Control-Alt-Delete

It’s been a while....

I had, and still have good intentions to be more regular in my blogs and articles, although that game plan and others have been altered a little in the past several months.

In January of this year, approximately 11 months out from my BMT, I was feeling pretty good, which I know is relative, and directly related to the number of red and white cells left over as my Revlimid does its work, which I found out today isn’t much. We just decided to go off of it because it was causing so many immune issues and severe cramping. Not sure what’s next…

Control-Alt Delete…. Reboot

Now face north, think about direction

I’ve always been a “move forward” type of guy, and decided in January that I better make hay while the sun shined. The first thing I did was schedule going to a Metallica concert with my son. It was glorious getting out into life again! I did all the right things with constant hand washing, wearing a face mask with proper filtration, etc., and came through the experience in great shape. What a confidence builder! I was ready to do more!

The following month, I had a chest cold. It slowed me down a little, but I was still able to bounce back fairly quickly. My confidence continued to build. Evidently, it was around that time I must have either started getting a little too cocky, or simply lost my mind; but the sun seemed to still be shining, and I was still planning on making a lot more hay. In fact, I was ready for a bumper crop. Unfortunately, I was also totally ignoring the storm clouds looming on the horizon.

Mass hysteria

In the following four weeks, vacation trips and time away for different activities were scheduled to Florida, Oklahoma City, Emerald Isle in NC, Louisville for Kentucky Derby, Charlottesville, Pittsburgh, and Emerald Isle again. These trips were all going to happen by the second week of June. Concerts were also scheduled to see Chicago, Heart, and Queen.

I then went totally insane (along with my wife), and scheduled a mid-July trip to Utah for the Myeloma Crowd Coaching Conference, adding a week to see family; and finally, planned the coup de grace of a 14 day trip to Europe to see my son in Denmark, as well as my family’s homeland of Croatia. This was put on the agenda for early September. It was mass hysteria in the Padjen household.

If my schedule were a plate of food, you’d be able to say what my mom always said; that “my eyes were bigger than my stomach.” I was not just making up for lost time, but also acting as though I had no time.

Hey, this ain’t so bad…what?

Things went great through April. I did notice though, a slight downward trend in my white count from low threes to high twos. Then the Oklahoma City trip hit in late April, where upon my return, I had pneumonia; caused by a common virus that people with normal immune systems usually don’t know they have. So much for the Kentucky Derby.

Control-Alt Delete.... Reboot

One week in the hospital basically eliminated 80% of my post January improvement, so I did what a good warrior does, and started all over again. I missed the Derby trip, but made Emerald Isle and Pittsburgh. After that, I concentrated hard on my leg, heart, and lung strengths into July. I had to be ready for 7,000 feet above sea level and a lot of active time. By the time we left for Utah, I was ready. One little thing was still bothering me though; my white count had not gotten out of the twos since my first bout with pneumonia.

I again did all the right things making my way to Utah. I felt great when I got there, and for my first 5 or 6 days. In fact, I even did a two-mile hike at over 8,000 feet during that period. I was feeling strong and very positive until “the cough” hit me around half-way through the trip. In the back of my head I was a little concerned, but kept telling myself it was just the dry air and kept pushing through.