I Might Be Allergic to Weekend Plans

I was all set to post a nice little positive update in the middle of last week but for the second time in the last month I had too much fun planning out a beautiful fall weekend filled with friends, kids games, and maybe even a little golf (watching) and life reminded me – again on a Thursday night – that my adventure is going to be way more interesting than that moving forward.

A Couple of Wonderful Weeks of Progress

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Since my last update, things have been going very well, so my blogging has slowed down. The progress is incremental, but really fulfilling and I want to make sure I highlight this section so it doesn’t get lost because of a little hiccup. Life is back to awesome.

‘My walks are up to a quarter-mile’, ‘I’ve got a routine I really like that feels like the right balance of rest and work and family’, ‘I’m returning slowly to the work I love and it is stretching my mind again in a way that feels great’. Those aren’t necessarily exciting blog posts but they sure do feel good.

I’ve also been working some of my favorite things back into my life. A ‘date night’ just hanging with Jenn every now and again, having a few friends over for a drink and football (and forcing them to eat steak with lots of buttery sauces and a side of whiskey for keto reasons), and even getting out of the house a little. Staying downtown in a hotel for a night with Jenn, then again to celebrate Luke’s 10th birthday have been the best nights in the last 2 months (and it ain’t close, there have been some stinkers in there…).

So coming up on a nice fall weekend Jenn and I were working on just the right balance of me attending some things while also getting some rest, balancing family and friend time, and all the other normal conversations busy families have – but I get the bonus of vetoing anything I don’t want to do as that being ‘at a time I should really nap’.

Another Thursday Night Hospital Trip

My left leg which has been the problematic one since day 1 started acting up on me over the course of last week and I honestly don’t know why. There are just so many things going on in my body right now that it is almost funny how hard it is to answer simple questions from friends and doctors like ‘how do you feel’ or ‘is your leg getting stronger?’ they SHOULD be easy but there are just so many competing signals. This new problem with my leg and the potential second-guessing is a good example:

• I went by far my longest most strenuous walk Monday to take Luke to a bookstore for his birthday
• My leg felt really dead Tuesday and Wednesday so I let it rest
• I started chemo Monday which has causing blood clots in legs is one of the first warnings on the medication

To cut to the chase, over the course of Thursday a huge mass of blood clots formed in my leg. It stopped working and blew up a pretty cool shade of purple and Jenn took me into the John’s Hopkins emergency room that night. Unfortunately with COVID cases on the rise visitor rules have been revised and Jenn basically dropped me off on Thursday night, then I have been stuck here in the hospital running through battery after battery of tests and measurements with no outside interaction for the next five days – ugh. And to bring it back to my earlier comment I was either there because I pushed myself a little too hard one day, or didn’t push myself hard enough the next two days, or took a medicine that caused it. This is why I’ve given up second-guessing and am just gonna grin & deal with what we’ve got 🙂

Possibly the Only Political Side Note You Will Ever See That Pisses Off Neither Side: I can not tell you how amusing I find the parallels of my leg blowing up this awkward size and shade of purple – ‘Reds battling Blues’ as the exact same thing was happening across every news channel and Facebook feed in the country. I envision the BBC showing my increasingly ugly purple leg across the scroller at the bottom of their news feed as ‘the current state of American politics’ to the rest of the world.

I’m a huge proponent of civil discourse and love what Chris Evans is attempting https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/07/15/lifestyle/chris-evans-has-new-website-aimed-getting-americans-more-involved-political-process/ and the concept of ‘Purple talks’ when all the clicks and attention keep going to the more divisive elements. It turns out purple is good, it gets red and blue together AND it helps you jump to the front of the emergency room queue when it scares the doctors enough 😉

To recap my hospital stay:

• I was in the hospital from Thursday night through this afternoon (Tuesday 11/10) but I am home now!
• The step back in my mobility caused by the blood clots is admittedly a little frustrating – I’m back to where I was ~a month ago sort of shuffling along and the doctors have warned me that blood clots take ‘a few weeks to a few months’ to go away altogether but I can tell I have good motor function and a lot of the control and strength I regained in my ankle and knee are still there – the swelling just limits what shows.

via GIPHY

Did You Notice? We Haven’t Even Mentioned My Head.

I sandwiched in the bad stuff about my leg there in the middle but this is really a positive post for 2 big reasons

1. As I mentioned above everything cognitively is going great and I’m able to get back to being with people and family and working which are the things that drive my happiness (Jenn told her friends the most worried she has been about me in a while was the first 2-3 days of this hospital stretch because I didn’t ask for a computer or try to find a way to smuggle in better food – but now I’m home and properly fed and doused in Wifi).
2. All of the news from the doctors about my head has been good!
   • When I had my first round of less intense blood clots in rehab I could not get on the standard treatment of anti-coagulants because of bleeding in my brain. After many CT scans everything looked stable so I am now on anti-coagulants which should mean no new blood clots moving forward – this is a BIG deal. A few week setbacks but in theory the last of this specific kind.
   • My chemo and radiation treatments are continuing uninterrupted and my body is taking them pretty darn well
   • Jenn and I had our best laugh in months when she caught me complaining that ‘my stupid body won’t have a seizure even though I’m trying’ because the neurologists had me wearing this ridiculous EEG cap until they could properly track a seizure. For the record the seizure never came, apparently, even in hospital environments, I am too relaxed to properly drive a seizure.

I Close With a Complaint

The fact that I got stuck alone in a hospital for 4 days and missed Masters weekend by one week is possibly the biggest crock of this whole thing.