Saturday, May 17, 2014

Time shares

Well. I haven't blogged here for a long time. I have been too busy being well to sit down and write much. It has been good to feel good again

Unfortunately this last week I have taken another turn in the road. Monday I had an unpleasant meeting at work and came home with a splitting headache.  I just figured it was from the meeting. Tuesday it wasn't much better. My head hurt and I just didn't feel good.  At one point I laid down in my office on the floor and closed my eyes for a few minutes.  Right then my receptionist, Lori, came in and gasped. I think she thought I had fainted or died and fallen to the floor. At least that was a bright moment

By noon I could see I wasn't well enough to work so I went home and had patients changed. I still felt pretty rotten so we got an appointment with an ENT friend of mine. He cultured my sinuses, recommended an oral antibiotic and took a tissue biopsy of an area of my mouth that looks weird

I came home still feeling pretty rotten. Basically every time I sat down I fell asleep. I tried taking the medicine but everything I swallowed I threw up again. Tuesday in the middle of the night I started shaking so bad I thought my teeth would fall out. I couldn't stop. JoLynne woke the boys and was going to have them carry me to the car and take me to the hospital. I threw up again and the shaking seemed to subside so we stayed home

Wednesday I called my oncologist and he suggested coming to the clinic where they could do the antibiotics and fluids IV.  That sounded good so we went. They did some blood work and rehydrated me and I felt a bit better. I was still sleeping all the time. My temperature went up to 104 so that had us worried a bit. Thursday we went for fluids again and more antibiotics. I was finally starting to feel somewhat better. My neck was really sore and I was weak but walking. Friday they called and told me that blood work was back and I had two positive cultures for staph infection in the blood and that I needed to be in the hospital. Also the ENT called and said that the tissue sampled had areas of comcern for cancer.

Home sweet home
We checked in Friday. I told JoLynne as we were pullng up that if I had known how much time I was going to spend here I would have looked into a time share option. She thought that there were better places for a time share

The doctors were very thorough. The infection control doctor seemed especially knowledgable.  I'm glad that they found this. Unchecked it could have gone bad really fast. As it is I will be here on really powerful antibiotics until Monday. If I am responding well then I will go home with an IV pump and continue for another two weeks. They were worried it had damaged my heart. If that were true I would be on the sntibiotics for months IV instead of weeks. The tests showed my heart was fine

We are still waiting for Mayo to read the biopsy slides. I can't worry about that now. It will be whatever it is.  I asked my doctor this morning, dr Wallentine, if he ever just thought "will this guy either get better or die once and for all". He sweetly said "I only ever think the first one Eric"

So, here I sit in this overpriced hotel working on getting better.  We have a wedding the end of this week a granddaughter coming to be tended, bike rides and sandbox time and somewhere in there I need to build a rocket ship (Vivian's request). I had better hurry and get better

Preliminary design on "the rocket"

6 comments:

  1. Dr. Vogel, I am glad you are being cared for. I hope you feel much better soon. You are in our wishes and our prayers.

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  2. I hope you are feeling better! If you need some extra help with that sweet niece of mine- do not hesitate to call me! We would love to let her play with her cousin :)

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  3. Rocket ship design:
    Huge flat piece of cardboard -- roll up like a huge toilet paper roll
    Thinner piece of cardboard or posterboard -- roll into a teepee (or chinese hat) shape, put on top of roll
    more cardboard or posterboard for 3 fins -- triangle or whatever shape you like; attach to bottom
    magic markers, crayons, paint, whatever for decoration

    Get better soon!

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  4. Our prayers are with you, have a wonderful week. I don't like finding our this kind of news after the fact! I do miss not being at work to keep better track of my good Doctor!

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  5. I went to my regular appointment yesterday but I missed you! As usual everyone treated me so well but it just isn't the same without you. Hope you are feeling better and will be back soon! We are all sending best wishes your way!

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  6. Oh Dr. Vogel...... It's a good thing I check this blog every month or so. You are invincible, your body just hasn't figured it out. And I like your expensive hotel room, does it have a view of the pool? The Steffensens love you and we will pray for a good, long-lasting recovery.

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