Tough times just past, but once again nothing I couldn’t handle. I will give you some details in a moment, but first some preliminary good news.
As I mentioned last time I was scheduled to have a second bone marrow, well I’ve had it done. My new Doctor, Dr. Adams performed the procedure, which took about 5 minutes, as opposed to 30 the first time. Experience and strength do pay when performing a bone marrow test. My bone marrow was examined Friday afternoon and Dr. Adams is optimistic that we have killed all the Leukemia, however we will not know anything for certain for a couple of days yet. But it’s better to hear good things than bad. I will keep you posted as you know.
New Doctor Story: There appear to be three lead Doctors in the hematology (blood) area and they alternate playing the lead on a monthly basis. November saw Dr. Grewal as my lead Doctor, now it has switched to Dr. Adams, he is the most senior and is extremely knowledgeable. Of course Friday was my first time meeting him, and I felt that I needed to establish the rules of our relationship from the start as I had done with Dr. Grewal. He was a little taken back at first, I figure that was because he probably isn’t used to a 23 year old kid placing demands on him and letting him know that “I am in control”. Which I feel is a core component to my strategy, he agreed and I feel we are off to a great start.
Bump in the Road Story: As you are aware I have been getting day passes all week long, well this ended a few nights ago as once again I got a reminder that as good as I feel at any given moment, my condition can turn in an instant. I was out for dinner at my mother’s, and I was late leaving the hospital as my blood transfusions for the day took all afternoon and went into the evening. Either way I was feeling OK after dinner but around 10-10:30 I started to feel a little different so it was straight back to the hospital as I was instructed to do. Hindsight tells me that the delay in my blood transfusions was an indicator that I should have stayed in the hospital for the evening. I didn’t and I had to deal with that, which I did.
My back started to cramp, first just the lower half, them all of it, the cramps then spread to my shoulders, neck and head. The feeling was a little uncomfortable to say the least. It hurt to move and it hurt to lie still so I tried a combination of both, that didn’t work very well either. I tried to put the pain out of my mind, which is something I have been working on and had some success with that, even as recently as 9:00 a few hours previous. This didn’t work either, no matter how strong willed I always thought I was, I had met my match. I had called for a Nurse, who were always so responsive when I wanted something like apple juice or ice for a drink, but as I discovered many times Murphy’s Law applies 10 fold in the hospital environment. So eventually I received a visit which resulted in me taking some codeine…. candy!! Nothing more, so I called again in a little while and received additional codeine…. candy again!!! There I was, to give you a visual, on my bed in an altered fetal position as my face was down in My Mattress Pads, as I had convinced myself that attempting to stretch would help my cramps, I just thought it was unfortunate that I didn’t have the energy to stretch all areas experiencing cramps. Of course no position I assumed was better than any other except when I was asleep, which did ultimately happen around 6-7 in the morning.
Needless to say it was a tough night and an even tougher next day, I don’t remember much of it except that a million other little things went wrong, which added to my frustration. But now that it’s over it is easy to look back and celebrate another victory. I was comforted to hear that Dr. Adams expressed his “displeasure” with the Nurses, specifically their failure to handle my pain, which leads me to believe that I will receive more attention next time I spike a temperature and get an infection. An x-ray I had did confirm that I do have an infection in my lungs, which was causing my nighttime pain, but an adjustment in my “drugs” and lots of sleep have the infection under control. I slept most of the 28th thus my reason for writing at 1:33 a.m. on the 29th, of course I’m not expected at work tomorrow or anytime real soon so I can let my sleep pattern get a little out of whack.
Due to the events of the past 48 hours I feel that this line from my “lines, thoughts and other stuff” file is very appropriate.
“It’s often the snowy stormy days that determine one’s character; not necessarily those filled with blue sky and sunshine.”
After this is over I should be full of character, hahaha. I guess it’s the same as saying that times of adversity often define one’s character, not the easy relaxed times.
That’s all I have for tonight, it’s 2:04 a.m. and I may try to get some sleep now. As usual I want to encourage you to continue following my journey. I will be in touch as soon as I get the results of the bone marrow test.
Take care,
Geoff
#4
