Category: daily update

Still sick

I’m still really sick.  I’m better than I was before, but I am still dizzy and coughing up chunks.  And I’ve got sores on the inside of my mouth again.  I’m on so many drugs right now…  but it doesn’t seem to be getting better, just masking the symptoms.  I have to go in to the doctor tomorrow for bloodwork.  Something is clearly wrong, I just hope it isn’t really bad.  Hopefully it isn’t.

Bad Cold, Infection or Immuno-Supressed?

My cold in the mountains just kept getting worse.  I was burning through kleenex and cough drops, and had lost my voice completely.  I injected my IFN, and in a panicked moment after a sleepless night of chills and with an excruciatingly painful sore throat I decided to fly home a day early.  I made some frantic phone calls to the front desk, the airport shuttle and and the airline.  I made the decision yesterday at 6am, and was on the shuttle to the airport at 730.

By the time I got home it was even worse.  My Dad called and insisted I call my primary care physician and get some antibiotics.  The Dr. on call (it was 9pm on Friday) at first was hesitant to proscribe anything, because he was concerned that I might be immuno-surpressed from the IFN.  I haven’t had any bloodwork in over a month, so I couldn’t tell him for sure.  In the end he wrote for antibiotics and some codeine cough syrup.

The codeine helped immediately, and it seems like the antibiotics are helping today.  I’m feeling better.  Still up and down.  Throat still super painful swallowing.  Yesterday I felt so bad that anything feels better.

I definitely need to go see the dr next week.

Sick in the Mountains

I’m at a conference in Banff, Canada.  I gave my presentation yesterday.  I’m feeling pretty sick today

I had the weirdest rough night.  i think im getting a cold.  My room is really too hot, but I can’t control it because there is only one window and it is 12 inches square.  Really weird design.

I injected last night.  and crashed to sleep.  woke up ~5hrs later totally out of it.  this seems to be a new trend in the injections: waking up 5 hrs later.  I was really out of it.  the wildest part is that i wake up and go to the bathroom and was so out of it i didn’t lift the toilet seat cover! and peed onto the closed toilet!!!

i mean i had a quick reaction time and only splashed a little bit on the seat. and kinda threw a towel on it and the floor. and washed off my legs.  and was back asleep immediately.  but it was really surreal.  to be that out of it.

and then i woke up later with chills. haven’t had them for weeks. i think the altitude is making it worse. supposedly ppl only drink half as much up here at alititude.  so it must affect all drugs?

i slept through my alarm, but i pulled myself out of bed to catch breakfast right befor it closed.  food is in this big cafeteria.  but no one was there.  they had all gone off to their conferencey things.  i sat in the farthest scenic corner and struggled to eat my food.  I’m having trouble with food again.  I have no appetite, and it is not appealing.

but also it is the cafeteria effect. i dont know how much to eat. i have to point of reference: these are not my bowls. i dont know how much cereal i’m putting in. i didn’t prepare the food so i have no idea what size portion i am putting onto my plate.  because my own hunger is unreliable, i’ve been relying on measurement to know how much i need to eat.  i’ve figured out routines.  but here, i have no frame of reference.  probably the best were bean quesadillas. i mean they were shit quesas, but it was plain and filling. and i knew how much i was eating and how much i would want!  there was a standardized quantity.  totally disorienting.

CT scan pix

I had to have my second CT scan on Friday.  I get CT scans every 3 months, and MRIs of my brain every 6 months.  I have do the CT scan “with contrast” which means I have to drink this nasty glue-like “smoothie” that tastes awful, and feels pretty bad.  Totally blows out my G.I. system.

Cat Scan Smoothie

The tech who does the CT scans has given me two of the best IVs.  The first time, I didn’t even feel it.  This time, I barely felt it.  He cuts off the finger of his glove so he can feel the vein better.  The first time he did it in a really dramatic/showy way, putting the glove in his mouth, and biting down on it, stretching it out, and snipping it. This time, he does it a little bit more practically, but still fun and cool.  I feel like I wrote about this before…



Finger on pulse for IV

Feeling like crap

My mouth sores are mostly gone, but now I can’t swallow without pain on my left side of my throat.  I called the Dr, and these are not conventional side effects from the IFN. I was told to treat it like a cold, and if it is not gone in a couple of days, to call back for an appointment.

I’m queasy.  I’m wearing my ice vest inside my appartment with the A/C on.  I need to eat more food.  And I have to shoot up tonight.

I remember what AW said to me at one point:  “You will have good days, and you will have bad days.  And you just have to accept that somedays the best you can do is to lie in bed and cry.”  We’ll I haven’t cried yet today, though maybe that would be a satisfying release.  I think I’ll go eat some watermelon instead.  And then lie in bed.