A Sense of Success to Start the Day! (and THEN another ER visit)

Tuesday - April 7, 2012

I conquered yesterday's late night wake-up and have returned to a more-rested, more-manageable, more-familiar, early morning start!  I feel great!   Little large-muscle fatigue, no lower-back twinges, and perhaps a slight decrease in the finger neuropathy that has been a constant presence since my first round of odd-round Hyper CVAD (wow!  That's a nice surprise!).  Could this week be officially deemed a "good" week?

Joe, Jonathan, and I continued a pattern of restaurant dining with a dinner at Second Street Bistro that included some great draft beer samplers.  I have medical go-ahead to enjoy some wine and beer (yay!) and must confess to being happy about returning to the occasional mealtime pairings. Now if Joe and I could only track down our corkscrew, I could enjoy that great bottle of Chardonnay I have chilling  :)

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Well, we are all home and healthy now but what another rollercoaster hospital interlude this morning!  Our 4th trip to our local Sentara Hospital ER this summer!  Enough!  Good health all around for the Ammiratis, please!  No more avulsions, potassium issues, infections, or fainting spells / seizures.

Today was Jonathan's turn in the health spotlight.  Our routine (but urgent to me) sick visit to determine why Jonathan has dropped 35 pounds off his already slender frame resulted in his blacking out during an empty-stomach blood draw with some shaking that the phlebotomist thought might be a seizure.  Coupled with a low pulse rate, the doctor sent him downstairs to the ER where we spent 4 hours before getting the all-clear.  I am tremendously relieved that a full EKG and long-term monitoring did not surface any issues that would corroborate a seizure.  The ER physician diagnosed vasovagal syncope but advised that Jonathan have an EEG when he returns to the doctor's on Thursday for consultation about his blood work and next steps to discover the cause of his dramatic weight drop.  With a clean EEG, the word "seizure" will be purged from Jonathan's medical record.  Jonathan was a hungry but cooperative patient; it was a long morning!