A lot of people who are reading this blog including friends and family might not exactly know how I got to this point with the diagnosis and all that. Most of you have been just faithfully following along, and I thank you for that. I'll try and clear that up now. My wife is much better at dates than I am, so I will clarify these with her beforehand.
December 23rd, 2008 was the last day of work on campus for those of us who were still there and not already on vacation for the Christmas break. Things were quiet in our Sign Shop that afternoon, even though it was still very snowy and icy outside. I decided to go out back for a cigarette. Our building has a back door with a metal grated set of stairs heading down with a railing. The stairs are essentially 'see through' and very textured. Naturally, with the all the ice and snow we had had, ice was bound to build on these stairs and become a hazard. I had slipped on them dozens of times before. But this time was different. I took my first step down, immediately lost my footing and came down lower back first, on the first step. Hurt like hell. I gathered my composure, rubbed it out, finished my smoke and went back inside. Everybody falls...right? Big deal.
As Christmas passed and we stayed home resting, the pain in my lower back from the fall never really seem to get better. The following Monday, the 29th I put a call into the doctor to see if maybe I'd broken something. That afternoon, my wife and I went in and sure enough, I had broken rib #11 on my lowest left side. Awesome. I've never broken a major bone before, so this was kind of cool. A few pain med prescriptions later, we were on our way home.
During the next week, I began to notice a dramatic difference in my energy levels and my breathing. Simple tasks wore me out. (i.e., showers, washing dishes, etc.) They would tire me to the point of shear exhaustion. My wife and I did some research and determined that I could've gotten pneumonia from the broken rib. On January 5th, I returned to work at Notre Dame, and worked through that week even though I was exhausted. Things still weren't getting better the next week, so Tuesday, January 13th, I called my doctor again and explained to him my situation with the breathing and energy levels. His office squeezed me in that afternoon to follow up further. That afternoon, they did a chest x-ray and found that I had pneumonia in my right lung. They put me on a 5 day high dose of antibiotics, thinking that would kick it, and wanted me to follow up in a week to see how I was doing. Okay...makes sense. I was off work the remainder of that week.
The night of January 19th, 2009 was the night that things really started to change in our life. My wife and I were getting ready for bed, when I realized I couldn't catch my breath just lying there. I started to get worried. I changed positions, sat up, but nothing helped. It felt like I had just run a mile and couldn't catch my breath. About 15-20 minutes later, the seriousness had grown to fright, and we decided to go to the emergency room. (This was the same night the neighbor came to our rescue when Katie ran her car into the snowbank trying to move it.)
It's after 11pm, and Katie and I are speeding off to the ER, not knowing what to expect. We arrive at St. Joe Med Center and I run in. Immediately, they took me into care to find out what was going on. By this time, my chest was hurting so bad from wheezing, I couldn't take deep breaths at all. We explained to them about the rib and the pneumonia and all that. Obviously, they started with a chest x-ray to find out what was still going on. Oddly enough, the x-ray came back clear...with no pneumonia! Still a little baffled, they decided to do a CT Scan of my chest to check for clots in my lungs or anything out of the ordinary. It was at this point where they finally administered some pain meds through an IV, and because it lifted the pain from chest, I was able to take deeper breaths and it ultimately slowed my breathing down to almost normal. The CT Scan took place and came back clear. Now everyone was confused - including us.
When they were first doing the chest x-rays they had drawn blood to do a CBC, and the results showed that my hemoglobin count was very low (hemoglobin is the little tanks in your red blood cells that carry oxygen to all parts of your body). My first lab came back at 8.4, so they drew more blood thinking it was a mistaken reading, and the 2nd lab came back at 7.3. For some reason, my hemoglobins were disappearing and that was the reason I was feeling that way. Normally, when a person's levels drop that far, they're given a blood transfusion.
Around 2am, January 20th, they had secured a room for me and I was admitted into the cardiac unit of the hospital. And later that Tuesday, I got a blood transfusion and was able to speak with my regular doctor about what the heck was going on. He was basically clueless, so he decided to bring on a colleague of his named Dr. Park to help him with my situation. Dr. Park is a Hematologist/Oncologist who works in South Bend as well. He essentially took the reins on my case from that point out. Dr. Park was very kind and informative about the tests he wanted to run, and what his suspicions were. One of which, was obviously Leukemia. Of course, none of us thought it was that... but we were open to any conclusions. That day he gave me a bone marrow biopsy. The problem with biopsies like that, is that the results take a few days, so we wouldn't know anything for a least a day or two.
On January 21st, I was released to a better room in the hospital with my own bathroom. That afternoon, Dr. Park delivered the most shocking news I've ever had in my life. 'You have Leukemia, and you need to start thinking about where you want to get treatment.'
Stay tuned for Part II.
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Wednesday, February 11, 2009
The Road Here: Part ONE
A lot of people who are reading this blog including friends and family might not exactly know how I got to this point with the diagnosis and all that. Most of you have been just faithfully following along, and I thank you for that. I'll try and clear that up now. My wife is much better at dates than I am, so I will clarify these with her beforehand.
December 23rd, 2008 was the last day of work on campus for those of us who were still there and not already on vacation for the Christmas break. Things were quiet in our Sign Shop that afternoon, even though it was still very snowy and icy outside. I decided to go out back for a cigarette. Our building has a back door with a metal grated set of stairs heading down with a railing. The stairs are essentially 'see through' and very textured. Naturally, with the all the ice and snow we had had, ice was bound to build on these stairs and become a hazard. I had slipped on them dozens of times before. But this time was different. I took my first step down, immediately lost my footing and came down lower back first, on the first step. Hurt like hell. I gathered my composure, rubbed it out, finished my smoke and went back inside. Everybody falls...right? Big deal.
As Christmas passed and we stayed home resting, the pain in my lower back from the fall never really seem to get better. The following Monday, the 29th I put a call into the doctor to see if maybe I'd broken something. That afternoon, my wife and I went in and sure enough, I had broken rib #11 on my lowest left side. Awesome. I've never broken a major bone before, so this was kind of cool. A few pain med prescriptions later, we were on our way home.
During the next week, I began to notice a dramatic difference in my energy levels and my breathing. Simple tasks wore me out. (i.e., showers, washing dishes, etc.) They would tire me to the point of shear exhaustion. My wife and I did some research and determined that I could've gotten pneumonia from the broken rib. On January 5th, I returned to work at Notre Dame, and worked through that week even though I was exhausted. Things still weren't getting better the next week, so Tuesday, January 13th, I called my doctor again and explained to him my situation with the breathing and energy levels. His office squeezed me in that afternoon to follow up further. That afternoon, they did a chest x-ray and found that I had pneumonia in my right lung. They put me on a 5 day high dose of antibiotics, thinking that would kick it, and wanted me to follow up in a week to see how I was doing. Okay...makes sense. I was off work the remainder of that week.
The night of January 19th, 2009 was the night that things really started to change in our life. My wife and I were getting ready for bed, when I realized I couldn't catch my breath just lying there. I started to get worried. I changed positions, sat up, but nothing helped. It felt like I had just run a mile and couldn't catch my breath. About 15-20 minutes later, the seriousness had grown to fright, and we decided to go to the emergency room. (This was the same night the neighbor came to our rescue when Katie ran her car into the snowbank trying to move it.)
It's after 11pm, and Katie and I are speeding off to the ER, not knowing what to expect. We arrive at St. Joe Med Center and I run in. Immediately, they took me into care to find out what was going on. By this time, my chest was hurting so bad from wheezing, I couldn't take deep breaths at all. We explained to them about the rib and the pneumonia and all that. Obviously, they started with a chest x-ray to find out what was still going on. Oddly enough, the x-ray came back clear...with no pneumonia! Still a little baffled, they decided to do a CT Scan of my chest to check for clots in my lungs or anything out of the ordinary. It was at this point where they finally administered some pain meds through an IV, and because it lifted the pain from chest, I was able to take deeper breaths and it ultimately slowed my breathing down to almost normal. The CT Scan took place and came back clear. Now everyone was confused - including us.
When they were first doing the chest x-rays they had drawn blood to do a CBC, and the results showed that my hemoglobin count was very low (hemoglobin is the little tanks in your red blood cells that carry oxygen to all parts of your body). My first lab came back at 8.4, so they drew more blood thinking it was a mistaken reading, and the 2nd lab came back at 7.3. For some reason, my hemoglobins were disappearing and that was the reason I was feeling that way. Normally, when a person's levels drop that far, they're given a blood transfusion.
Around 2am, January 20th, they had secured a room for me and I was admitted into the cardiac unit of the hospital. And later that Tuesday, I got a blood transfusion and was able to speak with my regular doctor about what the heck was going on. He was basically clueless, so he decided to bring on a colleague of his named Dr. Park to help him with my situation. Dr. Park is a Hematologist/Oncologist who works in South Bend as well. He essentially took the reins on my case from that point out. Dr. Park was very kind and informative about the tests he wanted to run, and what his suspicions were. One of which, was obviously Leukemia. Of course, none of us thought it was that... but we were open to any conclusions. That day he gave me a bone marrow biopsy. The problem with biopsies like that, is that the results take a few days, so we wouldn't know anything for a least a day or two.
On January 21st, I was released to a better room in the hospital with my own bathroom. That afternoon, Dr. Park delivered the most shocking news I've ever had in my life. 'You have Leukemia, and you need to start thinking about where you want to get treatment.'
Stay tuned for Part II.
December 23rd, 2008 was the last day of work on campus for those of us who were still there and not already on vacation for the Christmas break. Things were quiet in our Sign Shop that afternoon, even though it was still very snowy and icy outside. I decided to go out back for a cigarette. Our building has a back door with a metal grated set of stairs heading down with a railing. The stairs are essentially 'see through' and very textured. Naturally, with the all the ice and snow we had had, ice was bound to build on these stairs and become a hazard. I had slipped on them dozens of times before. But this time was different. I took my first step down, immediately lost my footing and came down lower back first, on the first step. Hurt like hell. I gathered my composure, rubbed it out, finished my smoke and went back inside. Everybody falls...right? Big deal.
As Christmas passed and we stayed home resting, the pain in my lower back from the fall never really seem to get better. The following Monday, the 29th I put a call into the doctor to see if maybe I'd broken something. That afternoon, my wife and I went in and sure enough, I had broken rib #11 on my lowest left side. Awesome. I've never broken a major bone before, so this was kind of cool. A few pain med prescriptions later, we were on our way home.
During the next week, I began to notice a dramatic difference in my energy levels and my breathing. Simple tasks wore me out. (i.e., showers, washing dishes, etc.) They would tire me to the point of shear exhaustion. My wife and I did some research and determined that I could've gotten pneumonia from the broken rib. On January 5th, I returned to work at Notre Dame, and worked through that week even though I was exhausted. Things still weren't getting better the next week, so Tuesday, January 13th, I called my doctor again and explained to him my situation with the breathing and energy levels. His office squeezed me in that afternoon to follow up further. That afternoon, they did a chest x-ray and found that I had pneumonia in my right lung. They put me on a 5 day high dose of antibiotics, thinking that would kick it, and wanted me to follow up in a week to see how I was doing. Okay...makes sense. I was off work the remainder of that week.
The night of January 19th, 2009 was the night that things really started to change in our life. My wife and I were getting ready for bed, when I realized I couldn't catch my breath just lying there. I started to get worried. I changed positions, sat up, but nothing helped. It felt like I had just run a mile and couldn't catch my breath. About 15-20 minutes later, the seriousness had grown to fright, and we decided to go to the emergency room. (This was the same night the neighbor came to our rescue when Katie ran her car into the snowbank trying to move it.)
It's after 11pm, and Katie and I are speeding off to the ER, not knowing what to expect. We arrive at St. Joe Med Center and I run in. Immediately, they took me into care to find out what was going on. By this time, my chest was hurting so bad from wheezing, I couldn't take deep breaths at all. We explained to them about the rib and the pneumonia and all that. Obviously, they started with a chest x-ray to find out what was still going on. Oddly enough, the x-ray came back clear...with no pneumonia! Still a little baffled, they decided to do a CT Scan of my chest to check for clots in my lungs or anything out of the ordinary. It was at this point where they finally administered some pain meds through an IV, and because it lifted the pain from chest, I was able to take deeper breaths and it ultimately slowed my breathing down to almost normal. The CT Scan took place and came back clear. Now everyone was confused - including us.
When they were first doing the chest x-rays they had drawn blood to do a CBC, and the results showed that my hemoglobin count was very low (hemoglobin is the little tanks in your red blood cells that carry oxygen to all parts of your body). My first lab came back at 8.4, so they drew more blood thinking it was a mistaken reading, and the 2nd lab came back at 7.3. For some reason, my hemoglobins were disappearing and that was the reason I was feeling that way. Normally, when a person's levels drop that far, they're given a blood transfusion.
Around 2am, January 20th, they had secured a room for me and I was admitted into the cardiac unit of the hospital. And later that Tuesday, I got a blood transfusion and was able to speak with my regular doctor about what the heck was going on. He was basically clueless, so he decided to bring on a colleague of his named Dr. Park to help him with my situation. Dr. Park is a Hematologist/Oncologist who works in South Bend as well. He essentially took the reins on my case from that point out. Dr. Park was very kind and informative about the tests he wanted to run, and what his suspicions were. One of which, was obviously Leukemia. Of course, none of us thought it was that... but we were open to any conclusions. That day he gave me a bone marrow biopsy. The problem with biopsies like that, is that the results take a few days, so we wouldn't know anything for a least a day or two.
On January 21st, I was released to a better room in the hospital with my own bathroom. That afternoon, Dr. Park delivered the most shocking news I've ever had in my life. 'You have Leukemia, and you need to start thinking about where you want to get treatment.'
Stay tuned for Part II.
1 comment:
Shocking news for all of us! But get this, after all the times that I ragged on you about smoking, it actually saved your life! Don't think you should start up again, but wow! I am glad that I was able to see you that day. Oh great, now I am all teary eyed......I am looking forward to the happy ending when they tell you in a couple of weeks that you are in remission!!
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Shocking news for all of us! But get this, after all the times that I ragged on you about smoking, it actually saved your life! Don't think you should start up again, but wow! I am glad that I was able to see you that day. Oh great, now I am all teary eyed......I am looking forward to the happy ending when they tell you in a couple of weeks that you are in remission!!
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