Happy Movember!

There's a group of people who started a foundation to raise awareness and money about men's health issues, specifically prostate and testicular cancer.  Here's some info from their website http://us.movember.com/ :

On Movember 1st, guys register at Movember.com with a clean-shaven face. For the rest of the month, these selfless and generous men, known as Mo Bros, groom, trim and wax their way into the annals of fine moustachery. Supported by the women in their lives, Mo Sistas, Movember Mo Bros raise funds by seeking out sponsorship for their Mo-growing efforts.

Mo Bros effectively become walking, talking billboards for the 30 days of November. Through their actions and words they raise awareness by prompting private and public conversation around the often ignored issue of men’s health. 

At the end of the month, Mo Bros and Mo Sistas celebrate their gallantry and valor by either throwing their own Movember party or attending one of the infamous Gala Partés held around the world by Movember, for Movember.  

I won't be attempting to raise money, but I am going to keep my mustache to raise awareness, and I would like your help.  You're supposed to start with a clean-shaven face, but I've already been growing this facial hair for a month, and my facial hair grows slowly, so I'm going to shave everything but my mustache.  I want you guys to join me.  On November 30, send me a picture of your mustache, and I'll post it to the blog, where everyone will get a chance to vote for their favorite.  The top 3 will win a yet unspecified prize from me, along with my thanks for helping to spread the word.  Ladies, feel free to post pictures of your fake mustache as well!  I'll leave the voting up for a week, and I'll announce the winner on December 7.  Good luck, and Happy Movember!

Homecoming

I'm still trying to come to terms with just how serious this could have been.  I mean, I needed someone else's blood to keep me from dying.  That's not something that happens on a typical day.  Thanks to all of you who made comments and said that you currently do, or are now planning on donating blood.  You could very well be saving the life of someone just like me, and it's not even very difficult.  You are my heroes.

My mom, brother, sister, and cousin Josh came down to visit me at the hospital yesterday.  I had a pretty good idea that I would be discharged, so my mom made my favorite, her macaroni and cheese.  They also brought me down a bunch of other goodies to keep my tummy full.  It was great to just sit and talk with them and HB while we were waiting to find out my fate.  I finally got discharged around 4:30 or so, and they drove me home, while HB picked up the dogs from Dustin's house.  Thanks to Dustin and Carrie for helping take care of the dogs for us while I was out of commission.

We came back and warmed up the mac and cheese and hung out.  I can't describe how great it was to be back at home with my family.  I wish my dad could have made it down as well, but it's hard for him to get around as well.  We ate mac and cheese and hung out, and talked for a few hours.  My soul feels restored.  HB and I spent the rest of the night relaxing after an exhausting weekend.  It was perfect.

After the dogs settled down after the excitement of realizing that guests were at our house, they mobbed me.  I almost cried.  It was so nice to sleep in my own bed, and take a shower in our shower.  It was also nice not getting jabbed in the arm every few hours in the middle of the night.  This morning I woke up refreshed and renewed, but still a little weak.  It's crazy how much losing some blood will take it out of you.  For now, I enjoy just slipping back into our weekend routine.  Sundays are always a bipolar mixture of relaxing and chores, and it's just what I needed.  Thanks for your thoughts and prayers and hugs and messages and phone calls.  I'll promise to try not to have this happen again.

The scoop, as I know it

I went in around noon to get the GI scope done.  They think what is causing all of this is a thing called ''portal hypertension".  Basically, my liver is not in good shape, so it can cause a back-flow of blood to the blood vessels and veins in the esophagus and stomach.  They think that the stress induced the bleeding.  There's a surgical procedure that can fix this, but I'm not healthy enough right now to have that done.  They're going to give me some beta blockers to lower my blood pressure a bit, and see if that helps.

The bleeding appears to have stopped, although we won't really know for sure until later tonight when they check my hemoglobin levels.  They gave me one unit of blood, which brought my levels up enough that they shouldn't have to give me another unit, unless the bleeding starts again.

But, I do feel remarkably better, although the GI scope left me with a bit of a sore throat.  They let me eat a liquid diet, so I went crazy and ordered Beef broth, orange sherbet, lemon sherbet, chocolate pudding (because snack packs literally fix everything), and some cream of wheat.  I usually hate cream of wheat, but I was so starving, and it was the closest thing to solid food that I've seen since yesterday at noon, that I gobbled it down.  Between the transfusion, the food, and great company (Thanks, Kara!), I feel 100% better. It looks like unless the bleeding picks back up, I'll be out early tomorrow sometime.  My oncologist from the West Michigan Cancer Center was going to stop over this evening, but has decided that all of this is working, and he doesn't need to change anything the docs are doing over here.  I'm really excited to go home and sleep in my own bed, and cuddle with my 3 girls.  I can't wait.  Thanks for all of your concern, prayers, good vibes, and to those who give blood, and are planning to do it soon.  I would still be doing it, but I don't think anyone wants my blood at this point.  (Who am I kidding, no one wanted it in the first place.)  :)

Welp, here we go again

So it's been one hell of a week.  I found out that my cousin died in an car accident at the beginning of the week.  Then I find out of the blue that my Aunt has cancer- I'm not exactly in on the details, as a lot of tests are waiting to come back or still need to be done.  Last night I started to make my way to Alma for the funeral, and about half way there, I felt like I was going to be sick- no big deal, I thought I would throw up, feel better, and be back on my merry way.  However, I just started throwing up blood.  For some reason medical personnel seem to get a little freaked out when that happens.  I called HB, to get directions to the nearest hospital, and made my way to the ER.  I get there, and they start pumping me with fluids, and do a rectal exam. (One of the things that make dying early not seem so bad, is that I thought I would get to miss out on all of the rectal exam fun- my friends who are male and 40 or over- I'm sorry).  This happens in a little town called Ionia, with a pretty podunk, dirty, and not very well staffed hospital.  (At one point, a nurse sopped up blood on a tray with some leftover saline solution, that she used to flush an IV with (that had blood backed up in) and an already bloodied piece of gauze. Awesome.  They decided that they couldn't do much there, so they asked me where I wanted to be transported.  I said Kalamazoo right away.  I just wanted to be closer to home.  My oncologist wanted me to go to U of M.  I said absolutely not.  I just wanted to be close to home.

They think that this isn't very serious right now.  I'm going for an upper GI scope in a few hours.  They stick a camera into my throat and down into my esophagus, stomach, and upper bowels to see what is happening, and hopefully fix the bleeding while they're there.

I've had to receive two blood transfusions while I'm in here.  I may need more.  Here's what I need all of you to do, if you can.  Please, please, please, go donate some blood.  This is such an easy way to help out, and it has helped people like me.  If you have the ability, please find a blood drive and donate.  And a special thanks go out to the unnamed O Positive donor- thank you for your generosity, you are making me feel so much better right now.  I'll post more later after I have this procedure done and find out some more information.

Sorry for all of those that I will miss seeing this weekend.  We'll catch up sometime soon when I'm feeling a bit better.

A small update

So the last few weeks have been pretty OK.  I managed to walk the dogs with HB twice this week.  Usually I don't have the stamina to walk that far.  They were both relatively short walks, under a mile, but I kept up, and it was really super nice to spend some time outside with HB with all of this beautiful weather we've been having.  I've also had a pretty darned good appetite this week, which I think helps with the walking.  The fluid hasn't seemed to have building up as quickly, which always makes me feel better.

I've had some problems with my catheter that I use to drain fluid from my abdomen.  It looks like my body has had enough with it in its current position, so on the 19th the docs at U of M are going to be removing this one, and put a new one in, this time on the left side of my abdomen.  Luckily, this surgery is a breeze, under  an hour and outpatient.

Other than that, things have been on the quiet side lately, which is much better than the opposite.  Hope you are all enjoying this great weather.  Thanks for reading!