Scattered Thoughts . . .

I 'm feeling slightly better after a few more doses of antibiotic but my post-tick-bite fever is still lingering.  I still have a long way to go with the antibiotic so I'm still very early in the treatment which means I probably shouldn't be surprised by the lingering fever.  It is only a low grade fever but I am also taking NSAIDs which should be lowering the fever yet I still do have one so, without the NSAIDs, I can't help but wonder how high would my fever be?   I'm a bit more fatigued than what is "normal", I think.  It is difficult to discern what might be due to my primary illness (Systemic Mastocytosis) or due to this tick bite.  I am inexplicably exhausted though.  Hmmm...  maybe I should take some extra medications for my primary illness just in case this is related to that.  (EDIT:  I just did take extra medications.) Sheila and I did some grocery shopping this evening and I felt rather crappy through that relatively short out...

A s I mentioned in a previous blog entry, I had another appointment with my oncologist the other day.  This morning we took a trip up to the hospital to run some tests. The other day, my oncologist and I discussed my current health, obviously, as well as some new treatments that have very recently been FDA approved for my rare illness.  These are the first two approved treatments specifically for my rare illness.  I spent some time over the past two days researching these treatments and discussing them with Sheila. First, let me start by saying that I'm fairly confident that my health is not  at a point where I think either of these drugs should be necessary.  My oncologist is simply trying to help improve my daily life.  She also wants to ensure that we aren't putting my health on the back burner instead of quickly jumping on treating something that is treatable but could quickly become life-threatening if left untreated.   One of the newly appro...

Our little lab... We had Kenzie visiting us for most of the day yesterday which was a nice surprise for Gee and me.  We started off with some tasty French Toast with bacon and sausage.  Then Kenzie played with her dolls with Gee for a little while.  As they played, I set up an area on my desk for a hands-on lesson in micrology.   I have always felt that this stuff would interest Kenzie so even I was a bit excited to have a short session with her to see how she would react.  If it didn't interest her, we'd just move on to something else. If it did interest her, then she could get excited about something new! We talked about what a microscope does... she learned that we can study the cells that make up each thing we view... she learned that healthy cells, generally speaking, are very similar... then we viewed all sorts of prepared slides to compare the cells. While Kenzie was viewing the slides through the binocular lenses on the microscope, I looked...