How Are Things So Far?
And what is going on right now?
How Are Things So Far
How are things so far? As with everything else, life goes on. It has been around two months since my last post. Things are okay. I just felt that it was time to write something again because people are still asking me how I am.
Sometimes I just joke and say “Still here”, with a smile. But things are not always that easy. As I mentioned in one of my older posts, people always have the tendency to say that things are okay. Maybe, just to keep things light. And you know, that if you say that things are not well, they want to know more.
That is okay. But sometimes, for the people who need to tell how they are, it sounds like that you are repeating yourselves and that life is negative. I have the same feelings. But one time in a seminar, we were told to just say how things are the way they are. The risk is, that if you say you are good, they expect that you will act okay and that you can do everything. But if you say how you really feel and are, they will reconsider your situation and maybe don’t ask you to do something.
For me, it depends on how I feel at that moment, that is how I feel and will say it.
My Coughing
In my last post, “Drinking Healthier”, I mentioned that I had changed my drinking habits. I am drinking fewer soft drinks. At that time, my coughing was getting less. Shortly after that, my coughing was gone. Thank God. I was already coughing for a year and was really getting tired of it. Also, the people around me started to get annoyed about it. Of course, I am not a doctor, so I am not sure if this was the real reason for my coughing or not. I am just happy that it has stopped.
The Spa Touch Raspberry-Apple is still my drink. Now and then I also will drink plain water and use my Air-Up.
Also with other things, I am trying to use less sugar. But now and then, you just want something sweet. And I think that that is okay. Especially around the Eastern time with all the chocolate eggs. But taking it in moderation should be okay.
My Internist
I already mentioned that I had visited my internist. This was because they had seen a swelling around the heart and left kidney. Also, my lung specialist thought that maybe he could figure out why I was still coughing. With my Internist, during our first meeting, we had decided to first wait for three months and see what the swelling would do. In the meantime, he also wanted a full test of my blood. Taking a biopsy of the swelling near the heart is very risky. Near the kidney, this could cause heavy bleeding. Waiting was the safer option.
By checking the blood, they can see if some of the values are high, low, or normal. And he was hoping that with this, they could see what the swelling could be.
For the blood test, they took around 5–6 tubes. The internist already told me, to do the blood test, at least two weeks before our appointment. Because some of the tests could take up to two weeks.
The Results
For the blood results, I could find them back in the app of the hospital. Of course, the results did not tell me anything. I had no idea what it all could mean. I could see that something was high and something else was low. The rest were okay.
When they show the results in the app, you also can see what a “normal” level should be. But of course, it is up to the specialist to explain everything.
The internist told me first, that they also looked back at some scans from a few years back. On a scan from 2019, they saw the same swelling. When comparing it to the latest scan, the size and shape looked the same. Because it already was showing then and the values he was looking for were okay, he told me that things looked okay. But it was still not clear what the swelling was. So the biopsy was still an option.
But he could see that the testosterone was low and some kind of growth hormone was high. This has nothing to do with the swelling, but he mentioned that these are things they need to look into later because they are not right.
To do the check for testosterone again, I had to do a very early blood check. Something like 8:00 am. After that, we will meet again and in the meantime, he also will try to schedule a new appointment for the scan. After all of this, we will make a plan on how to continue further.
Still Very Susceptible
Because of my health condition, I am very susceptible to many kinds of viruses. And this was proven to me again at the beginning of the month.
At the beginning of April, is the birthday of my wife. This means that several friends wanted to celebrate this with her (us). Because one of her friends is diagnosed with cancer, my wife decided to celebrate her birthday at our place and my wife would cook everything fresh. There were also many things the friend could not eat or was advised to eat. So my wife had created so many different dishes, mainly with fresh fish.
It was a nice evening and everyone enjoyed it. The next day, we invited friends and church members to celebrate her birthday again. This also was a very nice evening and everyone enjoyed it a lot.
The next day, things were okay and we both ate the same things. Mostly leftovers from the day before.
That evening, or very early the next day, things went wrong. For me.
Very Sick
I woke up around 5:00 am and felt very windy. Suddenly I got the feeling I really had to go to the toilet. And there it was, diarrhea. Because it felt like my stomach was turning around, I decided to stay downstairs and lie down on the sofa. Within 5 minutes I had to run to the toilet again. Again diarrhea. It felt like I was running empty. Five minutes later, again. By now, I was really empty. And I started to feel really bad. Then the vomiting started. Because I was already empty, nothing came out. But still, my stomach wanted to throw everything out. This went on like this for the rest of the day.
We tried to figure out what this could be, but we had no idea. We both had eaten the same thing and my wife was okay.
Also the next day, I did not feel that well and I had sleep a lot during the day. The day after that, luckily things went slowly better. This was good because the day after that, I had an appointment with the internist and I did not want to cancel or move that appointment. A new appointment would take another week or so.
Large Crowds
When I told this diarrhea and throwing up to my internist, he already mentioned that there are a lot of viruses going around at the moment. And because of my health condition, I had to be careful more. So, bingo. That is also what he told me last time. He wants to be careful with me because when I have something, I have it bad. He called it that I have Jackpot.
At home, we think that maybe one or more visitors during the birthday party, were already not feeling well or maybe were carrying a virus, and I was the one who caught it.
This is why I am trying to avoid large crowds. One time I also mentioned this to my social worker, and she told me that if I kept on avoiding things like that, I would not enjoy things. Sometimes you need to take a risk. Otherwise, you get isolated. I understand this. But also try to understand it from my point of view. I understand that you need to be among others to have enjoyment. But in the back of my mind, there is that thought that “maybe I will catch something”. And that was proven to me again with this last episode of sickness.
No matter how careful I am, there is always a chance that I catch something. For myself, I will try to avoid large crowds no matter what. I rather be safe than sorry. And I hope that the people around me will understand this. Not everyone knows or understands it always.
Thinking About Moving
At the end of last year, we were already maybe thinking of maybe moving. Because of my condition, it is hard for me to walk up the stairs. It also depends on what kind of day I had. If it is a tiring day, one time up the stairs is enough for me. And we are sure, that things will not get better. We are also slowly getting older.
We are slowly looking around for an apartment. Everything is on the same floor. No stairs in the house. But this is not easy. We are not the only ones that are looking for a house. Everywhere there are waiting lists and sometimes you just need to be lucky.
If we think about it, at the moment we are very spoiled. The shops are nearby. We are surrounded by several highways, so it is easy to get out of the city and go anywhere we want. The doctor and hospital are almost around the corner.
This is why, if we could stay in the same city as now, that would be okay. We have several other cities around us, that we like, but we will see. For now, every available apartment, we respond to it and hope that one day we will be selected for a viewing and hopefully we will be selected. Right now, we are not really in a hurry, but when things go really bad, we still have the option to apply for an urgent or medical statement.
Closing
Life goes on. At the end of this month, I will have my pacemaker/ICD checkup again. A few days after that, I will have a telephone meeting with my cardio specialist, and maybe then I will hear when it will be time to change my pacemaker/ICD.
Next month I also will have one more X-ray of the lungs. The lung specialist wants to have a final check and see how things are.
For the internist, I need to make an appointment for a blood check again and after that, I need to make an appointment with him to talk about how we continue. In the meantime, I need to wait and see when they want to make a new PET-CT scan.
For the rest, I will cross my fingers and hope things will go well.
As always, I will close with, “Please take care and be safe”. God Bless.
About My Posts.
About my posts. My posts are personal. It is about things I experience in my daily life. It can be about simple things, or about troubles that are going on.
The reason why I write these posts is that I want to share my life with others. Just to show others that they are not the only one that is going through difficult times.
With my posts, I also hope to help others. Maybe they are going through the same things, or maybe there are people around them who have the same issues.
I hope these posts can be of some help to everyone.
If you want to know more about me, then check out my profile on Medium. Or visit my blog.
