Weekly Update 05/16/26 – 05/23/26 (Medical Week, Dog Fight, Hematoma Recovery)

This week’s Weekly Update was dominated by medical appointments, an unexpected dog fight, and continuing problems with my right leg. Despite all of that, work is going well and there were at least a few reassuring medical results along the way.

This has definitely been a medical week, but I managed to get through it.

While I was in Irvine I was walking about four miles a day without pain. I returned to Vancouver on May 6th after a 2.5-hour flight. I did not notice anything immediately, but sometime during the following week, around May 10th–15th, I started noticing pain in my right calf.

At first it felt somewhat like shin splints along the ridge of my leg below the knee. Since I thought it was a shin splint, I decided to take a day off from my usual one-mile morning walk to give the leg a chance to heal, but that same day the pain started getting worse.

I checked with Astra (ChatGPT), and she suggested that it might be a blood clot related to the time on the plane, so I went to urgent care. They noted a yellow bruise on the outside of my calf, ordered an X-ray, and suggested that it was probably not a clot but could be a hematoma. The X-ray did not show anything unusual. I was told to rest, and they scheduled an ultrasound to see what was happening.

Sunday I was sitting on the couch in the dining room with the dogs, five of them, including two unaltered males. Beauregard was sitting next to me and I was listening to a book. Suddenly, without warning, I saw a blond blur streak across the room. The next thing I knew I was in the middle of one of the worst dog fights I have ever seen. Oscar, the blond, was attacking Beauregard and I was caught in the middle of it.

I struggled to get to my feet trying to protect Beauregard when Beau grabbed my left wrist in his mouth. The pain was awful. I tried to get my arm free, but Beau was holding fast while Oscar still had hold of Beau’s foot. Several times Beau let go and then immediately grabbed me again. Finally I dropped Beau to the ground and he let go. Both dogs hit the floor and Oscar released Beau. I acted quickly and kicked Beau one direction while kicking Oscar the other, managing to separate them. I then picked Beau back up and got him into another room and to safety.

Once I had the fight broken up, I looked at my arm thinking I would find a bloody mess in need of many stitches. I was shocked when I saw several perfect imprints of Beau’s teeth in my arm but no broken skin. I expected a magnificent bruise, but that never appeared. It was sore for several days, but all in all I was lucky.

We are now keeping the males in different rooms. Dawn is looking into finding a new home for one of the dogs. Not full rehoming, but a situation where the dog lives somewhere else while still remaining Dawn’s for breeding purposes. She had tried to do this before with another surrogate, but that person effectively stole the dog.

Monday the pain in my leg continued to worsen, especially when getting up after lying down. There seemed to be several components to the pain. There was a burning sensation along the ridge of the leg, along with what felt like muscle pain on the right side of the calf. There was also swelling.

Vancouver Clinic contacted me and scheduled an ultrasound for Tuesday afternoon.

This was also the day of my annual visit with my sleep doctor. I have been on CPAP or BiPAP for at least 20 years. I do not remember exactly when I started. Back then I was in bad shape, having problems staying awake at work or while driving. I went to the doctor and had my first sleep study. I had extremely severe sleep apnea with events happening more than 60 times an hour. I literally was not able to sleep for more than a few seconds at a time. No wonder I was so sleepy.

When I started sleeping with a CPAP machine I immediately noticed a major improvement. My energy went back up, I was much more alert, and I had the energy to get out and walk. Oddly enough, I noticed other problems disappear as well. Back then I had terrible bleeding gums that went away. I also used to have terrible acid reflux, and that disappeared too. It was wonderful, and I still love my BiPAP machine.

The appointment itself was uneventful, just a quick check-in, a prescription for a new mask, and confirmation that next year I get a new machine. I have lost count of how many I have had over the years.

Tuesday

The pain in my leg was still getting worse. I need to make this part clear. I was not in constant pain. The pain depended on what I was doing. If I was lying down and then got up, the pain would occur. If I touched the part of the leg involved it hurt, and I had to be very careful crossing my legs.

That afternoon I had the ultrasound. I was very nervous about the scan. I have had many ultrasounds over the years, but this was the first time I was going to have one on a part of my body that was painful to touch. The tech who did the scan was wonderful. He barely pushed on the leg, and there was very little pain. I was amazed because when I have my annual neck ultrasounds they push much harder on my neck than this guy pushed on my leg.

I was also worried that the problem might be a recurrence of my thyroid cancer. Thyroid cancer can metastasize to the bones.

Of course the tech could not tell me what the exam showed, but a couple of hours later I got the results from MyChart. I have an evolving hematoma. I was surprised it was described as “evolving” since the pain had already been going on for quite a while, but apparently I just need to wait and it should get better. If it is not improving in two weeks I should check back.

Wednesday

I had my annual diabetic eye exam. Everything was fine, but they did find several cataracts. The tech was very interested in my night vision, but I have not noticed any problems with it yet. Well, I am getting old.

Thursday

I had an appointment with my dentist to fit me for a crown. I do not like arguing with anyone, let alone medical people, but this time it could not be avoided.

She told me she was fitting me for a crown on a tooth that had a cavity in it. I told her there should not be a cavity in that tooth because I had already had a root canal done on it. She insisted that the root canal had been on the tooth behind it.

Well yes, I had previously had a root canal on the tooth behind the one we were fitting for a crown, but four weeks ago I also had a root canal on the tooth we were currently working on. Finally she found the records for that root canal and confirmed that yes, I had root canals on both teeth.

From that point things went smoothly. I now have a temporary crown installed and I am being careful not to damage it. In two weeks I will be getting the permanent crown.

Like I said, it was a medical week.

At work, things are going well. I spent time this week working with Astra and Claude cleaning up Jira, the project board.

And the new puppy is feeling better!

 — Odell Sneeden Hathaway III