Mid week report

   Make note that the title is not in caps, just the first word as my Granmother English teacher dictated, as this is not a board meeting and I don't even know what a Power Point is anyway. I've seen some graphs and pie charts on something and those are pretty cool, but I'm not sure if even one of the Dummies books would cover Pie Charting Your Blog By Interests. Now see that would be worth capitalizing. OK, enough intro, on with the show.... er.... report .

   Mon night

   Earlier today we put both medicine and a can of formula in the PEG tube. It doesn't taste all that good and I was pretty sure the PA had said or intimated that I might want to down that without slowing to taste it. Hmmmm. Yeah, I remember some stuff called Creomulsion. It tasted like someone had cut a chunk of wood out of either a fresh cross tie or telephone pole. Then it had been boiled and the remaining gravy was put in a bottle and called cough medicine. Of course if you were a kid you learned if they ever pulled out that vile elixir you better want to quit coughing. Later on in life while I was in the Army they decided to change the flavor of Robitussin to a nasty orange syrup because they found out it could be abused. This stuff was called Terpin Hydrate and evidently it was so good at stopping your cough that they discontinued it's production. Again I digress. So we put the formula etc. down the direct line and I hung around a bit to give it time to settle and finally went up to the office to post.

Tomorrow I have to be there early for chemo but at a reduced dosage. And yes I'm losing hair. Not at a really fast rate but it's noticeable and it's coming from everywhere. Arms, legs, head. Thankfully I'm not a really hairy guy, but I do enjoy my full head of hair. Evidently not for long though. It's enough that I put a strainer in the shower to catch all the runaways. And everyday my brush shows me more of what I used to have. Gee, I just can't wait to go through another round of this.

I've quit putting sugar in my coffee since I can no longer taste it. About the only thing with sugar in it that I can taste is ice cream. However sugar no longer tells my stomach I don't need anything either. I can finish a bowl of ice cream and 10 minutes later I'm ready for another one. Pepper on the other hand I can still taste and I find myself dosing things up with it that I probably never would have thought of before. So the thing you do is blackeyed peas and boiled okra with a small can of chiles and maybe a can of Rotel. Add black pepper to taste. The theme is Tex-Mex Jumbalaya. After you get through and your throat is sufficiently warmed you bring in the cool down portion of the meal is molten fudge covered in deep chocolate ice cream which is covered in butterscotch or caramel sauce with either some irish crème whiskey or crème de menthe liqueur. Start in the middle and eat your way out. It really does work best. I've tried it all ways. Believe me, after they pulled my teeth, I've been a bit more nice to myself that way. Can't hurt my teeth and the nutritionist said to put the calories on any way I can. Win,Win. Dreams like this get me through the days because I know that I really don't have to wait anymore than a week for just about anything I might think of. And Teresa has put up with everything within reason that I have asked for.

A quick word about needles. It seems that there are two types of IV sticks. Those that go in so easy that you're not really sure if it's in there or not until you see them hook up the line. Then there is the type that feels like they are shoving a rusty nail in your arm. Those are the ones that you pray that they got it in right. I'm slowly learning sites on my arm that are easy to hit and not as painful. And then there are the sites that everybody else wants to use. Now when I go to lab it's a total crap shoot as to whether it's going to be easy or not. I have learned that I can ask for certain persons to do the sticking. Again a total crap shoot as to whether I get them or not. Usually though the draws are easier than the IVs.

   Chemo started if not with a bang then surely a whimper. After the needle went in (oouucchhh) they started with a liter of saline. Then when they added some anti nausea medicine that I had a reaction with in about 2 minutes. After several shouts of “Hey” someone came over to see what was wrong. I was feeling quite dizzy and about ready to hurl. They got me a bucket, a cool wet washcloth, and immediately stopped the meds. One nurse offered the observation that my face was quite red. After about 20 minutes I had recovered enough to be able to walk over to radiation. Thankfully Teresa was there to walk with me because I was still a little shaky and I wanted someone I knew to be with me if I stumbled. The next trick was to get my shirt over the IV line to be able to lay down and get into position for treatment. After that it was back to chemo to finish that off. I was back by 10:00 and finally out by 1:30. They finally allowed me to keep the infusion line in place for the night since I am supposed to get more saline for the next two days to help wash out the chemo. ?????????? Uuummm, Why not just less of the poison and so less need to wash it out.

Back at camp and kicking back. Slept through a lot of chemo. I have learned that I should always get a pillow if I'm getting any kind of infusion and if I'm going to be longer than 1 bag ( 1 liter ) I should always get a blanket. I can check in with chemo and when they take my vitals my temperature is normally between 97.4 and 98.4. I would swear that after about an hour and a half, about as long as a bag takes, my body temperature will have dropped by 4-5 degrees. It's just about then that a shudder will hit and I have to ask for a blanket. More of that personal thermostat craziness. I've eaten as well as I could this afternoon and the most strenuous thing I have done today is to open up an outside chair to sit in the sun. For the next week I'll be taking it easy while taking my nausea meds, post chemo meds, pain meds, and still trying to keep my caloric intake up. Now I've gotten to realize that my best shot at being able to consume more calories is to follow the chocolate covered road to sugar and carbs. Cake, fudge, cheesecake, ice cream and all kinds of sauces, butterscotch, chocolate, caramel, and so forth.

   Wed morn

   Not a terrible night for the first night after chemo but I wound up getting up early due to hiccups. Not bad ones but enough to make sleep close to impossible. You're never really sure if it's a hiccup or getting ready to hurl. So it's up early and a nap later while they put in a liter of saline.

    Aft.

   Well a nap was not to be. Chemo was busy to the point of almost needing an appointment for a chair. There are only about a dozen chairs and barely enough room to get the chairs and all of the infusion pumps etc. and still have enough room to walk. Each chair is a recliner and has it's own TV assigned to it. They are really understaffed and in an undersized area. But they do an amazing job for what (and who) they have to work with. They have to keep up with every patient and their individual treatments and although they have a desk they are rarely able to sit down much longer than it takes to log the patient info into the computer. The average number of nurses there is 3 although it can still function with only 2, but just barely. By the time they log info an alarm (or several) has gone off and they have to go see who or what needs attention.

Time to see if I can get my wifi cloud skyhook out and see if we can still communicate.

And Judy, your subject may bring out the long repressed preacher in me so I'm gonna hafta be keerful or I might scare the hell out of some of my truckin' friends. Not to worry though, maybe with a pinch of humor we might be able to do it without too many heart attacks on the way. The older I get the fewer old friends and acquaintances I have. So I suppose I need to protect the ones I have