Dodging Bullets Like Neo

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.

Guess who is back in the hospital?

Go ahead, I dare ya.

Working on my beardUpdate: 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.

Escape is Upon Us!

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.

Get Me Outta Here!!!

Woolbert is trying to keep me sane, really he is, but how sane am I for talking to my little stuff lamb buddie? I am going crazy! Four, count em with me, four full days in the hospital. Granted days 1 and 2 I needed to be here. Because I was a really sick dude on a deathwish needing oxygen in the worst way. Day 3 was debatable, but understood. Day 4! What are you guys trying to get me to flip out on someone! Thank goodness for the internet, but it can only take you so far.

For those just catching up if you haven’t gotten your news through Sara’s FB page. I supposedly have Interstitial Pneumonia – WebMD. I’m not really sure what that means but you can check out the webMD link. All I know is that one of the drugs given to me during my chemo treatments Bleomycin – wikipedia kinda jacked me up hard and is supposedly the culprit of this fun weekend I’m having. The doctors still haven’t received the final results on my Bronchoscopy – wikipedia. Which is why they were so hesitant to send me home today. So no test, no nothing, just a lot of sitting around. BUT SARA IS THE BEST COMPANY IN THE WORLD!!! …next to Woolbert 😉

Tomorrow morning I will have a CT scan and hopefully if that looks good they’ll send me home with a list of antibiotics to pick up at the Giant Eagle pharmacy. The Bronchoscopy labs are being done in Shady Side which is why they take so long to get back. So for the past 4 days they’ve just been shooting fish in a barrel giving me all sorts of antibiotics and steroids not really knowing which is working for what I have going on. But some thing is working because I feel great and normal…just a little crazy.

So that’s that. My oxygen levels are holding up well into the upper 90’s and I haven’t run a fever in two days. I’m getting really tired of laying around so I make Sara take me on many walks to see the same “sites”. It’s not very far but it does help to stretch the legs. And the food is forming a massive brick in my stomach, I so need real people food, they are killing these people. Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution help out the hospitals too dude!!!! This is where people are trying to live!

But I digress, have a lovely day everyone in the real world, I’ll just be right here with Woolbert by my side and crazy nurses that try to kill me from time to time. Sounds like fun, no?