssachusetts and Jeromie who brought up that he could put me on a plane so Jeff could get the truck to my new home, unloaded, and returned without it costing a lot more than it ultimately did. When he left the hospital, he and the two cats stopped at McDonalds, ate something and then started heading east.

It did take several hours before I was stable enough to transfer to a hospital room in the Medical/Surgery Acute Care Section of the hospital. My room was directly across from the Nurse's Station. I was admitted with a severe case of Sepsis from an unknown organism. I was hooked up to several bags of Lactated Ringers to increase the fluids in my body to bring up my Blood Pressure. Antibiotics were added to the IV's as well. I received the fluids for the first three days; my Blood Pressure was finally in the normal range, albeit at the lower end of that range. For the first three days, I also was wearing a portable Heart Monitor in case my very low blood pressure caused any heart problems.

On Wednesday, I was diagnosed with a severe case of Cellulitis in my lower left arm, wrist and hand. My wrist and hand were so swollen that I was unable to use my left hand for anything. That picture was taken on Thursday after five days of treatment; it was still very painful to move. I was receiving Vancomycin (intravenous route), Piperacillin, and tazobactam (intravenous route) several times a day. My Blood Pressure and Temperature were taken every four hours day and night. I slept a lot from Sunday through Tuesday; it wasn't until Wednesday that I finally began to feel human. I still took naps several times a day. I was also able to begin walking a bit more every day, and that made my care team very happy.

While I was healing physically, on the mental side, I was having issues that were beginning to become severe. While it wasn't true

I was feeling abandoned and all alone. I was rapidly sliding down the slippery slope of deep depression. I asked to speak with someone, and luckily, my Primary Care Physician was able to visit with me for over half an hour. We talked about what was bothering me and how they were just in my head and not really problems. We talked about my new living conditions and how much support I would have in Massachusetts, as well as the fact that my kittens were a link back to Oregon. I felt a lot better after talking with Zach. He came back on his way home, and we just hit the highlights of our earlier conversation.

While I was laid up in the hospital, Jeff was driving across the country solo with only my two kittens for company.

I was finally released from the hospital on Saturday afternoon; I was driven to a Motel in Boise in preparation for flying to Boston early Sunday morning. I arrived at my new home early on Monday morning. Over the next days and weeks, I continued my physical recovery and physically I am doing pretty good, I have almost recovered all of my stamina.

However, it is a completely different story on the mental side, interestingly, the move across the country wasn't as big a problem as I expected it to be. Knowing Jeff and having my two kittens with me were and are a big help. Going from a single-person household to a multi-person household did and is a bit of an issue, but I am adjusting. However, mentally recovering from such a near-death experience is taking me a long time to adjust and recover. The people here are helping a lot; they are giving me plenty of support and keeping a close eye on me so I don't crash. Nearly dying will put a crimp into anyone's life!

One of the things this episode taught me is that I am not an island, and there are people out there who care about me and will help if I just ask for it! For God's sake, don't be an idiot like me and not ask for help. No matter how embarrassing you think your situation is, you need to tell the truth to your friends and family! They don't deserve to be blindsided by you crashing or needing a rescue or an intervention. If it wasn't for Jeff's steadfast caring and support, you wouldn't be reading this; I was that close to death.

I am slowly getting back into the frame of mind where I can start catching up on all of my site work. I will get back to posting new chapters. However, it is going to be a slow undertaking.

Jeff, all I can say is thank you from the bottom of my heart for you steadfastly standing by and helping me when you really wanted to give me a few swift kicks to my rear!

The GoFundMe account for my move is still live due to the unexpectedly high fuel bill.

Comments are encouraged and appreciated. Just use the email address listed at the top of the page.