Christmas Trip...

What a topsy turvy year this has been. Saturday Jason and I made our annual trek up to Maryland. This year however the Blizzard of 09 made goings a little harder. We tried to avoid the storm by driving through Kentucky then crossing over into West Virginia. Everything was smooth sailing until we were an hour into West Va. and the snow started falling harder, it started getting dark, and the temperature continued to drop. Jason was driving, but we were both so tense I thought we were going to crack from the pressure. After 15 hours in the car we reached Morgantown, WV and I had enough. I had my parents look up pet friendly hotels on that exit and booked us a room. The dogs were excited just to be out of the car and started running around like a couple of maniacs in the snow. We got up and left first thing Sunday morning. It was still snowing, but not as hard. The roads had cleared up slightly, but were still nerve wracking. Amazing thing, we got to Maryland and the roads were clear!

We made it to Hagerstown in time for Jason and his mom to turn around and head to Pittsburgh for the Steelers Green Bay game. Even though I would have loved to go, I was okay staying behind because it was freezing outside!!

Mercedes Marathon and the Bell Center

When I was in the hospital and the doctors told me I had to take it easy when I got out and not go back to kickboxing and running marathons immediately, I set a goal that I was going to race in the Mercedes Marathon this year. So now I am registered not only for the full half marathon, but also on a relay team! I don't do any extra, I'm the first 5K leg of the relay team, and will pass off the ankle bracelet then continue on the half marathon course.

The relay team I'm running on is supporting the Bell Center a local group dedicated to helping children from birth to three years of age that have developmental delays. We'll be sponsoring a child and trying to raise money for the organization. If you can make a donation please go to my pledge page! www.firstgiving.com/leighciarkowski

The Word Idiopathic

The first time I heard the word idiopathic was right before I was told to go to the ER for the first time in my life. So three months ago. I heard it again this morning at the emergency vet. I got up and was ready to walk out the door to head to UAB day (a recruiting day where high school seniors and juniors come in droves to learn about UAB). When I walked back into the bedroom to grab my Blackberry, because I can't go anywhere without it, Bettis was sitting up and looked like his head and shoulders were shivering. His head kept shaking and the muscles in his back were twitching. He couldn't control it. I woke Jason up who tried to calm him down and I went to call our vet. The nurse there told me it may be a mini seizure or the beginning of a more serious seizure and that I needed to get him to the emergency vet immediately. I called the ER vet next and they said it would be good to bring him in. By this point the tremors had stopped and Bettis was his normal self as if nothing happened. I piled him in the car anyway, swung by my office to hand over the information booth materials and duties to Brent and then we headed out to Hoover.

I'm not a fan of the emergency vet. I've only ever had to go there once before, but it was not a pleasant experience. I am one of those crazy dog people that treat my pets like they are human children and the thing about the emergency vet people is they always make me feel like I am to blame for why my dog is there. How I could cause my dog to have a seizure I don't know, but apparently I am. This time was a better than the last the nurses were very nice and cancelled out some of the snippiness I received from the front desk woman. After explaining what happened and Bettis's normal daily activity which involve sleeping, peeing, sleeping, eating, sleeping, chasing rats or chewing on something of mine he's not supposed to, and sleeping, the vet came in and I got to explain what happened all over again. She said physically he was fine although a little over weight. Note: He's 93.6lbs which means he has lost 5lbs from the last time we went to the vet and I was told to put him on a diet, so I was thrilled at his weight. They took him in the back and drew some blood and ran a CBC then we got to wait for the results. I

brought my knitting, so I had something to do, but I realized just sitting there wondering what's next is what my mom and Jason had to go through when I was sick.

The vet came back about an hour later and said everything was normal and that the seizure was idiopathic. As she started to explain what idiopathic meant I let her know that I overly familiar with that word and she didn't need to explain. So what does that mean for my big head? This could be the start of a future string of seizures or it could be an isolated incident. She told me to keep track of this one and then any others he may have.

Thankfully unlike me, I got to take Bettis home right after that. He was oblivious and really just enjoyed the car ride. I'm glad he's okay and hope things stay that way.

I've Been Slacking

This is the reason I have never stared a blog before. As I get busier, the blog goes by the way side and then I feel guilty about not posting anything. I realized the other day that I have been neglecting my blog and needed to post some updates explaining why I have been so out of touch:

Week 10.26 - 11.1: The week of Halloween I had something

going on every day including a pumpkin carving contest and a zombie invasion. No joke. On Tuesday I de-topped and gutted (with the help of wonderful RA's) 80 plus pumpkins to get ready for our second annual pumpkin carving contest that evening. It went okay, not as well as I would have hoped, but we did have a lot of carved pumpkins. Then on Thursday Max Brooks was coming to campus to talk

about his book, How to Survive a Zombie Invasion, which is key information to know when being invaded by zombies. As the Commons was that afternoon for lunch. About 20 zombies came to lunch moaning and bleeding everywhere. It was quite impressive. Then on Saturday for Halloween Jason and I finally decided to just stay home and hang out. At the last minute I went and bought candy, at first only grabbing one bag, but then picking out an assorted pack of my personal favorites since no one ever trick or treats at our house. WRONG. First year ever we had mobs of trick or treaters. I gave out all our candy and managed to carve two pumpkins in the process.

Week 11.2 - 11.8: Only three days of work this week, yeah!! This week Jason and I also decided that we really needed to get into exercise mode. So since Monday I have been doing 30 - 50 minutes of cardio daily. Which means the REC has become my second office. Actually it's been really nice. Once you get in the mind set that this is something I have to do every day and just build it in to your schedule it's not so bad. Also the REC has TV's with sounds hook ups. So I sit on the elliptical or the treadmill and watch the news, or football or if all else fails whatever ridiculous reality show they have playing on VH1.

On Sunday I got together with a group of girl friends and Kristen taught us all how to knit! This is something I decided to take up in the hospital since I had loads of free time. Note: It's a lot easier to learn when someone walks you through the steps. So now I have my own needles and am working on my first scarf!! Very exciting. On Wednesday we had our first official Dinner Club meeting. A couple couples we are friends with that also live in the Avondale/ Crestwood/ Forrest Park area decided to get together once a week and have dinner and just enjoy each others company. Kelly and Andrew hosted the kick off event in fine fashion. Then Thursday morning, Jason and I got up and went to the airport to fly to San Antonio to meet my parents for a nice vacation. We were there through Sunday and had perfect weather almost the entire time. We hung out on the Riverwalk, which is amazing! Jason and my dad went fishing while my mom and I shopped at the local stores and did a walking tour of the city. We also made it out of town and went to the original missions, including the Alamo, and a local winery. It was a wonderful vacation. All our pictures are here: http://gallery.me.com/ciarkowski#100157

Week 11/9 - 11/15 (i.e. NOW): Coming back to work on Monday was busy. I had a lot to catch up on, not to mention it was pretty overcast, drizzly and miserable outside. Monday is also a long day because I have class at night, which was long and uneventful. But at the gym that night I got to watch the Steelers Broncos pregame!! It was a great game, Steelers won and Hines Ward made a crazy 4th quarter hurdle over a defender for the touchdown play! Tuesday Ida came through and it rained, rained, rained all day. Our office started leaking in several places around the building which is just sad since it's only five years old. Wednesday was our second Dinner Club meeting and had two great events. 1) Andrew got to administer both my flue shot and my swine flu shot that my mom FedExd down, since they are out in Alabama. Everyone stopped to watch and Liz tapes the whole thing on her camera phone. 2) Was the Great Book Burning Incident. There were several books that were left behind when a club members husband moved out and to help cleanse the home they were burned in sacrifice in Kristen's Chiminey. It was fabulous!

This week I finally registered for the Mercedes Half Marathon which was a goal I set for myself when I got out of the hospital. It's not until February, so I still have some time to get in shape. I'm going to walk it with my friend Belinda who was told by her doctor she was no longer allowed to run because of too many stress fractures. I also realized that this week marks my two year anniversary with Sodexo. Can't believe I have been here for two years!

My mom got me new running shoes for my birthday, but I have been reading articles about barefoot running. I will NOT run barefoot through the Birmingham city streets. However, there are these great shoes that promote barefoot running and I'm going to go try them out this weekend. I know they look really weird, but I think they are really neat! We'll see how they feel!

Just Say No to Drugs

This morning was my follow up visit with Dr. Gloom and Doom. I will say he's not so gloomy and doomy as he was in the hospital, but he's still not overly pleasant, has no sense of humor what so ever and says "so" a lot, in the way that people say "um". Drives me a little bonkers.

Anyway, all my labs looked great so today will be my last day on Prednisone. Yippie!! So hopefully my moon face, giant swollen football neck, and the 10 lbs I've put on will all magically melt away. The magic part, I have a feeling, will involve me getting back into a rigorous gym routine. I've always been goal oriented so to help me get motivated to get off my hump I'm going to aim for running the Mercedes 1/2 Marathon again in February. Right now I can handle about one mile before my right leg goes numb (this could be do to the fact that I need to buy new running shoes). So I have three months to get back up to 13.1 miles. It can be done!

I do have a consult with a Rheumatologist. That appointment hasn't been scheduled yet, but Dr. G&D thought it would be a good idea to rule anything else out. Actually I believe his exact words were "So.... you can go or not, it's like flipping a coin. So...." to which my response was "well you tell me because I have no idea". And so the consult was put in motion.

As much as I enjoyed the nurses at the Hematology/ Oncology Infusion clinic, I'm so happy that I don't have to go every week and get blood drawn any more! Finally it feels like I'm closing that chapter and can cautiously move forward with my life!

Rain Rain Go Away

It's Wednesday and I think it has rained for the past week straight. Minus Sunday which looked beautiful, but I was unable to enjoy because I stayed inside all day studying for my midterm on Monday.

I loved being in school when I was an undergrad. LOVED IT. For some reason when Abby was talking me into getting my MBA at UAB all those happy memories came flooding back. Really focusing on those memories, very few of them actually had to do with going to class and learning. They were more centered around... well lets see: PSU football, sleeping in, monkey boys at the Saloon, all you can eat pasta nights, Teas at Cafe 320, cheeseburger subs from Boots, anything G-man related. My point is, the majority of my fond college memories revolve around eating, drinking, and good friends. Once again, not class. It wasn't even as fun buying school supplies because I only got one notebook and a bag of BIC pens. I am only taking one class, I don't need to overdo it I suppose.

Back to my original point, I was inside on the only non-rainy day we have seen in uncountable days studying for my midterm. I felt prepared. I mean I studied ALL DAY. The test was 20 T/F, three essays, and six short essays. My hand was so tired and I do feel sorry for my professor having to read my awful writing, because I was not trying to make it look pretty, rather get thoughts to paper. I walked out of the room thinking "where do I go to drop a class." I've reassured myself since that I couldn't have done that bad, but need to get in education mode. With everything else that has been going on its been hard to focus on school work. I've thought about abandoning my pursuits of an MBA, but A: that's just not my style and B: everyone I have talked to told me about all the doors that an MBA has opened for them. So I suppose I will continue to suffer through.

Saturday was Race for the Cure. We do it every year.

This year however, it was raining.So Jason decided to sleep in for a cure instead. I would not be dissuaded and since I was going to walk for a cause in the rain, so were the dogs! I dressed them up in their pink gear, Bettis in a pink and white scarf and Maggie in her tutu, and off we went. They were a hit! Everyone that passed asked if they could take their picture. I was fine with it, Bettis was not. He's not a fan of the camera. He did figure out if he stayed close enough to the woman next to us with an umbrella he didn't get as wet, thankfully she didn't mind him leaning on her. I met my friend Susie, her sister in law and mother in law and we walked all 3.1 miles through downtown Birmingham in the rain.

This Friday is my follow up visit with Hematology. All my counts have been great thus far and I'm down to 10mg of prednisone a day, which is SO NICE, compared to the 100mg. I'm hoping that this Friday they will tell me I can stop taking the steroids, which in turn will hopefully make my face and neck not so puffy. I'll also find out what this whole thing means for me in the long term. Hopefully they will say I need to watch out for the same obscure symptoms and come in quarterly for check ups. Other then that have a nice life! Lets hope that's what they say.

Busy, Busy, Busy

I keep wondering when life is going to slow down, but it doesn't seem like it is ever going to. We spent this weekend in Middletown, MD for Rae and Justin's wedding. It was beautiful. Perfect day in Middletown Valley followed by a great reception. I've never been in a wedding before, and even though I was not the one getting married, there was a lot of pressure!! Rae looked stunning in her dress, and I thankfully had mine let out enough and will the help of Spanx, my dress looked very nice also. My parents and Jason came to the wedding and I met them at the reception.

After our plane was delayed in Baltimore we flew into a rain storm coming into Birmingham, getting in an hour and a half later than previous scheduled. Monday I had class, but didn't make it there until 6pm because we were preparing for a meeting with the university the next day. These meetings are always so stressful because our RVP comes in and you just don't know what is going into the report we will be presenting or what will come up in the meeting. This time however, it was almost enjoyable. I attribute this to the fact that we are doing well sales and customer service wise, and we have a new RVP who is much more laid back.

Right now I'm in the Hematology / Oncology lab at Kirklin clinic. This is my second to last lab and I'm down to 20 mg of prednisone a day. Huge steps! I decided since I hopefully only have a week and a half left on steroids, I will no longer be able to blame my increased weight on the dreadful drugs and really need to get back into a work out routine. I went to the REC pool yesterday and did laps for 30 minutes. While I was very tired afterwards, it was not overwhelming. That in its self was encouraging. This morning I got up and took the dogs on a short walk / run, it was really wet out and was starting to drizzle again, so I didn't want to go too far.

This weekend is the Birmingham Race For the Cure. Jason and I will be walking, as will Maggie and Bettis. They are all about breast cancer awareness. It's a 5K, so 3.1 miles, I don't think I will have any problems, but figure the worst thing that happens is I get tired and have to sit down for a bit or stop walking and go back.

At some point this week I also need to study for my midterm this coming Monday. Still not sure how I feel about this whole going back to school business. So on that note, I will spend the rest of my time waiting for lab results studying and re-reading chapters I only skimmed before.

Wrestling with What Ifs

I'm one of those people that has post event conversations in my head replaying everything that was said and done thinking, "well had a I said this..." or "if I did this instead of this..." Of course there is no way to go backwards in time (that we know of at least or the government is sharing) and we can't change what ifs.

For the past six weeks I have been wrestling with the what if of if my Monday would have gone differently. I normally went running on Monday mornings with my neighbor Abby. What could have happened had we done our normal run? What if I would have have waited until Wednesday to go into the doctors office when my doctor had his next available appointment? What if I would have gone to work, put in my eight hours and then gone to kickboxing at the REC like I did every Monday?

I have no answers to the what ifs in any of these situations. I'm glad that I listened to my mother, did not go running, went to the doctor on Monday and was unable to go to kickboxing, because all the answers to my what ifs seem very grim. I'm glad to be alive and almost back to normal, so I won't focus on the what ifs, but rather on the what can I do nows.

Busy Weekend

The Alabama PSU Alumni Chapter has officially been formed. Yesterday afternoon we had our first annual meeting and passed the chapter by laws. I was officially named the Business Secretary. I'm not exactly sure what I'm getting myself into and I'm really hoping it's not more than I can chew. I want to be able to contribute, but I have so much going on already I'm not sure how I'm going to add in all these other activities. Time management will be key.

After the meeting we moved everything over to On Tap at the Galleria and got ready to watch the Penn State vs. Iowa game. Unfortunately it was a disappointing one. Even with an A Class White Out and College Game day being on the scene our guys just didn't have it together. It was nice meeting other PSU people and finding out how they ended up in Alabama though. I left at half time and watched the rest of the game at home where I could yell at my television in private. Bettis was not too keen on the yelling and retreated to the office where he could return to his napping in peace.

Before everything Penn State I was running around all morning. UAB day started at 7am. This is where I set up a booth and talk to high school juniors and seniors about coming to UAB. Surprisingly enough there were more people there than usual and the students actually had questions about their potential dining options on campus. So not a complete waste of my morning. I made the mistake of dropping my stuff back at the office afterwards and got sucked into making 600 bagged lunches for the next hour. It was pouring down rain anyway so not like I could go to the farmers market as I had planned. It had let up enough that I stopped by and picked up the two climbing rose bushes I ordered last week on my way home though. I'm planning on planting them today. I also picked up some tulip bulbs at Lowes while making a return. But of course these are no regular tulips they are STEELERS THEMED TULIPS!! Well technically they aren't, they are called queen of the night and golden apledroon, but one is black and one is yellow so our garden will be Steeler black and gold come March! As long as the squirrels don't dig up and eat all my bulbs, which they do every year! I'm hoping the pecans coming in keep them occupied.

I also finally managed to find shoes for my dress for Rae's wedding this weekend and sparkly

hair pins. But alas I cannot go to DSW and only buy one pair of shoes. I did resist the $89 camel suede knee boots that in all honesty didn't fit quite right anyway. I did pick up a pair of mules! They are by Keen, made of all recycled materials, machine washable and purple! Did I mention there are super comfy too? I highly recommend them. Did come to find that my right foot it a little bigger then my left foot, but that's okay because I can stretch the tops out enough that they fit perfect. Best of all I did not feel guilty about this purchase because we covered need versus wants in my marketing class last week. According to my MBA Marketing professor all purchases are based on some type of need and have a purpose. So my need was for a pair of mules since we are moving into the Fall season and I can no longer wear my flip flops or my toes will get cold. Hence! Fulfilling a physical need. :) I'm really going to enjoy this class.

Today the sun finally came out of the hole it has been hiding in for weeks on end. Susie and I took the dogs walking at Crestwood park. They were ecstatic, seeing they hadn't been outside playing in at least a week with all the rain. My feet are now permanently pruned from my socks getting soaked. I'm going to spend the rest of the day taking it easy, planting my rose bushes and my Steeler tulips. I think Tina is going to come over to watch the Grey's Anatomy season premier that I DVR'd last week, hopefully I can talk her into Thai food for lunch. I call that a good day.

Ingrid Michaelson @ Workplay

My friend Tina had two tickets to see this Indie chick that her daughter had turned her on to at Workplay last night. She asked if I wanted to go, and me always being up for something new, said sure, why not. After downloading a song or two just to get a feeling o what I was getting myself into, I wasn't completely convinced, but she was decent so I figured it would be a good time with good company regardless.

After a great dinner, as always, at Newks. We headed to Workplay, where I once again was reminded why I love having a little car, you can park anywhere! There weren't any tables available so we introduced ourselves to a nice couple and asked if we could share their booth. They obliged, because the south is full of wonderfully nice people who just do things like that.

The opening act was an adorable little British boy, yes I said boy. I'm still not convinced he was over 20, but he was playing up the crowd. It helped that the majority of the crowd surrounding the stage was most likely still in high school and they were swooning over the English accent. I won't say I wasn't immune to the accent. Tina and I bought his album after the show, so his charm worked on us too.

But to the point of this post. Ingrid Michaelson. Wow. She was phenomenal. I am so glad I went and have now downloaded her entire discography. Here is one of her more popular songs. The video is a little weird, but the song is great. Warning... it will get stuck in your head. The Way I Am . On top of being a great singer, the show was highly entertaining. She was so down to earth and was cracking jokes. She seemed like the kind of person who you could just hang out with. And they sang a song about mexican food, so there you go. If you were looking for some other good songs of hers I would recommend: The Chain, Incredible Love, Breakable, Far Away and Soldier.

Take THAT TTP!

This week was a great week. I went in for my labs on Tuesday and everything was perfectly normal. My platelet count was at 285, which was my goal number to get back to. I'm feeling stronger and not getting as tired. Even though I was still working part time I was working between six and seven hours a day. To top that off I had stuff to do after work pretty much every day this week. So I was out and about, not just coming home and taking a nap. So I'm doing awesome!

Wednesday was the Blazer Cafe Grand Opening. Which had I not been laid up for four weeks probably would have been a little more spectacular than it was, but I was still happy with the turn out. We had a giant cake that was decorated like a ribbon and the president of the university came out made a little speech and cut the ribbon cake. It was seven sheet cakes long. It was one big freaking cake. Of course things are always going to go arye at the last minute. My student assistant sent me an email on Tuesday saying she had been confined to her room with possible swine flu. I thought it was ironic that she had swine flu when she was supposed to be my Chick-Fil-A cow. :) But we were able to find another student to fill in. Here's me leading the cow around.

Thursday night I hosted Bunco. Which was so nice because we haven't had a good bunco turn out in at least two months and I was in the hospital for last months game. Most of our group came out even though it was monsooning outside and we had a great time. Jason and Hollywood did not leave the house this time and had to listen to the constant whistle blowing and hearing random women scream out "BUNCO!!"

This morning I woke up around 6am and even though it was misting outside I felt like getting out and running. I had gotten an email from my running group that they were meeting so I got up got the dogs together and at 7:30am we started our 4 mile walk / run through Mt. Brook. And of course it rained the entire time, but I made it. Four whole miles, walk a minute run a minute. Part of the trail was flooded over so we had to take a detour, but I was just glad that I was able to get out there and start running again. Take that TTP!! Can't hold me down!!

From there I picked up a pumpkin spice latte at Starbucks, which I am so glad they brought back because it is my favorite seasonal coffee ever! Went to Wal-Mart to pick up wings, went to the bank then the farmers market and came home to find Jason and Hollywood setting up a second TV in the living room so we can watch the PSU game and Alabama game at the same time without having to flip channels. I'm heading up the street to Liz's at noon to have my hair re-platinumed. It's been almost two months!!! Way too long. And her neighbor is going to see if she can let my MOH dress out just a tad since the steroids have made me so puffy all over that my dress is just a little too snug.

Hopefully now that I mentally know that I can run without passing out I can get back on my work out train. I'm thinking gym tomorrow to hang out on the eliptical for a bit. Can't swim or my newly bleached hair will turn green, and no one wants that. I'm running down that recovery road and TTP is officially now my bitch!! :)

Unmotivated

Somehow TNT knew that if they played the Lord of the Ring Trilogy today that I would sit on my couch and watch the entire thing. Even though we own the whole trilogy on DVD and it's much shorter to watch it that way since I don't have to deal with the commercials. Yet here I sit watching The Return of the King, commercials and all.

What I should be doing is writing my MBA Assignment paper on Blue Ocean strategies and reading chapters 3 and 5 for my class tomorrow. But LOTR is so much better then both those options.

I wasn't entirely useless today. This morning I got up and met my friend Suzie at Crestwood park. We let the dogs play and walked around the perimeter of the football field. It's going to become weekly thing. A nice way to transition back into running.

There was a younger couple with their toddler and dog there when we arrived. I later ran into them at the Avondale church. I went again today and enjoyed the sermon again. The pastor has a sense of humor, I like that. They had a luncheon today and while I wasn't going to stay he caught me as I was about to head out the door and convinced me otherwise. I talked to a bunch of other people that live in the neighborhood and they were are happy that I was there. One woman is already trying to sign me up to help with some of their events.

I finished the book I was reading last night and highly recommend it for anyone looking for a good read. Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen. A great read and based on the circus culture during the great depression. I think I'm going to start on the Time Travelers Wife next so I can go see the movie when it hits the dollar theater.

If anyone out there has a mac, I'm looking for a good hard case to put on the outside of my laptop. Any suggestions?

I Heart Fridays

Today has been rainy and gross all day. In turn just making me feel blah. It doesn't help that I feel like the Pillsbury Doughboy walking around. My face and neck are puffy from the prednisone. And while I was trying to convince myself that it was just me being overly sensitive, one of our employees yesterday pointed out that I was all puffy in the face. So it's obviously not just me. It will go away eventually once I start tapering off the steroids, but I just have to deal with it until then.

I had texted my neighbor, Abby, last night about going walking this morning, but then fell asleep before I got a response. So I didn't get up in time. But did get a phone call at 7am. Abby still went walking and in the process two freaking adorable pitt bull puppies followed her and Jackson home!

It might be a good thing that I didn't get up and go walking this morning because then I would have two puppies in my house.. :) I went over there when Abby got home from work. I took them our baby swimming pool and helped Abby scrub them clean. They are covered in fleas, but absolutely adorable. I'm sure someone will want to welcome them into their home. Jason has already said it will not be out home. And as much as I would love to adopt and save as many puppies as possible, he is right. We can't take them all in. And we have two very wonderful, very needy dogs as it is.

My friend Jason came over tonight and we watched the first disk of Wonderfalls. Which is a great show. Fox only aired the first four episodes and there was only ever one season filmed. It is fabulous. I might still watch a few more episodes.

This weekend is ArtWalk. If you're in Birmingham I encourage you to go. It's a great event downtown. I'm still going to try to swing down there tomorrow. Artists come to showcase their art in downtown business buildings. The business districts shuts down a few city blocks and people can just walk around, enjoy the city and enjoy the local artists. Check it out.

Time is Flying

I cannot believe it is already Thursday. This week is just flying by and I'm doing great. Today was day three at work and while I still get pretty tired it's not unmanageable. Yesterday I had a meeting in the Hill Center which is down the hill from where my office is, I was running a little late and even though I was going down hill the walk wore me out. Walking back I took it much slower. I got to see a lot of people on the UAB side who were happy to see me and asked how I was going. It makes me feel like I've made an impression and that everything I do on a day in day out basis is noticed. It's a good feeling.

Wanted to show off our awesome new ceiling fan that my dad helped us install:

Don't mind the dirty kitchen, focus on the fan! Now Tuesday, I cheated, we got Chinese take out, so I didn't really cook in the kitchen with the new fan. But Wednesday! I made cake in the morning and macaroni and cheese for dinner. Both times it was so much cooler. I love it. :)

And now here's my cake:

What's it like at 5am?.... DARK

It's 5am and I'm awake.... again. I can't sleep through the night with the prednisone and even taking Ambein doesn't get me to the nice 7 or 8am hour I'd like to get too.

Yesterday actually went very well! Much better than I had anticipated. Everyone was really nice and said they were glad to see me back. And I was able to jump right back into the swing of things. I had to reorganize my desk, but other than that it was good. Brent and I were on the same page about what needed to be addressed first and then we quickly went over some other items that are high on the agenda list before he had to head out the door. I was in the office from 8:30am - 1:30pm. Right at five hours. And it was exhausting. I completely understand why the doctors didn't want me going back full swing immediately.

I went to Kirklin Clinic after work and ran into the 4th year med student who was with Dr. Boone on the day I went to my family doctor. She recognized me, which I thought was nice and I was able to tell her what the hospital had determined. I guess the hospital sent my blood results back after they ran them in the ER and they were surprised at how low they were and how well I was still functioning. She's no longer on that rotation, but was glad to see that I was doing so well.

They ran a slew of extra tests in the lab and had me pee in a cup. In my appointment on Friday the doctor let me know they were going to do this. They are looking for antibodies. When I went into the hospital I had a whole, whole bunch extra which was the TTP. But he wants to make sure that I'm not producing extra antibodies for some other reason. I think they are still trying to nail down a cause for this whole TTP thing and not knowing the cause makes them want to dig deeper. And if it just requires more blood and more tests I'm okay with that. I have enough blood now to spare some.

I watched the move Ghosttown when I got home. Not great, but not awful. I wouldn't go out and rent it, but if you have Netflix and need a dry humor film to put in your cue it might be worth the watch. Jason didn't get home until almost 6pm and after settling down for a few minutes he went fly fishing at Avondale pond. He admits he's not that great at it yet, but really enjoys it. I'm glad my dad was able to show him the basic mechanics and I know he'll be out there almost every day until my dad comes down again in the spring for their fishing trip.

One other tid bit about prednisone. It makes you puffy. I talked to a friend of mine who was on it years ago and she mentioned that it changed her face. Now I hadn't noticed it so much in myself, but yesterday I did. My face looks rounder and my neck around my collarbone is all puffy swollen looking. I asked the nurse what is was and she informed me it was the prednisone. Sad day. As I start to taper off the drugs the puffiness will go down, but it's not immediate.

Today's agenda!! Hang out at the house until 10am then head to the office. Work on the menus for the website, advertising for the Blazer Cafe Grand Opening next week and then I have a meeting at 1pm about the UAB Canned food drive and our weekly managers meeting at 2pm which I'm sure will be fun and informative as always. Should be a fun day!

What it is and what it will be

Today is Labor Day, where people across the country are firing up grills, spending time with family and friends and just thinking I don't have to go to work today. I haven't gone to work in four weeks. I'm cleared to start working part time tomorrow and it's daunting to say the least. I'm edgy about going back to the office. Past the initial week to week and a half of my hospital stay there has been little support, whether by choice or just out of sight out of mind I don't know, but I'm nervous about going back in and it not being the same.

Not to mention that right now I'm only going to be working part time, so 4-5 hours a day. I'm sure that will make some people unhappy, but there's nothing I can really do about that. Other than the initial discomfort of seeing how it goes with my co-workers and reclaiming my cubicle space I am looking forward to going back to work. There is a certain comfort in recollecting the normal pieces of my day to day routine.

Yesterday was one of those for no reason emotionally trying days, we are going to blame it on the steroids again. Which even at 50mg are still having an impact. My dad and I walked down to the United Avondale Methodist Church which is about three blocks from my house and attended the service. Church has never been my thing so to speak, but it was comforting to go. The congregation was small, but Alabama did play in Atlanta the night before, and the pastor said a lot of people were out sick. I think I will go again. I enjoyed the sermon, he has a sense of humor, which is important because with everything else that's weighting on my mind I don't need to be made to feel worse.

I made lunch, feta and spinich turkey burgers, showing that I do have some of my dad's cooking genes. And then we went for a walk on the Cahaba River. Now I will say it was a little more than just walking down the sidewalk, there was gravel and hills and nature involved. And it wore me out. We ended up walking a little less than a mile total and that just wore me out for the rest of the day. When I start back tomorrow I'm going to go to the REC Center and swim laps afterwards. I figure that is a low impact exercise that will help me get back in shape and help cool me off since I tend to get really hot in the afternoons. We'll see how that goes.

Today's project: putting up a ceiling fan in the kitchen. Jason is not thrilled. I mentioned it to him and one point and like many of these things I think he blew it off. I had talked to my electrician about it and he said it could be done. So on Saturday my dad and I went out and found a fan! It's white with brushed nickel, a little on the modern -industrial side and since it's white it should blend in with the ceiling. I'm hoping that it will help air circulate in there while I'm cooking because it gets hot, hot, hot. This ceiling fan should be a lot easier to put up when compared to the one we installed in the bedroom. For that one Jason had to crawl around in the attic, not a very fun time.

Tis the Season... for FOOTBALL!

Officially it started on Thursday, but today is the day that great man known as Joe Paterno will run out on to one of the most beautiful stadiums ever constructed known as Beaver Stadium. No doubt that it is slightly chilled and on the damp side, but that's what makes it Happy Valley. Sigh... to bask in the glory of Penn State football just one more time....



Well until then we have the Big Ten Network through DirectTV and will be watching the whole digitally televised molly whopping of Akron from our couch. Bettis, although we have tried for years to convert him, still holds true to his name sake and only come out when Notre Dame is playing. Silly boy.

My dad flew in on Thursday and after getting him checked into the Marriott downtown we walked the hospital mazes to the Kirklin Clinic so he could meet me there in the morning. We hung out on the back patio and watched Bettis play with his rock will completely destroying my hopes for ever growing grass. Then headed out to the Summit for a dinner at Carrabba's.

For those of you who don't know. I don't check my voicemail messages. Rarely if ever. So after dinner I had a missed call from the Apple store, obviously my computer was ready! JOY! Wrong. We got there and found out there was some other internal error that they were not able to correct yet, but someone would call me back. They are convinced that I dropped it or something, but I really didn't. I guess if I was in there place I would make the same assumptions. But there is a possibility I may have lost everything. Which means all my pictures. Sad day. If you have pictures of you and me send them my way so I can start rebuilding my photo library when I finally get my mac book back.

Yesterday was a big day. I had labs at 7am, my dad did find his way over there to meet me. Then we waited for my follow up apt with Dr. Doom and Gloom at 9am. Now when I left the hospital I requested to be put on the other doctors service, but they do what they want. Then this Dr.'s nurse was just so nice that I hated not to have her any more so I stuck it out. And surprisingly the appointment went very well. He was much more pleasant.

My numbers look great so they are cutting my steroid dose down to 50mg a day, which should help curb some of the crazy side effects. It will taper off from there by week so I should be totally off them in October. I was cleared to go back to office work part time! So that will start on Tuesday, to the chagrin of people there I don't know, but I'm looking forward to it. They are going to run some extra tests next week to check my antibody levels. They were extremely high when I was admitted and he wants to check that they are back to normal. If they are still elevated they are going to send me to a rheumotologist.

After Kirklin my dad and I went to the Asian Market to get items for dinner. Then off to get the dogs food. Somewhere in there we also stopped at Publix and I got a thermometer. Which I really need since I get extremely hot in the afternoons and need to know if I'm running a fever. We made Thai coconut chicken soup for lunch and watched the Monk Marathon on USA until it was time to start dinner.

I learned how to make spring rolls! Which while not being too flavorful on there own are great with some sweet chili sauce. After taking him back to the hotel I crashed. A lot of activity for one day. Guess it's only going to get more demanding from here.

Jason went out fishing this morning, had to go early so he could be back by 11am kick off. My dad is walking from the hotel and then we are going to go to the Pepper Place Farmers Market which ends soon. And if there is time take the dogs to get their vaccines at the GBHS. If your in the area and need your pets to get vaccinated go there between 12-2pm the first Saturday of each month. Much less expensive than going to your vet. (www.gbhs.org)

Tonight! We will grill out steaks in the backyard and watch the Alabama Crimson Tide! Sounds like a good day all around.

September!!

I made it to September. So things are bound to look up. Today has been an okay day, having some issues with work, FMLA and working from home. But I've been reading up on the Department of Labor website and think I have all my ducks in a row, so everything will get worked out.

Apple called to let me know my replacement screen is in... YES!!!!! So Jason and I will be making a quick trip out there this evening to drop my computer back off and hopefully they will have it fixed by tomorrow morning. Fingers crossed.

I'm not caught up on Project Runway and totally agree with who has been kicked off thus far. And have one more episode of Top Chef to watch. I would love to be a food taster for one of those shows everything looks so good!

Tomorrow I have labs again, hopefully everything is back in line with normal where it should be and then I have my follow up doctors visit on Friday. If all goes well they should give me the go ahead to go back to the office part time. I'm really hoping so because there is so much I feel I'm missing out on. I really want to get back to my routine and just get everything started again.

So keep your fingers crossed for me! Also, started working on thank you notes but I have a lot a lot to go. Thanks again to everyone for your support!

Weekend Well Worth it!

Friday was a critical day, I went into Kirklin Clinic at 7am to get labs drawn and left two hours later with approval from my nurse and the doctors to travel! Another bonus was that all my counts were in the normal range. After weeks of hearing this is too high, and this is too low and your levels are just off, NORMAL was the best thing I could have heard. I came home had a celebratory omelet and got my bag together to fly to Baltimore for Rae's bachelorette party.

Of course nothing can be easy and on Friday hurricane Bill was working it's way up the East coast. This fact became overwhelmingly clear about an hour into the flight when the plane started jerking, dropping and making noises that a plane simply should not make. So there were a few things going on at this point in my head. A) We are 40,000 feet up in the air, dropping and noises are no good. B) Steroids make me nauseous and probably should have gone without the omelet. C) my heart rate is extremely elevated and that can't be good for the platelets. While all this is going through my head I realize that less than a week ago I was in the hospital for a life threatening illness and dammit I am not going down in a plane crash! So I spent the rest of the flight concentrating on keeping my eggs down my staring at my toes. Which I might say were perfectly manicured in Basket Case Pink and are truly well proportioned. Needless to say I landed safely at BWI.

Rae picked me up from the airport and we heading back to Frederick where I got to hang out with my dad for a few hours. He made home made kielbasa and kraut for dinner, it was fabulous. I also got to meet Cinnabar, the new Australian puppy in the household. She is cute and fuzzy and a little on the unruly side, but precious none the less. Becky came over after dinner and hung out with me for a few hours so we could catch up on gossip.

I decided to go to Pilate's with my mom on Saturday morning. Now I enjoy high cardio activities and while I do enjoy Pilate's and yoga I have always regarded it as more of a light toning and stretching activity. This was also the first time I have 'worked out' in almost three to four weeks. And it kicked my ass. I'm still sore. Kinda sad really, doesn't look like I'll be in TBC shape anytime soon. Good news is the REC offers Pilate's, so I'll have to see if I can make it to some of those classes.

The rest of Saturday was all about Rae. I met her and her family at the Braddock Community Center for the bridal shower. Her mom, Mary, made fabulous food! And her aunt provided antique ring holders for everyone to choose from. I got two (there were some left over) one that's sterling silver in the shape of a swan and a wooden one with two white ducks painted on it. Now I've never been to a bridal shower, but I thought this one was top notch and HELLO PRESENTS! I really need to work on this getting married business.

From there Rae and I went back to her apartment in Ellicott City to unload the loot. And then the unthinkable happened. I took out my laptop to get directions to the hotel, after writing everything down I closed the top and heard a pop. Now that's not normal. So i reopened it and too my horror the screen was cracked like a spider web. I turned it on and turned it off and turned it on again, closed it opened it, because all those things were going to make the screen go back to normal. They didn't. And I came to the conclusion that August is just not my month.

Decided not to be a debbie downer I put that to the back of my mind and Rae and I heading off to Baltimore to get the party started! Katz called from the hotel to say they did not have our suite ready yet, which was ridiculous since it was after 5pm, and they were giving us free drinks at the bar. Once we got there and the room was ready Katz and Courtney went up to decorate while Rae and I waited on the rest of the party! In total there were nine of us.

The night started off with an entertaining lingerie shower a few pre-night out bachelorette themed gamed and then off to dinner at RUB in Federal Hill. Which if you are in the Baltimore area and you like BBQ, go there! They have awesome brisket and sweet potato french fries. They also gave us a private room which was smart and our waiter wished us on our way with a round of shots on the house.

From there we walked to the bar district of Federal Hill. But once again it was not my month. Half way there while admiring the brickwork of the condos lining the street I managed to trip, break my shoe and hit the pavement. The only one in the group with a low platelet count falls. What are the chances? Thankfully one of the other girls lived near by so I walked to her house and picked up a pair of flip flops, much safe than heels, checked for major damage, there was none, and we headed back out.

Now another lovely steroid side effect is that I don't sleep. And I have been warned on several occasions about not drinking and taking Ambien, so I got about four hours of sleep. I got up on Sunday, picked up a bit then headed over to see Claire's apartment behind Camden Yards. Cute little place. On my mom's order she drove me back to the hotel afterwards, probably a good idea really.

We heading out of the hotel around noon to pick up lunch and Rae, Court and I spent the rest of a splendid afternoon re cooping pool side working on our tan. I made it to the airport with no problems and this flight was much better than the last. Smooth the whole way and the steward even told me he loved my hair. Jason and the dogs picked me up from the airport and I must have been feeling better because when we got home I swept the entire house. My nurse warned me about that.

I've decided that labs go quicker the earlier you get there. So I got to the clinic today at 7am again to get my blood drawn, then took a walk over to Starbucks in the North Pavilion. The barista remembered me and said I was looking so much better. I also stopped in the Blood Bank to say hi and Cindy my favorite pheresis tech was there. She was so happy to see that I was doing well and said she would tell everyone I said hi.

I headed back to the clinic to get my results. At that point I got a text from Jason that the Xterra wouldn't start. Seriously?! One more day until September. He was able to clean off the battery terminals enough to get it started while I was waiting on my results go, so that issue may have resolved its self. My nurse came out and apparently travel and drinking did have a slight negative effect on my levels. My platelet count is down to 186 and my RBC is at 10. But she said just to take it easy the rest of the week and they should rebound. So that's what I plan to do. I took my laptop to Apple and being the wonderful company they are they ordered me a new screen at no charge and will have it fixed back to new later this week. Finally good news!!

So now I'm working on my work website from home and heading to my MBA class this evening. Hopefully I can follow that up with the two episodes of Top Chef and Project Runway that I recorded last week. Apparently there are two chefs on there from Frederick, so root for them if you watch the show.

My dad is coming down to hang out with my on Thursday and COLLEGE FOOTBALL STARTS THIS WEEKEND! So once I make it to September it should be smooth sailing.

I Know Where People Who Don't Work Go!

TJ MAXX!! I went there today thinking, it's Thursday at 2pm in the afternoon this place will be empty I can get in and get out! Wrong! It was packed, there were tons of women with shopping carts blocking the aisles, guarding the various clearance sections. I was amazed. What do these people do for a job? Needless to say I was not dealing with the crowds or the check out line so I left and went to the mall instead. Which was as it should be that time of day empty and I was able to shop for a going out outfit and lingerie gift in relative peace.

Time Time Time

The saying goes "time flies when your having fun". While that may be true, I would also like to through in "time flies when you have nothing to do." My days are flying by and I really can't pin point anything that I have accomplished in the past few days.

It doesn't help that these silly steroids suck all the motivation out of me. The nurses said it could go either way, so I guess I should be happy that I'm not moving furniture and steam cleaning everything in sight. But today I have made myself a to do list! Which is not 100% since I already skipped the first task of making and eating breakfast, but minor details.

My friend is getting married on October 3! And I'm so happy to be the Maid of Honor in her wedding. This weekend is the bridal shower and bachelorette party and it's in Baltimore. I have convinced the doctors here that I am good to go and they have begrudgingly agreed. My platelet count went from 236 on Monday to 190 on Wednesday, so they are having me put in a contingency plan in place. Luck for me, we know people at Johns Hopkins! So my mom contacted a family friend who happens to be a hematologist and knows all about TTP, so if anything should go arye while I'm in Maryland for 72 hours, I can be admitted and treated at Johns Hopkins until I can get back to Birmingham. I would also like to point out while UAB is happy that I have made these plans, they are very fond of pointing out that they (UAB) rank higher than Johns Hopkins and just under Mayo, and would prefer if I received my care at UAB. Oh the ego.

Yesterday I went to my office and picked up some work items so that I could work from home more this week and next. My cubical is a disaster. Nothing is where I left it, which sent me into an emotional melt down. But there are three people now operating out of my cube in my absence so I shouldn't be so surprised. Everyone was really encouraging and asked when I was coming back, which was uplifting, but once again emotionally taxing. Silly steroids. Yesterday was also the Grand Opening of Starbucks on campus which I had started planning. After being in the clinic for three hours, at my office and visiting on campus for two hours, I decided going to a Grand Opening may have been over doing it so I went home. To which I was met by an Edible Arrangement! I don't know who came up with this wonderful edible idea, but bless them! And thank you to the sisterhood (Grandma C, Aunt Charlene, Aunt Alice, Aunt Mary and Aunt Carolyn) for sending it to me!! It's delicious! And because I have zero motivation to make meals it has served as dinner and mid morning snack!

I did take some time to go hang out at the pool yesterday. That was nice. Met some friends of mine there and was able to just enjoy the late afternoon. I may have to take more advantage of pool time for the next few weeks and work on my tan!

One Step at a Time

Today I got to experience Kirklin Clinic for the first time. While it is very efficient, it was very confusing. First I went to hematology/oncology. They informed me that I was not in the system and needed to go to Infusion Therapy. From there I was put on hold because I was not in the system, thank goodness I had my little RX form from the hospital saying I was in fact supposed to be there. Eventually they sent to me a lab down the hall to get my blood drawn. At that point the nurses said i could go home, but the doctor in the hospital had specifically said wait. So I went back into the waiting room. An hour later the doctors nurse came out and went through all my levels, gave me appt cards for the next two weeks and some much needed info on TTP, blood levels and prednisone. All in all I was there for about three hours. Hopefully it won't take as long on Wednesday.

I'm starting the MBA program at UAB today. I'm taking one class a semester because I didn't want to over do it with class and a full time job. This semester I'm taking Strategic Marketing Concepts. The book so far has been interesting and I think I'll be able to get a lot out of the class that I can put back into my current position. The challenge today will be making it through the entire class. The smallest things are taking a lot of effort I'm finding. I went to see a movie yesterday, Inglourious Bastards, (if you like Terrintino films this is a must see!!! Mom - not for you) and even though that was just sitting I was wiped out after the movie and passed on dinner with my friends. One step at a time though.

Tomorrow I might take on the task of cleaning my house or pulling weeds in the garden. At least its nice weather for it.

Life on Pause

They finally released me at 2:30pm yesterday afternoon. After signing the discharge papers they didn't even bother calling a wheelchair for me and let me walk to the car on my own accord. As many times as I had walked Jason or my mom from my room to the parking lot I never realized how far it was. Time and distance are all relative when you have nothing but time on your hands I suppose. It took us at least 10 minutes to get from the room to the car. Once in the car I couldn't help but letting out a happy scream and opening the windows and sun roof for the 5 minute drive home. It was a perfect Alabama day, 80 degrees, blue skys nice breeze, no humidity, a perfect reminder to why we fell in love with Birmingham after moving here on a whim six years ago.

The dogs were so excited they didn't know what to do with themselves when I got home. I realized just how long two weeks actually was when I got home. Things looked the same, but seemed different at the same time. While time stood still for me in the hospital everything on the outside kept moving. In my household not as efficiently as they would have run if I was here, but running none the less. After taking a long over due nap with Bettis in my own bed I set out to jump start my daily activity. I sorted the mail, changed Joe's (beta fish) water, and made another mental note to call the plumber on Monday about our dripping faucet. Of course these were all things I told myself I needed to do when I got home from work on Monday, two weeks ago.

We went to Wal-Mart to fill my multiple prescriptions and pick up school supplies since I start my first MBA class on Monday. Since it was such a nice day we took the dogs with us and left them in the car with the windows rolled down. I will go ahead and say that we do this all the time because they would rather come with us and sit in the car then be left alone in the house. After dropping off the prescriptions and picking up stuffs around Wal-Mart I was throughly exhausted and actually appreciate the benches they have scattered around the aisles. Before I found them to be plain ridiculous, who can't walk around Wal-Mart without having to sit down and take a break?! Now I know. While sitting Jason heard an announcement asking for the Penn State alumni with the black Volkswagen to please come to customer service. He went to check on everything while I waited on my prescriptions. Two women were at our car feeding the dogs ice chips and told Jason they had called the police because our dogs were overheating in the car. They tried to goad him into an argument even saying they were going to lock him in a hot car, but he wasn't biting and they finally walked away. Apparently they couldn't tell that we have two of the most spoiled dogs in Alabama and were unaware that is was an unseasonably cool day at 80 degrees. I'm sure Maggie and Bettis appreciated the ice chips, but I really wish they would have put their efforts into rescuing dogs that truly need the help, because there are plenty of them.

Speaking of spoiled dogs, we are going to take them for a walk to Avondale park. My first walk! Taking it slow and steady.

Free at Last!

It's official, I'm being released!! They took out my central line last night, so I am completely unhooked. This morning my platelets actually went up to a whopping 253,000 and the are letting me go home. The doctors came by and said everything looks good. On Monday I have to start going into the hematology clinic twice a week to get my blood levels checked. So the only thing I'm waiting on now is a list of names and numbers to call in case anything arises and a list of my prescriptions I have to get filled. Jason's already here taking all my stuff to the car. I think if we empty the room out they will get the hint and let me go!

Abby and Liz are cooking us dinner tonight and we are going to dine on Abby and Josh's patio under the stars with one minimal glass of vino to celebrate life! I can't wait!

Stop and Smell the Flowers

It's always good to take some time out to stop and smell the flowers. Luckily my room is full of them! Here's my favorite picture from Liz's photos from last night:

Light at the End of the Tunnel

I'm so close I can almost see myself at home hanging out in my hammock rather than this hospital room! My numbers are holding steady, platelets at 240,000ish, and they are telling me that I can go home tomorrow. They are planning on taking the central line out of my neck today. Woohoo! I'm still trying to convince the doctor that I should be able to go home today, but I'm just happy that there is an end in site.

Liz came over last night and gave me a hair cut in the hospital, that is fantastic service right there! And did my make up and took pictures, crazy lady. A good night all around though. Kelly also stopped by to hang out with me and her husband Andrew who happens to work on my floor and she brought brownies. Nothing against hospital food, but oh how I heart chocolate.

I met the other woman on the floor who was admitted with TTP and we did a few short strolls up and down the hallway. I think she will be in here longer than I was because she's not as active and has other medical issues. It made me think that two weeks for a disease like this really isn't too bad. Still it's hard when I can see my street from my hospital window and just think home is 20 blocks away.

I'm Told Patience is a Virtue

Yesterday was a hard day. Not physically. Physically my body is responding well to the treatment. I did not have a pheresis treatment yesterday and my platelet levels continued to hold steady in the 240,000 range which is right where they need to be. All my bruises are finally starting to fade and go away and overall I'm not as tired. I can walk laps around the floor and the hospitals and not feel so tired like I did a week ago. Still no marathon training any time soon.

Yesterday was a hard day emotionally and mentally. I have always been very independent and this has been a very humbling experience. I'm having to rely on people more than ever and not only have they been there, it was suport without question. My mom flew home yesterday which was really hard because she has been here from the beginning and having her here made me not feel so alone. She was also able to explain all the medical mumbo jumbo the doctors have been throwing at me so I could actually understand what was going on. I enjoyed her company and will miss having her here for the rest of this journey.

Dealing with work is always going to be mentally and emotionally stressful. It is a fact that work makes my blood pressure go up significantly. While working on a webpage and hooked up to pheresis, Cindy could tell when I was having issues or reading an aggrivating email because my blood pressure would rise. I talked to my boss and my HR Director yesterday about working part time from home and it was decided that I will go on Intermittent FMLA. This will allow me to work from home and still receive a paycheck for the next month, since I also found out that I do not have short term disability. I was afraid the doctor was not going to be as generous to my plight, but as always he was very understanding and agreed that I would do okay working from home starting next week, no more then 20-25 hours.

Coming out of this the hardest part is going to be slowing down, in every aspect of my life. I have always been highly active and with high activity comes high stress. If I don't slow down, my body won't get better, and then I could wind back up in the hospital with a relapse. I'll get a good dose of slow down over the next two weeks while I'm on home rest.

A comfort through this entire process has been the doctors and nurses at UAB. They are truly wonderful people and have been uplifting the entire time I have been here. When we moved to Birmingham being near a world class hospital was not on my list of musts, but I lucked out. I can never thank them enough for everything they have done and for getting me through this episode in my life.

On one of my walks yesterday I went to the other side of the floor where I was the first night they brought me into the hospital. The nurse that attended to me that night was on the floor and I stopped to say hello. She couldn't believe I was still there, but was glad to see that I was doing much better. After my mom left my rounding nurse came in and talked with me for a while and we compared dog stories and pictures. Nothing makes you feel better than gloating and sharing pictures of your dogs.

Jason brought me China Moon, comfort Wonton Soup, last night to brighten my day and my friend Liz stopped by on her way home from the gym to say hi. She has decided that A) the vitamins they are giving me have made my hair grow out of control and it must be trimmed immediately :) (it's nice when your hair stylist is also your friend and makes hospital calls) and B) that this whole ordeal should be capped off with an in hospital photo shoot. Not sure how I feel about the latter, but will post the pictures regardless.

And So it Goes...

Tuesday has been a flurry of activity compared to the hum drum of Monday. The pheresis team came up first thing this morning and we got my treatment going at 8am. They would have started sooner, but the Calcium wasn't ordered and the pharmacy had to mix up a bag for me. Once that got here things went along smoothly. No tingling or pauses at all.

Apparently TTP comes to the hospital in groups and another woman was transferred in yesterday from Montgomery. She wasn't as low on platelets as I was when she came in, but has severe allergies so is reacting badly to the treatment. I guess I never thought about what you eat goes into your blood and plasma, so those traits carry over to the donor. I'm going to go down and say Hi later.

Jason stopped by for lunch today and we walked our loop through the hospital walk ways and he told my mom and I about his company donating older scopes to the Birmingham Zoo. One of his co-workers got to go to the zoo this morning and see an otter get a colonoscopy. While I'm sure it was not exactly comfortable for the otter, the good news is that they had new equipment, previous they used the same scope for the otter that they did for the rhinoceros... ouch.

While walking we saw these signs around the hospital saying call this number and tell us how we are doing. Easy. We called. Not so easy. We wanted to let the hospital know how great their blood bank and pathology people have been, they said they would send up a form that we could fill out and then turn in at a certain office somewhere. I suppose if they put that on their signs no one would call.

I contacted the university today about getting set up on VPN access so I can start working a little more from the hospital and home starting this weekend. They haven't gotten back with me yet, but it's busy so hopefully sooner than later. Even though I can't be in the office I'm still trying to stay on top of everything I can before it starts boiling over.

The pheresis team says that I am doing great and look great. They rarely pheresis people once they have hit the 200,000 mark and really think the doctor should let me go home. We like them a lot. Here's me being pheres'd with the lovely machine of the day and our tech Cindy. She's been great! I'm making my own platelets and red blood cells now so possibly one more treatment on Thursday or Friday and then I'm out of here!

The unease sets in

It's officially been a week. I have not run, rode my bike, done kickboxing, went to ab lab or had any type of major physical exercise in a week. Also today I spoke with the temp person who was brought in to help work with my load, he is recently graduated and sounds overwhelmed, but hopeful. It's frustrating to be stuck in a place you don't really want to be when I feel fine and I'm pretty positive that I could go back and get right back in the groove. 

I guess that's why they are keeping me in here though, because getting back in the groove could cause a major relapse and set me right back here in the hospital. So this extended stay is for my own good and I appreciate the concern even if my mood does not reciprocate that appreciation. 

My platelet count today is up again to 247,000 and is starting to level out. My baseline is 280,000 so it won't go much over that. No pheresis today, the goal in mind being that my body continues to make more platelets with out the help of plasma exchange. I'll have another pheresis treatment tomorrow then they will either hold off until Thursday or Friday. 

Mari stopped by with a book of puzzles that is sure to keep me busy for the next few restless days. And my mom and I played Trivial Pursuit today, I won, but it was a close match. Jason also got me a pedometer and we walked 2,627 steps. If I can't measure my distance in miles I might as well start off at something small.

My mom and Jason went to Surin last night, one of my favorite Thai restaurants, and brought me back Coconut Tofu Soup and Chicken Panang. Not as excellent as the Chicken Noodle Bowl they only serve for lunch, but still fantastic. I was actually able to eat the entire thing, which is HUGE considering my appetite has been lacking and slow to improve. Tonight I think we are going to ditch dietary services and all three of us are going to go eat in the North Pavilion. Jason is even bring me jeans and a polo for the occasion. It's going to be nice to wear real clothes again.

So in recap. Today was a good day, my levels that need to go up went up, my levels that need to go down went down and they took off my heart monitor. So I'm on the road to recovery covered in sticky tape residue! 

Thrombotic Thrombocytopenic Purpura

I did some research on the interwebs today on what exactly TTP is. Most of the sites I found including wikipedia were extremely technical and when you have absolutely no medical knowledge like myself it's nice to find an information site that breaks it down. 

http://www.ouhsc.edu/platelets/TTP/what%20is%20ttp.html

This is pretty much what the doctors have been telling me all week, but the good news is that I am responding very well to treatment. The pheresis nurse said today they have had people in the hospital for 10 weeks, thank goodness that will not be me. 

I would like to encourage everyone out there to go donate to your local red cross. They pull both red blood cells and plasma from donated blood. When you donate blood they take about one unit, I'm going through 14 plus units per treatment, so you can see how far one donation can go. I've always tried to donate whenever I can. I haven't been able to donate since last September when I was diagnosed with West Nile via the Red Cross and now with the transfusions I won't be able to donate for at least another year. So I'm passing the buck so to speak and hope that everyone out there will go donate for a good cause. You never know who will need it. 

Sunday, Sunday

Today they came in and my numbers have exploded to 216,000. Which is not only in the normal level, but almost to my baseline of 280,000. The resident came in and told us the good news and is pleased that I am responding so well to treatment. Because my levels are continuing to rise they are going to hold off on the pheresis tomorrow, do another treatment on Tuesday then either wait until Thursday or Friday to do another treatment. If all goes well and my levels maintain off the pheresis HOPEFULLY I can leave the hospital as early as Friday. 

My mom and I have been walking around the hospital so I can keep my strength up. Unfortunately the doctors are saying no TBC (Total Body Conditioning) or Kickboxing  classes at the REC Center for a while. But they did say I could do low impact activities like walking, yoga, biking, swimming, etc. Probably won't be running any marathons any time soon though. Today however we are going venturing out to the Yellow Concourse and venture into the Kirklin Clinic. We think it's about a mile walk round trip, so watch out. 

My Lovely Neck IV

As I mentioned the other day they moved the main line they have been doing all the pheresis treatments through from my groin to my neck. So everyone can experience the loveliness here's a picture of me and my neck IV in my lovely hospital room. On a good note I tend to sleep on my left side anyway so I haven't had to many issues sleeping. It's getting more tolerable by the day, but I won't lie and say I don't notice it.

They did another blood transfusion this afternoon to help boost my hemoglobin levels which dipped slightly this morning. Doctors are continuing to watch all my blood levels are are doing a D-dimer test to look for blood clotting ability. Whatever will get me out of here sooner, I'll take it! 

On my way to Normal

At 7am this morning the attending resident who has been walking me through this process from the beginning came in and informed me that my platelet count is now at 167,000! That's right people, I'm officially in the normal platelet range! Yeah! 

But they are still not letting me out of here. They are still nervous that I will go into remission and my platelet level will drop again, so they are going to continue doing the pheresis today (sitting through it now) and again tomorrow morning. They are going to see how things look on Monday and I may be able to skip one on Monday or Tuesday. I'm hopeful that means I will be out on Wednesday or Thursday. So keep your fingers crossed. 

I was able to take a longer walk today through the various connected hospital buildings and even went as far as to venture outside on a hospital patio. It was nice to take a few breaths of fresh air. I pointed out all the different hospitals to my mom and told her how to get to my office from where we were. 

Today is Freshman move in day. So while I did try to convince my doctor that since I am doing so well today that they should let me go to the Pepper Place Farmers Market for an hour (that got a good laugh) I realized that even if I wasn't in the hospital I would be working today. We are having $1 day with burgers, hot dogs, chips and drinks at the Diner outside the main Freshman dorms, so very busy day. I've been advertising the event, so I'm hoping that in my absence everything is going smoothly. I'm sure it is, but my mom is going to walk up there later just to see how things are going, why not it's an inexpensive meal.

Fun Friday

So today let me put on pants and actually walk off the hospital floor I have been cooped up in all week. My mom and I took our first walk down to the North Pavilion dining area which is also run by Sodexo. I tried to get us an employee discount at checkout but to no avail. 

My mom swears no one was staring, but I would catch people checking out the multiple IV lines coming out of my neck and then looking down at the floor. My mom took a picture of it this morning,  it's not that pretty and I really thought it was going to be a little more discrete but what can you do. 

I could tell how odd I looked when we were walking through one of the market lines and a toddler who was hanging out over his dad's shoulder had been laughing and bouncing around stopped moving and just stared at me. I tried to wave and make cute faces, but he wasn't having it, I walked away and tried not to scar him for life. 

The phoresus people were terrific again. Today's tech was originally from Ohio so had to give me a hard time about my Penn State sweat pants. But then her and mom were able to talk about Michigan and the UP which was fun. The machine decided to putter out half way through the process today, so they had to bring a whole new machine up and restart the process. So took a little longer than usual today. Next treatment is scheduled for tomorrow morning around 9-10am. Jason is going fishing so he can get some fresh air since he's been spending all his time out of work in the hospital with me. And i scheduled my mom for a massage in Homewood for tomorrow afternoon, because these chairs are not comfortable and she needs to get out too. 

My neighbors Abby and Josh came to visit tonight. They brought their world famous (at least Avondale famous) Chicken Tortilla soup. It was fantastic as was the company. Time just kind of passes in here, so it's nice to have visitors. I'm staying positive that I will be out of here in no time and picking up all sorts of new home rest hobbies like knitting, who wants a scarf? 

Not how I saw my week going

So I'm posting this from my hospital room at UAB Hospital in the Spain Wallace building. I've been admitted to the hematology floor and so far am on day five of my stay. Let me start from the beginning. 

Last Thursday (8/6) I started noticing bruising on my legs and arms. I pointed them out to Jason and we both figured that I had bumped into something or when I was wrestling with the dogs I had just gotten a few scraps, no big deal. That evening after my New Student Orientation sessions I just felt really tired, which also was nothing unusual. On Friday I noticed more bruises and was dragging through my work day. I had plans to go out with friends that evening and had to go home and take a nap before meeting friends for dinner. At dinner I was exhausted and couldn't finish my dinner. Instead of going out for another friends birthday I went home and climbed into bed. 

Saturday morning I tried to go biking, but popped a tire, so ended up going home picking up the dogs and taking them to the farmers market. After one loop around the market I had to take the dogs home and blamed it on the heat. I spent the rest of the day in bed and really didn't have any energy to get up and do anything. 

On Sunday morning I felt bad that I had been so lazy the day before and decided that my laziness was contributing to my headache and overall fatigue. So I got up and met a friend and we biked about 4 miles before I said I had to turn around and head back, so an 8 mile ride overall. I was a bit tired, but felt okay, so I cleaned the house and did laundry, then collapsed for the rest of the day. At this point I had posted something on facebook about feeling tired and more bruises were still showing up so my mother sent me a text saying to call her and let her know how I was feeling. After telling her about the bruising and the exhaustion and the headache she told me to make an appointment with my doctor first thing Monday morning. 

I called my doctors office as instructed first thing monday. My doctor did not have an open appointment until Wednesday so I took the first available physician. I showed up early at 8:30am and after talking to a fourth year resident and then the doctor they decided that if i hadn't been in any cat fights or fallen down a flight of stairs in a drunken stupor that I needed to have blood work done and sent me across the hall. An hour later they came back in and said I needed to head down the hill to the UAB ER. 

At this point I was told I had a platelet count of 11,000 which was extremely low and was highly unusual when compared with my previous years annual blood work that had me at a platelet count of 280,000. I was able to drive myself to the ER and called my mother, Jason and work in the process. 

Once arriving at the ER they knew I was coming, which was nice, and had me back in a room answering questions and explaining my symptoms within ten minutes. A very nice no-nonsense doctor came in and explained what they thought was going on, what the possible causes and treatments were and then whisked me off for a cat scan to make sure the chronic headache I was having was not due to blood on the brain which apparently is possible at a platelet count that low. Thankfully the scan was clean. At this point they had drawn blood at the ER and done their own test and had reported a platelet level of 6,000.

My mom cancelled her patients for the week and flew down on Southwest and Jason took the day off work to hang out with me in the ER. Around 3pm they moved me into a hospital bed in the Spain side of the Spain Wallace Tower. I had a resident and two interns talk to me about what they thought was going on and then inform me that they needed to insert a "Central Line" into one of my larger veins, their vein of choice that evening was the femoral vein in my groin. While this was terrifying to me the two doe-eyed interns assured me that their resident had done this plenty of times before and there was nothing to worry about. They were wrong. An hour and a half later and three missed attempts they brought Jason back in to comfort me and left to go find someone a little more experienced.

Two hours later the A-team from hematology arrived with an ultra sound machine and morphine and were able to get the line in without any pain in the first try. They are officially my heros of this entire endeavor thus far.

After the central line was in I started a treatment called Plasma Phoresis, which basically hooks me up to a machine and sucks out my blood, filters out the anti-bodies and plasma then mixes it with new donated plasma and recirculates it into my body. It takes about three hours and the first night did not go so well. But the attending for pathology, the administering tech and the resident all stayed with me until almost 11pm. 

Day two was much better, and I was moved to the Wallace side of the Spain Wallace Tower and am still residing in room W942. The nurses have been fantastic and have been taking my blood pressure, vitals and blood samples religiously. There was an attending doctor on the floor who we were not fond of, and for fun we will call him Dr. Gloom and Doom. He rotated off the floor yesterday and we like the new doctor a lot better. Dr. G&D needs to work on his bedside manner and learn how to talk with people instead of at people. 

Yesterday they decided that I needed the central line in my neck instead of my groin. Once again not a very pleasant experience, but it's much more comfortable then having this three pronged IV hanging between my legs.  So now I'm in the middle of my fifth treatment and things are going smoothly. 

The doctor came in the morning and told me that I was responding extremely well, but not to get my hopes up on leaving the hospital until next weekend. They have had several TTP patients that respond well, leave too soon and then relapse. So they don't want that to happen to me. They want me to stay here probably through next weekend, then house rest through Labor day. No exercise or anything too high activity through October, which really stinks, but whatever I need to do to get better. 

So in the hospital I remain. I'll try to keep everything updated on here. But I'm in room W942 at UAB hospital and I'm allowed to have visitors, so if your in the vicinity please feel free to come visit me. Friends are the best therapy... :) 

Thanks for all the emails and phone calls. I'll be back to normal in no time. See you all on the outside soon! 

-LC