Has it really been that long since I wrote a post?
Yep. Cause life happens and you sell your house in a day and then sell off a lot of your furniture and stuff and then have to find and move into a temporary apartment which means renting a storage unit and then getting a second one at 8pm on a Saturday night before the new owners take possession the next week and your husband retires a month earlier than originally planned and before you know it it’s Thanksgiving.
So yes, life has been crazy.
We are currently living in a lovely 3 bedroom apartment that Parker will be staying in when we leave KC. He has 2 roommates ready to move in once we are gone! It’s not been bad at all. Apartments today are not at all like what I lived in years ago; attached garage, nice washer and dryer in unit, granite countertops and walk-in closets. A far stretch from my former home at Tanglewood.
It looks like we are leaving KC mid January and headed to St Louis. We are taking a trip down the week before our move to take some stuff and drop off Brian’s car. That way we only have to make one trip back with my van and a U-Haul when we move for good. Brian and Ethan and I found a great apartment in O’Fallon where we will be living-close to his Mom and not far from his brother. Again-so not like my former apartment living.....when they say luxury apartments, they mean it. Well, some do-we looked at some not-so-luxury luxury apartments too.
We are both excited for a change. Not that we don’t LOVE Kansas City, but the adventurous side of us is ready. And Brian’s job in STL has been put on hold temporarily due to Covid, so we may even do a little traveling once we get settled in.
I vote for warm and sunny!!
Since my Covid infection, I’ve been doing well for the most part. I still have a cough I fight with and some fatigue if I do too much. But the one thing that was completely unexpected and sucks is the post-Covid phenomenon of hair loss.
Yes, I said hair loss.
It’s true-look it up.
In the last 8 weeks I began to notice a change in my hair texture and started finding hair on my pillow.
Now, if you know me well, you know I have thick hair, and a lot of it. And I don’t shed hair like some people do. I actually lose a handful every time I shower and more when blow drying or brushing my hair.
Nope-if that were the case it would have happened before now. I’ve been on these meds for 11 months.
It’s due to my Covid bout. And it may all fall out, it may not. There’s just so much we don’t know about Covid and won’t know for years to come. But this hair loss is definitely one effect. I’m so tempted to just shave it all off and see what happens....not like I haven’t done it before. I guess I might wait until it’s warmer. But I’ve been bald in the winter months and do have some cute hats.....
I recently visited my Lymphedema nurse for my yearly follow up and to talk about how my lymph PT is going. My arm is ok. Just that-not great, not awful-just chronic lymphedema at this point. And I began noticing an area in my palm that could be a sign of fibrosis along with experiencing some hand numbness and tingling. Like I said, it’s not too bad right now, but we don’t want it to get worse, because it can reach a point where there’s nothing we can do about it. So she got me scheduled to see a plastic surgeon to see if I’m a candidate to have a lymphovenous bypass done on my right arm. I see Dr Butterworth with KU in January, and if I am a candidate I plan to have it done.
It won’t make anything any worse if it doesn’t work, so what do I have to lose? Basically he will find the small lymph vessels in my arm that are blocked and re-route them to dump directly into my venous system instead of having to fight to go all the way up to the remaining lymph nodes I have in my clavicle area to be filtered out. It sounds like a major surgery-and for the surgeon it’s a lot of microscopic, fine detail work-but for the patient, apparently it’s not too bad and not a hard recovery.
I mean, if it’s not one thing, it’s another right?
Kind of like my recent hospital stay due to cellulitis in my lymphedema arm from a tiny cut on my finger.
From cutting open my wine delivery....
Argh!!!
That is the kind of thing that starts to happen that would classify a lymphovenous bypass as medically necessary for sure.
My arm was fine-and then it wasn’t.
Hot, red and swollen and I knew exactly what it was. After 24 hours of IV antibiotic I already started to feel better. By day 3 I was ready to go home and finish out my antibiotic course with oral meds at home.
It pays to still have friends in Healthcare that help you get in and seen quickly and by one of your favorite ER Docs.
Heather Murphy-you’ll be jealous to know I got to see DG and he took great care of me! All the staff at NKCH was fabulous-it’s just such a weird time for medicine and my heart hurts for all my friends dealing with this pandemic right now.
Many of you may know that I lost an Aunt recently to Covid. She had finished her treatment for Breast Cancer and was doing everything so carefully to avoid being infected. But it wasn’t enough. After 3+ weeks of being unresponsive and on an ventilator in the ICU, she passed away. It was so hard to see the pain my Mom and other Aunts and Uncles went through not being able to see her, not talk to her, not hold her hand when she passed and to not be able to celebrate her life with a funeral. She was laid to rest with the same people present the day she married her husband. And I know she was welcomed to heaven by her Mom and Dad and Grandma. My Aunt Linda was an amazing person and so supportive of all of her nieces and nephews. Called me her ‘Hero Warrior Niece’ and checking in on us often. And she had the greatest laugh. I’ll miss hearing it forever. If you look back on my Facebook posts-you’ll see a fun story I shared about her and I when I was younger.
It’s just so unfair.
And I don’t have the energy anymore to argue with people about Covid and masks and rights and all that other bullshit. Figure it out yourself. I just hope you never have to let a loved one die alone because of it. Because it sucks.
I long for our pre-Covid existence just like everyone else-I’m just not sure post-Covid is ever going to look like that again.
Sorry it has been so long between blog posts-I’ll update sooner I promise!
Ethan has an overnight sleep study this weekend, Hailey is coming home for the Holidays and I still have shopping to do-so I gotta get back at it!
Have a very Merry and Safe Christmas!
Love, hugs and prayers,
K
