Whoops by Keith D. Guernsey The transplant itself went fine but the night after ‌well not so much! I mentioned earlier that there were only two major problems that occurred during my nine months of treatment. The first was the fall that I mentioned above. The second was in the hospital the night after my Stem Cell Transplant. The transplant was deemed a success by the medical staff but the night after in the hospital was the exact opposite. What happened next was terrifying to Susan and me. It was Saturday night in early September and the nurse had come in to give me my medications. Susan ever the inquisitive one asked her what she was giving me she said "it's a combination of Ativan, Tylenol and Benadryl." Susan told her that my system did not handle Ativan well but that unfortunately fell on deaf ears. Since it was obvious she wasn't listening, Susan tried to get her to limit the dosage but that didn't work either. She forged ahead, ignoring Susan's advice and shot me up. The results were disastrous. I turned into a gibbering idiot almost immediately. I was unable form an intelligible sentence. Susan was beside herself with worry for me and anger at the nurse for ignoring her request. The rest of the night was a medically
induced fog so Susan had to fill me in on the details later. She said her first thought was to call one of the ubiquitous ambulance chasing attorneys we see on TV every night. Her second was that this would be permanent and I would lose my ability to speak clearly forever.
Doctors and nurses began to pour into the room and there first thought was that I had a stroke. But then they put their hands together and came to the conclusion that this a temporary condition brought on by my body's reaction to the Ativan. They said my speech should return to normal the next morning after the meds wore off and I had a good night’s sleep. Fortunately they were correct and my speech pattern returned to normal (or at least as normal as it has ever been!) For more, please visit us on the web at; http://tinyurl.com/y6ut57ms
Keith D. Guernsey is retired and living on Lake Lanier with his lovely wife Susan and Zoey, his four-footed daughter thegurns2005@yahoo.com Twitter=@thegurns https://www.amazon.com/Mr-Keith-D-Guernsey/e/B00PR51Q7Y - 48 -
