"YOU JUST CAN'T MAKE THIS STUFF UP" 2025 # 11

THE DAY THAT THE POSSIBILITY OF DEATH BECAME A REALITY 

This photo is a "selfie" I took on August 6, 2014. It was taken a few weeks after my official retirement and a couple of days before I was scheduled to fly to France with a close friend as a retirement celebration. That day, I noticed that my left leg was red and a bit swollen. I thought it might be the result of the time I had been spending on the treadmill as part of my new pre-retirement health regime. However, since I would be flying to France in less than two days, I thought I should drive myself to the Audubon Hospital to have it checked out, just in case. 

I had never been in an emergency room as a patient, but I had heard the nightmare stories about how long I might have to wait. After four hours, I was getting restless and edgy. I decided that I would spend some of the time walking around consoling the other patients and offering some encouragement. After a hour or so of that, I was so disgusted that I seriously thought about forgetting the whole thing and "just go home and forget it." 

I don't know if I stayed because I had second thoughts or because I had already registered and did not want to embarrass myself by cancelling, but I stayed a little longer. Finally, they called my name and I was taken to a small alcove and placed on a gurney. 

A technician arrived and did an ultrasound around my knee area, concentrating it seemed on the back of my knee. As he was leaving, he told me to lie still and a doctor would be in shortly. A few minutes later a doctor arrived and told me, "Mr. Knott, we are admitting you right now! You have a blood clot in your leg! Do not move around! If it comes loose and goes to you lungs or brain, you could have a stroke or be dead in a few minutes. We will start a blood thinning IV right away!" With those words, the reality of possibly dying became a reality for the first time in my life! 

I was admitted for about three days as they thinned my blood and did what they could to dissolve my blood clot. I left the hospital with a prescription for oral blood thinners. After taking them for a few years, I found out that my blood clot was "probably situationally triggered" by all the regular flying I had been doing over the past few years. It was not lost on me that if I had left the emergency room that night, I would not have made it to France. I probably would have died on the plane going over. Then my "retirement" would have been permanent!     

Being the independent type, I drove myself home from the hospital, just like I had driven myself there.  Besides, my car was still in the hospital parking lot and I lived about a mile away. I left there a lot more thankful and a bit wiser than I was when I had arrived. Patience has never been my strong suit, but this time it saved my life. Lesson learned!