May 2005 Archives

MSNBC has an article up reporting the identity of the infamous Deep Throat.

>Ex-FBI official says he's 'Deep Throat'

Magazine quotes him as saying he was 'doing his duty'

Updated: 12:01 p.m. ET May 31, 2005

W. Mark Felt, who retired from the FBI after rising to its second most senior position, has identified himself as the "Deep Throat" source quoted by The Washington Post to break the Watergate scandal that led to President Nixon's resignation, Vanity Fair magazine said Tuesday.

"I'm the guy they used to call Deep Throat," he told John D. O'Connor, the author of Vanity Fair's exclusive that appears in its July issue. [MSNBC]

No word yet from Woodward and Bernstein, who have pledged not to reveal the identity until the person has died.

After my bout with acute rejection I woke up to find myself in the ICU again. This was a kind of weird time for me. The medications they gave me to fight off the rejection/possible infection scrambled my brain a little. Between that and being cooped up in the ICU I was more than a bit confused. For a while I pretty much forgot I'd had the transplant.

For the next week or so everything snapped back into place and I remembered where I was and what I was there for. But it was so strange to look back and and my thinking still makes sense. There is a condition called ICU Psychosis what is experienced by some people, and we think I had a touch of that added in. I remember having lots of really odd dreams, which I guess had me speaking out loud too. My parents and sister have all kinds of stories of me talking about too many countries and leprechauns.

After close to a week I was moved back to step down. At this point I'd barely eaten in weeks and my weight was down 35 pounds. So the next week was gaining strength, starting to walk again (with the help of a walker). Getting used to eating again (which took some time).

After just over a week of that I was ready to head home. I was going pretty crazy with boredom and got to leave just in time.

So far things at home are going well. I get better at going up and down stairs every day. It's amazing how hard even little things like that are still.

I wanted to have this thank you be on its own. I would like to thank Emily for keeping this blog updated. I'd asked her to do it for me years ago and was glad that she was able to do it. My friends and family have all be so impressed with it. And it really helped keep information flowing.

Thanks again Emily!

There's so many people to thank for their support with my ordeal. At the very top of the list is my family. My parents, who were there for me every single day without fail, are the best. Even while I was a bit out of my head with ICU Psychosis. My sister, who came up from Louisiana and also watched over me. It was good to have her nearby.

Next are all the people who sent me cards and presents. I'm not even going to try and name everyone because there are just too many and I'm sure I'd forget. But at the top of the list would be Bree and Ellen.

And finally, a big thanks to all the nurses and doctors at Brigham & Womens. They were all so amazing. Even when I felt like I must be bothering them too much they were always there for me.

On April 13th at around 2pm-ish I got a call from Brigham and Women's asking me to come in for a transplant. After packing things up my parents and I zoomed up to the hospital. After getting there I learned things were a go and was prepped for surgery. At around 1am on the 14th they were done with my surgery.

Fast forward to the Sunday after that. That's the first day I remember being able to connect events together. Everything has gone well with the surgery and I am recovering nicely. Within two days I'm eating solid foods and being ready to moved to what they call Step Down. Step Down is where you go through the second stage of your recovery. They have you exercise every day to get your new lung working better and start to get you learning about what the rest of your recovery will be like.

Unfortunately, after a day or two in Step Down I had a setback and went into acute rejection. At the time they weren't sure if it was rejection or infection or what, so they were treating me for everything. This also meant going back under sedation as they put me back on the ventilator. I pretty much don't remember anything between then and waking up a week or so later in a fairly confused state.

I'll continue this tale in one of my next posts so that this doesn't get too long.