A New Year…

Here we are already nearing the end of January. Where does the time go? Gary had an appointment with his neuromuscular doctor December 11. Going into that appointment, Gary was dependent on his breathing machine 80% of the time, was in a wheelchair, was seeing double constantly, and had begun choking on food again. Rituximab was not doing the job for him. It was decided to put him in the hospital where they could treat him and run tests to determine if there was something else going on, so he was admitted to the neuromuscular floor at Memorial Hermann downtown. Once admitted they put lines in his neck artery to begin plasmapheresis which would remove harmful antibodies from his plasma. It was a fascinating procedure to watch! One line took the blood from his body to a machine which spun it around thus separating the plasma from the blood. They then replaced the plasma with fluid and returned the fluid with blood back to his body. The whole process took 2-3 hours. We saw a HUGE difference by the 3rd exchange. They also ran tests on his heart and lungs and looked for blood clots in his legs. No blood clots found; however, they did find a few issues with his heart and lungs that we are having investigated. Obviously nothing serious or we wouldn’t have been sent home. 😉

For the first three days after returning home Gary was great. Walking everywhere, not using his daytime breathing machine, he could see clearly, and overall was his old self. This has slowly come to an end as symptoms slowly started creeping back in. He was put back on Vyvgart on January 8th. So far his vision has improved tremendously. All other symptoms seem to be at a standstill where they are…still there but not progressing which we are happy about. 🙂 Those symptoms include: stamina, being able to walk long distance, difficulty breathing, muscle weakness (his legs don’t want to support him for more than 3 minutes before he needs to sit). 

Life continues to be an adventure. I almost dumped him out of his wheelchair face first in front of our granddaughter’s school. (I promise it was an accident…I hit a bump on the ramp 😉 ) Unfortunately this bent one of the axils, so we are now on a mission to figure out how to fix it. His skin is very thin from the prednisone. I had gone on an errand and returned to what looked like a murder scene in my kitchen. He was sitting in his chair with his foot on a paper plate trying to keep the blood from getting on the rug. <3 Apparently that nasty dishwasher wasn’t pleased with how he was loading it and attacked him. He is thinking no more cleaning the kitchen for him. (Was this a plan on his part? 😉 ) I on the other hand have assured him the dishwasher knows better now after I chastised it, and he can indeed continue to help clean the kitchen.

Gary continues to amaze me daily with his positive/can-do attitude. No doubt it is his strong faith. As Gary says daily…

I AM BLESSED