Coping With Urological Emergencies

In September of 2004, I was a bus driver on a charter to Silver Dollar City. Starting just before the trip, I was experiencing fatigue and a slight fever. During the three-day stay, I spent every free moment in my hotel bed. My symptoms were extreme fatigue, a mild fever, and NOTHING ELSE. I had no pain or discomfort anywhere alerting me to a possible injury or infection.

My passengers were aware of my discomfort, and two of them sat close to me, engaging me in conversation to help me get them home safely. When I dropped them off and returned the bus to the barn, I was considering going home to rest, but my dispatcher convinved me to go to my hospital to get checked out.

I arrived at the Emergency Room at approximately 2 a.m., and thgey took my vitals. I was extremely lucky to have a doctor on-call who correctly diagnosed the symptoms because he said, “If you had waited a few more hours to come in, you would be dead.” Apparently, my symptoms are frequently mis-diagnosed as the flu. My surgery was scheduled for NOON on Sunday, which tells you exactly how critical my situation was! They eventually removed a football-sized mass of necrotic tissue from my thigh, and I underwent a three-week period of twice-daily hyperbaric treatments.