My NIH appointments are ordinarily scheduled at 3-month intervals. But for my 20th trip to the NIH, I returned after only one month for a follow-up CT scan of the newly-placed endovascular stent graft. So in July, my sister Julie drove up from Utah to fly back to D.C. with me. During my hospital stay in June, a social worker had given me the phone number for a woman who rents a couple of rooms in her home to NIH patients. We gave this new arrangement a try, but quickly found that staying at the Marriott was well worth the extra expense. There was no air-conditioning in the home, and we were told to turn off the ceiling fan in our room. Knocking on our bedroom door after we’d already gone to bed to introduce us to a gentleman who was a fellow guest, also added to our decision to stick with Marriott.
It appears that all my future CT scans will include a look at the stent graft. This requires the contrast flow rate to be greatly increased. No one warned me about that, and when the contrast shot through my veins with such force, I was hit with a huge wave of nausea. Somehow I managed to keep from throwing up, but my mouth filled up instantaneously with a lot of saliva that I was unable to swallow for fear of the nausea. I sort of gargled out a call for help. The technician supplied me with a bowl and some paper towels. Pretty soon, we were ready to resume the scan. Once the scan was done, the rest of the appointment was a breeze. At home though, the rest of the summer was chock full of medical appointments and procedures. Because the aneurysm was thought to have been caused by bacteria, 30 days of IV antibiotics were necessary. Our son Shane was trained to administer them at home daily for me, with weekly visits to the clinic to de-access the port in my arm and then to re-access it. Consequently, I had to stop taking my wonder drug, Ibrutinib/Imbruvica, for almost the entire summer. I developed a nasolacrimal obstruction, a blocked tear duct, which began causing pain, swelling, and infections. It took two surgeries to successfully deal with this,, and then, the infectious diseases doctors in Boise and Bethesda insisted that the port in my arm should be removed. It had served me well for 8 years, so I was loath to part with it. But I have come to understand that it was the prudent thing to do, and if it was the source of the serious infections that assailed me in 2015, and can prevent future crises, I’m glad I followed their recommendations.
Dan and I did the 21st and 22nd NIH trips together in September and December. Both went very well; all labs looking good! We stayed in another Marriott hotel, this one with more wallet-friendly rates than the other Marriott. I’ve booked all four of my stays there for this year. The first of these is coming up in March.
This brings my comings and goings up to date, but much has been happening with our beloved sons and their families, all of which requires nearly constant prayer. This includes prayer due to changes in marital, employment, and educational status, adoption, a mini family reunion during Thanksgiving, our first ever family baptism session in the temple, the birth of a baby boy, prayers for peace, protection, and understanding, prayers for health and increased faith, for comfort and guidance, as well as many many prayers of gratitude. "Therefore, dearly beloved brethren, let us cheerfully do all things that lie in our power; and then may we stand still, with the utmost assurance, to see the salvation of God, and for his arm to be revealed." (D&C 123 "17)
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