I’m having some medical issues.

The TMI edition. Don’t pass go unless really interested.

 

Back in late October the wife and I both caught Covid. My symptoms were interesting to say the least. After “recovering” about a week and a half to two weeks later we were feeling almost normal. Still some lethargy, and it took about another week for my sense of smell to return fully, but overall nearly normal.

On Thanksgiving I was really, really constipated. After passing the “cork” I had diarrhea for a couple of days. And ever since then it’s been one or the other, which makes things “interesting” when working, going on trips, etc.

Right around that time I started experiencing some symptoms that I had experienced during Covid. This made me suspect I was one of the Covid Long Haulers. Things like shortness of breath when doing anything remotely physical, trouble sleeping, leg pain, to go along with the fatigue and constipation/diarrhea. I had a regularly scheduled appointment coming up in April, so was just rolling with it until then.

At the end of February I received notice of jury duty. This wouldn’t be an issue if it weren’t for the diarrhea, which I couldn’t really anticipate from one day to the next. So I asked my doctor for a letter to excuse me. She said she needed to see me first. Since I was already there, and she was concerned about the fatigue and being easily winded with exertion, she had some blood run through the lab.

And that’s where things got funky. Driving back to work from her office she texted me (yes, we have a good enough relationship with our doctor that my wife and I have her personal cell phone number) that my labs came back with extremely low hemoglobin (anemia) to the point that she was in the process of getting me admitted to the hospital, for the next several days. Go to jail. Do not pass GO! I never made it to work that day. Instead I headed home to pack a bag and call my wife to take me to the hospital. This was Wednesday, we were supposed to head out of town Friday for my daughter’s dance competition. And my doctor, and the one at the hospital, were both telling us that I might not get out until Saturday, and maybe not then.

They took a bunch more blood for labs. And put two IV bags of blood back into me. And they didn’t have any answers. I spent the night there, and in the morning they took more blood for labs. And then the doctor came back to talk to us. My hemoglobin was up to 7.1 from 5.4 the day before, so they weren’t going to give me any more transfusions. Since there was no obvious bleed anywhere, and I was feeling OK (no worse than I had the previous few months anyway), he said we could do the rest as an outpatient. Oh hell, YES! So I got to go home on Thursday and pack for the trip. I was put on an iron pill (great, more constipation) and scheduled for an endoscopy and colonoscopy.

The endoscopy and colonoscopy happened yesterday. The procedure itself was fine. It was what they found that is troubling. Turns out all the symptoms I’ve been having the last few months aren’t Covid related. A mass was located in my posterior. He took a biopsy just to make sure, but he’s almost positive it’s cancerous. I go in for an MRI and CT scan tomorrow. I should have more definitive results next week. But, for right now it’s looking like I have ass cancer.

They say it’s very treatable with good outcomes. I sure hope so. But, I’ll likely be a little preoccupied with other things and won’t be on the blog much for awhile.