Thursday afternoon I was teaching class. A few hours later, I was in Jefferson Healthcare ICU.
A couple of weeks earlier, I had been sledding at HJ Carroll and hit a low stump with my right heel, breaking the fibula. I went into Ortho the next day and got a cast applied to my right lower leg. Even so, I was cleared for light duty.
I had a little chest pain and coughing Tuesday night, and the next evening also. As the end of school neared on Thursday, I began to lose energy and called my wife to take me to the walk-in Clinic. I was quickly transferred to the emergency room, and folks there began doing tests and treating my symptoms.
A CT scan confirmed I had blood clots in both lungs, some of which had traveled through my heart, a complication of the sledding injury. I was several days in the ICU, monitored, medicated, oxygenated and given lung treatments. When I arrived at the ER, I was barely able to breathe, move or mutter. After a few days, I could hobble around, laugh softly and speak in complete sentences without gasping for air!
We are so lucky to have such a great resource as Jefferson Healthcare in our small town. And even luckier to have such a fine care staff, from the hospitalists to the nurses and med techs. To everyone there who contributed to my care, I am so grateful.
Thaddeus Jurczynski
Chimacum
