Dont' Eat, in Order to Live

Three days ago I was found to have a pulmonary embolus, which actually penetrated my left lung and caused a pulmonary infarction. That means that living lung tissue began to die. Luckily, it was caught in time, totally by accident--I went to the ER on Thursday thinking I had pulled muscle while working out, or perhaps torn a ligament or even, heaven forbid, cracked a rib.  That is the kind of pain I was in after an hour and a half of very light cardio, and doing various exercises which were geared to my age and limitations, which at the time I thought was only arthritis, being overweight and out-of-shape.

Turns out something else was going on, which I had no clue about at the time. A couple of hours after coming home from the gym, I felt a sharp pain in my left rib-cage area.  The rest is history.

My life has now changed.  I am on a blood-thinnning drug, and until it becomes therapeutic I have to inject myself with a blood-thinning agent in a syringe.

And to add insult to injury, it's chazer treif.  Literally. It's made from porcine mucosa. disgusting, I know.  To top that, I've got to limit my intake of vitamin K, the Klotting vitamin.  And what foods, pray, contain vitamin K?  The foods all the dieticians tell you to eat: dark green leafy vegetables.  They were once nirvana, and are now pariah. 
To be continued...

Comments

Batya said…
refuah shleimah
praying for you
11:00 PM
Mordechai Y. Scher said…
Just to correct a misconception: porcine heparin is not considered hazer treif, or any other kind of treif. It is far removed from the porcine source, and the halacha does not consider it a problem. Some Moslems used to make a stink about this; but Jews never have. No halachic authority considers it a concern of any kind. BTW, real pig tissue is considered 100 % okay for transplantation. A medication which is a chemical extract or derivative is certainly not a problem.

The important thing is Hashem should send you a complete and speedy healing.
3:30 PM
Lady-Light said…
Mordechai: Thank you! I merely read the label on the syringe; I figured that, for pikuach nefesh, it would be permissible. But it's nice to know, officially. Amen to your brachah...
1:52 PM
Anonymous said…
I also learned that eating porc is treif, yet injecting it is not the same story, and isn't called treif. Much like what Mordechai Y. Scher said, Refuah shlema mehira !!!
1:28 AM
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