Where do I start?
Do I start with the headaches that are churning my brain into applesauce? Do I start with the fever I’m chillin’ with? Do I start with the Rays: a source of great joy and greater sadness in one evening? Do I start with the allergic reaction to an antibiotic, which has turned my clothing into an “aggressive interrogation” device? Do I start with the nurse…
As you may know, I’m in the hospital. The chemo is done and modern medicine is doing its best to rescue me from cancer’s cure. Therein lies the rub… or more appropriately, the tub. In order to flush out my kidneys I’m on a near constant IV drip of fluids. Further, I’m on a regular diet; strongly encouraged to suck up as much of the wet stuff as I can.
Unfortunately, I…
In the last 24 hours I’ve had two phone conversations with my children.
Beth hasn’t been sleeping at night and needed another run down of all the drugs I’m taking, how they work, and why they’ll make me better.
Beth is a happy child; everyone usually says so.
So it broke my heart to hear the anxiety in her voice, and not be able to take it away.
Adam has been telling…
The Euros run more juice through their sockets, right?
No matter. Fact checking is for sissies (as they say on The Report).
The latest word from the good doctor is “wait,” as in, “we’re going to have to wait before we send you home.”
Here’s a few more words he used: “next,” “week,” “uncomfortable,” and the ever popular…
The other day, one of those “other days” which are now relegated to the blur of my defensive mind, I was exceedingly nauseous. I was having chills, my back was spasming, and I wanted relief. The good natured nurse came in to play twenty questions (she lost by the way), and I got her back out the door to fetch me the appropriate pharmaceutical relief. That relief came in the form of two…
I don’t much feel like typing, but I feel even less like talking… so here it is. My apologies to those of you who’ve called and I haven’t answered.
The fever is lingering, but so far the blood cultures have been negative – so it’s increasingly likely the fever is just a side effect of the chemo and not because of some opportunistic infection. My nausea has stuck…
Around 4 a.m. this morning I woke up with nausea, a little dizziness, and a pounding headache. I took a quick check of my temperature, and it was 102 degrees (Fahrenheit… but you probably knew that… naturally ocurring boiling innards is pretty rare). My instructions from the oncologist were to call if I had a fever above 101, and luckily for me this qualified.
It’s now 15 hours…
No, this is not an homage to Jim Henson’s famous muppet, although little Kermie was my favorite.
I don’t recall how it happened, but my wife got on Al Gore’s email list, and we’ve had the pleasure of some one-way correspondence ever since. I’m sure we didn’t do anything special to get on the list. The only qualification was probably an address… and…
If my skin were a character on TV, it would have to be Archie Bunker. My skin is so irritable… oh who cares, we’ll just say it’s pretty fracking irritable and move on.
It turns out my skin is particularly irritated by some bandages. “Elementary my dear simpleton,” you may be thinking, “it’s the latex.” Here’s the rub, bub. Several brands of…