Author’s note: This is a recollection of my events from a year ago. There is no need to panic.
It is my birthday and I am getting out of the hospital today! I hope I never have to stay in a hospital again. It’s wishful thinking… I am bound and determined to be hospitalized again at some point. I get my discharge orders and have to stop at the pharmacy for the mountain of medication I will be taking.
The first thing I do when I get home is take that long shower that I have been missing. I scrub myself down twice. While in the hospital taking a shower was an arduous task given that I was wired with monitors with IVs feeding into me. But now I feel great! Work-wise I hit the ground running. I have a ton of e-mails that I need to catch up on and I am schedule to talk about one of my publishers on our blog radio show.
There is nothing really planned for my birthday. I think everyone wasn’t really sure what to plan. There was a chance that I could be spending my birthday in the hospital. Regardless, Kelly and Amanda have asked to go to the movies with me. It is a low key evening with a couple of friends. I choose a safe comedy – Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates. Halfway through the film I leave to go to the restroom. I have to take one of the blood thinner shots which is administered through a disposable needle. I am in the theater bathroom and I have successfully administered the shot but now I don’t know what to do with the needle. Do I just throw it away? What if it sticks someone? I finally wrap it up in some paper towels and discard it in the bin. I rejoin Kelly and Amanda in the theater.
What I don’t know is that I will spend the next five days killing myself with these shots.