I’m resurrecting the blog. The light at the end of the tunnel is blinking in the distance, and I’d like you all to see it with me. This post will be in two parts, so it may be a little long and a lot verbose. Grab a snack, use the potty, settle in.

PART I: THE STATE OF THE UNION

How much treatment do I have left? How am I doing? These are pertinent questions, reader. I’m glad you asked. I have 3 cycles of treatment left, if I’m understanding it correctly, which I’d like to think I am. Do you remember long ago, when dinosaurs roamed the earth, and I had a cycle that consisted of a whole week inpatient, a 2-day stay inpatient, and an outpatient day? My new cycles are a little like that. Thursday I will hopefully embark on the beginning of these last 3 cycles. However, my dosage has been reduced because the previous dosage was smacking me upside the head so hard I couldn’t recover in a reasonable amount of time. How rude is that? I’m tolerating this new dose much better so far, which has given me more freedom to eat well, exercise, and just do things in general without laying around like a slug. Slugging is only fun for so long (remember this if you are tired of school or work). I had scans a couple weeks ago, and they turned out really well. Nothing unexpected, which is good to hear. So now I’ll just keep plugging along, I suppose.

But what about school, you ask? I’m taking two classes. I am following along with a Government class at BE from home, and taking a Microeconomics course online at Trident Tech. They’re both going really well, but I am having to make up a lot of my Micro work because of Part II, which we will discuss in just a moment. In terms of college, well, those are muddy waters. I was accepted to Clemson, but no one knows if I’ll be done with treatment in time to attend for the fall semester. Even though my treatment schedule is mapped out, there is no way to know how many weeks of rest I’ll need in between each infusion. This is as exactly as frustrating as you might imagine.

PART II: GUT MUTINY

I’m not sure this was really fully explained to many people, or if anyone heard about it at all. I was a bit out of it, to be honest. Let me spin a yarn for you.

Near the end of February I got very sick because of a gut infection. For a couple weeks we thought I was just constipated (everyone poops, okay?), but one night when I tried to go to bed I had a horrible stomach pain that kept me awake. I tried to mollify it with a heating pad, but when I started throwing up black stuff we decided to go to the ER. Perhaps we should have gone to a priest instead because writing that sounds like an exorcism would have been a better solution. Anyway, as the ER was doing its thing I was steadily declining, and I am told I went into septic shock (because the infection had reached my bloodstream). I was in the ICU for 3 days and in 7B for about two weeks after that. I was on TPN, which is a replacement for food and nutrition, for a week while my intestines recovered enough for me to eat. I had no idea how sick I was at the time. I think that was a good thing because I didn’t worry or get scared, I just kind of shut down and let my body heal. Now, though, I am all back to normal and poopin’ on the regular.

So that’s what’s up. That’s how I’m rollin’. I’d like to try and keep up with this blog again, and I apologize if you only keep up with me here and haven’t heard anything. I failed to keep this page updated simply because nothing of import was happening, but I feel like now I’m on the home stretch. I’ll end this post in the usual way, by thanking you all profusely for your prayers, cards, and gifts. I’d also like to offer you a bit of unsolicited advice: be grateful for the little things. Be thankful for your education, your job, your health. It’s hard to step back and look at the big picture, but it’s important.