Day 4 - Mayo Tuesday April 16

This is Buddy.  This time it's me writing as I actually have strength today to do a post.  Yesterday, I had a Bone Marrow biopsy + needle biopsy of stomach fat (from whatever fat is left) as well as a full body skeletal X-Ray. They put me under a sedative so after waking up, I felt really funky.  I couldn't string any sentences together and if I tried to type anything on a machine, I made about 10 typos per sentence.  I was barely coherent.  So off to sleep for 11 hours.  A bit tough though to watch the news of the Boston Marathon.  If any of you have kids, your heart sinks a bit when you hear tragedies like that. 

Just got back from the Doctor's office this morning (Tuesday, April 16).  Dr. Gertz still needs the bone marrow biopsy results to make the final diagnosis which will be on Thursday, April 18.  He went through a couple of possibilities of what this may be based on the results but said these are not yet final so we'll hold off on making decisions now.  He said we'll get the final diagnosis and the treatment options on Thursday and we can then decide on how to proceed.  

For treatment options, we may need to stay here for the outset simply because I'm not fit to travel.  Dr. Gertz said "You're having shortness of breath just talking to me from a couch...".  Translation: don't get on a plane for 20 hours.

Post the visit, I then got fitted for an ECG harness, which is a 4-point ECG with a device that records my heart rate.  My heart keeps going wacko at times, i.e., it starts skipping a beat, then accelerates to 130-150bpm for no reason, then goes back to normal.  Believe it or not, one of the most difficult things to do is getting ready in the morning as my heart rate rockets to 130bpm just by getting up, brushing my teeth, showering and then getting dressed.  By the time I sit into the wheelchair, I feel like I've run a 5K race. The harness has 4 patches stuck to locations around my heart.  Luckily, I'm not hairy so taking the patches off should be no problem!

As we're now getting to the point where we'll finally find out what this is, I wanted to thank all of you for your thoughts, prayers, well wishes, visits, phone calls, everything.  I'm so touched by all of my family, friends, acquaintances who have reached out.  I appreciate every one of your messages and prayers.  Thank you all, from the bottom of our hearts.  

I especially need to thank the author of this blog, my wonderful wife Ria, who I love more than anything.  Without her, I wouldn't be able to get through a minute of this.  

By Thursday, our Journey will finally have a roadmap.  We'll share the roadmap with all of you soonest.  In the meantime, please accept our love to all of you!!  Stay tuned - Buddy 4/16/13