"....a second opinion Martinez received at UCLA's medical center this week revealed that the primary issue with his health may have been a pacemaker he received right around the time that the more somber diagnosis was made. "I'm feeling better and I'm optimistic after being almost completely certain that I was going to die," Martinez said after the pacemaker was adjusted. Amazingly, he felt good enough on Saturday to attend his 33rd annual quarterback camp
Now, the man who taught Brady how to be a quarterback (the two conferred about Brady's mechanics just recently in a meeting that also included Pats receiver Julian Edelman could very well be in line for a kidney transplant. After his condition was reported on Facebook, several people volunteered to help. A donor was recently found, and Martinez will undergo further tests to insure that he's strong enough to handle the procedure. From there, a heart transplant might be a possibility as well. "Incredible, isn't it? They might try to do a double transplant if everything works," he said."The point of my blogging this? First, to give you the upshot to my post I'd published for the reason that I thought the guy really handled his imminent death with such dignity and love for his friends..........AND to remind us all that sometimes things look much bleaker than they really are.
May this story give hope to someone who's reading this story and that it's rewarded like it was for Mr Martinez.......you never know.
z
9 comments:
"Rumors of my demise have been greatly exaggerated." - Mark Twain
I guess this outcome is a little better than the woman in Russia who woke up at her own funeral, then died of a heart attack in shock that she was going to be buired alive.
May our socialized health care never get that bad.
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I have to admire the coach's boldness in trying to draft his own eulogy with words of wisdom upon facing his death.
Not that I'm facing death (my schedule is busy this week), but if I may leave something to remember:
Ride the roller coaster. Get on that motherf-cker and throw your hands to the sky through all of its ups and downs. You have no control. There is no control. Get off the roller coaster and look back on it fondly. Get in line and ride it again.
That is a great story. No matter the ultimate outcome (which is always the same for all of us, physically speaking), Martinez has shown courage, class and integrity...something sadly missing from much of socitety.
I had an Aunt who was told she had 6 months to live and all Kemo treatments for Cancer were halted,,,,10 years later with a full head of hair and a smile she succumbed to the disease when it reared it's ugly head from remission.
God works in mysterious ways, not doctors.
That's quite a story.
I hope all goes well for him.
Beamish, I like your roller coaster advice.
Joe...he's quite a man, isn't he.
Christopher, thanks for even more encouragement for our readers. Yes, it's in GOD's timing, not the doc's.
Brooke; I sure do, too....Mr. Z was facing a heart transplant and, if that went well, a stem cell transplant....both are grueling and he hated hospitals more than anyone I know. I thank God that he was spared all of that and went peacefully in his sleep...IF he had to have had that awful sickness.
I don't believe doctors should advise patients as to how long they have to live.
Much of what doctors do to treat patients is based on trial and error. Treatments, medications, dosages, and even diagnoses, some of which are arrived at through a process of elimination of some illnesses or diseases. In other words they may not know with certainty.
Also, a patient's psychological, and/or emotional makeup may not be taken into account when a doctor sentences him to a time frame of death.
A person's will to live can be very important. There are those who will simply give up and wait to die. There are others who will gather their strength, and faith, in an effort to overcome their illness.
Being told within a time certain you will die, removes hope.
Quality of life in a patient's remaining time here on earth, is unquestionably altered with this pronouncement, which indeed can be wrong. Basically, at best, it can be called an informed guess.
In this case, a second opinion changed everything. Suddenly, he did not have a time certain to die. Now he has hope.
A needed adjustment to a pacemaker was missed by the first doctor, proving that no doctor is infallible. So if that's true, how can any doctor tell a patient how long he has to live, and do so with good conscience?
Pris, mostly I do agree with you; hope is something snatched away when time frames are given.
But, I'm a realist and, while I hope I'd fight till the end, i'd like to know realistically what's up.
This man is so sick he needs a kidney and possible heart transplant so the pace maker only seems to be giving him more time; pushing farther away the time that was given..hopefully for a LONG time!
I just loved that he got this good news. May it happen more and more to more people.!!
My friend's mother's dying of pancreatic cancer any day; she was diagnosed 2 weeks ago...they wish the doctor would give them a possible time period and can't get anybody to tell them anything, so there's a lot of nuance in this very important issue, isn't there. I believe the mom's so morphine'd out that she wouldn't know, but they'd like to.
Hi Z, knowing what's wrong with you and the particulars of treatment etc. is necessary. I'd want those facts too. But, given a time one would die is something else IMO. There's no question there's a finality to it.
I think telling the family is different than telling the patient. They should have their questions answered.
Yes this man has huge travails to overcome. But, a pacemaker can lengthen one's life.
My grandmother had a pacemaker for years, and lived to the age of 94. Although she had no other complications.
No idea who he is, but glad for him. I wouldn't want to be in his shoes. Hope things work out for him.
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