You just never know....

They talk about the best laid plans of mice and men.  Well, I don't know how well mice plan but the plans of this man at least are sometimes uncertain.

I had been doing so well lately.  My energy was improving, I have a little peach fuzz hair coming back on my head, my pain levels had increased but I was dealing with it.  Christmas was wonderful.  We got to talk to our two missionary sons, one in Spain and one in Chile.  What a joy to see their smiling faces and hear their laughter again.  My daughter had come from Oregon with her husband and our darling granddaughter.  Our son had come home from Boston.  Life was great!  Then suddenly I began to feel pretty wiped out.  I noticed the beginnings of a fever.  I decided to lay down for a nap but by the time I woke up I felt worse rather than better.  My temperature kept increasing which meant, another trip to the emergency room.  I just love that place.

So, on Christmas afternoon around 3:00 we took off for the emergency room again.  I was not feeling my greatest.  I guess it must have shown since they moved me to the head of the line.  Or, maybe I just get priority treatment for all the frequent flyer miles I have there.  Who knows.  Anyway they got me back pretty quick.  My fever was high enough that it didn't take them long to decide that I would have to stay in the hospital.  They wheeled me up to the 7th floor.  The charge nurse came out to meet us and said "Haven't you been here before?"  It's not a good thing when the nurses begin to recognize you at the hospital.

Snow Goon

So, I spent the next four days in the hospital.  The doctors finally decided I had pneumonia, an infection in my facial wound, and strep throat.   All at the same time!   Oh, and a yeast infection too.

Well, after four days in the hospital I am doing better  but the doctors in Houston tell me that I need to wait a week and become infection free before they can start treatment so I guess my treatment will be bumped back a week.  Not what I wanted but I guess it will have to do.

On a happier note, it has been heavenly having my daughter and son in law here with our sweet granddaughter.  She really wanted to make a snowman which we did.  She has kind of demented uncles (influenced by reading so many Calvin and Hobbs books)  so it ended up being a snow goon.  I hope she isn't damaged for life.  It has also been wonderful to have our son here on break from medical school.  He is a great young man.  We love having him around.

I guess we have a week to burn now.  Maybe we will use some of the time to investigate reconstructive options for my face.  Maybe the snowman could use some work as well.

In the meantime, thank you for all your prayers in my behalf.

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"