Over the last six years I have really enjoyed
writing this blog and it seems like a few of you have actually enjoyed reading
my thoughts. I find it a bit humorous that I have found some small success with
my writing because I was never thought of as a great English student. I was
always a math guy and English was something I had to take if I wanted to
graduate to the next thing. About the only teacher that I ever had that thought
I was a good English student was Sister Mary Immaculata who was my eighth grade
teacher. For some reason she thought I was special, even having me sing in
front of the class a few times.
The rest of my education included more
English that I had to suffer through including reading The Odyssey and several
Shakespeare creations where I couldn’t even understand the language. After
graduating from college, I never wrote anything of significance until a
soon-to-be friend of mine asked me to write an article or two for his new
website, UDPride.com. I had been a fan
of the University of Dayton sports teams for a number of years and had penned a
few thoughts on a listserv that was utilized for UD fans to share their
thoughts with other fans.
Chris “Notre Dame Fan” Rieman had started
UDPride.com and was writing every article himself along with doing everything
else associated with being a webmaster.
He asked a few of us if we would like to put some words down and see if
anyone cared. It generally doesn’t take me too long to throw out 1,000 words
(which Julia, an internet expert, thinks is too long) so I thought why not? One
thing led to another and I was soon writing more than one article a week
including extensive interviews with players, coaches, administrators and even a
Basketball Hall of Fame coach, Don Donoher.
I had more fun with those interviews than I
could ever imagine. The Donoher interview was one that looked like it wouldn’t
even come off but eventually he relented and said he could spend a little time
with me. That “little time” turned into four hours in his living room where he
took me through his life’s triumphs and tragedies including the death of his
son. When I finished writing the article it totaled over 10,000 words and I was
off and running.
When I got sick in 2009, I didn’t know what
to do. I had cancer and the internet told me that I would likely be dead in 27
months. I did my best to stay positive
but it wasn’t easy coming from parents that had both died of cancer. I knew
that I would eventually contract some type of cancer but I certainly didn’t
feel it would happen like this and this soon. I was lucky enough to have a few
friends at the time that seemed interested in my well being and Julia thought I
could keep them informed by writing a blog.
Shortly after I was diagnosed, I started
putting together my thoughts. Since I didn’t start it on day one, I had to go
back and write the first two weeks at one time. I was very clinical and matter
of fact. Julia read the first draft and basically said this was not me. This is
not who I am and not how I write. She
made me go back and make it more like who I am. The goal was to be real and
funny where I could be but still make it informative. Hopefully I have hit the mark
in the hundred or so entries I have written.
I slowed down quite a bit last year only
writing three blogs. The driving force behind that was I was doing so well, I
didn’t have much to report and seemed to have lost the edge on what to write if
I wasn’t writing about being sick. I wrote an article in November about Brittany Maynard and her choice to choose the time and
means of her death.
Then I got sick again.
This time, I didn’t know what
was wrong. I had been fighting something that the
doctors could not solve. I had daily headaches, a low grade fever, low energy
level and the feeling of having the flu. It started in early December and I
thought I would kick it quickly, but it just kept hanging on and on. I went to
my family physician and he prescribed a Z-Pack. I took that and nothing
happened. Two weeks later, I made a return trip and he prescribed a steroid and different antibiotic. Ten days later, no change.
During this time I was popping both Tylenol
and Excedrin like they were M&M’s. Understand that because of my damaged
kidneys I shouldn’t be taking either of them. I would wake up with a headache,
fight that all day and begin to see a fever late in the afternoon. Both of
these forbidden medicines were getting me through but I knew I was rolling the
dice with my kidneys.
The thing that was starting to dig at me was
the headaches. Since I gave up iced tea and artificial sweeteners six years ago
(two more things that were not good for my kidneys) I rarely had a headache and
now I had multiple every day. After a while you start thinking the worst. Was
there something growing in my brain? People that have transplants have a
significantly greater chance of secondary cancers, including brain cancer.
I continued to stay positive but after weeks
of no improvement, your brain starts to wander and occasionally the negative
thoughts start to force their way in.
Despite the lack of progress, I decided to try my doctor one more time.
This time they started mentioning things like meningitis and Valley Fever. (Valley Fever, or Coccidioidomycosis, is caused by fungi only found
in the soil in specific areas and can be stirred into the air by anything that
disrupts the soil, such as farming, construction and wind. The fungi can then
be breathed into the lungs and cause the disease to spread.) I
thought they were grabbing at straws but what the heck, I can do another blood
test and x-ray. The results of the x-ray was available later that day and it
was negative for Valley Fever and I moved off that possibility. I had several
of the symptoms but missed several too. I went to a company function during the
weekend of my birthday and I had several suppliers tell me how bad I was
looking. You know things are bad when
people tell you how bad you look despite the fact it is your birthday.
A week later, I get a call from the doctor’s
office and I did, indeed, have Valley Fever. I not only
had it, I had a very significant case of it. I was put on a regimen of
Fluconazole which fights the disease but has side effects that mimic Valley Fever.
I was told I would be on the “cure” for six to twelve months. After several
weeks, my blood work improved but I still felt miserable. I really had no
choice but to continue with the routine. After five months on Fluconazole, it
started damaging my kidneys. We experimented with going on and off the medicine
and it became clear that it was the culprit. Luckily I was far enough along
that I could stop the medicine. It was now July before I started feeling better.
Over the last couple of weeks I have had a
return visit to all of my doctors, Infectious Disease, Multiple Myeloma and
kidneys. Thankfully everything is
looking good. The Valley Fever is not
improving but it isn’t getting worse either.
As a result I will be able to stay off of any medication and hope that
my body does a better job of eradicating the fungi than the side effects of the
anti-fungals. The MM is almost
undetectable. One of the two readings was a little out of normal range but the
ratio is excellent. My kidneys are back to their normal mediocrity but that is
OK by me.
As a result of what was happening earlier
this year, I had not been in a writing mood. Lucky (or unlucky) for you, I am
back and have a few blogs in mind talking about my summer, just like elementary
school. Hopefully my writing will be as good as Sister Immaculata envisioned.
