Power Kite Forum

Yes...I'm alive - but wow...had some rough times.

FlyGuyFrank - 3-12-2016 at 12:16 PM

Have thought about writing to you guys multiple times. I'm finally back to work after a lengthy hospitalization and month-long stint in rehab center. Way too long to write about, and doing so would force me to confront all the #@%$#!ed up things that happened to me. Here's the short, SHORT version as near as I can put it together. 90% of the hospitalization is a blur and most all of what I know came from family.

Started to feel febrile, headache, night sweats (horrid!), shaking chills, fever, sever fatigue, muscle and joint pain. Thought I was getting flu. Standing joke in my house (almost true) is the last physical exam I had was done by a pediatrician. I have no doc of my own so my wife made me an appointment with her idiot doctors that she uses. I see nurse practitioner. She misses diagnosis.

A further week goes by and now I'm REALLY sick. All the above - but worse. Barely can drive to get to work. I call up an infectious disease doctor with whom I'm familiar. He'll see me next day. He takes one look at me, sends me to the lab, and then to the ER of NSUH Manhasset, where I am admitted with: 1) Lyme disease, 2) Ehrlichiosis, and worst of all 3) Babesiosis - a tick-borne malaria-like disease that causes hemolytic anemia and splenic rupture.

I can't say much beyond this point. I remember I adamantly refused to allow a blood transfusion. I was told I might not survive the splenectomy without accepting blood. Told them do the best you can - no blood. Anyway, I made it through with no transfusion, but needed a LOT of fluid and pressor support for my BP. This flooded my lungs and resulted in adult respiratory distress. Intubated for an extended period of time - about 5 or 6 days, I think. After the hospital I went to rehab for general deconditioning and because I'd lost 17 lbs. Still down 12 1/2lbs. despite my wife feeding me cookies, ice cream and all the left over Halloween candy and plan to try and keep it off.

No power kite flying for me now. I have no interest in any aspect of my life anyway right now. Very traumatized by the whole thing. Too weak to manage a power kite. So, I'm going to be selling two practically unflown power kites. Flexifoil Rage 4.7M and Beamer V 3M and all the fixin's that came with them. Anybody who is interested can see my ad.

I hope all the rest of you good folks are well.

Frank

ssayre - 3-12-2016 at 12:27 PM

So these diseases were transmitted by a tick? Do you remember getting bit or noticing a tick on you? Just curious. That sounds like scary stuff. Is it possible to make a mostly full recovery? Sorry I don't know much about those diseases. My thoughts are with you and hope you get to feeling better soon.

Windstruck - 3-12-2016 at 01:00 PM

Frank - really sorry to hear about all this! Glad you survived to tell that sordid tale. Thank you too for taking the time to write to us about it. Bad things happen to good folks on PKF and we would never know if not for write ups like this.

I sincerely hope you get your mojo back. Remember the joy that got you into this quirky sport of ours and your R/C stuff. Keep some of your gear and when you're ready (or a touch before) get back on the horse again.

All the best. Steve

bigkid - 3-12-2016 at 01:02 PM

Sickness allways gets in the way of life. Hope things get better soon for you.
We will do what we can for you in the meantime .

abkayak - 3-12-2016 at 01:46 PM

I've tried calling/texting on the only # I've had for you
And have been chastised and been accused of harassment by whoever the hell i was calling just thought you decided I suck...glad this had nothing to do w/ a motorcycle...btw I donate plasma and platelets once a month so guys like you can have an easier time at it...
Honestly you want to get/feel better you'll start flying again...it will help I promise
Please call me if you want and keep your sunnyside up

skimtwashington - 3-12-2016 at 02:37 PM


We in the northeast have risk of tick-borne illness..and I believe/realize how serious it is.

Yet as someone who is in the woods almost every day( or two) I will not let it stop me. I try and check myself after a visit.... but I can't believe how small a nymph is that can get you so sick. Not much bigger than a period on a page.

I have had a few scares from found ticks.. Once had treatment... but with no confirmation. Hard to diagnose. Politics and health insurers don't want to pay for best testing, I've read ...and many mistakes.

Sorry for all your ill health and the trauma. Wishing you a full recovery.




FlyGuyFrank - 3-12-2016 at 03:50 PM

@sasayer: Yeah...one or more. I found ONE in the shower, in my right armpit on the actual day of a hike in Makamah Preserve. My on-line research led me to believe that the risk of transmission was essentially zero if the tick was attached less than 24 hours, so I completely discounted and essentially forgot about the incident. I never checked to see if I developed a bulls-eye rash but not everyone does, anyway. The real problem was I was probably bitten by one or more ticks early in the season...May or June. I didn't develop symptoms that were so significant that I HAD to acknowledge them until around September 1, but I wrongly attributed my initial symptoms - back and muscle aches - to moving our daughter and her furniture back into our home. Ignorance it seems, comes at a price.

Anyway...through a set of circumstances involving an idiot nurse practitioner who would NOT listen to me, I went undiagnosed after developing a florid illness for WAY more time than was appropriate, and despite all the medications, PICC line, splenectomy and all, I have now lapsed into a "chronic" Lyme syndrome with persistent back aches and migrating severe joint pain (one day it's a knee, next a shoulder - SO WEIRD!) that I'm trying to get in to see a Lyme specialist at NYU in the hopes of getting back to being myself and pain free.

I'm disease free as far as the Ehrichiosis and Babesiosis is concerned according to my infectious disease doc Bruce Farber (friggin' guy saved my life, can't recommend him highly enough!) but the failure to timely recognize and treat the Lyme disease is what has caused the lingering symptoms. REALLY sucks.

If you guys walk thru tall grass or weeds to a beach or field where you might encounter a tick, PLEASE be forewarned. Lyme disease is no joke...PLUS, as I now understand all too well, there are other tick-borne illnesses that are just as bad if not worse... :-(

FlyGuyFrank - 3-12-2016 at 04:13 PM

Quote: Originally posted by abkayak  
I've tried calling/texting on the only # I've had for you
And have been chastised and been accused of harassment by whoever the hell i was calling just thought you decided I suck...glad this had nothing to do w/ a motorcycle...btw I donate plasma and platelets once a month so guys like you can have an easier time at it...
Honestly you want to get/feel better you'll start flying again...it will help I promise
Please call me if you want and keep your sunnyside up


Sorry Brandon. Probably was my son, but I'm not sure who had possession of my phone at any given time. Sorry he/she was rude. Rough time for everyone involved as I'm sure you can understand. I gave them a real scare. I still luv ya and I hope you won't hold it against me!

abkayak - 3-12-2016 at 06:00 PM

:thumbup:...keep the kites
Aoxomoxoa...it is real

windrider1 - 3-12-2016 at 06:15 PM

Hey Flyguy frank I was wondering what happened to you. I met you at atlantic beach with Brandon last fall. I just though u gave up the sport. wow that's some really bad news and bad luck, this dosent happen to kiters. most are usually blessed with good luck. hope u pull through men really sorry to hear about the situation but hang in there and don't sell the kites or u might l regret it. Just keep them to Fly when u Recover .

FlyGuyFrank - 3-12-2016 at 06:53 PM

Yeah...it's been a rough time. I hope with all my heart it will get better. Dr. Farber has been great, but he's an infectious disease generalist, and my current situation is such that I need a Lyme specialist, so I'm stuck on the waiting list for an appointment. If nothing else I want to make you guys on Long Island and in the North East generally aware that this $^&%$ is out there and NOT to ignore symptoms - even if you don't see any tick. That was my fatal mistake...thinking it was the flu and/or related to moving heavy furniture.

I appreciate the advice on the sale. Luckily, I have decent health insurance thru my wife so the financial burden isn't so terrible...but the kites are sitting there mocking me...and I know I haven't the strength to fly them. I have no gusto for any of my former interests, so I'd like to see SOMEBODY fly them. No interest in work, wife, family. I know I'm depressed and scared and feeling unusually vulnerable, but I can't help it. Sadly, during this whole time I became a grandfather for the first time. I missed out on a lot since it wasn't clear at the time what the source of my illness was, so I had to stay far away from my daughter-in-law and the baby, and after that I was in Manhasset Hospital and Parker Jewish for rehab. I'm sick and tired of being sick and tired, and selling stuff I am physically unprepared to use just feels like the right thing to do. It's either here or E-bay, and I'd rather give a deal to someone on this forum than a complete stranger - especially as regards the Flexifoil = because that is one powerful kite.