A Rude Intrusion :: Day 23

This is my blog for day 23 of cancer treatment, Tuesday, 1 Aug 2017.

Another beautiful day today - 80 degrees, but partly cloudy again. Heck, what does partly cloudy mean to an 80 degree day in August? It's still lovely!

Slept well for the first part of the night last night, but woke to take a Tylenol and found Nancy awake at about 2:00 AM. She had her treatment yesterday, and that always messes with her sleep. So we both went back to bed, but I was in-and-out of sleep after waking. Perhaps it was because I had to get up at 5:30 AM in order to get to my radiation treatment at 7:15 AM. Perhaps it was worry. I don't know.

Nancy and I headed out at 6:15 AM, and were at the hospital on time. After my treatment, we went to the Egg Harbor restaurant in Arlington Heights for breakfast, where I had scrambled eggs, an English Muffin and some of their potatoes, though really just a few. It was somewhat difficult to get the potatoes down. So I drank a lot of water. Nancy had a fruit-covered French Toast ("Very Berry" French Toast) which included strawberries, blueberries and blackberries. She loves her fruit!

And about Nancy . . . she has been unbelievably helpful to me, in terms of getting through treatment. She is supportive, helpful, kind, encouraging - in short, everything you could possibly ask for in your spouse. I cannot say enough good things about her. But those of you who have met her know. I'd like to say I love her even more, now, but I'm not sure I can love her more than I already do!

And a tip-of-the-hat to my daughter Kerry, who drove us to Nancy's treatment yesterday. I piggy-back for the 2:15 PM treatment, and pretty much stay in Nancy's room all afternoon. In the morning I do a few things in various places the hospital - the cafeteria, an alcove on the north side, an area by the east entrance set up with round tables and a sofa or two. When I'm working, it all revolves around whatever meetings I have or tasks I have to complete. Now that I'm off, it involves keeping up with the bills and the budget, and reading. Kerry works near the east entrance all day.

And since we take our car I'm able to run errands, as necessary, or get lunch from Mariano's, or both. Yesterday I went to the bank, for example.

Am at chemotherapy today. I had a 9:45 AM appointment, which is why my radiation therapy was moved up to 7:15 AM. I'll probably be here until 5:00 PM or so.

And so I was; am writing this after 7:00 PM this evening. Nancy dropped me at chemo at about 9:15 AM or so, going back home to meet with Orkin. We have them come out every two months, and have a wasps nest in one of our trees, so we wanted to make sure he dealt with that. Wasps are not pollinators, so I don't feel particularly bad about them. (Though there is a pollinator relationship with the fig tree, but we don't raise them.)

I was catching up on mail and watching YouTube today, though napping quite a bit in the morning. I guess the night's lack of sleep the culprit. When Nancy returned, she brought me chicken noodle soup from Culver's and a vanilla shake. No longer calorie conscious am I - I've been told to eat! My wreak havoc with my blood sugar, though. I stayed awake all afternoon, I think.

My chemotherapy treatment generally runs as follows: first, I get called in, weighed (just over 263 today, fully clothed without phone in pocket or glasses on for you detail-oriented people), then taken to a room, where the tech takes my oxygenation level, heart rate, BP (126/76 . . . calm!), and goes over my medication list. Then my blood is taken using the medi-port, and access to the port is retained (the needle is not taken out). I see Dr. Gordon, go over the details of what is happening with me, and answer any of his questions. He also answers any questions I may have.

Next, I'm taken into a long, narrow room, bounded by a bank of windows that looks out north over the scenic IL 53 interchange at Algonquin Road (Rt 62). There must be twelve reclining chairs along the windows, and a second room with even more.

Side note: Nancy has to sit in a simple padded chair with a low back if she stays with me. She did the first time, and did not like it. Too many hours in an uncomfortable chair.

In any case, I choose a chair, then my nurse comes over, gets me started with a steroid and an anti-nausea medication, and gives me a shot of a long-acting anti-nausea medication, which shot goes right in my stomach. The staff applies a kind of "freeze" to the skin first, so I'm pretty numb when the medicine is slowly injected into me.

Once the steroid is done I get Lasik (a diuretic, or drug designed to make me go to the bathroom), my port is flushed, and a bag of good old IV fluid (1000ML or two 16.9 oz water bottles) is run into me. Then comes 1000ML of fluid with the Sysplatin chemotherapy drug, which step takes about four hours to complete. Then it's another 1000ML of IV fluid and I'm done. Total time, including arriving 15 minutes early to the doctor: just about 8 hours.

The staff could not be nicer, I have to say. There is only one thing that will get them going, I'd bet. There is a sign on the blanket-warmer (yes, I can have a nice, warm blanket while I'm sitting in the chair) that say Blankets Are For Patients Only! I'd bet you'd get them riled if you took one and you weren't the patient. I have shared mine with Nancy (the day after my first chemo session when I went back for hydration), and nobody said anything to me. But if she had her own, well, I'd bet we'd get a talkin' to.

Oh, and I decided that this blog is lacking in pictures, so I'm adding one. Hello!

Today's music is something I ran into by accident, while watching and listening to YouTube. It's a combination of two Frank Zappa songs, joined with a long-ish drum solo, by the University of Montana Percussion Ensemble: Montana and We Are Not Alone (here). While I realize that many folks are not Frank Zappa fans (God save his soul), I think this is worth a listen. Zappa would have loved it: the U. Montana ensemble playing Montana. And they do a good job!

For convenience sake, here a running list of all of the links I've posted to YouTube in the past few days:

According to Plan, Carolyn Arends - Link
And I Love Her - Link
Back In You Own Back Yard, Al Jolson - Link

Because We've Ended As Lovers, Larry Carlton & Steve Lukather - Link
Comfortably Numb, Pink Floyd - Link
Cross Road Blues, Robert Johnson Link
Crossroads, Eric Clapton and Cream Link
Groucho Movie Clips - Link
I Love Being Here With You, Diana Krall - Link
In the Cool, Cool, Cool of the Evening, Bing Crosby and Jane Wyman - Link
In the Cool, Cool, Cool of the Evening, Bing Crosby and Jane Wyman, from the movie Here Comes the Groom  - Link
Limbo Jazz, Coleman Hawkins and Duke Ellington - Link
Lookin' At The World Through A Windshield, Bill Kirchen - Link
Montana/We Are Not Alone, Univ. of Montana Percussion Ensemble - Link

My Funny Valentine, Kristin Chenoweth - Link

My Funny Valentine, Miles Davis - Link
On The Street Where You Live, Dean Martin - Link
Powdermilk Biscuit Break, Garrison Keillor, et al - Link
Route 66, Asleep at The Wheel - Link
She Used To Be Mine, Sara Bareilles - Link
Shim, Sham, Shimmy (dance) to Tain't What You Do, Jimmy Lunceford - Link
Sisters, Bette Midler and Linda Ronstadt - Link
Sisters, from White Christmas - Link
Sixteen Tons, Tennessee Ernie Ford - Link
St Louis Blues, Stephanie Trick & Paolo Alderighi - Link
Standing at the Crossroads, Elmore James - Link
Starts and Stripes Forever, United States Marine Band - Link
Sweet Georgia Brown, Wynton Marsalis/Mark O'Connor - Link
That's Jazz, Bing Crosby, Louis Armstrong & The All Stars - Link
Time, Pink Floyd - Link
Time to Blow, From That Thing You Do - Link
Zappa Medly, George Duke - Link