What a Long Strange Trip It Is: What Next?

In my previous post, I summarized the health issues I faced this year. In this blog post, I’ll attempt to explore what is next. Unfortunately, I have many more questions than answers and thinking about it brings more stress than I should be facing right now. However, I’ll give it a shot.

I guess that I’ll start by saying that I’m glad to be alive! As I look back at the events of last March and think about the possible worst outcome of the open heart surgery I had in June (even though I had complete confidence in the cardio-vascular team), it was possible that I didn’t live to write this blog.

After my first visit to the hospital, antibiotic infusions and recovery, I had hoped to be back home for a few months before the surgery. The plan was to let the oncologist do his work before any plans were made to repair my aorta. However, the cancer treatment was going so well, he handed me over to the cardio team. They were anxious to get things moving. I didn’t fully appreciate how precarious things were for me. The sooner that I have my aorta repaired the better. I had a ticking time bomb.

This meant that everything moved up – all of the preoperative work, including imaging, tests and dental clearance was done in June rather than August and September and I never went home. I have been with my brother and sister-in-law since March. I can’t imagine being on my own to handle all of this. My family has been a big part of my recovery.

As I mentioned in the beginning, I have more questions than answers so let’s just run through the questions.

What Happened and How Do These Ailments Relate to Each Other?

As I mentioned in the first blog post, I had a bunch of things go wrong all at once. So how do they all relate? There has to be some sort of connection, right? Maybe not? I think that the focus was on diagnosis and treatment of each and not how they correlate. It’s up to me to connect any dots.

Anemia, Salmonella Infection & Prostate Cancer

So let’s start with the severe anemia, which I think was taking me out. My hemoglobin number was 3 and 6.9 and lower is deadly. It should be 13 and above. My first guess was that this might have had something to do with the salmonella infection. However it really was due to the prostate cancer that had metastasized to my bones and therefore attacking the marrow. After going on cancer treatment, the number improved to just under normal. I continue to take iron to help out.

That brings me to the prostate cancer. Where did that come from and how did it get so high? It seems pretty normal these days to get it (too normal). Unfortunately, I had entered a phase of deferred maintenance, if you will. I hadn’t seen a doctor in a long time and my Dad had an enlarged prostate but no cancer so I largely ignored the symptoms (STUPID! STUPID! STUPID!). A recent conversation with friend and fellow artist, John Airo convinced me to have it checked out. Of course, I hadn’t done that yet. As it turned out my PSA was well over 2,000 which is unheard of. I’m still thinking of looking into a Guinness Book Of World Records application for that.

This was scary. I thought that I wouldn’t be around much longer and I would be very sick from the treatment itself. However, through the treatment plan that my oncologist developed, it looks like the cancer may be pushed back to a level that is imperceptible. In which case, I hope to be around for a while; All this without feeling sick and weak. Note to everyone reading this: Get yourself checked out regularly for the cancer(s) you are likely to get. The Western lifestyle and diet is only making things worse.

The next thing I’ve had to worry about was the salmonella infection. Actually, it was the first to treat with 3 weeks of daily antibiotic infusions. For that, they installed a PICC line. I could not have done this without the help of my brother making sure that I arrived at my daily appointments on time.

Where did this infection come from? Was it my somewhat dirty refrigerator? Was it from vegetables that weren’t properly washed? I do eat a lot of salads with raw veggies. Was it from touching hand rails? I am around pigeon shit quite a lot, be it the viaducts under the Union Pacific tracks in my neighborhood or the Loop downtown. I never exhibited the common digestive symptoms. I didn’t know that I had it and that’s what is really scary.

Another possibility is the mouse infestation that seems to have taken over my condominium building. No one can seem to get a handle on it. What used to be relegated to the ground floor has risen up through the building in recent years. They are ridiculously hard to get rid of and spread disease like crazy –just like their rat cousins. People I know that have mice never really get rid of them. This includes my parents, who had them the entire 40+ years they lived in their home despite having regular exterminator treatments. This really scares me as I don’t want to get infected again.

Aortic Aneurysm

The next thing of course was my aortic aneurysm. Supposedly, most of us are born with a gap around the valve and it’s supposed to close up shortly after birth. However, in my case it never closed. My cousin just went through the same ordeal so this defect may be hereditary.

A defective heart can cause all sorts of problems. One of which is the risk for strokes. They had also found that I had a series of mini strokes or TIA. While recovering from surgery I had a couple of incidents of atrial fibrillation. which can cause a stroke. As of this writing, I am wearing a heart monitor that is looking for signs of Afib.

In any case, open heart surgery was called for. This was going to be the last thing to take care of but as I mentioned it had moved up in priority as the prostate cancer treatment was going in the right direction. I had not fully appreciated the danger that I was in.

Recovery

Although I am still under treatment for the prostate cancer, the focus is on recovery from the heart surgery. I don’t know how long this will last but I have a lot of follow-up appointments. Since I won’t be able to drive or really be independent until early October, I can’t look that far ahead. I need help, in which my Sister-in-law and Brother have generously stepped up to give me. I have always tried to do things for myself but am learning how important it is to let others help.

So back to the original question of “What Next?”

Homeward Bound

Well the plan is for me to get past the appointments and the therapies or at least get them to a point where I can manage them and live on my own. I hope that I can and live a somewhat normal life again. When that happens I will be checking in daily and will set up spy cameras around my apartment in case of another medical event. If this happens again, I may not make it. I also need the time to attend to affairs and do the things that I thought I had the next decade or two to check off the list. I don’t think that I’ll ever be completely alone again and that’s a good thing.

Eating right is going to be important. My diet has always been one of convenience which means it’s not as healthy as it could be. My primary doctor wants me to start now but the cardiology team said this could come later. I lost a lot of weight and they don’t want me to skip any meals. I do look forward to taking the time to eat right though. I am having a head start on that now as I’m eating well but could cut back on some things and add some others to my diet.

Since I’ll be alone, daily check-ins with family are going to be important. In addition, I think I’ll add a few more spy cameras to my Blink system. This should insure that I won’t really be alone. I hope that this works but there is also the option of the “I’ve fallen and I can’t get up” device. Anyway, I don’t think that I can be fully alone. I watched the guy across the hall get dementia and his son stopping by frequently until he moved out and his condo was sold.

Long term, I’ll probably sell my place and move closer to family. I don’t know what that looks like and I will miss being close to the lake but I have to think about overall safety and perhaps I can return some of the kindness they have shown me as we all get older.

Another option would be to move into assisted living. I don’t really relish the idea but maybe I should at least be prepared? I know this sounds like I’m packing it in but doing it sooner rather than later frees me up to hopefully enjoy what I have left. I didn’t expect to do any of this at least for another decade but fate is forcing my hand.

All of this is too much to think about right now so my focus will be getting better and getting back to something normal or maybe a new normal. These last few months have been a huge challenge. The next few may be even bigger but I’m grateful to be here and feel that I have something to fight for. I thank you for taking the time to read this and I hope that you are healthy and loved.