Two faves converged on November 10th this year. The Oatmeal, that marvelous online comic by Matthew Inman, and Star Trek came together in a poignant story of a moment in Gene Rodenberry’s life.
Growing up, Star Trek was one of the shows that brought our family together in front of the TV. Not for my brother and I the Lawrence Welk show… nope. We watched the future…. Going boldly where no man had gone before. That it ended up in syndicated reruns very quickly didn’t negate the attraction to the show. We continued to watch, exclaiming “Aw! This is a GOOD ONE!” virtually every time.
Rich and I continued that tradition as we dated, being attendees at the first New York City ST convention. We went to Nassau Coliseum to see Gene Rodenberry speak and to see the infamous blooper reel as well as the first pre-Shatner pilot episode on a big screen. Our son Richard was a very convincing Spock one Halloween. Yeah, we’re fans.
This particular day the online comic caught my eye, not only because it looked like a major departure from the artist’s norm, but also because of the Star Trek connection as it described Roddenberry’s actions as a crew member during a commercial plane crash in the Syrian desert. He calmed passengers and rescued them from the burning plane. But it was the last panel that truly resonated. The one that sums it all up:
“This story is not intended as an ode to Roddenberry, although he certainly deserves one. Prior to working in television, he was a decorated WWII pilot, a plane-crash investigator, and an LA cop. He survived three plane crashes. This story is intended to remind you that our journeys are short. Roddenberry saw life’s ephemeral nature lit up against a backdrop of stars. He saw that we are all passengers pitching downward into the night. He saw that we are all helpless. So get up, and help someone.”
From that moment, Roddenberry changed the direction of his life and turned to writing and television; creating Star Trek… a show that in many ways became a moral compass for so many of us.
Sometimes, when you get up and help someone, that someone is also yourself.
We’ve been trying to change our direction as well… trying to get out of that patient mode. To do so, we continue our baby steps concept and it seems to be working. Right now, our going boldly is tentative. After our night in the city, our next big event was travelling to Atlanta to celebrate our cousin’s wedding. We were so excited to celebrate the union of this wonderful couple and at the prospect of seeing family that we had not seen in close to a decade… from literally all over the world. We had four weeks to prepare.
Our usual pre-travel precautions were put into place: car service, airport wheelchair, an ion treatment for our hotel room to ensure allergens are removed. We also had to get Rich fitted for a rented suit to deal with the prednisone weight.
Before we traveled, we visited the cardiologist to check on Rich’s swollen legs and make sure that they would not be an issue for flying. A sonogram revealed no clots… we’re approved for travel. Compression socks are recommended during the flight. In an odd twist of medical multi-use, Rich is given a prescription for Spironolactone to help with the edema. The monograph from the doctor lists one of its uses as a birth control pill. The internet explains that it’s used to treat precocious puberty. Puberty??? He’s barely past being one year old!!! Manboobs are a possibility?
We decide to test drive the socks. At first we think we have the wrong size… no way is that little tube gonna fit those cankles! The doctor told Rich the swelling is to well above his knees. But some more internet research and some careful cankle measurements and indeed these are the right size. Thankfully, there are internet instructions on how to get these buggers on. Success!!!
Our travel weekend continues our baby steps approach. We arrive in Atlanta the night before the wedding. The next day, we meet up with our family for lunch and afterwards Rich opts to go back to the hotel to rest instead of sight-seeing with the rest of us. Later we get ready for the night’s events in a leisurely manner and we consider it a success that Rich is able to stay for a few hours at the venue before he heads back to the hotel.
Rather than pushing, he spends all day Saturday alternately resting and sleeping before meeting up with the rest of us for dinner at the hotel. Sunday we meet up with family one more time. Then it’s back to the airport for what turned out to be a marathon wait through a number of cancelled flights. As the hours wore on, Rich was fading fast. We finally reached the end of the possibility of flights home for the day with none actually going to our destination and we had to rebook; refusing any early morning flights or anything other than non-stop. Rich’s comfort and recuperation needed to be taken into consideration.
At the hotel the airline housed us in overnight, the staff was nothing if not gracious and accommodating. We were granted an extended check out time so that we didn’t have to sit in the airport any longer than necessary. We were put on a concierge floor which included an amazing breakfast buffet in a cozy lounge. After the stress of the cancelled flights the day before, this was a welcome respite. They even provided wheelchairs for the return to the airport, making our return home ultimately rather unremarkable.
Thankfully, Rich’s birth control pills were effective in bringing his edema down… still there, but improved. His lack of menstruation doesn’t seem to bother him.
We meet with our stem cell and pulmo gurus. We are granted a great gift… we can stop the prednisone. We’d been at a mere 1mg per day along with two twice daily nebulizer treatments. We can eliminate all steroid meds but one nebulizer and that we only need for another two weeks. Our wheezing watch begins. Within a couple of days, we hear a whisper of wheeze. We keep the duoneb for a day or two before going back on the plan to stop. This is not the time of year to be careless.
Getting off the prednisone is a big leap… we hesitate to jinx ourselves by celebrating it too soon. We’ve tried and been unsuccessful before… ending up with infections or asthma attacks that have hospitalized Rich. But as we look back, we see a pattern that gives us hope. Pneumonia has been on the back burner for months. Each hospitalization has been milder than the previous. We knock wood and cross our fingers. The Greeks are all spitting at the devil. There is no evil eye too remote to help us ward off repercussions of celebrations.
We have been told that it takes two weeks for the effects of being off the prednisone to show and in the past that has held true. We tentatively celebrate.
We continue to review the current list of medications and look to see what we can eliminate. There are some medications that are necessary to continue, either for heart health after the assault by the chemo or for immunology protection. Those are not ours to change. The immunology meds are to remain until Rich’s childhood vaccinations are re-administered. The prednisone has to be clear of his body before they can begin… hence our tentative celebrations on its demise from our box o’ Rx. Our next attempt at stretching our boundaries will be to wean off the Neurontin to see what the status is of the peripheral neuropathy without it.
It’s important that we try to get off of medications as quickly as possible to clean Rich’s system of these chemicals that do so much good but have the ability to do so much harm. It’s a fine line to traverse and we hope to get as close to med free as possible. But it’s clear very quickly that Neurontin is here for a while more. Within a day the neuropathy is making his feet jump at night from pain. Thankfully, the medication’s return has results just as swift.
We unfortunately have the need to start up some other meds this past week. As if to celebrate an anniversary of health status, the runs are back almost a year to the day. Immodium and then the prescription Lomatil are back on board to stem the tide. We need to contact the doctor to get tested for that dreaded c-diff again and refill the Lomatil. With luck, we won’t need to visit the opium den again but if we do, it’s good to know that this option exists.
We research and find this poopathon can be a side effect of the prednisone withdrawal. Rich’s been on this steroid almost continually for eighteen months and at times on extreme dosages… there is just so much built up in his system and the very slow tapering can’t totally compensate for this. We look at this latest development as evidence that the prednisone is on its way out. And with it begins to go the bloat… the ninety-five pounds of water weight that would just not go away over the last year is slowly, very slowly, beginning to resolve. While the process itself is not what we would prefer, if this is the way we get past the steroids, then so be it.
When this newest development comes to an end, it will truly be time to find a new direction.
To reach for the stars.
To Live Long and Prosper.
Use What Exists 