Chocolate Cake Tried To Kill Me, But Insurance Might Finish The Job

A single bite changed everything. What began as a straightforward recovery from hip and hamstring surgeries veered into aspiration pneumonia, a fight for air, and a crash course in medical advocacy. We walk you through the minute-by-minute reality: the warning signs that were missed, the plea for intubation that took too long to land, and the moment a routine anesthesia choice nearly collided with a known allergy. It’s unvarnished, emotional, and grounded in practical takeaways you can use if you or someone you love ever faces a similar crisis.

We open up about how a caregiver’s voice can cut through chaos when yours won’t, why documenting allergies and repeating them matters, and how to handle transfers when hospitals are out of ICU beds. From the suction that cleared thick mucus to the sedation that fogged memory, we share the clinical steps alongside the human ones—staying calm, asking direct questions, and pushing for the right level of care. You’ll hear how our aides balanced fear and focus, how a medical liaison showed up before sunrise, and how community support steadied the ground under our feet.

Then we turn to rehab reality: a heavy cast, energy budgeting, and building a plan that integrates physical therapy and occupational therapy when insurance only funds so much. We map out practical strategies for continuity of care, including choosing facilities that fit your needs, pacing progress to protect surgical gains, and preparing for the first days back home. If you’ve navigated disability, chronic illness, or complex post-op care, you’ll recognize the small victories and the stubborn barriers. If you haven’t, consider this a guide to speaking up, writing things down, and not apologizing for persistence.

If this story resonates, follow the show, share it with a friend who’s advocating inside the system, and leave a review with your best tip for surviving hospital chaos. Your words help others breathe a little easier. Subscribe and stay with us as we work our way back home.

Transcript

Late-Night Check-In And Surgeries

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to a different shaped heart, you guys. This episode is being recorded at 8 o'clock at 9 Arizona time. So if I'm a little bit scrambled, that's why. But I made it through my hip replacement. I made it through hamstring lengthening surgery, which I've now had three times. I made it through abduction lengthening, which I've only had once. They have my leg in the biggest cast. Knowing to man, plus it's heavy. Plus, yeah, it's heavy. Plus, they're trying to transfer me to the channel. I'm at rehab now, by the way. But there is going to be a story time. There is gonna be a trigger warning. So trigger warning if you need to skip this episode, trigger warning. I landed up surviving surgery, spent two days at Arizona Special Hospital, landed up getting aspiration pneumonia by having a piece of heavy, heavy, heavy, heavy, rich dense chocolate cake go down the wrong way. And I hadn't had a bowel movement in several days in several days on top of me getting aspiration pneumonia. So by and I have pictures of it, and I have pictures of the beginning of the accident, the middle of the accident, the end of the accident. So I posted those on Facebook if you guys want to go follow me on Facebook if you can. But um, yeah. So they of course I kept screaming, intubate me, intubate me, intubate me, and I will say it loud and clear. They did not listen. They did not listen, they didn't have the resources at Arizona Specialty Hospital. So that was on a Wednesday that now Glenn and I had surgery on that Monday. So that Wednesday, the week of January twelfth, um I started feeling extremely acute. I was having trouble breathing because I aspirated on a piece of chocolate cake. And so my stomach was going up, down, up, down, up, down, and all the dumb African nurse would tell me is and my caregiver was there the whole time. My caregiver was the best advocate um in the world, and she was there the whole time. And so all they would tell us was, oh, patient hasn't had a bowel movement. Um, we need to start the bowel treatment all over again. So they leave me alone, and by this time my stomach is going up and down, up and down, my breathing is getting weaker and weaker and weaker. Finally, that s no that Wednesday that Thursday morning someone caught on that I was in trouble, I needed help. So they said, Okay, she wants by this time I'm still screaming intuiting. And um for those of you that don't know what intubation is, they put you to sleep, they put a breathing tube down your slope, your hooks up to a ventilator. So basically that's how I was intubated. So um by this time they don't know they know what to do. They put all I remember is looking at my caregiver and them saying, Bleeze into this white bag. And apparently I said I'm allergic and this is me half out of it. Apparently I said I'm allergic to propofol along with my caregiver who is saying she's allergic to propofol is a type of anesthesia it's commonly used for surgeries. I'm allergic to it, so don't use it on me. And so as they're trying to give me propofol, great, great, just great. So they um land up giving me a different anesthesia. They land up um giving me a different anesthesia. Apparently I was wiggly. They go, She's not going to sleep as easily as we thought. But um okay. And apparently when every time they dug the mucus out of my throat for the aspiration of Moldia, I was saying no more stop, no more stop, no more stop. And I don't remember any of this because I was half out of it. So apparently I was still talking talking and saying no more stop, typical me. And apparently I was also because they fed me laxative, self-delaxative, self-delaxative. They also gave me a shot to reverse the opioids. Apparently I was having a bowel movement as they were putting me to sleep, and so they cleaned me up really well before the ambulance came. And I woke on that Thursday, I was out of it, so I didn't respond to any text, any Facebook, any anything. And on that Friday um afternoon, what they have to do is lighten up the pay linux that they use to put people to sleep. So they started lightening up the pay linux and unbeknownst to me um that my medical liaison was standing right there, and my aide was also standing right there. She had been standing right there since 6:30 in the morning. And so I'm like, okay, good aid, but n not helpful, you can tell me. And one of my other aides did a night watch on me, me being sedated, me being on Bleasing Tube. Luckily, she had experience in this, otherwise I would have been screwed having a not having experience in um people being sedated. So she one of my aides freaked out as soon as she found out, but that's how close we are. The other aide remained calm, but she was freaking out because this is the first time she saw people intimate. So that was fun. And I'm like, okay, so I land up in Mesa, which is 45 minutes away from my house. So I've landed up in Phoenix, I've landed up in Mesa, now I'm in Scottsdale. So as I said on the Facebook Live, after the um accident when I was awake, I said I have traveled to every hospital practically on the planet because they rushed me by ambulance and I don't remember any of this. I was asleep. So I was um I was given anesthesia to put me to sleep. So I don't remember the ambulance coming to rush me to um Banner Desert, whereupon they had open ICU bed. So basically they tried to put me in on a house, but on a health didn't have an open ICU bed, so we said away, give uh give me the open ICU bed. Well, the open ICU bed was down mesa, so everyone traips down to Mesa, including me not realizing that I was in the ICU. I realized I was in the ICU um when I woke up. And so it's been an interesting journey. And then I realized um that they links in my hamstrings. Yeah. They lengthened my hamstrings when I felt in as on a specialty hospital. So yeah. That's my story, and I'm sticking to it, and I'm not home yet. I don't know when I'm gonna be out of rehab. Rehab is going well. I have a big fat cast on my leg. And so I think I'm going home in the next couple weeks. I don't know. Typically up here it's a two-week um program. So typically up here it's a two-week program, so I don't know um whether I'm gonna get out of here in two weeks or not. I think in I know insurance only covers two weeks. So it ha it's a jump start, and then I'm doing outpatient PT and outpatient OT up at Arma House Osborne. I can't go to my own gym near the house, near my house, because they only offer PT and not OT, and they want me to continue OT, of course they do. So it's the same drill as last time. It was Sir This will be the third admission up to Arn Health Rehab Hospital, female rehab hospital as they as I affectionately call it. So please send good vibes and Danielle. Do you want to say anything? Thank you for following us. And as I said, my brain is Mush. I want to get out of here, so please send good vibes so I can get out of here, and I'll be um shouting from the rooftops once I'm home. I'll be back on my normal schedule once I'm home. And so yeah, that will be great, and I'll be back on my normal schedule once I'm home, which I will let you guys know that I'm home, and then we'll take it from there. Thank you for following us. Bye you guys.

unknown 13:58

Bye.