Walking Spirit

This week I learned what it feels like to have your blood sucked out by a vampire. It's ironic really, because last Sunday we had a blood drive at church. I couldn't give blood because it's too close to my surgeries but, later in the week the vamps still got me. Two weeks ago I spoke briefly in church about the accident and how much blood was needed afterward. Seems that I recieved approximately 120 units of blood, which is about 20 people worth. So, this week they took some back.

On Tuesday I saw the doctors and they confirmed the cellulitis and put me back on Cephlex. I told them that I was concerned that the cellulitis might be a symptom of something deeper and they decided to do a bone scan. They told me it would be a two day process. They did not tell me that it would begin by drawing 60 cc's of blood.

Since I've been used as a pin cusion several times since last October it's now very difficult foe them to find a vein, let alone get any blood from it. We're at the point now where I tell the nurse that he/she gets only one try. If they fail they have to get someone else. I thought I was shocked when she got a good vein on the first stick. Then I looked over and saw her attach a syringe the size of a turkey baister to the IV! The most amazing part was that she was able to fill the syringe.

The next thing they did was inject a radioactive medicine that attaches to my bones to highlightthem for the scan. Then they took some pictures and told me to come back in a couple of hours. During that time they separated my blood into red blood cells and white blood cells with plasma. They put a different radioactive medice in the white blood cells and injected them back into my body when I came back.

Wednesday morning I went back to Wishard and they took more scans. It was interesting, mostly because I got to lay in a machine that looked like something out of Star Trek. It even had a flat screen monitor that they lowered so that I could watch the scan. The scan meant nothing to me but it was kinda pretty. (at least until I started snoring)

Today I met with a different doctor to get the results but left the doctors office more confused than I felt after my Physics final in college. All this guy would say was that my femur was hot. He couldn't explain what that meant but, I just got confirmation from Dr. Klein (an old family friend) that it's good news. What's going on with my femur is normal healing and there's no sign of infection in the bone.

I walked into church last week, which I was hoping to do this week as well, but I'll be walking less for a couple of days just to let the cellulitis have some time to heal. However, walking is getting easier. It felt great to walk at church and feel confident walking in public!