And to all a goodnight? I think that is how it goes. Anyways, it's ME! TOM! I haven't blogged in a while and figure now is as good a time as any to do so.
I am BORED! Just a little bit. A couple of weeks trapped in an apartment will do that to a guy. I'm feeling good now, though I have a wife who is most definitely NOT feeling good. We were good enough to take turns (I was sick week 1, her week 2), so I'm hoping week #3 finds us both healthy and well. Where did it all begin?
About two weeks ago Nicole and I decided to treat ourselves to a night out consisting of dinner and a movie. We didn't even get as far as the dinner. We went to Joey's on Kenaston and placed our orders. Before our food even arrived I had a sudden feeling come over me that I find hard to describe other than to say, in using my best 8 year old vocabulary, it was a "bad & yucky" feeling. I had just been to the washroom to blow my nose so I thought perhaps I was just feeling lightheaded. Just in case I warned Nicole "something bad" might be happening. I tried to answer her questions as to how I felt by stating I just felt a sort-of-nauseous feeling come over me and that I could not concentrate in terms of my mental or visual focus. I then felt my head and neck begin to twitch to the left. I figured I was having a seizure. This was a different experience for me, despite having had several seizures previously. Most of my seizures are what I believe are referred to as "Absence Seizures", and not the arms-flailing-wildly "Grand Mal" or "Tonic Clonic" seizures I certainly would have had come to mind when hearing the word "seizure" prior to experiencing any myself. This means I might "zone out" for a moment (maybe a few seconds) and be unresponsive, but otherwise return to "normal" a short while later. Only once did I seem to stay in a seizure-like state, which was when I was deemed to be "status epilepticus" and put into a medically induced coma back in July of this year. Regardless I have very little recollection of any of my past seizures other than the moments leading up to them. This was the first one I can say I was conscious during and can still remember the feelings of to this day. Nicole was (as usual) amazing, and managed to calm me down, as I was feeling quite panicked while having my seizure. She then managed to get me my Ativan (aka: Lorazepam, a drug used to help treat anxiety attacks, seizures, and kill off highly troubled though critically acclaimed pop singers who are about to launch sold-out shows in Europe). The stuff is magic and I can see why one would want to use/abuse it. In my case it helps to stop seizures from happening in a way that someone who has a degree in chemistry or biology might be able to explain.
Nicole informed the waitress that we had to leave and that we needed the yet-to-be delivered meals wrapped "to go". Despite not having any of our beverages we were charged for them, and an accidental press of the 15% tip button meant our server probably had the best tip-to-work ratio of the night, and ensured that at $50, our trip to Joey's was one of the most expensive and least enjoyable "take-out" experiences of recent times.
Nicole informs me I had two additional seizures. One in the car ride home from the restaurant and a second while back in the apartment. I'm sure this was a scary time for her, as I know it was for me, and I wasn't even fully conscious or aware of what was going on. Alas, we made it through that day/night without any of the severe postictal symptoms I've experienced before (such as believing I was in an alternate reality... aka: the "Going Crazy Phase").
Long story made shorter, after getting blood work done, I was cleared to begin Chemotherapy on Wednesday December 14th (which had been delayed from one week prior, December 7th, due to the cold/flu symptoms I was experiencing then). I have since been told I will be referred to a neurologist once an opening becomes available to assess why I still seem to be having seizures regularly (every two months or so on average) despite being on two different anti-seizure medications. I'll let you know how that goes, when it goes, though they warned me it can take a long time to get such an appointment made.
All seemed to be on track when on Monday Nicole started to feel ill. Her illness was less of a common flu/cold and more of a stomach virus or some such thing. I jokingly said I was married to Winnie the Pooh as her tummy was oh so very rumbly. We were hoping it would be a quick thing she would get over before I started Chemo, as when I'm on chemo my white blood cell counts are lowered and I am more susceptible to getting other infections. As it went, she remained (and remains) ill, but despite starting my Chemo this past Wednesday I have not developed any of her current symptoms. Today is Sunday and thus the last of my 5-day chemo stretch and I'm actually feeling about 95% healthy with just a bit of my cough & stuffy head/nose left over from the cold/flu I had before all of this craziness started. With any luck tomorrow will see both of us at 100%, but with Nicole feeling worse today than she did yesterday, that is not looking like the money-making bet.
We now face the wonderful prospect of having to finish our Christmas shopping in the five or so days before Christmas which should be just MAGICAL! Admittedly, I have more shopping to do than Nicole, though as she is my chauffeur she really can't escape the chaos of mall parking (sorry love).
So both of us are reaching stir-crazy levels, as TV can only provide so much relief. I've loaded and unloaded the dishwasher to the point where I need to pointlessly dirty dishes just to keep myself from absolute boredom. I face the unfortunate situation of needing to avoid getting whatever Nicole has, given my reduced immune system at the moment, and me getting whatever she has and knocking me out for the next week+ would BEYOND SUCK, so she's effectively in quarantine in the bedroom. This sounds unfortunate, though I would argue being in "rest-of-the-apartment" quarantine is not much better. I've gotten a lot of reading done, and now a lot of blogging done, but I find I'm surprisingly bored of not doing a whole lot. Maybe I'll run around in the parking lot screaming obscenities for a while. Crazy people always seem to look to have so much fun when they're doing it. That or maybe a nap... in which I dream about running around the parking lot screaming obscenities. The latter has the advantage of me not having to put my jacket or shoes on. Hope you all are in better health than my lovely wife and I and keep in mind that if any of you are finding the stress of the holidays "too much to handle", I would gladly trade places with you for even just 5 minutes of that feeling. Cheers!
--
Tom
PS: GO JETS GO! (I think as a Winnipeg resident I'm legally required to put that in)
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