Cue Pomp and Circumstance

Well friends, today marked the official final day of stage 1 of rebooting my hard drive. Bring out the cap and gown! Swing over the tassel! My dad is so excited that he already started packing his bags...for his departure on Friday.

I started the day with my very last two diagnostic tests- a CT scan of my sinuses and some more allergy testing. I don't have my follow-up appointment with the allergist until February 17th, so I won't get the official results until then. However, my internist is fabulous and she gave me a sneak peak that my sinuses have not, in fact, migrated. Whew. I have oodles of scar tissue up there, but don't need a GPS to track everything down. The allergy testing today was done via my fabulous PICC line, as blood allergy testing can be a little bit more specific than the skin testing. I won't get those results until next week as well. On a very exciting note, I got to take an antihistamine today for the first time in 3 weeks...who knew being able to breathe felt so good?

This afternoon I met with my internist again and before I left, I scheduled a follow-up visit! Ya know, the kind of visit that involves going home, living life as a celebrity and THEN coming back to report in. She is totally going to miss seeing me every single week, wearing the exact same thing every time. In fact, maybe my first celebrity photo in People magazine should be taken in my "I only packed for one week" uniform.

I thought I was on short term disability, but turns out I'm attracted to teaching like a moth to a flame. Today I was told, "ya know, I've really learned a lot from your case!" So more importantly, does this mean I can get an honorary medical degree now?

At this point, all of my care is shifted over to the rehabilitation center and I will begin treatment there on Thursday. My doctor will be consulted on all decisions, but I won't actually see her. She wrote the prescriptions for the first "cocktail" of drugs that I will need to try in order to sedate my hypersensitive nerves. Luckily I have a blissful 48 hours before I need to start them....fingers crossed I don't grow a third eye or sprout green hair. I finally received the report from my minimal erythema dose sunlight testing and I am, in fact, hypersensitive to ultraviolet A light. Whether this hypersensitivity will fade as the rest of my body heals, is uncertain. Until then, look for the babe in zinc oxide with a frontal tail sticking out of her swimsuit. Hot dang, my husband is a lucky man.

So there you have it, my friends. The end of chapter 1. Out of 21 floors in the Gonda and Mayo buildings, I have yet to go to 4...if only there was some sort of punch card to get a free appointment...