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From: Frank.Whitney@f1000.n261.z1.fidonet.org (Frank Whitney)
Newsgroups: misc.handicap
Subject: Re: transient weakness
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Date: 9 Aug 90 19:51:36 GMT
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[This is from the Spinal Injury Conference]

>        I quoted your entire message because it is IMPORTANT.  My 
>doctor told me 30 years ago that I would die of either kidney 
>failure or a simple cold gone bad.  As a quad I still think he 
>was right.  Most of my quad friends have died from those TWO 
>causes. 
> 
>     DRINK DRINK DRINK ... BREATH DEEP  BREATH DEEP  BREATH DEEP. 
Once when I was in the hospital I developed symptoms that were leading 
to pneumonia because I couldn't really cough very well they elevated  
my legs and had my head lower than the rest of my body.  They kept 
beating on my back until I said I was going to get sick, well that's  
exactly what they wanted.  When I heaved everything that was in my  
chest came up.  After that experience I decided that if at all 
possible I'd never get in that position again.  Fortunately so far 
I've been free of that problem for over 20 years.  Unfortunately, I 
can't say the same about my kidneys.  When I was first in the hospital 
I had an internal catheter but it kept getting clogged up within 
several hours.  It was decided that the best thing they could do was 
to operate and perform a loop.  It probably saved my life but it is a 
real pain.  One of the problems that I wasn't told about was that 
every several years it has to be revised which is a real pain and  
because of scar tissue they have to revise the connection.  This then 
puts me out of commission for several weeks.  In addition, it's been 
over eight years since my last operation so I can see from my  x-rays 
that it's probably not going to be very long before I need some more  
surgery.  Not a really comforting thought but I do trust my  urologist 
and surgeon.
If I'd had been drinking the way I should have been over the last  20 
years I'd probably still have good function in both of my kidneys.   
Now one is doing about 75 percent of the work and the other is just  
limping along.  Whenever I meet a newly injured person I always  
encourage them to drink plenty of fluids and keep their lungs and  
skin in good shape.
Frank.

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