What Happened?

On April 26th, 2011 I arrived at the Queensway Carleton Hospital in Ottawa, Ontario via ambulance.  I presented with deafness in my left ear, severe headache, low-grade fever, projectile vomiting (I know, that’s gross), double vision, neck pain and mild cognitive impairment.  Within 5 minutes of my arrival, the ER doctor performed a lumbar puncture and it was soon confirmed that I had bacterial meningitis.  My life was in danger…..Ooops!

The purpose of this website is to document my recovery.  Originally it was intended for my patients who were stunned to learn of my illness.  Now I hope as many people as possible will follow this blog – every aspect of it – good and bad. To that end I would ask anyone reading this to click the Facebook or Twitter icon at the bottom of the page in order to share this story.  I am less interested in being ‘Liked” with the large icon to the right.  I hope that by sharing this story with you, and through you – people can make radical changes in their life to regain their health.  I am changing just about everything in my life in order to regain my health.   Exercise, diet, headspace, attitude, matters of faith and anything else that comes up.

On with the story.

They started me on vancomycin which is, as I understand it, the last-stand antibiotic.  After ‘vanc’ there is nothing else.  When the culture and sensitivity came back identifying the offending bacteria as streptococcus  pneumonaie I was taken off this drug and put on penicillin.  Up until that point, everyone around me was dressed in masks and gowns because it was possible that the bacteria was something particularly virulent.  It wasn’t, and so isolation precautions ended.

Question #1 – How could a guy like me – a health and wellness expert  get so sick from a bug that isn’t virulent enough to necessitate masks and gowns?  Good question.  Stick around on this blog and I will answer it.

Over the next three days my symptoms deepened and it was clear that the pressure in my skull was increasing.  Now I had total paralysis of the muscles of the right side of my face, my vision was impaired to the point  that I could see the outline of objects/people but I couldn’t make out any detail.  My bladder stopped functioning, my heart rate was erratic, blood pressure was all over the map.  Both my hands and feet were a combination of numb and very painful pins and needles.  My personality had also changed.  Beth (my bride) will tell you that I was not ‘her Paul’ anymore.  I was beligerent, angry and demanding.  I am glad I don’t remember much of this.  The pressure and pain in my head was so bad that I remember keeping my hands over my eyes; I was sure they would pop out from the pressure.  No kidding.

This video is of really poor quality – it was taken using my Blackberry.  It contains the only images of me BEFORE the surgery.  My intent was to send an encouraging message to my daughters – telling them that I would be home soon and that I would “tickle you ’til you pee your pants!”  Turns out Madeline , 7, interpreted the video as a ‘farewell’.  She still can’t bare to watch it.

I wasn’t responding to the antibiotics and things were not looking good.  The infectious diseases specialist conveyed this to me in a way that I knew he didn’t think I was going to survive.  He offered no hope.  He was also telling my wife, Beth that I was worsening instead of improving and implied that I was likely to either die or worse….survive with profound neurological deficits.  Beth was devastated.

Meet My Family:  Beth, Madeline, Ella – Picture was taken Sept 2009.

The Infectious Disease specialist was summarily ‘dismissed’.  And from what I am told, I wasn’t polite about it.  I learned something about being a doctor from this guy.  What not to do.  Click here if you are a healthcare professional and I will share what I learned as a doctor – about being a patient.  From that moment I made a decision to not let any ‘bad news’ into my mind anymore.  In retrospect – it was a good call!

The meningitis originated from an ear infection that defied the odds and got worse instead of better….Way worse.  Three days into my hospital stay with IV antibiotics running through my body and the ear was still excruciating.  I kept asking the intensivist  “what about my ear – what are we doing about my ear?” – the reply was a curt “Your ear is the least of your worries right now”.  This made sense considering all the other symptoms I was having, but I couldn’t ignore the pain.  A few hours later the specialist came back and said, “I’ve been thinking about your ear and I called a surgeon to look at you”.  One stat MRI and a stat CT scan and they found out why I wasn’t responding to the antibiotics.  I had an abscess in my skull and it was getting bigger.  I arrived at the hospital on Tuesday – it was now Friday.

The surgeon arrived, assessed me, reviewed the MRI and CT scan and told me I needed surgery right away.  That night he removed the abscess from my head via the ear (that was pleasant) and Saturday morning I started to feel better and my white blood cell count finally started to come down.  I was going to live.

Here is a short video of me sitting up for the first time since admission.  I believe it was the day after I had surgery.  It was supposed to be a picture but it was set on video instead.  I am wearing sunglasses because I was very light sensitive and the wet facecloth was placed underneath them because it was heavy enough to keep my eye closed.  My friend, Dr. David Covey, who you will meet later, asked me to ‘smile and say something nice for the camera’.  If you listen carefully you will hear me grumble, “This is a smile”…you had to be there, it was kinda funny.

Question #2.  Now that I knew I was going to survive, I began to wonder how many of my neurological symptoms would remain as permanent damage and how many of them would be restored to normal?

• Completely deaf in the left ear
• Total facial paralysis on the right side of my face
• Double vision
• Non-functioning bladder
• Pins and needles in both hands and feet.
• Ataxia
• Vertigo
• Severe headaches and neck pain
• Profound weakness and fatigue

Time would tell.  When I got home I was nearly unrecognizable to anyone but my closest friends and family.  Not only was I disfigured but I had lost about 25 pounds of muscle mass in the span of about 3-4 days.  I was in really bad condition but I was alive and grateful for it.   I had a long road ahead of me (I still do).

What can you to do  improve/maximize your health?  If your health is already down and out (as mine was), I hope that by following this blog, you will let me walk with you.  Take some or all of the steps I am taking and soon you will hear ”Eye of the Tiger” playing in your head again – or maybe for the first time.  You are invited into my private life and watch the recovery.  Maybe you will learn something, maybe you won’t.  You make the call.

It’s IN ME to be healthy again.  It’s IN YOU  too.

Let’s do this.        Lots of Love, Dr. Paul Groulx

PS – If you want more detail about my little foray into being at death’s door – I was interviewed on the radio…not once, not twice but YES…three times.  Here are the links to the audio downloads.

PSS – I think it would be great if you clicked the Facebook and Twitter links.  Even if you don’t think this will benefit you, who knows which of your friends will see it.  They might get inspired.

Click Here for Interview Part One.

Click Here for Interview Part Two.

Click Here for Interview Part Three.

http://tinyurl.com/ottawachiropractor