I Dodged The Bullet Once Again

Those of you who know me, or of me  know well the numerous instances of medical problems that have plagued my life these past few years.

By the end of 2021 I had been legally dead, resuscitated and on life support on seven occasions.

As of today, July 5th, 2024 that has increased to twelve times .

Most people experience death only once. They don’t come back to try life once again.

So putting all that aside, let me bring you up to date with the latest chapter of “Dying Dann’s Adventures With Death”.

(Check my YouTube channel for numerous videos of my ‘Adventures With Death.)

I was diagnosed with oropharyngeal  cancer and Squamous Cell Carcinoma on October 28th, 2018.

The Squamous Cell Carcinoma was eradicated with experimental radical radiation treatments in early March 2020.

I had 80 rounds of Harwins Protocol  radiation in 20 days. A double session every morning and repeated every afternoon.

Very radical and powerful rounds of treatment.

Treatments that, as all radiation treatments do, caused severe damage to the targeted areas of my throat, tongue and a section deep within my brain.

In fact,  due to the physical damage in my throat I now have a permanent trachea airway insitu.

It is life changing and definitely annoying but a small price to pay for the gift of being able to breathe.

The oropharyngeal cancer is currently in remission. 

It has been going in and out of remission for almost six years now.

One of those things that is constantly whispering in your ear. An annoying little reminder that life could change in an instant. 

Due to the frequency of those whispers I never let my guard down.

To enlighten those who are not in the know, the side effects of radiation treatments can take years to raise their ugly heads. It is not uncommon to experience some sort of delayed side effects five to ten years post radiation therapy.

The following will explain what led to my dodging the clutches of Death yet again.

For the past few months I had been having daily periods of severe dizziness. This was often accompanied by confusion. Recently, on two occasions, I temporarily lost eyesight in my left eye.

It lasted about five to ten minutes both times.

Not often that I feel fear but on both these occasions I was worried. Very concerned. 

Foolishly, I procrastinated and did not report these to my care team.

Instead, I self diagnosed.

I shrugged it off as “oxygen deprivation”. Something, due to complications  with my trach, I had experienced in the past. Usually happening when large quantities of phlegm and fluids excretions build up in my airway. None times out of ten easily rectified by my using my suction machine to clear the obstructions. 

My diagnosis was  wrong. Very wrong!

During my most recent visit I mentioned, in passing, what was happening to my internal medicine doctors.

I figured they would more than likely exchange my trach with a larger diameter one.

Once again,  my self diagnosis was wrong.

Immediately they rushed me into a Cat scan and a MRI.

What they found was killing me.

Literally!

My mentioning the episodes had actually saved my life.

The tests revealed that deep in my brain there lay damaged and scarred tissue.

Damaged by the radical radiation treatments.

They found seven areas scattered throughout my brain that positively showed I have been  having “minor strokes”.

Definitely cause for concern!

Worse than that, they discovered additional areas verifying I have had two “major strokes”.

In hindsight this explained the two occasions where I experienced the temporary blindness.

 All this was a huge wake-up call to me.

However, what they discovered next scared the bejeebers out of me.

Deep, very deep, in my brain on my cartoid artery was a large aneurysm forming.  A balloon of death if it were to pop.

And it could pop at any second.

Into the operating room I go once again.

I have been Blessed by the marvels of modern medicine and medical technology.  On more than one occasion it has saved my life.

This time was no exception. 

Years ago I would have had to endure invasive surgery.

It would have been necessary to cut open my skull and slice into my brain tissue and hopefully extract the aneurysm and repair the artery.

This would be followed by a lengthy hospitalization for recovery and rehabilitation.

Today’s technology made it far less invasive and far less damaging.

They attempted to insert an angiogram wire into my cartoid artery through the right side of my groin.

Their plan was to work their way up through my body into my brain.

Once there they would insert a stent deep in my brain, inflate a balloon to secure it in place.

Then they could carefully repair the aneurysm.

In the middle of the procedure the artery ruptured.

This caused a flurry of activity as they had to split into two teams so as one could deal with the rupture and the other would restart the procedure via my left side.

This had to be done as quickly as possible as the inflated ballon was cutting off the blood supply to my brain. It was a race against time to say the least. 

Long story short, they were very successful with the repairing the aneurysm and the implantation of the stent.

And by doing so made it possible for me to be telling you how, once again,  I have dodged the bullet.

Defeating Death itself yet again!

Herein lays the main reason that I am so grateful for the life I have.

The reason that I refuse to allow my numerous health issues to bring Darkness into my life.

The reason I refuse to allow conflict, negativity, ignorance or argumentation to influence my life.

The reason that I give thanks to the Creators each and every day.

For now I realize that life is a precious gift and should be lived with gratitude, happiness and truth.

I no longer take anything or anyone for granted.

This chapter of my life has taught me to be caring, to show compassion, to hold no bigotry or hatred in my heart and the greatest reward it has gifted to me is "humbleness" 

With all these past six years has thrown at me, I can honestly say ………..

“If you were me, you would smile, too.“