Well, we thought we had successfully made it to the end of the crazy year of 2020. It was December 23, Clay and I were both wrapping up work so that we could spend the next two weeks together as a family with Christmas and New Years fun. Then came the excitement.
Clay had an endoscopy on December 11 because he was thinking of getting a gastric sleeve for weight-loss and this was a pre-op procedure to ensure he was a candidate for the procedure. Everything seemed fine – nothing unusual showed up during the procedure. But the following week, his teeth and lower jaw started hurting – extreme pain, such that he voluntarily called the dentist to make an appointment. Nothing was unusual on the dental x-rays, but later that week he started feeling short of breath, was sweating when walking from room to room seeing patients, had a racing pulse and started noticing black poop.
Since we were two days away from Christmas, he decided to go ahead and get some bloodwork done to see if he was having some bleeding from the December 11 endoscopy. The only place in town that would give same day results and was in network with our health insurance was the Bay Med ER. Clay thought the beach location would be less crowded and he got up early, kissed me goodbye, and started a series of events that would change our lives forever.