Thursday, August 31st, 2017 Baltimore, Maryland Health update
Huh?
MusicWhen we're not scouring through Wikipedia masquerading as portal hypertension researchers, we're listening to a lot of music. Here are a few that have caught my attention lately:
PicturesHere are some photos that we've either taken or collected in the last week.
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Friday, August 18th, 2017 Baltimore, Maryland Health updateWell, the good news is that the ultrasound of my liver was normal. The other news is that my oncologist is still searching for the source of that belly fluid and still thinks that the liver is the best candidate as to the culprit. If you'll recall, the trick with the transplant process is that you need to be sick enough to need it but healthy enough to survive it. He wants to ensure a healthy liver. To that end, he has scheduled an MRI of my liver for next Friday (the MRI being the best diagnostic tool for the liver). The upshot from all of this is that any transplant has been officially postponed for a month. I find this news disheartening as it follows so closely on our very good "disease-free" pronouncement from yesterday. The patient burden in this entire process is both mental and physical, of which the mental challenge is the greater (there are drugs to help mitigate the physical). The doctors put a timetable in your head and then you apportion your mental energy equally across the required number of days. If that timetable is delayed, your first instinct is to wonder: "Well shoot, where will I get the additional strength of mind?" The wheels required to summon have started to spin in my head. YouTubeAlison and I have become devotees of Seth Meyers, of SNL fame and current host of Late Night on NBC. In particular, we avidly follow his A Closer Look series, a Weekend Update-style comedic look at the political news of the day. Here are the last few:
If you don't get a few hearty laughs from these, you might be deranged. PicturesHere are some photos that we've either taken or collected in the last week. TidbitHealth update
TidbitWednesday, August 16th, 2017 Baltimore, Maryland Yesterday
In the middle of the three pictures below, you can see the 2.75 liters that were drained from my belly. On the left and right are the before and after pictures. After the 30 minute procedure, I lost an instant 5.5 pounds! Today
TomorrowTomorrow is the day of reckoning. We will meet with my oncologist to hear the results of three recent tests:
If any of the three does not look good, then we will:
PicturesHere are some photos that we've either taken or collected in the last week. Tidbit
Monday, August 7th, 2017 Baltimore, Maryland A day in the life of a radiation targetMy radiotherapy regimen has required two treatments per day, one at 8:40am and another at 4:00pm. This has produced a daily schedule for us that looks like this:
In short, it's all about zapping and napping with an occasional meal thrown in. Alison, of course, has been serving in the all-purpose role of driver, cooker, medication dispenser, gentle nudger (get your irradiated butt out of bed; you've been sleeping all day long) and sleepmate. We're a good team. We fell a tad shortThe plan was for 10 of those days described above, but we fell short just a bit. After eight of them, my platelet count fell low enough (16 compared to a normal range of 150-450) that it was unsafe to continue (since radiation can depress your platelet count further). As for why platelets are important, that's an easy one: they are the cells that cause your blood to clot when you are bleeding. You can imagine the outcome if you start bleeding and can't stop it. If you are curious about how platelets do their job, you can read about the overall process of hemostatis (how the body stops bleeding). What's next?In short, a lot of advanced testing in preparation for the transplant (currently scheduled for Friday, September 1st). The general idea is to make sure that aside from your underlying medical condition that requires the transplant, you are otherwise in sufficiently good health to survive the rigors of the transplant process. So, the unspoken implication is that the testing might turn up a "no go" result from one of those tests. Where would a "no go" result lead? Good question. I haven't asked and don't need to know at this point. I consider it counter-productive to wander too far down the decision tree. The alphabet song
PicturesHere are some photos that we've either taken or collected in the last week. Tidbit
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Joshua GolubAn occasional blog about what's going on in our lives. Categories
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