Alicia Cole

About me:

I can’t believe I finally did this.  It only took my friend Stacy two years to convince me this was a good thing.  It might be wrong of me, but every time I thought of ‘MySpace’ it was followed by visions of Dateline: to Catch a Predator!  Oh well, things change… so here I am.

Also there is nothing like being on bed rest and confined to the house for most of the last year to make you appreciate surfing the Internet! Thank God for laptops.

On to the part ‘About Me.’ until last summer I was a working actress. (Not a celebrity mind you, but one of those faces you see from time to time and you think you know that person.  That was me.)  Things were going really great.  I stayed very busy with a mixture of television work, commercials, voiceover and print ads.   I LOVE WHAT I DO!!   It’s new and different every day and I work with fun and creative people.  Best of all the food is free!!

I was having a good year last year. I played a waitress in a national Budweiser campaign directed by the infamous commercial icon Joe Pitka. That was a full circle moment because I’ve wanted to work with Mr. Pitka every since I saw him profiled on 60 Minutes years ago. I had also scored a full campaign playing a doctor in the state of California’s fight against childhood obesity. You could not drive anywhere without seeing my billboards plastered all over the state.If you turned on the radio there I was.And I was happy that my commercial ran all day, but I was especially proud that it ran at least three times during most Oprah Winfrey shows.

It was a really busy time. So when I found out I would need to have minor surgery to remove two uterine fibroids, I tried to time it to be in, out and fully recovered in time for the new television season.  What’s that old joke, “How do you make God laugh…You make plans!”  Truer words were never spoken.

Now a myomectomy is a fairly common and routine procedure where the doctor does a hairline incision, basically a C-section, goes into the uterus and removes the benign growths. “No big deal you’ll be home in two days, three at the max.”

NOTHING COULD HAVE BEEN FURTHER FROM THE TRUTH! My two day stay in Providence St. Joseph hospital turned into a month long nightmare in the ICU and another  arduous month on the 7th. floor.  I am still at home on minimal activity and bed rest healing as I type – 10 months later!

I contracted what is known in medical terminology as a Nosocomial infection. Nosocomial infections are those which are a result of treatment in a hospital, but secondary to the patient's original condition. Infections are considered nosocomial if they first appear 48 hours or more after hospital admission.  Of course, I was lucky enough to get the very worst of all of these…NECROTIZING FASCIITIS.  You may have heard of it as MAN-EATING FLESH DISEASE!  It is a very rare and extremely deadly condition which if undiagnosed eats its victims alive from the inside out in hours. This was further complicated by a severe case of Sepsis brought on by infection in my bloodstream from toxin-producing bacteria. Sepsis alone can result in severe complications - low blood pressure, low blood flow, and the failure of vital organs, such as the brain, heart, kidneys, and liver.  With my white blood cell count at 35,000, I was in a very dangerous state. Septic shock is the most common cause of death in intensive care units.

My mother was actually the one who spotted the first signs of the disease and we later learned that if she had not stood her ground and insisted the doctor come back to the hospital and check out the black dot suddenly on my stomach. I would have been dead or too far-gone by the time he check on me the next morning!!!  The disease eats you alive just that fast.

As it was, by the time Dr. Pearson got back to St. Joseph, the tiny black dot had grown into a quarter sized pustule.  When I have more time I will tell you how the doctor assisted by MY MOTHER opened up my incision, cut apart 2 rows of sutures and began to squeeze out puss and drainage right there in the room.  NO ANESTESIA!  Can you say P-A-I-N?

And thus began the multiple surgeries to strategically cut away my abdomen and left butt check in an effort to cut out the disease.  I looked like I had been attacked by a great white shark.  Thankfully, my Mom & Dad are retired and were with me through the whole ordeal.  I think it may even have been harder on them because they had to stand by and watch.  At least I got to be drugged!!  (Stay tuned to my Blog and I’ll tell you what it really feels like to go through drug withdrawal!)
 

Of course now we know that the Centers for Disease Control estimate that over 90,000 people a year die from infections they get while they're in the hospital.  This is outrageous! Thank God I survived!!  And I have all of my limbs.  One horrible thing about NF is that most of the survivors end up amputees. It likes to eat limbs.  Fortunately, the doctors were able to stop it about an inch & a half past the crease of my left leg!

You would think that this would be the end of the story, but unfortunately it was the very beginning of my education into the broken medical and legal system we have in the State of California.  I have had to fight with the hospital’s home healthcare agency for proper wound care supplies.  I had to fight the insurance company to cover my treatment at the wound care center – they kept denying my treatment as “cosmetic”.  Thankfully the President of Screen Actors Guild stepped in and some of that got resolved.  I was verbally attacked to the point of tears by one of the nurses in my doctor’s office demanding to know; “Who are you mad at?” “How are you making ends meet?”  “Are you going to sue the hospital?”  Needless to say after that I cut all ties with any of the doctors affiliated with Providence Saint Joseph!

Right now I am still healing and trying to take care of myself.  My wound is not completely closed and every time I am just a little active, holes in the new skin open up.

Still all in all, I am truly Blessed.  Everyday that I wake up, I thank God.  I know that he was there with me in the ‘Valley of the Shadow of Death’ and my parents were ‘the rod and the staff’ he sent to comfort me.  No matter what you are going through in your life trust that GOD will never leave you nor forsake you.  Just be still and listen and let him do his thing!