Monday Washington = Washington DC 
We all remember Algebra, right?  Solving each side of the equal sign until we could solve no more?  In the above algebraic equation, I would divide by Washington to eliminate it from each side.  This would leave us with Monday = DC and as we all know DC is short for Discharge in the healthcare world.  While not confirmed, all signs are pointing to me going home tomorrow!  We’ll talk with the docs during rounds and I’ll hopefully get the ok.  If not, I may just walk out AMA 🙂

Bloody Nose Picture
Sorry for those of you that were greeted with a bloody nose picture of me in your newsfeed.  Usually Facebook takes the first picture in my blog so I deliberately put a pretty butterfly picture in.  For some reason Facebook skipped over that and went straight to the Hanibal picture.  Oops!

Medical Update
Overall my body is doing pretty good.  I’m definitely not back to normal but I’m on the expected path.  My nose has cleared up meaning I can breath out of it.  That also means since I don’t have to breath out of my mouth it stays moist now.  I’ve never really appreciated a moist mouth as much as I do now.  The diarrhea is still around, but that is to be expected.  I’m also still nauseous at times but meds help keep that under control.  I had some leathery skin from the radiation, but that is better as well.  It quite interesting picking dead skin off yourself.  I’m totally off fluids so I’m longer hooked up to the IV pump.  Really there isn’t anything they can do for me here that I can’t do at home at this point.

Mental Update 
Mentally I’m ok, but I can tell if I stay here much longer I’m gonna lose it on someone.  This hasn’t always been the case.  As long as I feel like I need medical care, I have no issue being here.  But as mentioned above, there isn’t anything I’m receiving now that I can’t take at home.  Especially since I can’t leave the unit and have to wear a mask when I leave the room, I’m getting a bit stir crazy.  A guy can only walk the same 200 ft of hallway so many times.  In my room I can sit in my bed or in a chair, but that’s about as much variety as I can get.  Lindsey has been my lifeline to the outside world and I don’t know what I’d do without her visits.  Even when I was just sleeping during the day, it was good to know I could just open my eyes to see her.  The reason I’d be willing to walk out AMA (against medical advice) is because I need to see the kids.  Again, I’m fine being in here if I need to be, but without a need all I want to do is be at home.

Speaking of Home
I’m not exactly sure what life will be like at home.  I don’t need to wear a mask at home but I do need to wear a mask if I go out anywhere.  This is because home should contain the germs I’m used to and won’t cause me to be sick.  The curveball there of course is that we have 2 little ones who will bring home new germs 3 times a week from pre-school.  I don’t know how much I’ll be able to interact with the kids but I know I need to be careful.  Basically the rule of thumb I’ve been given is to not do anything you wouldn’t do with a new born.  Wouldn’t take a 1 week old to the store during flu season? Then Rob can’t go either.  Wouldn’t take a 1 week old to a restaurant?  Then Rob can’t go either.  The tough part is even if someone is well, they may not be able to be around me.  If they’ve been around anyone who is sick they could potentially be a carrier even if they have no symptoms.  So essentially anyone around someone else with even a sniffle shouldn’t be around me.  I think we can control the home environment pretty well.  Being at home and isolated to the bedroom is still better than  being in the hospital.

And the Powerball Numbers Are:
Things are looking up on the lotto front.  My white count took a decent jump today and the other counts are starting to come up on their own (without transfusions).

10/29/15 (Day +13): WBC 0.6, Hemoglobin 7.6, Platelets 31
10/30/15 (Day +14): WBC 0.7, Hemoglobin 8, Platelets 31
10/31/15 (Day +15): WBC 0.8, Hemoglobin 8.1, Platelets 36
11/01/15 (Day +16): WBC 1.3, Hemoglobin 8.5, Platelets 41

A Duck Dynasty Prayer
I want to go home.  Please let me go home.  Those are lyrics first sung many decades ago, but I find them swirling around in my head.  They describe my current feelings and pleas.  God, please let me be able to go home tomorrow.  To spend time with my family.  To hug my kids who I haven’t seen in over 3 weeks.  To cuddle with my wife and to be in a more comfortable environment.  Please remove any barriers to me being able to leave here.  I want to go home.  Please let me go home.  Thank you for another day.