Welcome to Gaia! ::

xd

Best reason ever.

Good news, everyone! I have a job! Now I can afford the finer things in life...like food.

So my boyfriend was sick for a month. First the doctor thought it was pneumonia; he had a horrible chest x-ray. Antibiotics didn't do as much as they were supposed to, but then they thought it was that "MONSTER VIRUS" that was hitting the NYC area at the time.

It got a little better, and we went and visited his family in Colorado for Thanksgiving. At the end of that trip his arm started to hurt really bad. We still flew home. A few days later the arm was hurting so bad that he couldn't sleep.

So, we got an appointment with the normal doctor, and since it was Saturday when the pain really hit, we went to the ER where I work (Columbia Medical Center...I work in one of the Research-central buildings). EIGHT HOURS LATER...he had an x-ray and a script for vicadin and was told to go see an orthopedist. The didn't even give us physical copies of the film, I had to go pick it up on Monday AND PAY FOR THEM.

Getting a doctor to see you the same day or even the next day is nearly impossible in NYC. After calling four orthopedists he got an appointment for Wednesday (four days after ER trip) to see one at the same office that had seen him for some pain he had in his knee last year. Comes around to Wednesday...

The doctor says "I specialize in sports injury of the shoulder only. You have to see someone else." He didn't even look at his films. He got a new appointment at the next available ortho...TWO WEEKS LATER.

At this point his mom had called the doctor who had done surgeries on his arm during his childhood. Several times when he was younger he had cysts in his bone--basically just a hollow where there should be marrow or bone. The doctor looks at it, immediately sees several hairline fractures and HUGE cysts. He told his mom he could give him a referral to someone in NYC or he could fly home, see him the same day and have him in for surgery the day after. So he flew back to Colorado.

They did blood tests to prepare for his doctor visit and possible surgery. A simple CBC, which they didn't bother to do in the ER, found that he had an astronomical white blood cell count (180,000). They told him he had leukemia, and immediately admitted him to the hospital he was at (the shiny new Children's Hospital even though he is 24).

I had just taken 6 days off to fly to Colorado for Thanksgiving, and was due to start a diet study at work (have to attend to the mice in question at least every day, weigh them twice a week, stress about getting main job duties done in the meantime). Since he was in Colorado at the time of diagnosis, he will be there for the first 30 days of chemo. I want to be there for all of those days. :/

At work they were pretty understanding, and I was able to fly to visit him this past weekend. At the Children's Hospital all family members get these semi-permanent visitor IDs. However, I am just "the girlfriend." Girlfriends of seven years do not get shiny visitor IDs. They also frequently get told doctors and nurses that they are "the girlfriend." This bothered me a little after a day or two of it, but hey!Boyfriend has cancer, can't be getting depressed over still-just-the-girlfriend status.

He finished out his hospital stay by Saturday, and I got to see him come home. :3

He has ALL, which is the best type of leukemia to have, if you want to call one "best". He is responding really well to chemo, too. The had to put a port in his head because the spinal tap was too painful probably due to my boyfriend's stature (6'2"...when they do them at the children's hospital they fold you into a fetal position). He had a really bad night the first day they did a marrow sample and spinal tap, so hopefully the tap will make it so he won't go through that again.

Since coming home he has been very tired, in a lot of general achyness, and also suffering from steroid-induced-diabetes. I have been teasing him since I think he's being a bit of a puss on not wanting to give himself injections of insulin. XD;;; But hey, dealing with cancer, he can have his mom or dad deal with the shots if he wants. He often has this horrible look on his face, that just looks so sad. When I see that face I usually go and hug him-- that seems to usually help a bit.


In a few hours I have to fly back home. The apartment is empty. Our other roommate is flying back to Colorado a few hours before I'll get home. Still doing the mouse diet study, so going to use that to keep me busy. I want to stay there until he can come back to New York (we don't know when that will be, after the first month of chemo it becomes a weekly thing, and after the cancer enters remission you still receive treatment for up to 3 years). It is good he has his family there to take care of them, but I'd feel better if I could be there giving out my hugs. sad

Hopefully will be taking another trip back New Year's weekend.

*hugs as well*

*hug* Good luck, man.

I got Call of Duty 4 for 360, some socks and undies, a case of water bottles, some nice shirts, a new Black Label Society shirt from my girlfriend, an FDNY hat and my parents cleared out my pull folder. And my friend bought enough cards for us to both start into a game called The Spoils.

The Christmas loot I got:
Digital Nikon SLR
Film Nikon SLR
I am America (And you can too)
The complete Bone collection
Guitar Hero 3 for the Wii
FF12: Reverent Wings for DS
Contra 4 for the DS
various clothes and a sick leather jacket, and shoes.
Oh and 70 dollars worth of gift cards for Best Buy.

Buffy seasons 6 and 7
Angel season 2
Heroes seson 1
Jungle Book


Passed my weapons test last weekend. Still have all my digits. Fighting with weapons is not for the faint of heart. Fortunately it was only bo versus tonfa and switching them out.

Also got my paperwork from Japan. After all the stuff this past year and full on repeated whipping on my a** I have a certificate confirming my rank signed by a member of the Japanese Imperial Family. Yeah, it was all worth it.