Down, Out and Back……….

Wednesday, March 29

The rosy picture I painted in my last post about the biopsy continued through early Saturday morning. Lana, June, Laurie and I had a great Friday, including a robust hike in the morning, a visit from Lynn in the afternoon and a delightful, nostalgic evening party organized by Katie and hosted by Dolly.

Unfortunately by midday Saturday all came tumbling down! On our hike, a striking pain developed at the biopsy incision site and radiated inside and up into my right shoulder. It was not quite debilitating but surly intense. I had not experienced pain like this in any course of my treatment over the entire year. I could not even finish the hike and asked Laurie to get the car to pick me up.

Our dear friend, Marya, the nurse, just happened upon us with her car and in a matter of minutes I was laid out on our window seat, heating pad set and being soothed by both her and Laurie. Marya determined that internal bleeding was unlikely and then coached us on some medications. I was down and out for hours. It was nice to be distracted by the Ducks victory over Kansas as they advanced to the final four and then a scrumptious dinner prepared by Lana and June. Otherwise this boy was down and out!

Except for two very puzzling, perhaps unrelated, episodes of extreme vertigo early Sunday morning, I started to feel better and better. Sunday, Monday and Tuesday passed with minimal exertion. Today, it felt so wonderful to slowly cycle over to the gym and climb real easy.

My recommendation to all is: if you are faced with the prospect of a liver biopsy, which I hope you never will be, take it seriously! In the meantime I’ll share what Laurie and I found on a spontaneous easier walk on one of the minimal exertion days…