Captains Log, Mars — Lung Story Short...

The past two months have been a little tiring. This past month and a half my appetite really took a nose dive, even more than before. My white blood cell count had been low, so that meant needing Neupogen injections. I’ve mentioned before how I really dislike them. Apparently I have a bad reaction to them with lots of side effects; first, are fevers and a very achy back. It feels as if I am trying lift cement blocks, carry them, putting them down and lifting them again. Next come bone pains. Lastly, feeling exhausted, they completely wipe me out.

During this time I was home alone for five weeks while my brother was on a work trip in Antartica and New Zealand. My bestie, Olivia, came for a long weekend but that was right before I was in need of the injections, but luckily was able to do some adventuring with her. There were some days that I literally was in bed sleeping all day. I would only get up to go to the bathroom which seemed like such a project with how tired I was. I even fell asleep while looking up flights to Minneapolis which was funny.

I only left my room twice to get a shake and my pills. Surprisingly I was able to sleep all night as well. It was very strange to me at how much sleep I was getting. I normally don't sleep that much. I stay up late and also have trouble staying asleep at times. Previously to the sleepy times, because my temperature went up past 101 I had to go to the emergency room. That's the protocol for post transplant. I went and luckily my friends Kailee and Sean, who live close by came to my house to get me out of bed and to the ER. They sat with me for a while but unfortunately I had to be admitted over night. Kailee insisted on staying over with me, so we had a slumber party! She got to see my early morning annoyance with the amount of people who kept coming in and waking me up for stupid shit ;). I only get grumpy if I'm beyond exhausted and in the hospital.

exploring the walker ranch by Boulder with Olivia.

first Ice castles with my new lungs and Olivia.

Before the injections started, my throat was hurting like a bitch. No idea why. It wasn't a regular sore throat with a cold. It was evil. Evil like satan taking a knife and sand paper at the same time to my throat. It hurt so bad to swallow it was definitely a struggle sleeping. Overnight and mornings were the worst but also it would happen throughout the day. After the injections started which there were several, they then changed the dose to half to see if it would help with the symptoms. It did but I was still very tired.

My sinuses were also sucking. So super congested, always blowing my nose and sneezing, stuff in the back of my throat. All that was causing me to be able to barely taste or smell anything. There were about two weeks that I was barely eating, and by barely I was eating about once a day and it was usually a Kate Farms shake which was less aggressive than a Scandi Shake. I sometimes had one of those and a granola bar, and those were hard to eat because it was dry. Another side effect from one of my meds had been causing wicked dry mouth so eating anything was a struggle. I had been complaining to my team about all my side effects as they came for about a month. Only till the very end of the month they said I should get admitted…

I finally went in three weeks ago. They figured to try the same drugs I had back in November. I had very similar symptoms. They also added a few more and were giving me liters of saline for hydration. I was in for a week. During that week I needed a blood transfusion. Two units of blood on the menu, thank you vampires. My hemoglobin level was really low. It's supposed to be around 12-14 and mine went down to 6.2. The cut off for needing blood is 7. These low levels explained some of why I had been so sleepy and exhausted. After they were able to get me up to 9. something.

During my week in prison, I did a lot of sleeping and food forcing. My brain was also probed around in by the ENT. They looked around in my sinuses and came to the conclusion that I'm in need of sinus surgery. They said it looked pretty inflamed in there, polyps (inflamed tissue), and a Mucocele which was putting pressure behind my left eye and blocking my olfactory senses. It made sense since I can't fucking taste or smell anything. Which, leads me to needing sinus surgery quite soon…Other than all those shenanigans, one of my friends came and hung out with me for a few days, and I had some surprise visitors such as my brother late at night. He just got in from Antartica the night before and brought me a penguin and showed me penguin videos. I requested a live one or a wallaby but I guess the stuffed one will suffice.

Surprise visit from my brother, and penguin.

Tulips from Connie, my Colorado "god mother".

I bought a one way ticket to Minneapolis. This is because we don't know how long I was going to need to be there in order to get the sinus surgery which I needed a consult appointment before we can schedule it. Another reason I'm staying for a bit is so Laima, can shove food down my throat. We’re gonna be chubby chasin' at many different restaurants. Laima has a whole bunch of places for us to go and has reservations made for a few of them already. I guess someone was little eager ;).

Before my trip to Minneapolis, I had four days outta the joint and so I had plans of outdoor adventures of course. The first day I went to the range with my brother. The second day I had a place in mind for galavanting and my bro had taken the day off so I made him go with me. Destination, Paint Mines; only an hour and a half to a place that looks like Mars. It's one of the coolest places Iv’e been so far. By so far, I mean I'm going to continue exploring this amazing planet and all the places it has to offer.

Captains log, date March 9th, 2018. This place, I call, Mars. Signs of minimal life. Air seems stable. Topography, wicked fucking AWESOME.

It was amazing that we were able to climb and walk on all of it. I’m surprised they allow that due to erosion from humans. But I’ll let the pictures do the talking. Anyways, one of the places we were trying to climb was a little sketchy. By sketchy, I mean I shouldn't have tried getting up with my Nikes. NO TRACTION. Definitely not for what I was trying to do. My brother did give me many warnings it was dangerous and that I shouldn't try it. Obviously I tried it. Whoopsie, I took a tumble. The giant boulder I was on was slanted at steep angle and I was trying to climb up another slanted ledge and I slipped facing forward and fell into the crevice. These rocks have a strange texture making it hard to grip. My “tumble” caused my knees and shins to get scrapped and wicked bruised up as well as scraped my hands and elbow.

Welcome to Mars.  Paint Mines in Colorado. — Welcome to Mars. Paint Mines in Colorado.

The boulder at the base of the ledge where my bro is climbing is where I was on before slipping.

Because I beat myself up those past two days I had a rest day on Saturday and got some stuff done before my trip. Sunday, my brother and I had a late lunch date with our Colorado “god parents” in Boulder at the Med. It's one of our favorite places to eat. It’s Mediterranean food and they have tapas. Earl, my stomach, won the battle over Gilbert the grape. So happy my stomach behaved and was able to eat a lot! After stuffing ourselves my bro and I drove up Flagstaff mountain to watch the sunset in the mountains. The spot I wanted to go to was crawling with people and parking was a bitch. We drove a little further where there were less people and still a sweet view.

The next day I had my flight to Minneapolis. I was leaving in the evening so that gave me the day to finish packing. I hadn't really packed previously but had made some piles…so of course I was running around like a chicken with its head cut off trying to run some errands. I had to get to the specialty pharmacy which isn't that close to my house and then post office all the while trying to pack and do laundry. Happy to say I got everything done with one minute to spare before I had to leave. I always manage to leave everything last minute.