Hi Everyone!
Sorry it’s been so long since I last wrote…honestly there just hasn’t been much going on for me to relay to all of you. My mom and brother tell me that I have so many people checking up on my journals and such. On one hand, I want to keep all of you up to date on everything that is happening, but on the other hand, I hate writing boring blogs or something of that sort. I like to have something interesting to say…perhaps even some wisdom to tell that I have gained. Anyways, I’ve got some news so here it comes.
Everything is calming down around the house here in Two Rivers. My dad is finally on the mend with his recent hiatal hernia surgery that he had. He ran into a whole ton of problems through the surgeries, but is now clearly recovering and should be back on his feet in a couple of weeks. We’ve been spending most of our time watching The Sopranos episodes and vegetating on the couch. My niece, Ava, is absolutely beautiful and I am thrilled that I was able to see her before I went back into the hospital for my big time treatment. She is gaining more and more weight every day and everything is going great with her! Congratulations again to Steve and Ashley on their baby girl!
As for me…I am starting to finally feel better. My white and red blood counts along with my platelets are all starting to go up now on their own. That means my bone marrow is back to working again since my last round of chemotherapy. Naturally, that means I am going to start feeling better!
Also, as you can probably tell, I regained some of the weight that I lost! In the first month that I was sick, I lost about 20 lbs. I am back up to about 185 lbs right now and will continue to try to gain some more weight before I get readmitted to the hospital. I expect the transplant to probably knock off 40-50 lbs within 6 weeks. So if I go in at about 200…that puts me at about 155 lbs. That just means I get to eat more delicious food before I go back! It’s kind of nice not giving a damn if I gain weight! The more, the merrier!
Let’s see…what else? Oh yeah! So I had an appointment at the hospital today. I drove down there this morning by myself and came back afterwards. I got the typical blood work done along with a PA and doctor visit. I asked them some questions….they asked me some questions…blah blah blah. Anyways, around the end of the appointment I subtlety mentioned if it was at all possible for me to get my PICC line removed. For those who don’t know what a PICC line is…it is a central line/tube that is stitched into my arm and goes directly to my heart threading through the superior vena cava valve. It’s basically a more permanent IV.
Being that I wasn’t going to be admitted to the hospital until March 31st for my bone marrow transplant treatment and that I had these tubes hanging out of my arm….I thought it would be kind of nice to get them removed until I go back. They are going to use a different type of central line when I go back in. The only time I ever use my PICC line is when I go in for blood work. Anyways, to make a long story short, they removed my line! Even though it was something as simple as a tube hanging out of my arm, it was a huge mental burden. It just mentally felt like I was always carrying around this 1,000 pound weight on my arm. It almost felt like I wasn’t sick anymore. That feeling lasted maybe a minute or two, but those two minutes were awesome!
So what’s next? Well, medically, next Thursday is the next day I have to be at the hospital. On that day they are going to put my body through a ton of tests to make sure that my body is physically able to handle what they are going to do to me. I’ll spend the whole day at the hospital getting everything from pulmonary tests to CT scans done.
Aside from that, I am planning to spend the upcoming weekend in Whitewater! I’ll drive down maybe on Friday and spend a few days with my old college roommates. Then, on Monday, I will drive over to Madison for the live interview with NBC about L.I.F.E. and my story and such.
Other than that, things have been pretty cool and calm around here. I hope everything is going great with all of you!
Take care,
Eric
