The Final Week of Methotrexate

Today Michael and I are back in the hospital for the final week of Methotrexate (for this course). This last week has brought some significant changes for our family. School began last Monday for our younger three kids. It always takes a week or two for us to adjust to the morning schedule for the school year. But this year things seem to be going pretty smoothly.

My middle two children are both in sports this year and have their respective practices after school. This means that several days a week, Sarah and the kids don’t get home from school until after 6:00 PM. It is often my job to have dinner ready to go when they walk in the door. However, things will be a little more hectic this week, especially for Sarah as she shoulders the responsibilities of trying to take care of three busy kids by herself. Unfortunately, I will miss both of my kid’s first games of the season this week.

The start of the school year was also a big change for Michael. He’s grown accustomed to the house being full of people during the summer months. His schooling does not start until this week, so this past week was pretty boring for him, so boring that he volunteered to help his grandparents take care of my niece for a few days this week. We hope to have him working on his online schoolwork soon.

Another significant change for me personally is that last week was my first week in a number of months operating without a church secretary. Our church secretary’s first week on the job was the week that Michael was diagnosed with leukemia. When I hired her, I had no idea how much I would come to lean on her in the coming months. She proved to be an absolute Godsend. However, when I hired her, I knew she would only be filling the position temporarily. This last week, she headed back to nursing school, and I attempted to do the roles of both pastor and secretary. It has been once again confirmed in my mind that I am most definitely not a good secretary.

The weekend was a whirlwind filled with a wide variety of activities and projects. This year we lost a month of the summer to being in the hospital which means I am way behind on several projects. I spent the weekend attempting to catch up. I knew I overdid it on Saturday when I woke up Sunday morning with an aching back. I have been dealing with back and neck pain for around 20 years, so this was nothing new. I took some ibuprofen and tackled the day head on.

For the last few years our church has set off fireworks on the Sunday evening of Labor Day weekend, and we did so again this year. Last year, I started something new: Pastor’s Pizza Party and combined it with the fireworks at church. I have been experimenting with making my own pizza for 4 or 5 years now. At one point I made my own pizza dough from scratch, but I have had better results with store bought dough. I do make my own sauce though, and Sunday evening I served up 8 homemade pizzas to the people who came for the fireworks. My back was still not happy with me, but we had a great time of food, fellowship, and fireworks together. All in all, it was a great evening. I had planned on getting up early on Monday to tackle the day but was feeling pretty run down by Sunday evening. Sarah and I decided to sleep in on Labor Day.

There was a time in my life when sleeping in meant I didn’t get out of bed until 10:00 AM. Those days are long gone. My children all seem to be morning people and are used to being up by 6:00 AM during the week. What that means practically for Sarah and I is that sleeping in means we get up around 8:00 AM.

My back was still bothering me on Monday morning, but that isn’t necessarily unusual. And if I slowed down every time I was in back pain, I wouldn’t be able to function or accomplish anything. I began another project in the backyard and worked until early afternoon. We had promised the kids that we would take the boat for ice cream again that afternoon, and I decided to slip in a quick nap in before we left.

When I got up from my nap, I knew I was in trouble. At some point either during the nap or shortly after I got up my sacrum (the triangular bone at the base of the spine) slipped out of place and pinched my sciatic nerve. Consequently, intense pain shot down the back of my leg all the way to my heel, and I struggled to walk. Most normal people would have probably laid low for the rest of the day. But I am not a normal person. We had promised the kids a boat ride and ice cream, and that’s what we were going to do. The pain was not bad when I was seated, and my reasoning went that I would be seated for most of the time that we were on the boat, so there was no reason to cancel.

We are relatively new to getting a boat in and out of the water, and I learn something new just about every time we do so. On Monday afternoon, I learned that it is very important to flip up the metal latch the holds the motor in the fully trimmed position before you put the boat in the water. When I started the motor and we pushed off from the dock, I quickly realized that I could not lower the prop into the water. The river’s current was also pushing us away from the dock and toward the seawall and some large rocks. The metal latch holding the motor up, must be manually released, and cannot be done from inside the boat (to my knowledge). The only solution that I could quickly come up with was to do something I swore I would never do: go swimming in the Saginaw River. After a quick dip in the river, the latch was released, the boat was started, the motor was lowered, the rocks were avoided, and we were off. The rest of the trip was relatively uneventful accept that the river traffic was as crazy as I’ve ever seen it. The ice cream was delicious, and a good time was had by all.

While we were getting the boat out of the water, my lower back slowly but steadily got worse, to the point where I was walking with a significant limp. When we got home Sarah and I debated what we should do. There was no way I could take Michael to the hospital the following day in my condition. It would also be extremely challenging for me to take care of the three other kids if Sarah took Michael to the hospital. I tried a few methods to get my muscles to release, but nothing worked. Finally, in desperation, I called my chiropractor expecting to leave a message on his voicemail. (I am one of the few high-maintenance patients of his who has his cell phone number). To my surprise, he answered the phone. He very graciously offered to adjust me at his home. Forty-five minutes later, I rang his doorbell, and he attempted to adjust me. At this point my lower back and sacrum area were so tight that I did not adjust that well. But there was a notable improvement in the pain. I went home and spent the rest of the evening icing my low back.

I woke up this morning feeling significantly better, but as the day has gone on, the sciatic pain has come back. It will take a couple of weeks and multiple chiropractic adjustments before the issue settles down completely. In the meantime, Michael and I are at Mott for the fourth and final round of Methotrexate in this course. As I right this, we have already had Michael’s blood drawn and have met with the nurse practitioner. We are sitting in the hospital lobby waiting for a room to open up on the 7th floor. Once Michael is admitted, He will be put on chemo for 24 hours. He will sleep pretty much all day tomorrow and will likely start perking up Thursday afternoon. Once again, the chemo will have to be flushed out of his system before we can go home. Based on Michael’s recent history with this process, it is likely that we will go home sometime on Saturday. After that, Michael gets a few weeks off before he starts the next course. We are looking forward to the break.