Living a Little

Wow, what a whirlwind 10 days. As Reba has so professionally kept everyone updated, I will just quickly offer a brief recap.

Early last week, before the 2 blizzards, I was feeling a little under the weather, but not terrible. I was scheduled to go to UNC for clinic on the 3rd anyway. So, I drove down. The plan was even to pull this remaining Power PICC line I still have in my upper chest. Anyway, my cough kept increasing and a chest xray revealed some "trouble areas". A random food poisoning/GI bug, an emergency OR Bronch, a diagnosed raging staph infection, a blood transfusion, 2 monumental blizzards in MD, and one week later I finally made it out of the hospital. That was Wednesday the 10th, DC was under snow emergency and no one was allowed to drive, so I spent the night in Chapel Hill and got home Thursday.

It was such a relief to be home. I was/am feeling 100% better. Amazing how the body can so quickly collapse, but can also quickly rebound. They want to keep me on home IV's for another week or so, to fully knock this out. Then it will be back to the game of managing immunosuppression at the risk of causing and making me more susceptible to these infections. It is a fine line that can take a year to sort out. My body needs to continue to heal, my lungs need to develop new blood supplies, I need to breathe better, and get stronger. I still have the narrowing issue, which the stents are taking care of for now, and hopefully when they come out the airways will in essence have "learned" to not narrow.

It was such a relief to get home. I immediately got to work digging us out with the snowblower. We had a 5 foot snow drift on our deck and right off the deck making it immpossible for Luke to walk anywhere. It was great though to be able to do this work. My body had just spent another week lying in a hospital bed, with little exercise, and also not eating so much. But at home, I felt strong and motivated to work! My breathing was so much better. I do get tired and out of breath, but not short of breath. Big difference. So, Rehab will continue to improve my breathing.

Work is a different story. Terry, has been doing an amazing job running the company while I was away. But with this Blizzard, we were completely overwhelmed. 100's of calls for snow removal. If we had 10 crews, we could have had them busy thursday through this weekend. We basically have 4 crews, so I went into work thursday evening and friday helping coordinate this firestorm. We have 3 phone lines and they all were filled and rolling to voicemail all day. I know it has been exhausting for my brother, so thanks again Terry.

I took today, Saturday, off though to spend some much needed family time with the boys and Rebecca. We Went Skiing!! It was amazing on so many levels. First, the fact that I went skiing after all that happened the last week and of course the last five months made me feel so motivated and inspired. Second, it was like riding a bike and I felt great. Third, I was surprisingly strong. Yes, I had to stop alot on the slopes and catch my breath and allow my muscles to recoup, but I did not cough at all, I was not short of breath. It was a glimpse into what the future holds. I'm no Bode Miller, so I was careful, because falling would have been very painful as I am still sore around my incision and ribcage area.

Rebecca's mom, Lois, is in town visiting this weekend and she came as a spectator and helped get the boys in ski school. They had a blast, but still need some more lessons! She also took these videos I posted. Follow the link below for some videos! She is the best. Thanks, Lois!

So, all in all, things seem stable, yet fragile. If we can keep the stenosis and infections at bay I should continue to improve and strengthen.

Happy Valentines Day Everyone,
Mitch

Here is a link to our video albums: Skiing!