Well, she did say nothing by *mouth*

Saturday, February 3rd, 2018
The Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Building, Room 5C-01
​Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, Maryland

Health update

I apologize for the long delay since my last post, but in this ongoing medical saga of mine, "no news is good news," as they say. Sadly, the delay comes to an end because I've spent the majority of the last 12 days as an inpatient here at Johns Hopkins Hospital. It's been a roller coaster of a time, with the inherent highs and lows of said coaster, so allow me to boil it down as best I can. It all started on Alison's birthday, the 21st of January:
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• Sunday: Lots of gastrointestinal bleeding
• Monday: No bleeding
• Tuesday: More bleeding; hospitalized at Hopkins
• Wednesday: Bowel cleansing (Ug)
• Thursday: Capsule endoscopy performed
• Friday: No bleeding
• Saturday: No bleeding; discharged from hospital
• Sunday: Major bleeding
• Monday: No bleeding
• Tuesday: Moderate bleeding
• Wednesday: Hospitalized again
• Thursday: Bowel cleansing (Ug, ug)
• Friday: Endoscopy and colonoscopy both performed
• Saturday: Strategize

That brings us to this evening, as I sit here with an Ativan gently percolating through my bloodstream. The procedures performed yesterday indicated possible causes of the bleeding, but no smoking gun was identified. Going forward, the plan is to:
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• Wait for me to start bleeding again
• Inject radioactive material into my bloodstream
• Scan my body for radioactivity to see where the blood goes

That should identify the source of the bleeding. Of course, what we do about the source of the bleeding will depend on where it is located. That exciting discussion will need to wait until next time.

Videos

Alison, my constant care companion — she sleeps here in my room each night, despite my (admittedly feeble) protestations — chose to record the beginning of my capsule endoscopy, i.e. swallowing the little camera.

Photos

Here are a few random photos collected since I've been here. We haven't taken too many, because between (A) my inability to shower (too many connected tubes) more often than every few days and (B) Alison sleeping on a fold-out chair, we don't make the most photogenic couple at the moment.

Music

I've got my iPad with me and have continued to explore music on YouTube. The following video is my favorite of late — I find the song musically infectious. Turn up the volume a bit and give it a listen.

Whoa!

You might wonder to what the subject of this post refers. If so, that's an excellent question! I'll try to remember to explain that next time.