Recent Developments

For those of you who are not aware of what happened to me recently, I contracted pneumonia about four weeks ago, and went in for a standard lung exam, to identify what kind of pneumonia I had. During the course of what should have been a simple procedure, the physician accidentally punctured my lung, on August 20th. The next day, while I was on a conference call, my lung collapsed, which was indescribably painful. I managed, with difficulty, and with the guidance and support of Denise, to get to my doctor's office, to get a chest x-ray, which showed the lung collapsing. With Denise, I went directly to the Emergency Room of New York Hospital, where a team of doctors and nurses were waiting for me. They performed an emergency operation to re-inflate my lung (with heavy doses of morphine to dull the pain), and I was then hospitalized for a week, while my lung stabilized. It was an incredibly painful, and disruptive, experience. Denise was an angel, sitting with me all day each day and evening, and bringing in food for all three meals, since the hospital cuisine was, essentially, inedible.


Following my operation, and my subsequent hospitalization, I'm continuing my slow but steady progress in regaining my ability to breathe without difficulty, and also regaining, slowly, my stamina. My life is made easier by the fact that Denise provides incredible support each day, cooking meals, monitoring my medication, and going with me to all of my doctor's appointments.

What they don't tell you, when they discharge you after a lung re-inflation operation, is that you will experience difficulty in breathing for some time, and that your stamina level (reflecting a reduced lung capacity) is extremely low, resulting in significant fatigue from fairly minor physical activity. It takes weeks to regain your breathing capacity, during which you experience a lot of discomfort, and nearly constant fatigue.

I've been out of the hospital for exactly two weeks, and only now am I beginning to be able to breathe without difficulty, and also to have enough stamina to get through the day without difficulty.