Just another day.....

Sat. nite

Another thing that has been messing with me lately is my energy level. I can go for quite a while, but at a greatly reduced rate. Or I can go like heck for 10 minutes and almost fall over getting inside to sit down. The problem is I never know how long I may last so I don't know which project I might want to attempt. I've always been a procrastinator and this certainly isn't helping. I try very hard not to make excuses for myself and not to let myself take too much of the slack everyone seems to want to give. Not that I don't appreciate it because some of the slack I do need.

On another note we're watching recorded TV tonight. We got into the habit of recording shows a long time ago since we were on the road an average 5 1/2 days of the week and it left little time to watch when the shows were actually on. Of course now that we could actually watch a show when it was on, they're all reruns. At camp we have whatever comes in over the air.

Back at camp now. Today about wore me out. Why? I don't know. I only know that after I got a shower my energy level was at an all time low and has been all day long.

Mon. morn.

Got to the hospital about 8:30 or so and went up to the clinic where they install the PICC lines. That took a lot longer than I had thought. It was a relatively painless procedure, the only real pain being when she injected the Lidocaine to numb the area. After they finished I had to go get an X-ray to make sure it was in the right area. And as it was she had to pull it out 3 cm. With someone as tall as I am she said it's hard to be exacting as to placement. But after it was all over they flushed the line and drew labs. And I must say it was much easier. They just plug in and they're done.

But today was not all good news. I had noticed today a couple of places on my arm that were red and swollen and tender to the touch. I mentioned it to several people and when I told the PA she sent me up to ultrasound to have it looked at. After they squirted warm KY all over my right arm the tech started probing me with the thing and poking and prodding till I was about to wonder what she was looking for. As it happened she found what the PA didn't really want her to find. DVT, or Deep Vein Thrombosis. It is a small blood clot that forms in some cancer patients. The treatment is daily injections of Heparin that I have to give to myself. Oh joy, joy, joy. It's not bad enough that I'm going through this, but now I have to shoot myself every day. And oh yeah, I have to give myself these shots in the stomach. This will go on for up to 6 months.

And when I weighed myself today I had lost 3 more lbs. for an all time low of 203. I haven't weighed that in 20 years or so.

Tomorrow will be a much easier day. It's what I call a regular day, because Teresa drops me off, I get my treatment and head back out. Usually 20-25 minutes.

Tue. morn.

Another morning of waking up feeling like I'm blowing dust out when I breathe out. My throat is unbelievably dry. The PICC line went in my left arm yesterday and as the day progressed it was hurting a bit. For a while I was afraid it was going to hurt all of the time, but it finally settled down and today it's not too bad. I'm hoping that in another day or so I won't even know it's there. The DVT had me worried a bit after the PA explained it all, but later she assures me it will all be fine. Evidently we caught it all in time. Credit goes to Teresa though because I would have let it go for several days before I said anything. Not because I'm such a super human being but more because the older I get the more I seem to have things like this pop up and then go away a few days later.

Well gonna put it up fer y'all. See ya on the cloud.