January 13 & 14, 2018

Where to start?  The past month or two I have not been feeling right.  Lack of energy and shortness of breath.  I chalked it up to the big flu I had during most of December.  I kept waiting to start feeling better but just was not happening.  

I woke up January 13th and my vision was acting funny.  There were spots floating around my vision.  I decided it was time to go to urgent care and figure out what drugs I needed to get rid of this cold.  I passed every test with flying colors, x-rays, ekg, heart, lungs, so on.  It was the blood test that tripped me up.

I could see by the look in the doctors eyes that there was a big problem.  She told me that all of my blood levels were very low and I needed to go to the emergency room across the street now.  She would not even let me walk, I had to take a wheel chair.

Within a half hour the call,  ER doc came and told me based on what he was seeing from my blood work it was very likely leukemia.  He was very nice, but I have never been hit harder in my life. I wanted him to be wrong, but I knew he wasn't.  Calling my wife to tell her the news was the hardest thing I have ever done.

An hour later I was taken to the oncology wing of the hospital and admitted.  Since arriving I have been  received several blood transfusions to get my levels up. White blood cells, red blood cells, platelets, hemaglobin and so on.

The staff here is amazing, very serious, highly trained and just generally on it.  On Sunday a team came into my room and drilled into my hip to get some bone marrow for testing.  It was not too painful. The doctor complemented me on having very dense bones.  He had to really lean into it to get thru my hip and said he bent the tool.  My kids thought that was great.

I am scared to death and have done a lot of crying.