Monthly Archives: January 2015

The Universe slaps me

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I tempted fate with my last post. And fate punched back. Hard. And there was blood.

Sunday the Broncos lost; Monday I coughed up blood. What a surprise. Can I blame the Broncos for this?

I thought it was odd that I hadn’t sprung a leak in a long time. And bang, there it was. It started slowly and by Tuesday I was standing over the sink watching blood circle the drain. That night I checked into the Hospital California.

And, as a bonus, c diff infected my gut two days into my stay. Wow. Well done, Universe, well done. The 1, 2 punch I hate the most. Coughing up blood and endless amounts of sitting on a hospital toilet. It doesn’t get better than that.

I’m a human sprinkler head.

The bleeding subsided today and I will be going home soon with a DIY Home-IV kit. Nice.

I think one of the meds is causing my brain to recycle vivid memories. I close my eyes and select them like computer files. They’re so clear; I can almost smell them. I know, it’s crazy. Maybe. But the ones I like watching are of my wife when she was pregnant. Our chocolate lab across her lap next to the baby bump. Her belly sticking out beyond her pea coat as she filled her lunch bag with peanut butter pretzels. Driving to the hospital and yelling at the dogs to stop barking before dropping them off at my mother-in-law’s house. The long day of giving birth. And my daughter appearing on the scene, a black head of hair, stunning, perfect.

I have no complaints about life. It has given me more than most.

Why I stopped blogging at the end of 2014

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Superstition. That’s the one word answer. And my fear of breaking a winning streak of no CF hospital stays in 2014.

Every time I’ve been doing well in the past and gone to my blog to write it about it, the Universe has struck me down. A day later I’m coughing up blood or I get the flu and off to the hospital I go. Bang. Lighting strike because I tempted the gods of hospital stays or something.

So, like a pitcher pitching a no-hitter, I stayed quiet about the streak as the end of the year neared. No talking about my good luck, which is the first calendar year I’ve gone without IV antibiotics in . . . well, I don’t know how many years. 10 or more? Usually I’m in two or three times a year.

But not in 2014. With the exception of an overnight visit for a hernia repair, I did not see the inside of a hospital room. No CF exotic-animals floor for me in 2014.

I look back on the year in disbelief. Did that really happen? How?

Luck. And a lot of antibacterial hand gel. But mostly luck. Though I have to thank my treadmill desk and the six Chobani yogurts a day I eat. They get the assist.

So to my new pal, Luck, I thank you for a year away from IVs, nurses, doctors, RTs, X-rays, blood draws, and the general misery of being locked up in a hospital for weeks at a time.

Thank you, Luck, thank you. I’m grateful.