The countdown begins

Wed. morn,

Today I get my treatment and then head back up to day surgery to get the dressing changed on my PICC line. They had told me to get it changed today and then once a week after that. They take care of the dressing and check the wound care. ( Later ) The same RN that put in the the PICC changed the dressing and I was just a little concerned when she pulled off the dressing an it was covered in old blood. I had told her that I now had to give myself heparin injections and she said that would account for the blood in the dressing. It really wasn't a lot, but enough that I'm glad we changed it. The last couple of days the PICC hasn't bothered me and she said it really shouldn't. The first day it ached a bit but after that it settled down.

Thur.

Quite cool this morning in the trailer as we didn't think we were going to need the heat this morn. I've given up trying to taste anything, but the coffee in the morning helps to strip away the nights paste that some rotten fairy has deposited in my mouth. It really feels like a cross between several things. It starts with when I breathe out feeling like an acid fog or a dry dust being blown out with every breath. After coffee it's much better.

One thing I never reckoned on nor even thought was possible is that I can smell something like chicken soup, and it smells really good, but never be able to taste it. How is that even possible ???

Another thing that I so totally don't understand is that my grump factor has gone up. Teresa is taking the brunt of it and usually calls me on it.

Friday

Today was radiation Dr. day and we talked about the rest of the treatment program. May 14 will be my last dose of radiation while my last chemo will be one day earlier. He said that the radiation can keep working for up to 6 weeks after so they will be monitoring me through July. Evidently the radiation works very similar to a microwave. You take something out of the microwave and are supposed to let it sit for a minute or two before you eat it. Also the chemo will be at work for 3 weeks or so. Hopefully some of my appetite will return or at least maybe the feeling of fullness will leave me. That's the main reason I'm losing weight right now is that I never get hungry and when I do eat I feel full for 5-6 hours.

Monday

Well as it always is we never get everything when we come back. Last night we came back late. It was 9:30 when we got back. And it's almost a guarantee that when we leave late we will leave more behind. I left my travel bag behind that has my razor and brush etc. and my good tennis shoes. Teresa left her brush and comb. And I'm sure we'll find more as the week progresses.

We had had my daughter and granddaughter up visiting Friday and most of Saturday. The powers that be at Home Depot ( yeah I said it ) evidently absolutely can not function without her for an entire weekend. She works at HD as a second job. And evidently she has made herself so invaluable there that they can't ( or won't ) function without her. I'm thinking it's about time someone told the store manager that we have spent over $ 15,000.00 in just one year with HD. Now I realize that probably not much to a manager who is seeing millions of dollars a year in sales. I know I'm just one guy. But Lowes is just down the street and I'm sure they would love the business.

We also had my brother and sister in law over Sunday. And of course we had several different neighbors over to check my condition. My brother in law was nice enough to donate 3 laptops to my cause and so now I'll have my hands full for a while with factory resets and the like. The harder part is trying to match up these machines with a deserving donor.

So before I break into song ( I just dropped in to see what condition my condition was in ) I'll let everyone know that I'm doing quite well. The knot on my neck is much smaller ( YEA ) and about the only complaint that I really have is that my neck looks sunburnt and itches like crazy. We have to put cream on it now because the skin is so dry. More good news, only one more full week of radiation and three days of the next week AND I'M DONE !!!!!! Well I still have a lot of follow up stuff, but the initial course of treatment is done.

This morning they took labs and said my creatinine level was up so they hooked me up to another bag of saline and said to stop by in the morning for another. Then labs again Wednesday so that the PA will have a fresh set of labs to go by. Everyone in the chemo infusion room has been so nice but it's hard to say I'm going to miss them. Of course it would be hard to say that I would miss any of this. You can be as nice as pie but when you're drawing blood or poking or stabbing me I would think you would have to be borderline psychotic to enjoy any of it.

Now as soon as I can come up with a title I'll post it .