This is where the sidewalks and patio will go. Nice green overgrown grass from the buckets and buckets of rain we received this Spring!
Here the walks and patio are being framed up.
Starting to pour!
The final product! We still have some more comfy furniture for the patio to come. It stinks the grass is so brown for these pictures. We need some rain!
Yes I am a lazy bum and haven’t updated my blog in over a year. For those that have checked in on me to make sure that I am still alive, I greatly appreciate it. In fact I’m so alive as it were that I can’t seem to keep up with life itself! Let me give you the run-down on the past year:
Did I miss anything? Probably, so I guess I will have to write again soon to flesh out the minor details that I may have missed.
Sorry it’s been awhile, but I did finally make it out of the hospital. The pneumonia kicked my butt pretty hard but I’ll survive. I had a home health care nurse come for the following two weeks to give me intravenous antibiotics every afternoon. That didn’t help with my work schedule, but everything worked out okay. So to say the least, I’m feeling pretty well. I can’t say I’m out of the woods just yet because I know that my immune system is still shaky. I’m still on steroids for my lungs which doesn’t help because they keep my immune system suppressed. I’ve been back to work full time for a few weeks and it feels great. I’ve even started working out again but I’ve been taking it easy; no worries.
Oh, did I forget to mention that I turn 30 today? Bummer huh? Oh well, I have a lot to be thankful for this year. My 29th year was a tough one, one that I won’t be forgetting anytime too soon. But it taught me some big lessons and hopefully made me a better man. It’s a beautiful day outside so I have that as a nice present. I’m going to place my bets and say that this year may be slightly better than last year, but hey I’m not out of the woods just yet.
Thank you everyone for all of your prayers, your cards, and you support.
Go ahead, I dare ya.
Update: I was released on Tuesday Apr 20th in the afternoon from UPMC Passavant North Hills and finally got home around 2:30pm. At around 2:30am on Apr 21st my face and jaw were all puffed up due to the antibiotics that they sent me home with. So at we got to the Cranberry ER at about 3am. Hives broke out all over my stomach and back while I was in the ER and it was super itchy. I was very miserable. My stomach was in knots which apparently also had to do with some of the antibiotics that I was given over the weekend. Sometime in the wee hours a pulmonary specialist showed up and finally gave us the results of the bronchoscopy wash that they did on Saturday morning confirming that it is indeed PCP pneumonia due to the Bleomycin given to me during the last 6 months of chemo treatment. I was admitted to Cranberry and spent the night there.
I’ve enjoyed a lovely 12 hours at home during the past 6 days. Because I’m having such harsh reactions to the original antibiotics I was given I have to take a very specific and rare kind of chemo/antibiotic to combat the PCP pneumonia which has it’s own set of side effects and complications that I don’t look forward to. I’ll have to take it through my port for the next 14-21 days so I’m not quite sure what that means for going to work. The drug is called Pentamidine.
The most frustrating thing is that I feel just fine. I’m mobile, aware, and very very annoyed at having to be in these creepy places by myself. I’m not really sure where we go from here: I’m waiting on an infectious disease Dr. Romano to see if I can get the heck out of here today and figure out a schedule for giving me this drug daily.
Paperwork is being filed. I’m getting a shower and putting on real clothes that actually don’t show your butt. I’m so close to real fresh air I know it still exists out there. At least I think it does, I’ve been in the horrible section of the Matrix for the past near week (day #5 started at 11am this morning).
Update: Showered and changed; ready to slip on out of here if a nurse doesn’t bring our papers soon.
Update #2: I’m home, stuff is unpacked, the trash is taken out. Mail has been sorted, life is still here. It is good. The couch is mine.