I wish I could.
I've had bronchitis before, but I don't remember it being this miserable. I think the worst part is not being able to take a deep breath without inducing a coughing fit. I will be so glad when this is over with -- I think once I can actually breathe again, it's time to start running or doing something more active to get my lungs back in better shape. I hate bronchitis!
Steph came home today, and we are most excited. It was a tough week for all of us, but we survived. Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers! :-)
She was able to go back on her thyroid medication today (yay!), and will be able to eat a normal diet starting Monday (if her scan is clear). She is still low on energy, but she has her appetite back, so that is good. It will be another week or so before she can kiss the kids or hold them more than 15 minutes a day, so we aren't totally back to normal yet. But at least we're together again!
Steph's radiation treatment is officially scheduled for Monday afternoon. After the radiation, she will stay in the recently vacated house of a close family friend (who recently moved in to a brand new house on the same property).
Once again, our friends have come through and things are in place for a smooth week ahead. But please be thinking of us -- this weekend as Steph copes with feeling run down (due to low thyroid hormone levels), and next week as she is isolated from almost all human contact. As many have noted, the isolation may actually be a nice retreat for her... but I hope she at least misses us a little bit. :-)
Today was Noah's first official day of kindergarten, and yesterday was Steph's first day back to work since the surgery...
It was really just an orientation day for the kids, and information day for the parents -- lasting a whole hour. Noah seems to still be very excited about school, so hopefully his first full week will go well. I also hope that he is able make good use of his energy, imagination, and zeal for life; and that nobody will try to squelch his enthusiasm.
And yes, that's correct, Steph is back to work already. She took the doctor's "about one week" literally, and went back to work on Tuesday, just one week after surgery. I thought she should have gone with one week after getting out of the hospital, but as I stated before, she's a very strong and determined woman, and I couldn't convince her. She said that it was rough to make it through those two days, and that if she had to do it over, she would probably take the extra week off. Oh well...
Tomorrow is her one-week follow-up with the ENT surgeon, so hopefully we will soon have information about her pathology report, and regarding her upcoming radiation treatment.
Steph is home (yay!), and I'm having a love-hate relationship with my CPAP machine.
I brought Steph home Thursday afternoon, after waiting two-and-a-half hours for the hospital personnel to get the paperwork completed so we could check out. As Kris pointed out in the last post's comments section, Steph looks none the worse for wear, other than the pieces of tape covering her incision. I said this after each of our children were born [via C-section], and I'll say it again, she's one tough and determined girl -- her recovery has been nothing short of impressive.
Steph was exhausted when she got home, as she didn't get much sleep Wednesday night (her roommate's ailments kept her awake). I think she's happy to have her old bed back, because she went to bed at about 4:30 yesterday afternoon, and slept pretty much non-stop until this morning... it's very nice to know that she is home.
On the Sleep Apnea front... I was diagnosed with a mild case, but the results could have been swayed by the fact that I had so much trouble actually getting to sleep during the test. There were enough events where I stopped breathing (the longest was 41 seconds) that they felt I should at least try a CPAP machine -- so they gave me a loaner for a week.
I'm currently having a love-hate relationship with the CPAP (after two nights of use). I love the feeling of extra airflow going to my lungs; I love the deepness of the sleep I am getting; and I love actually waking up feeling rested -- I've never experienced this before. I do still wake up a few times during the night to adjust things, but I go right back to sleep, and then wake up at 5:00 or 5:30 and am ready to get out of bed.
The hate part comes from the mask, and occasionally from the extra airflow that comes during my apnea events. If I don't get the mask adjusted just right, it can put a lot of pressure on different parts of my face. Likewise, if I don't lay my head on the pillow just right, things can also get quite uncomfortable -- or a leak can be created because the mask isn't seated right, which blows air into my eyes. I have ripped the mask off both mornings because it was bugging me, but after getting up and visiting the water closet, I found that I wanted the mask back on when I got back in bed -- because the extra airflow when I breathe just feels so nice.
The jury is still out on the whether or not I will keep the CPAP, but I've got another five days to try it out. Steph said she didn't hear anything from it last night, so that is a major plus -- but she's pretty sure I'm going to scare the kids if they see me with the mask on. If I wake up feeling the way I have the last two days, I will definitely be keeping it -- I think I could actually kick my coffee habit with this thing!
So there you are... consider yourself updated! :-)
The surgery went very well. The nodule was indeed cancerous, but the surgeon was able to remove everything he needed to, while leaving a very small incision. Steph was still pretty well out of it at 5:30 PM, but just an hour later, was sitting up in bed and talking (quietly). When I left at 8:30, she was actually getting hungry and hoping they would bring her some jello...
I got home in time to rock both kids before tucking them into their beds. :-)
Tomorrow morning I will go up and get fitted for my CPAP machine, and then I will go over and spend the day with Steph. The plan is for her to be released Thursday around noon. Good night all!
Steph had her appointment with the ENT surgeon today. He confirmed that the pathologists are very good at interpreting cells from biopsies, and since her report came back as suspicious, there is a very, very high likelihood that it is indeed cancerous. So they will proceed on that assumption, and remove her thyroid.
The surgeon's first comment upon examination of the 'nodule' was, "It's not very big"; which is most definitely good news. He said that she didn't need to cancel her August vacation plans, and recommended having the surgery in the next two months or so. The end of August was all booked up, and they hadn't started booking September yet, so we won't have an official surgery date for a few weeks yet.
Please keep us in your prayers in the next few months leading up to this, as there is still some anxiety despite everything we've learned about this. Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers during the last week... it really means a lot to us.
For those who don't know, my dear wife Stephanie was diagnosed with papillary cancer of the thyroid last week. We are now over the inital shock, and feeling much more at ease after hearing from many sources that this is a very treatable form of cancer. Our spirits have also been buoyed by all of the well-wishes and offers of support... thank you! And for those who offered the support, be prepared; because we might just take you up on it. :-)
Here's an excellent link (originally posted at GRS) that explains a lot about this particular form of cancer: Thyroid Cancer Survivors' Association.
Q: What do you get when you put 25-30 kids in a school classroom?
A: A cold.
It happens every September. School starts and germs get passed around. One more argument for home schooling, I guess...
Right, so trans fats are the latest bad thing for you, and are now listed on the 'nutritional information' of food products sold in the U.S. Trans fatty acid comes from partially hydrogenated oils -- basically oil that has been turned into Crisco by the addition of hydrogen. Partially hydrogenated oils greatly increase the shelf life of food products, but they have a longer shelf life inside your body, too... not a good thing.
So you can avoid trans fat by looking for foods that list '0g Trans Fat' on the package, right? Don't be so sure... according to FDA regulations, anything less than .5 grams per serving can be labeled as 0 grams per serving, or trans fat free. If a product has very small serving sizes listed, you could very well get 1 to 2 grams of trans fat with a realistic portion -- not a good thing.
For the past few years, my morning ritual has been several cups of French pressed coffee, mixed with generous portions of French Vanilla creamer. I switched to Nestle's 'Coffee Mate' brand when they started putting '0g trans fat' on the label, only to find 'partially hydrogenated soybean oil' listed as the third ingredient (behind water and sugar).
So, in an effort to cut back on my sugar and trans fat intake (and to lose a little weight), I am quitting... cold turkey. No more coffee and creamer (except maybe on the weekends). So far I'm not really liking this coffee-less existence (my head is kind of in a fog), but I'm hoping that it will go away in a few days... we'll see.
In my on going fight to clear this menacing ailment from my lungs, I have become good friends with my Robitussin. But as many times as I have chugged down that ruby red syrup, I still can't stand the way it tastes. Every swig needs to be followed immediately by a chaser of some sort... and I have tried many, many different chasers... everything from water to saltine crackers to mouth wash to caramel corn. Finally, after two weeks of dealing with this crap, I have found the perfect chaser...
Just one spoonful of peanut butter will eliminate all traces of that repugnant Robitussin. If only I had discovered this two weeks ago...
I had an interesting day yesterday... but it really all started over the weekend. I will start with Sunday night.
Steph and I had just finished watching 'our show', Grey's Anatomy (ironically, a show that takes place in a hospital). I felt a little bit of heartburn, so I popped a few Tums to stave it off, then went to bed. Almost instantly, I started feeling tight pressure in my chest, with pain radiating out to my left shoulder blade and up to my jaw. It wasn't a sharp, stabbing pain, but it was persistent and very uncomfortable. I was also feeling a bit short of breath, and found breathing to be a chore. I tried changing positions in the hopes to alleviate the pain, but it wouldn't go away. I briefly thought, "Is this what a heart attack feels like?", but dismissed it as just being a side effect of my ongoing pneumonia-like lung ailment. I took a few Advil and crawled back into bed to tough it out, not saying a word about it to Steph.
I eventually fell asleep, but awoke during the middle of the night to use the restroom. My back and jaw pain was gone, but I still felt pressure in my chest. I took another one of my Expectorant/Cough Suppressant pills and went back to bed. I awoke at 6:00am feeling very well rested, but still feeling like something was very tight in my chest. I didn't feel like I needed coffee (a rare thing), so I just had a bowl of Cheerios. When I went to drink the leftover cereal milk, I felt a bit of discomfort in my chest with each gulp. A short time later, I felt the need to belch... but it was difficult to get the air out, and when it did go through, it was a bit painful... but a huge relief once it passed.
I went to work with the intent of calling Kaiser to make an appointment for this pesky (and now a bit painful) chest ailment. No appointments were available, so I got put on a call-back list.
In the meantime, I went in to discuss what had happened with JD and Nick. JD asked, "Have you looked up the symptoms of a heart attack online?". I had not. Nick asked, "How do you know you didn't have one?". I replied, "Because I woke up in the morning". Nick was flabbergasted.
I went in and googled for the symptoms of a heart attack. Yikes! I had just about all of the symptoms, minus the lightheadedness, fainting, sweating and nausea. Could it be?
At about 1:00pm, the advice nurse from Kaiser called back to get more information from me. I told her that my chest ailment had been feeling better until Sunday night, and I described what transpired. This immediately raised a red flag for her and she asked if my family had a history of heart disease. I said I didn't think so. She said they didn't have any appointments available at the clinic, but she would phone the on-call doctor and advise me of what to do next. She phoned my back and informed my that I should either go to the Urgent Care Clinic (which opened at 4:30pm) or to the Emergency Room. I called Steph to tell let her know what was going on and made plans to run up to the hospital.
We arrived at the hospital a little before 3:00pm, and I checked in. They took my blood pressure and my pulse, and strapped a little pink plastic band on my wrist. I was soon led back to the ER where they hooked me up to a heart monitor and started asking a few questions. The nurse who helped me felt very confident that my heart was perfectly fine, based on my strong heartbeat and on the fact that the walk into the hospital was not difficult for me. Still, he needed to order an EKG, just to be sure. A few minutes after the EKG tech had finished recording my heartbeat (and disconnecting all her sensors), a doctor came in to let my know that my EKG looked 'perfect'. That was good to know.
Now that my heart was given a clean bill of health, they still needed to see what was up with my lungs, so they ordered a chest X-ray. I quickly headed down to radiology for a few photos, and headed back to my little 8x10 curtained cell. A nurse came in to hook me back up to the heart monitor and oxygen, but I told her that my heart was fine and she didn't need to hook me back up... she reluctantly complied with my wishes. After waiting close to a half hour, the doctor finally returned to tell me that my chest X-ray also looked 'perfect'... there was no infection or pneumonia in my chest... it was just a virus. So what was going on?!?!
The doctor then turned his attention to the heartburn-like feeling I had experienced before my 'red flag' symptoms started occurring. He determined that I was having a severe acid-reflux episode, and those symptoms, when combined with my chest cold, were mimicking a majority of the symptoms of a heart attack. I was also passing large amounts of gas (belching), which was not helping the matter. He prescribed some Zantac and sent me on my way.
So what caused all this discomfort? My own cooking. I had cooked a marvelous Mexican food feast on Saturday, and I had partaken of plenty of leftovers on Sunday. I had a rather large helping of refried beans, rice, steak (loaded with onions and bell peppers), guacamole, cilantro and Tapatio. I had to wash it all down with a couple Jarritos soda pops, too. It just needed a few hours of percolation to start causing problems...
I was still having some painful belches last night, but they have finally subsided, and this morning I feel very good. My chest congestion seems to finally be clearing up to the point where I pretty much feel normal... I just hack things up periodically. I hope to be well by the end of the week.
I don't care to see the inside of a hospital again for a good while... not until our little girl comes along in a few months... :-)
I seem to have come down with a mild case of pneumonia. I haven't gone to the doctor to verify this for sure, but I definitely have a majority of the symptoms (and I had a chest cold a week before). It does seem to be getting better, although I do still have swollen glands and a bit of tingling in my extremities. If I had a fever I might be more worried, but my body temperature has actually been low... as low as 97 degrees.
I am still able to go to work, and I actually was able to do some yardwork/winterizing at home yesterday, but I am pretty well drained by early evening. I look forward to having a little more energy back... and I look forward to being able to take deep breaths without a coughing fit. Hopefully I won't feel quite so creativity challenged once I shake this... then maybe I will be able to make a decent weblog entry.
At this point I will do the Roth thing and let my immune system battle it out... which frustrates Stephanie to no end. :-)