Solid Progress - short update!

Without sounding too confident, I think things are settling out in our lives and especially in my husband’s health.  No more new unexpected surprises.  All conditions are being medically managed and he is feeling better.  In fact, yesterday, he and I went out for a 15 minute walk around our community, and other than being tired, it was a huge improvement for him over the last time he walked.  That time was before his hospitalization in May, and he definitely was struggling then.  Now the only struggle is keeping our daily walks going consistently.    

We both saw our primary care doctor this past week.  She was especially happy with my husband’s  progress.  

Then she moved on to me.  “And how are you doing?”  Seriously, now-a-days my mind goes blank regarding my health issues.  I can quote “chapter and verse” on any aspect of his care, but I sort of loose the thread of the discussion when it comes to me. I said something to the effect to her right then.  After a few (like one) condition update, I paused.  I thought for sure she might mention my weight gain.  I have gained 10 pounds in the last 4 months and more than that since my knee surgery last September.  So before the physical exam began, I brought up “the elephant in the room.”  (That phrase certainly felt appropriate in the moment.). I noted the weight gain and before I could finish saying anything about how I  got this weight gain (sitting too much, eating too much, eating the wrong foods,  etc. etc. etc.) she looked at me and said one word.  “Stress.”  It stopped me in my tracks. “Yes, Stress.  I noticed you gained 9 pounds since I last saw you.”   She went on to say the last 6 to 7 months have been filled with nothing but stress.  "It is normal that a weight gain would occur,” she went on.  “You can start to focus on you now - and we can see how you are doing in November - say before Thanksgiving, maybe??”

Have you ever had someone tell you something that was so observant and so non-judgmental ... and so true, yet for some stupid reason you couldn’t seem to admit that truth to yourself? You just blamed, blamed, blamed yourself for letting things get out of hand. 

I can tell you that not one doctor I have had before did more than say ... “try cutting out the cookies.”  Yes, that actually was said to me previously.  

I could feel emotions starting to fill me up.  So my response was limited but also grateful.  “Ok.”  

On the shopping therapy front, I made one more purchase yesterday from Purl Soho for some yarn I have had my eye on for maybe 10 months and it was 25% off now.  God knows, I don’t need any more yarn, but I did it anyway.  Now for the yarn diet to start.  Taking care of myself includes putting the break on these kinds of expenses.

Anyway, that is where we are right now.  The next post will be yarn and knitting focused!  Promise.

You Can’t Make This Stuff Up!

February is when I last visited this space.  I am not even sure why I am here now except that I still have a few kind readers who are left and maybe wondering - is she still with us?  I am.  And my husband, thank the Good Lord, is still with me as well.

The winter and spring has been bumpy to say the least. My husband began to feel poorly starting in October or November.  On New Year’s Eve had an aphasia event - a brief inability to put his thoughts into words.  No other symptoms, and although I did check him for a stroke the episode, it passed quickly. I decided that a trip to the ER on New Year’s Eve was probably not needed.   That episode, however, was later diagnosed as a mini-stroke or a TIA, so maybe we should have gone.  ERs are not healthy places to be during the winter - well maybe not anytime.  Once the diagnosis was made, however, it launched an avalanche of doctor appointments and diagnostic testing over many specialists.   

Initially it began with a visit to his primary doctor and a neurologist, but then expanded to a cardiologist.  The cardiologist’s testing and findings lead to establishing care with a pulmonologist.   

He now has COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, emphysema and chronic bronchitis) due to smoking earlier in life.  He quit in 1985 but the damage is done regardless.  Now he is on various inhalors.

And in April he had to have one of his surveillance EGDs with the Gastroenterologist.  That test came up negative for the return of cancer,  thankfully.  But he couldn’t have it done until he got clearance from the cardiologist, neurologist and pulmonologist.  His next surveillance EGD this fall, we need to get the same 3 clearances, but now we add his Oncologist - but I have gotten ahead of myself in this story.

We thought by the end of April he had exhausted his list of new doctors and new diagnoses. Unfortunately we were wrong.  He started having weight fluctuation - which we were tracking at the cardiologist’s request.  We suspected fluid retention.  He also had trouble sleeping because he was "focused on breathing". He never said he was short of breath - in fact he insisted he wasn’t short of breath. So we waited to see his primary care doctor. That was a mistake.

That appointment was on May 4th.  She recommended that he go straight to the ER.  He needed urgent testing with stat results and that is only obtained at the ER.  When we got to the ER the place was packed (normal for our hospital).  I thought we would have a long wait.  We didn’t.  They took him right away.  They promptly checked his oxygen levels and he was critically low.  He was started on oxygen and admitted, and stayed in the hospital for 7 days!!  (Yikes! They don’t keep anyone for 7 days anymore.) At first they diagnosed pneumonia, but later settled on fluid build up around his lungs - due to heart failure. They were also tracking abnormal blood work that his Oncologist was also tracking. In conjunction with his Oncologist’s review, he received 2 blood transfusion in the hospital and at discharge (the very next day) the Oncologist saw him. While anemia was known since his chemotherapy, it had not resolved.  So a bone marrow biopsy was done and the test results came back - a type of blood cancer.  As explained to us, it was a very slow growing type of cancer and was probably already there when Chemotherapy was started.  But Chemo sort of jump started the progression of this condition.

At this point in the story, my husband and I had become sort of numb to all the bad news.  He was off oxygen, he was feeling good again, eating and drinking well - feeling “cured” so to speak, and yet the health discoveries continued the mount up.

Believe it or not, there is a fortunate ending to the story. If you look for the positives, you usually can find some.  All of his diagnoses have treatments that allow him to maintain a “normal”  life again.  Even the blood cancer has an injection that prompts the bone marrow to make new blood cells and thereby avoid blood transfusions.  

I have said this over and over again.  Living in this time - and this place - (because we live near medical centers that provide state of the art medical care) - we are the luckiest people on earth. Great doctors, prompt medical care, exceptional treatment options ... you can’t ask for more than that as you approach 80 years of age.  My husband’s 80th birthday is this August.

He is doing well.  Of course, we take daily weight, blood pressure and oxygen checks to capture any change in his status.  Best to adjust things before being hospitalized for them.  We also keep oxygen in the condo - although he hasn’t needed it since a week after discharge.  But all is well right now in this household, so I guess that is why I felt I could write this post.

Will I be back to this blog?  I honestly don’t know.  I have been doing a lot of knitting, (A LOT) so I could probably do a post on that... and I have also been doing some yarn and pattern "retail therapy" (shopping you do to make yourself feel better).  My yarn stash is at a pretty high level right now.  

It either is me buying too much yarn  or the yarn is reproducing on its own. I think it is the latter. 😀. 

At least we can both breathe freely once again.