| The shot I thought would be my last....A former friend and I took a marathon trip to Buffalo, NY and back. Unbeknownst to me, I was becoming deathly ill. I had not eaten all day. My former friend picked me up around dinner time, so I figured we would stop for dinner somewhere on the way up. He did not stop for food until we got to Amsterdam, NY sometime around 10-11PM. We stopped at Mc Donalds. I ordered the standard 2 cheeseburger meal. I could not finish it. We got to the hotel, and we got the room furthest from the entrance. Carrying all my stuff wiped me out. I went to the vending machine and got a Pepsi, some cookies and a bag of something else, then took some insulin. I really did not sleep well and got up early and showered. For some reason, I got dizzy. I blamed it on low sugar. We stopped at a convenience store where I got a bag of pretzels an big bottle of pepsi and something else. I think it may have been a bagel with cream cheese. Off we went. He stopped at another Mc Donalds to relieve himself. While there, I took insulin. BIG MISTAKE!!!. We stopped on some bridge, I dont know where and nearly tripped n a strip of grass. This was the first sign that things were going to go bad. I remember that I told him that we had to stop so I could get some soda, he never did. Meanwhile my vision was going funky on me. It seemed like everything was overexposed, if I looked towards the sun, then later if I took my sunglasses off. Finally around Buffalo, we stopped for fuel and I finally got some soda and some candy to try and get my sugar back up. When I got out, he parked as far away as he could. I told how pissed I was and he gave me lip. Then in Lyons, NY my former friend began berating me for my poor health. Finally in Glasdell, NY, I began having trouble with my balance. Then I fell. I managed to get myself up and back into my former friends truck. My friend stayed there in Glasdell to get one or two more trains. Then we stopped at Wendys and got food to go and then the long 6 hour ride home. Once I got home, he parked the truck close enough to the house so I could hold on to the truck and then the railings on the house and the steps so I could get in the house. My former friend brought my bags in and left. I somehow managed to get upstairs so I could get my mothers pills out so my housemate and friend, then moms caregiver could dispense moms meds while I was gone. I dialed 911 and was rushed to the hospital. It turned out that my kidneys had shut down and I was on the verge of death. I spent 24 hours in the ICU, over four days in the hospital an d then almost a month in a nursing home for rehab because I had a major gout attack when I was in renal failure. I have never publicly told this story because I do not want to appear to be ungrateful for being taken on that trip. I am grateful for being taken on the trip, but it was a scary near death experience. This shot of CSX 3047 on Q-127 at Brockton, NY 7/23/2016 could have been my last photograph. |