Last week Paris, this week Bethesda. My what a difference a week makes...
I'm here for a 6 month recheck for the darn tumor that is causing me all this trouble. So I have two weeks full of being injected and scanned from stem to stern on the hunt for the little bugger. Just for the fun of it I had to pee in a jug for two days. Good times. And of course there are the 6am blood draws by my favorite phlebotomist Raj. I am scheduled to leave here on the 23rd just in time to be home for Christmas.
Being an inpatient at the NIH gives me a renewed perspective on my life and my illness. I've been kind of wrapped up in my own life lately as it revolves seemingly never endingly around Cushings. But when I come here and see the really sick people, I'm reminded that I have it easy. As I've said before, my tumor isn't going to kill me. It may make my life and my health a pain in the ass to manage, but it won't kill me. Not everyone has the luxury of being able to say that. I don't even look sick anymore. So when I'm waiting in the Nuclear Medicine department to be injected with something that comes in a lead box and makes my insides glow, I look like the thing that is not like the others. The thing that doesn't belong. What a great feeling that is. While I am not cured, my symptoms are being managed. Not in a way that will work in the long term, but for now it's all good. My hair is growing back and my skin is back to normal. My weight and shape are pretty much pre-Cushings.
I have nothing to complain about.
Wednesday, December 14, 2011
Yesterday Paris, today the jug's in the fridge....
Talk about being jolted back to reality!
Keith and I flew back from Paris last Monday 12/5 and boy are our arms tired!...I tell you, that joke never gets old! And on Tuesday I was peeing in my jug. Good times. But we wanted to get one more 24 hour urine test and a blood draw done before I go back to NIH on Sunday. Such is the life of a Cushie world traveller! But less about pee and more about Paris...
Keith had a business trip to Paris and I tagged along because...well...I could. I hesitated a bit in the beginning committing to go. Between my plane fare and the extra personal nights at the hotel, it wasn't going to be a cheap trip. But luckily I have enough clear headed people around me reminding me that when opportunity presents itself you have to grab it because you never know when it's going to come around again. Sounded like my own preaching and I had to take my own advice. So I dug out my passport, bought a ticket and off we went.
We were there for a week, and Keith had to work for the first 3 days. So I had a couple of days to myself to do what he didn't want to do. I hit the Champs Elysees, Arc d' Triomphe, and did some pretty heavy duty window shopping. One day I popped over to London via the Chunnel Train and visited with my original NIH doctor who finished her fellowship and returned to her home country. Together we went to Montemarte, Notre Dame and the Louvre. Much fun was had. We didn't take many pictures because everything was so photo worthy it was overwhelming.
After a wonderful getaway it is always nice to return home....Where I got to stay for exactly 6 days before leaving for Bethesda and a two week stay at the NIH. Just call me a world traveler...
Keith and I flew back from Paris last Monday 12/5 and boy are our arms tired!...I tell you, that joke never gets old! And on Tuesday I was peeing in my jug. Good times. But we wanted to get one more 24 hour urine test and a blood draw done before I go back to NIH on Sunday. Such is the life of a Cushie world traveller! But less about pee and more about Paris...
Keith had a business trip to Paris and I tagged along because...well...I could. I hesitated a bit in the beginning committing to go. Between my plane fare and the extra personal nights at the hotel, it wasn't going to be a cheap trip. But luckily I have enough clear headed people around me reminding me that when opportunity presents itself you have to grab it because you never know when it's going to come around again. Sounded like my own preaching and I had to take my own advice. So I dug out my passport, bought a ticket and off we went.
We were there for a week, and Keith had to work for the first 3 days. So I had a couple of days to myself to do what he didn't want to do. I hit the Champs Elysees, Arc d' Triomphe, and did some pretty heavy duty window shopping. One day I popped over to London via the Chunnel Train and visited with my original NIH doctor who finished her fellowship and returned to her home country. Together we went to Montemarte, Notre Dame and the Louvre. Much fun was had. We didn't take many pictures because everything was so photo worthy it was overwhelming.
After a wonderful getaway it is always nice to return home....Where I got to stay for exactly 6 days before leaving for Bethesda and a two week stay at the NIH. Just call me a world traveler...
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