| Julian standing on a rock found along a wooded trail close to the house. |
Julian’s health has declined over the past few weeks and is now in the hospital with a pulmonary edema; blood clots in the lungs. This is a very serious condition, and we are doing everything we can to ensure he recovers.
Before I tell that tale, I have a few blog related announcements.
Gaia Portal – The update released on August 23rd I was not able to get done with everything that happened today. Provided there are no other issues, we will continue on with the interpretations of these updates moving forward.
Radio Show – Our biweekly show, scheduled for this Wednesday will most likely be cancelled. We didn’t have time to prepare anything this week given what happened. However, if all goes well tomorrow we may decided to do an impromptu show anyway.
Editing and Image Creation – Although Julian has many skills which contribute to this blog, he helps immeasurably by editing my poor grammar and spelling, as well as creating the captivating images for most of the articles. Until he is able to return, there may be more errors then normal. If you see any kindly send an email to sitsshow@gmail.com so I can address them.
Here’s the Story:
As some of you know, Julian’s health declined last year due to blood clots in his leg. At the time we were in Martil Morocco, but were thankfully able to address the immediate need. Upon returning to the U.S. in May of this year it seemed as if the problems were behind him. But several weeks ago his leg swelled up again, and he had similar symptoms as was experienced in Morocco.
For those who don’t know, Julian is a Puerto Rican, descended from Taino peoples of that area. The affect of a western diet on these indigenous people can be problematic, several of Julian’s family members have had serious health problems as a result, including blood clots.
Despite acknowledging the validity of a healthy diet, coming back to the States was a huge temptation for both of us. Julian decided to address this second blood clot, which developed in mid June, using the tried and true techniques we that worked in Morocco; raw fruit and veggies, plenty of distilled water, coconut oil, apple cider vinegar, Turmeric and a raw honey and garlic infusion. After several weeks the condition finally cleared up.
However, about a week and a half ago, Julian began to feel a sharp pain in his chest when taking deep breaths. We weren’t sure what the problem was, but since we were doing a lot of physical work on the grounds were we stay, we thought it was just a pulled muscle or nerve. Several days later the pain got so bad he wasn’t able to take deep breaths at all and had to take anti-inflammatories to sleep through the night. He also started to have daily fever bouts that came in the mid afternoon, although he had no sign of sickness whatsoever; no cough, no mucus, no soar throat.
Last Friday he and I were relaxing at the end of the day watching a video and he passed out right next to me. Although I wasn’t exactly sure what the problem was, I had a intuitive notion that his condition was a result of more blood clots, this time in his lung. Needless to say, it was a transformative experience to watch the man I’ve spent 6 years of my life with go completely limp.
I jumped to action and tried to rouse him. He did not wake up right away, but instead slowly came back, in a quasi seizure type of movement. His head was initially arched back in a disconcerting position, and as I stood over him shacking hands and legs, holding his head in my hand with tears welling in my eyes, he started to come back. It was as if his consciousness was trying to animate his body, but could only access a small portion of motor function, and his eyes were glazed over and unmoving while his arms and legs were writhing about like a limp fish. At the time I thought he had a stroke, and this was all he could muster, but right as I was about to call the paramedics, he came too and regained full control of his body.
Julian didn’t remember anything other then what we were doing before he fainted, only to see me standing over him asking questions: “What is your name? What day is is today? How old are you?” We decided to go to the hospital that night hopefully to find out what happened.
Julian told the staff that he had a minor blood clot in his leg in December 2014, but the doctor on didn’t think it was a clot. After a doing some vitals, and getting a chest x-ray, the doctor said that Julian was dehydrated and there appeared to be an infection in his right lung. They also said that the reason he passed out was because he was taking shallow breaths and he simply fainted. Although there was no fluid heard in his breathing, apparently they thought he had pneumonia and advised that he take a dose of antibiotics. The doctor didn’t seem interested in exploring the possibility that something more serious was happening, despite his past and family history.
We went back home and sat quietly taking stock of how he felt. After a few minutes he began to feel light headed again and we decided to go back. The doctor was even more dismissive this time, and suggested that he take the antibiotics as initially advised. Again we refused.
Julian and I are well aware of the deleterious affects of such treatments, and decided to follow a more intense course of antibacterial protocols. He ceased consuming all simple sugars, drank a lot of water, lemon juice, and the other items from before.
On Sunday there wasn’t much improvement, but he hadn’t fainted again either. Later that night after having our usual weekly family meal, he said that his heart was racing despite having done no physical activity. He laid down and meditated for an hour and that seemed to calm him down.
The next day, Monday August 24th, he said his condition hadn’t changed all that much. Julian still couldn’t breathe normally, and his heart was still not beating at a normal pace. As the day went on he became increasingly anxious as to what was happening and attempted to meditate again. But at around 6:00pm he told me that he wanted to go to the hospital again, and he was very distraught.
We immediately jumped in the car and went to the hospital. The staff took more vitals and reviewed the x-ray from the previous visit. The doctor said that the reason his heart was acting up was because of his infection and he needed to just take the antibiotics. I found this to be a dubious set of logic, but none the less, his anxiety was causing him great distress, and we decided to allow the treatment to take place.
About 2 hours later, after a liter and a half of fluids were introduced into his system, his heart did not slow down. The doctor became concerned, and decided to perform another x-ray. This revealed less white mass (‘infection’) in his lung, perplexing the doctor even more. They decided to perform a CAT scan and discovered that both his lungs had blood clots in them, there was in fact no infection or pneumonia at all.
I was a not happy at the level of incompetency displayed by this doctor, or the last. Both seemed perfectly happy to ignore Julians family history as well as the past problems with clots. He reluctantly took a dose of antibiotics only to discover that there was no infection. The doctor made a joke about it being good news because Julian made such a fuss about taking them, which didn’t sit well with me either; “its too late for jokes, you fool, the damage has been done.”
After discovering the clots, Julian was placed on anticoagulants, and was transferred to the ICU. I came back home to get a few items for him, and upon my return he was resting quietly in bed. After sitting with him for an hour or so, the nurse came in and told us he was going to have an EKG and ultrasound to determine if there were any additional clots, and that according to his medical training, the symptoms Julian had was textbook pulmonary edema; blood clots in the lung.
Julian, as of this writing, is resting in the hospital and will receive a round of testing to ensure there is no complications to the blood thinner treatment. He will need to stay on them for 3 to 6 months and regiment his diet very carefully.
Thank you in advance everyone for your support and well wishes. We are grateful for all the contributions to the blog and ad clicks which will help support us during this time of healing. As soon as we know more we’ll post an update.
Much Love,
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