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I’m a little overdue with my blog. It’s almost one year with no cancer treatment whatsoever, for the most part I’m feeling pretty good; however, I have experienced a few unusual things. In mid-August I had my urologist clean out the tumors from my bladder. This “routine procedure” is typically done on an outpatient basis. This time things took a different turn.

Around a week prior to the procedure I got pre-admitted for the outpatient surgery. This includes verifying insurance coverage and a checkup to be sure I am ready for the operation. This went pretty smoothly and then Barbie and I stopped by our favorite casino dining establishment for some grilled walleye and a little gaming fun. About half-way thru our meal a nurse with my urologist called and asked me to immediately go back to the emergency room. I told her I was just finishing lunch and then I would go to the ER, she told me my doctor wanted me to get to the hospital ASAP, Not being one to waste a great walleye dinner, I finished the meal.

When I got to the ER they immediately admitted me to the hospital, when I asked why I was told my hemoglobin was at 5. They couldn’t believe I was still standing! (Hint most of us have around a 14 hemoglobin} This is when the real fun started with 7 blood tranfusions just to bring my rate to a 7, the minimum level for my bladder surgery.

After the transfusions and several bags of iron infusions I got to tell you I felt great! Super energy level, but it took the whole week to bring myself from a 5 to 7. I did ask how I could get more O+ blood, as I was willing to pay out of pocket for the transfusions. They told me that isn’t how it worked and I needed doctors orders for a transfusion. In this case money didn’t talk.

As I watched bag after bag of blood being transfused a song popped on my iPhone, the Techno Opener from the Wesley Snipes vampire movie Blade. If you saw this flick you might recall a scene in a warehouse turned dance club. It was packed with people and at a certain point you noticed all entrances were locked. Then in the middle of a wild dance scene the building sprinklers started to shoot blood everywhere and, at that point the vampires started their savage festivities. During this 10 minute tune I was transfixed, each new transfusion pumped life back into my body.

Don’t get me wrong here, I don’t believe in vampires; however, the song by Crystal Method was a central theme of the movie and I played it for at least 1/2 hour before turning it off. Changing modes I switched to a little Warren Zevon, and his ode to his fatal illness, the album title is Life’ll Kill Ya and a song titled, “My S**t’s F****d Up. Compiling a playlist of similar to this provides a type of therapy.

My next, not so brilliant move, was to go on my first cruise and I traveled from Copenhagen to Estonia, St. Petersburg and then Stockholm…….to be continued..