At this point I was settling into a routine that would be continuing for a long time. Sleeping in, eating what I could tolerate, weekly appointments to the hospital to check my counts and spending as much time as possible with my boys. It would be a very long and tenuous recovery. My store was getting ready for the upcoming holiday season and I was Quarterbacking the situation the best that I could from home. Not an easy task but there was no way that I could expose myself to the public yet. It would be a while.
One morning towards the end of October, I woke up feeling very strange. The right side of my torso had become very sore. No clue why. I figured that maybe I had pulled something or slept on it weird. It was nagging me all day. Of course, every little new malady was a concern to me. I didnt know what to expect during my convalescence and recovery from the Bone Marrow Transplant. Should I call Dr. Dave? We’ll wait and see. I went through the day as usual helping Karen with the boys, sleeping and resting, taking my multiple array of medications, etc. Lori got home from work and I let her know about the nagging pain that was worrying me. She advised me to wait it out a little more and see how it goes. Hopefully it will subside and all would be well. Good luck.
With little fanfare, we were able to get the boys to sleep and Lori and I as well. Early in the morning I was hit with intense pain in my right side. Like I was shot! The pain was so horrible I couldn’t handle it. Now, I was scared. What the hell was going on? I had a horrible rash and blisters forming. From the front of my right rib cage all the way around to my spine, a searing pain and ugly array of sores. It was awful. Now, the call had to go out. Dr. Dave said to get right down to Hannahmen ASAP! Could this be a major outbreak of GVHD?
I could barely get dressed. The pain was so intense. We waited for Karen to get there and took off for the hospital. Dr. Dave saw me immediately and knew the deal right away. He said that it was not GVHD, but that my immune system was so low that I had developed a severe case of Shingles. He explained that the Chicken Pox virus always remains dormant in your body after you’ve had it and in extreme cases of low immunity the virus exposes itself in the form of an extremely painful blistering rash that can be small in area or very large as in my case. Not only was my immune system severely compromised at the time, the transplant had erased all of my vaccinations. I was scheduled to receive all of my vaccinations again including the currently available Chicken Pox. Too late. Lucky me though. Seriously. It wasn’t GVHD. But it really sucked. This would be my first introduction to Percocet. Thank God. How many can I take please! I would need to be on an immediate long term course of Antibiotics to try to curtail the virus and not make me have to go back into the unit. Hopefully, this would work and relieve me of more angst and worry. I would again have to steer clear of my boys and anyone else. Another painful episode in the story of me.
It took a few weeks for the Shingles and their pain to go away. But not the memory. Every time that I remove my shirt and look in the mirror, besides seeing a chubby handsome guy, the deep scars from the blisters still prevail across my rib cage from front to back. So be it. I was due for another Bone Marrow Aspiration my next appointment anyway. Bring it on Dave.
Next up: November and Dr. Styler.