Well… it was destined to happen

I first want to apologize to the Girls weekend that my wife had a couple of weeks ago. That blog entry will come in a couple of weeks. This last 2 weeks took over for events we wish we did not face.

Osteoperosis

About a month ago, the doctors discovered that Michele bone numbers had progressed to the point of her having developed Osteoporosis. We thought this would happen before the end of the treatments as the chemo does impact her bones. No worries. They put her on a new medicine called Fosomax that would help.

Her main leukemia doctor also took her off of a few meds in hopes to keep her with good numbers and such as we prepared for our Alaskan Cruise!

Boarded and ready to go

We spent one night in Seattle where we got to visit with some family. We also got to walk around the city for a bit. There is always a lot of people in the city! We were pretty happy with our hotel room and the views. It is fun to look out on the top of buildings and the sound and guess who must live in some very interesting penthouses!

Ok… let me rewind a bit.

Sunday and some spicy chips

The Sunday before our trip, we were watching TV and snacking. Michele has had a nagging cough for over a month already. It seemed this particular Sunday, she was not only coughing , but starting to find it harder to swallow. That Monday she woke up and was not feeling well at all. She took a rare “rest” day and staying in bed most of the day on Monday.

Tuesday she had started feeling better. The only thing we could put our finger on was those chips must have given her something. To us, they must have really irritated her throat. We thought to ourselves on Tuesday that we should possibly cancel out on the trip.

Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday she was feeling better. Her sister, Linda, had come into town to help Megan with the kids for a few days. Linda does lift up Michele’s spirits when she is around. By Wednesday night, we were all systems go to fly to Seattle.

Early flight and day out in the city

Early flights for us now start a 9am 8-). our flight was an uneventful direct flight with premium economy. It was a 4 hour flight and I wanted to make sure that we had enough leg room to be comfortable. All indications were that this was going to be a good trip. She was getting around pretty well and we we got out into the city to see the Fish Market and grab some food.

As the day went on, her ability to swallow got worse. We thought it was really bad heart burn or acid reflux. After a little bit of rest in the afternoon, we went to dinner with our niece and her husband. She found it harder to swallow and barely had anything to eat at dinner. As we looked up more interesting solutions to quiet the symptoms. The best one? Diluted Baking soda. She had 4 cups before we boarded the ship.

On board

We were early to board the ship and found a fun place to sit. We got to meet with a few folks before we embarked and even got our fancy picture taken (the first one in this blog).

As the day went by, she started to feel worse. We made it to the welcome party and then on to dinner. It did not take long for her to continue to get worse. She started this belching problem that she has been having.

Right after dinner we went ahead and made it our cabin and went to sleep.

Saturday morning

It seems like the pain had increased tremendously by Saturday morning. We made an attempt to have breakfast. She was hurting badly. We left breakfast and went down to the infirmary. They were not open. So we made it ALL the way back to the room.

Then the chest pain got so bad that we called 911 on the ship.

If you have never had this experience let me tell you within 2 minutes there was the captain about 15 other people that showed up at our cabin door. If you are on the ship, there is usually some non-descript message on the loud speakers like “Alpha Alpha Alpha. Deck 9, forward, port. cabin 9654”. repeated numerous times.

After the initial people arrived, the Medical staff arrive with the Crash bag.

Exciting!

They did a bit of triage and got Michele in the wheel chair and down to the Medical center.

The Medical Center

Most cruisers will not see this part of the ship. It is on Deck 2 and you have to do a little bit of hunting to find it. This ship was on the larger side of the fleet. It actually had a room marked as ICU and at least one other patient room. We spent about 4-5 hours in the Center to run diagnostics, blood work, and come to a basic understanding of the issues.

It was not a heart attack. It was esophagitis. Which can present pains in the chest similar to a heart attack. The best course of action was to eliminate the pain and manage the symptoms. After two shots of fentanyl and set of morphine pills we were released back to the cabin.

Still not able to eat

Esophagitis is an enflamed esophagus. The lower portion right above the stomach. In addition to that diagnosis, they also said she had a hiatal hernia. All kinds of issues in and around the stomach is what made i present as bad heart burn. Unfortunately, it got worse when we started the trip.

Ice cream to the rescue. One of the few things that is common on all ships is the soft serve ice cream. From 11am to 6pm, you could get a cone on the pool deck. I believe I had 6 cones for Michele in the span of 2 days.

We knew that our only chance to leave the ship was to get off in Juneau our first stop. Fortunately it is a late arrival port so we were not packing out at 5 am.

Things to know about leaving a ship early

There are a few laws that govern the operation of cruise ships sailing from the US. One in particular is that it has to visit a “foreign” port. Alaska is special, but not a foreign port. So if you attempt to get off early… there is a hefty fine by the US government. Over $900/ea.

Add to that the medical center bill which as ~$1,800 dollars and flights home at ~$2,000… it is not for the light hearted.

If we did not get off in Juneau we would have been stuck on the ship for the full duration. Keep in mind we did leave on the Sunday. The ship was not due back in Seattle until the Friday.

We got off the ship. We also managed to get the fine “waived”.

Medical bill is filed with our Healthcare plan and what ever is not covered will be covered by our HMA plan that we got many years ago. Plus, original return flight was credited for future use. Stay tuned for the real final out of pocket in a future post.

Arriving in Houston

We had our flight from Juneau to Seattle and then Seattle to Houston (Redeye) and arrived at MD Anderson Acute Cares Center at 8:00 am on Monday morning. They ran test to eliminate possibilities and scheduled a scope to take pictures of the esophagus for the next morning.

The diagnose was confirmed. The Source? The new Osteoporosis pill that Michele started 3 weeks earlier. It has a RARE side effect of extreme irritation of the esophagus. Which leads us to add a new travel rule. NO NEW MEDS WITHING 4 WEEKS of Traveling.

And…

The way to resolve it was to double up on a medicine that we were already taking for heart burn issues. We had that medicine with us the entire time…

The hospital stay

If you know Michele… She is on top of her health care. After they started her on the dosage of medicine to relieve the pains and start the healing, she was almost ready to leave the Hospital Wednesday afternoon.

We had had a visit from my Sister Missy, who’s husband was at MD Anderson for appointments and our good friends Wes and Diane who also had been at an appointment that day. As Wednesday got into the afternoon, we noticed that Michele was starting to run a fever.

After a couple of measurements we decided it best to stay another night and get the fever under control. It was most likely due to bacteria released during the scope procedure. It was quickly wrestled and was gone by Thursday morning.

But…

The poor nurse who tried to brush the highest fever she had under the cover at the shift change. Let’s just say… Be prepared for a five minute conversation if you ask Michele about it. There was a report, a visit from the charge nurse, and the nurse was not assigned to Michele for Thursday.

And… we are home finally

Thursday we made it home. Michele was feeling more and more normal by Friday.

She loves taking pictures like this while I am driving. The sun glasses allow me to focus on the road.

Thank you to all the people that sent well wishes during the week. We are getting used to the challenges of health and travel and at times we question our sanity. Yet… we keep going.

The next hospital stay

July 9th we will return for an inpatient round of chemo. It will be the last time we will be scheduled to be in-patient. After that we have another year of maintenance still to go.

She will get another PICC line in her to handle the heavier chemo doses. Being in the hospital will be a familiar place. We know what to expect. Even if some nurses may have some “Education” to receive from caring for her. We are looking forward to getting this part behind us.

She will lose her hair again. Something that we both frown upon but know that she rocks the short hair and wigs. Her beautiful Gray hair will return and will be as classy as it is today. We know during all of this we are both aging in the process. It seemed easier to walk and exercise during the main treatment than it has been in the maintenance treatement.

But that is changing. Michele is an inspiration to all in the way she works, lives, and plays. That will continue.

Phew! This was a long post to get out. And there is much more detail to the story for sure. The girls weekend and the fun that have will come in a post soon.

Everyone have a blessed day and keep living!