The Myeloma Kid

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, etc!! Words cannot explain how thankful I am to all the wonderful people in my life. I'm not good at receiving so much love from so many people. Friends and family have been shuttling me to and from appointments and visiting me in the hospital and doing all sorts of errands and task for me. Co-workers contribute PTO hours. Neighbors and friends have raised a collection for me. And, all the wonderful cards and good tidings. And, that doesnt include all the wonderful healthcare workers who showed care and compassion while I was in the hospital. I don't know how to thank everyone. I really don't. I will tell you though, that I promise to do the very best I can. And I wish everyone a warm and wonderful holiday. And may the love and support that you've shown me, also surround you and your loved ones during this time of the year! To Recap: I got back from the hospital on Wed night, 12/20 after spending 8 days in the hospital. The clinical term was a "right atrieal thrombosus" (...um....blood clot just doesnt sound romantic enough, huh?). The surgery went as well as expected. They did a Thoracotomy (pardon if all my medical spellings are not correct...but it get's the point across); meaning they went in through the right side of my chest rather than break open the breast bone. No bones were broken during the procedure. However, they had to spread apart my ribs and muscles, etc to get where they were going. Needless to say, after surgery, I was in pain. They gave me enough meds to drop a horse. And, yet I was awake enough to tell the kidney doc's to go "F" themselves when they wanted to install a femural catherter in my leg. (for those that dont know, a femural catherter is a temporary means of doing dialysis. Since they took out my old catherter I had no means of dialysis. But, the femural catherter means lying motionless for up to 36hrs....um...hello...I can't sit still here for 36 seconds!!). So, the compromise was to wait another day since my "toxic" numbers were still ok, and install another catherter in the left side of my chest. So, I went into surgery the next day after having open heart surgery (oh...and I was awake for this one....such fun as they tunnelled into me!). We get the procedures done and it's back to my room. Most of my nurses were incredible. Alicia was there for at least 4 days of my stay. She was knowledgable, confident, cute as a button, compassionate, caring, and also knew when to show the tough love with me. Like when they had to pull the drainage tubes from my chest....I don't wish this on my worst enemies. It felt like I was shot when they pulled them out of me. But, I will go through what I gotta go through. I'll kick and scream. Pride be damned. But, I'm here...right? Other nurses and caretakers were just as good and competent...expect for one. Denka came from Sierra Leone. And for some reason he couldnt understand why I wouldnt let him put in an IV in my arm after he blew up the Blood Pressure cuff on my arm. I mean, he literally, exploded the thing on my arm and had little idea what the numbers meant. He also proceded to tinker throughout the night with my drip tubes and almost couldnt get them back together. He scared me. And, I politely told the staff he would never set foot in my room again. The Here and Now: So, now I'm home. The pain is lessening each day and I am getting around. Mostly, the pain is at the incision areas. Though, I can feel tight across my chest. And, one of the side effects of the anestesia has left the skin on my right femur numb (I need to keep following up on that). In addition, my heart can still race and it can enter into A-Fib (I can feel it when this happens...it's too funky). I'm still restricted on how much I can do. I can't lift anything. I can't drive. I can't do anything to over exert myself. But, I am home. Oh, glorious home!! It's wonderful. I mean. I started to feel sick in the hospital. Everytime my heart raced, the nurses would come in after seeing it on their monitors and ask if I was ok. After I while I think I would make myself anxious only to see if they would come rushing in. And, then I would have my physical therapy sessions with the PT Nurse. Well, she tought me how to climb stairs again ("Put one foot in front of the other and use your hands as a guide"). Jeez, I had to get out of there just to know I was ok and alive. So, each day I feel just a little bit better. I meet with my doctor's on 12/28 to see about lifting my restrictions and to once again set a schedule for the bone marrow transplant. When I was in the hospital, the last thing I wanted to do was deal with my cancer. As time went on, I began thinking about just getting this all over with. So, I may again keep to an agressive schedule so I can sooner put all of this behind me. We'll see. In the meantime, I hope everyone has a very merry Christmas. I know in my household it will be a mixed blessing kind of holiday. I'm home and getting better. But, so much has happened that it has impacted much of our life and holidays. I unfortunately didnt even have any time to get anyone any gifts. I know they will understand. But, I really do enjoy giving as much as receiving. So, I send much Love to everyone. And thanks again for all your help and support. Merry Christmas to All. Love ya's, Lance