Saturday, January 31, 2004
Flashback 11/2002 - The Ordeal
People kept asking me for this story somewhere, so I will put it here. The story of what happened to me in November 2002 that changed my life forever.
One week after a music conference in 2002, I played a show in Philly with FFF. Towards the end of the bus ride back to Boston, I started to develop a swollen neck gland like you might get with a little cold coming on. I went to sleep that night and woke up at 7 to get ready for work. I didn’t feel much better, so I took the day off. At 4:00PM I arrived at my doctor’s office. At this point, it was still just a swollen gland, although it was getting worse. The doctor checked for strep, but sent me home saying there was nothing serious going on. I returned home and tried to sleep. I woke up around midnight and felt my jaw aching. When I tried to move, the pain stopped me cold. My next urge was to swallow, but I quickly learned to my shock and terror, something was blocking it. The swelling had moved into my esophagus all but preventing passage. I called my doctor back around 1:00AM. He asked me if I thought it could wait until tomorrow morning, if not, I should go to the ER. I got into my car and started a terrifying drive to the ER. I got there and the swelling had gotten much worse. I told them several times that I was having trouble breathing. Unfortunately, there had been 3 car accidents that night. The doctors had people with open chests and heads and I wasn’t as urgent. The swelling continued to terrify me. 4 and a half hours went by before I finally went in. Only to find out that they were ready hours earlier but the nurses hadn’t handed the doctors my paper work. After all that, they figured out what was wrong, a peritonsillar abscess, then said the adjoining hospital was the right place for a procedure and they could do it right away… I was walked over there and had to wait another 3 hours before being seen. Well, by 11:00AM they had admitted me and I was up in a room. I went through a couple of days on IV antibiotics that reduced the throat swelling a little bit, then just before Thanksgiving, when it was obvious they wanted to clear people out, they discharged me. My mother, the nurse, was with me. I told the doctors that I could feel my neck getting much worse, but they had made their decision. I slept in Boston. 4:00AM the following morning, my mother drove me down to Long Island for the holiday. We were only at her house about 45 minutes before I said, we have to go back to a hospital. It had gotten MUCH worse. They did a cat scan. With no painkillers, they spread open my jaw (which I couldn’t open on my own) What followed was a procedure that defies words. After that was done, I thought the worst must be over, I can go home. Doc said, “you’re not going anywhere, you’re gonna be here for a while” (that was the morning of thanksgiving) I had tons of tests, tons of cat scans. By the next night, after a cat scan, I heard some talking between my mom and the doctor. Apparently, the infection had taken over my entire neck, part of my jaw and cheek bone, and started to move down into my chest and up into my head. It was die or operate immediately. I had no idea what they were doing, but what choice did I have? They put me out. They ended up cutting open my neck and putting a pipe down my chest for air. By this point, all my pipes had closed shut. That tube was there for 4 weeks. I spent a total of 3.5 weeks in hospitals and another 2 months recovering at home. It was not an easy surgery. I am very lucky to be alive. I have had a few follow up surgeries, but am happy to report: I am alive, I can talk, I can sing again. These 3 things were in doubt for a time. Well, now you have the true story. Got health insurance? No? Get it now!
see you soon.
