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Another indicator I'm getting the "good" stuff!


I'm just getting ready for my next infusion.  The last three weeks have been quite eventful.  About three weeks ago, I began having pain in my back and stomach.  It would come and go.  I began thinking that if I could just get to my next treatment and scans, I could find out what was going on.  I had never been in that much sustained discomfort ever without knowing what was causing the problem or pain. 
Last Thursday, I was at home and suddenly my tailbone felt like someone was attempting to pull it out of my back.  It hurt so bad I couldn't stand up. I sat down and the pain went away.  When I sat up to get into bed, my back began hurting.  I woke up on Friday and felt OK so I went to work.  I was OK sitting down but as soon as I stood up for any length of time, my back would hurt so bad I could not move!  My wife, Nicole, had already called Huntsman to ask Dr. Grossman what we should do.  About 3 pm, Nicole called me to tell me Dr. Grossman wanted me to go to the ER to have scans done.They were worried the cancer may have come back and was now in my bones.  Nicole and I went to UVRMC ER and 7 hours later, learned that it was not the cancer but they did not know what was causing the pain.  Over the weekend, I felt nauseated as well as in a great deal of pain.  On Monday, I went to see Dr. Brett Thorpe, a Gastroenterologist, regarding the pain.  Dr. Thorpe felt the pain was coming from problems with my esophagus or stomach.  Dr. Thorpe decided to do an EGD.  On Thursday, I had the EGD and found my esophagus, stomach, and duedenum were inflamed and ulcerated.  I began taking medication prior to eating that seems to help. 
I continued to have some pain in my back.  We did some more tests and found that my gall bladder was bad.  They removed my gall bladder right before Spring Break.  About a week before Easter, I began to break out in hives.  I was miserable.   I went to HCI and learned it was not directly related to my treatment.  I went to a dermatologist at the U of U and learned that they did not know what had caused the hives but it could be related to an infection.  They began me on a large dose of antihistimine that I had to increase to get the itching to stop.  The medicine made me really onery and my wife said I had no filter.  On Thursday, prior to Easter, I found out at another doctor visit that I had a sinus infection.  After taking the antibiotic, the hives finally went away. 
I have been able to continue doing everything.  I play basketball twice a week and umpire.  I recently umpired my first D1 baseball game and just umpired the 3A championship game. 
I know this entry is late, but you can see it has been busy.  I am getting ready for my next treatment in a couple of weeks.

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