Hi Everyone
It’s been awhile since I last wrote, so I thought I would get a few words out there to let everyone know how I have been doing. The past week and a half or so has been a lot more of the same…slow days and slow recovery. I’ve had two appointments since my last journal and things are looking good still. My counts are still all in the normal range and I haven’t had any problems thus far. Last week my doctor informed me that I would be getting the central line removed from my chest today at my appointment. Thrilled by the news, I decided to take some before and after pictures.
I have had this thing in since Christmas and it has been a mental and physical burden since then. So…I went to the appointment today and had my blood labs drawn. Oh, by the way, the brand new cancer facility opened yesterday at Froedtert and it is absolutely incredible. The sheer size of this place is amazing. And to think it is dedicated purely to cancer patients. Before we had this tiny little area of the building for us and now there is so much room. No more waiting for people to leave their appointments for me to find an open chair to sit in. Very nice facility!
So, this time they took some extra blood to do a test to make sure my blood was able to clot well enough so that when they pulled out the line, I wouldn’t bleed to death or something – I dunno. Anyways, after I was done with the blood tests I went back to one of the examination rooms where I patiently awaited the PA and the doctor to come in and check me over and then send me off to interventional radiology where they would perform the operation to remove my line. There are some minor incisions they have to make and they need to do it under an xray machine so that they can follow the line safely out of my chest.
Well, when the doctor came into my room, he informed me that he forgot to schedule the operation with interventional radiology for this week and that I was going to have to wait another week to get it removed. NOOOOO!!! Heh…I guess I have waited this long to get it out – what is one more week? Oh well, my hopes were high but I’ll live. I suppose the “after pictures” will have to wait another seven days.
Oh and I will get some more pictures up here after this coming weekend. We are having a bachelor party for my younger brother this coming weekend. It should be a blast!
I also got a chance to visit my old college town, Whitewater, this past weekend. I stayed Friday and Saturday night and spent the weekend with two of my old roommates and some other friends. We had a great deal of fun…even if my fun did not include any alcohol. I played the role as designated driver and made sure everyone had a safe and fun time. Being that I am on all of these medications and it wasn’t too long ago I was getting blasted with some pretty nasty treatment, alcohol is one of the last things on my diet. I still had a great time, however when I got home Sunday afternoon, I wasn’t feeling well at all. I went straight to bed at about 3:00pm and did not wake up until about 1:30pm the next day (Monday). I guess I just pushed myself a tad too hard for those 2-3 days.
Perhaps I should take it easy for this last week. I plan on starting at Harley-Davidson headquarters full-time next Wednesday. I still have to call human resources and work everything out with them to make sure that I will have insurance and all that good stuff before I go ahead with everything. If I start working for them and one week afterwards something happens, I need to be very sure that I have someone watching my back. They have been very excellent as far as my situation has been thus far, so I don’t foresee any problems with them, whatsoever.
Anyways, sorry for keeping so many of you hanging. There just hasn’t been a whole ton going on…which I guess is a good thing. If I have a lot to write about, that usually means there’s something wrong. I’ll write again after this coming weekend – I am sure I will have plenty to talk about.
Love,
Eric
