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Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Wednesday July 14th, 2010 - Insomnia

On Friday July 9th I came down with the most alarming cold I can remember. My chest had felt a little wheezy when I got up, but it felt more like sinus drainage than anything else. Then at 4pm we had a BBQ across town and I started feeling short of breath. The symptoms continued to multiply literally by the hour. By the time we left the BBQ I felt like shit. I now could barely breath, my nose was congesting faster than I could clear, my throat was on fire (probably from the urgent coughing), and my head was hurting. After I dropped off the boys at home, I sought out the local urgent care facility only to find them closed. What's the point of having an urgent care if their hours mirror your primary care physician? Anyway, by that time I was freaked out at how quickly I was going downhill. Thoughts of celebrities dieing from pneumonia and an outbreak of meningitis up north and my weakened immune system prompted me to head into the local Emergency Room. They kept me under observation for about six hours and after they x-rayed my chest they determined that I had a wicked virus and sent me home with some cough medicine.

On Saturday I felt as if I were dieing and remained in bed with a horrible migraine headache. Finally on Sunday I ventured out of my room long enough to shower and eat and went back to bed. On Monday I felt human, but still sick. This morning, at the early hour of 4am, I feel pretty much the same as I felt before the BBQ on Friday. Sick, but not incapacitated by a headache. Just a raw throat and lots of drainage including coughing up tons of yellow phlegm, but only a mild fever of 99.7 degrees. I still feel a bit exhausted, but I'll make it through the day. Good sleep would have been good, but I apparently forgot to take my Seroquel and woke up after only 5 hours of sleep. Whatever. I'll be fine.

Coincidentally I had a physical and oncologist exam on Monday morning. Other than feeling the effects of the virus, I'm very healthy. My platelet count even went up slightly. At the time of the blood draw a week ago I had a blood platelet count of 90,000 up from 80,000, but still drastically lower than the normal "low" of 150,000. Most people have platelet counts closer to 250,000 to 350,000. If a physician saw that low platelet count, they would immediately diagnose leukemia which they did for me in 2007. To be more precise, I have chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). Since I am currently cancer free they say I'm in remission.. It is estimated that 86,000 Americans live with CLL and the survival rate is fairly high these days. Nonetheless, I will continue to get checked every 3 months. Other than that issue I was perfect - blood pressure, heart rate, liver, kidneys, vitamins, protein, cholesterol (a bit too low), and b-12 levels just fine. Better than fine; good in fact.

Yesterday I took Bobby in for his orthodontist appointment and took he and Jeff to the Original Pancake House. We had some perfect pancakes and I was stuffed. It was then that I flipped the switch towards controlling my appetite. I've been trying to diet, but giving in now and then which really meant shit because I wasn't losing weight. Now I will. I am full on vegetarian and carefully watching my calorie count. I know I've said it before, but this time its real. I also picked up a seven day colon cleanse because eating meat for the last month has made me feel bloated and icky.

My "diet" plan is simple - good healthy food (including seafood for protein), good sleep (aside from tonight. opps), exercise, and six smaller meals per day rather than 3 over-sized meals. I don't know what my current weight is. I want to take it after I have had the colon cleanse and my water pills. Then I should have a real good idea of where I'm at.

Traditionally, I include a paragraph from my book "Positano" so here is a paragraph pulled out of chapter 13 right after Nic has landed in Rome...

       Universally, custom agents typically stood stoic with the air of “officialness,” but here were two young Italian men in the statutory uniforms clearly checking out a beautiful woman in a wide white hat struggling with her disobedient child. The line stood still as they leaned into each other and whispered something that they found funny and I found annoying. They laughed and turned back to me. The officers immediately became erect and stoic as the first agent asked me with a completely straight face, “hai qualche cocaine?” What the fuck?!!! The second officer buckled over in laughter attracting their supervisor’s attention. They looked towards the supervisor like children caught sneaking a cookie then turned to me sheepishly and said, “passaporto, per favore.”  

   

1 comment:

  1. Boy, you're really going through it! 09 and 10 have been really bad years for us and so many of many friends. Great to see you are progressing on your book. That is great! Progress in spite of it all! I am trying to get my act together for the So. Cal. Writer's Conf. -- no progress at all on my end : (

    Best of luck!

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