skippyhawk

Just when we thought it was safe to go into the water, out of nowhere comes the shark. Last week chemo sabe was good, this week, not so much. . .

New symptoms: dry heaves, coughing, shortness of breath and fever, so we went to the doctor/hospital yesterday had a chest x-ray, no pneumonia, had an echo cardiogram, no fluid around heart, both good things. So when in doubt get more prescriptions. One magic little pill stops the coughing for hours, an inhaler for breathing and he now has four anti-nausea medications.

The boy is feeling kinda down right now but personally I think he is having poker withdrawals. I’m sure the Ameristar casino will be sending a search party out soon!

That’s it from here, have a good weekend, turn those clocks forward and look for signs of spring. My daffodils and day lilies are starting to poke through, and I’ve seen 3 cardinals in the yard, so I know spring is close by!

Sue

Today Sue and I went and got a refill for Chemo Sabe.  84 ml for $4300.00.  You think the price of gas is high.  That does include a weeks rental of Chemo sabe so I guess it isn’t too bad.  Good thing we have good insurance otherwise all you working stiffs would be footing the bill while we went on welfare. 

 I haven’t had nearly the fatigue with this cocktail as the last.  Also no flu-like symptoms, but a little more nausea.   I guess the trade off is good, especially if it does some good with slowing down the growth of the tumors.  We will find out more about that with the next CT scan in about 6 or 7 weeks.

All I have for now. 

 bob

your friendly daughterly admin checking in.

many of you may have noticed that this site experienced a 12 hour or so outage today. i will spare you most of the technical intrigue, but let’s just say that the computer that makes the site go found itself in an environment inhospitable to going. so it stopped.

we took it home and it’s now living on a shelf in our living room, where it’s much drier and quite content.

Just a quick update. Started the day with the tornado sirens going off at 8:00 am. This is not the way to wake up. It did get however get better from there, but it took awhile.

The new fanny pack chemo doesn’t seem to affect Bob as negatively as the last chemo. Two days after starting he felt good enough to go to “work”. And everyone knows where that is. But before he ventured outside he had to take a shower, first time since the port is installed. Now I want you to read this and then close your eyes and try to picture what I have just written.

Shower rules: Cannot get the port (upper chest) wet. Cannot get the machine (chemo sabe) wet. Cannot let the water hit the chest.

We stuck Glad Press and Seal (suggested by chemo nurses) to Bob’s chest. I guess the good news is they shaved his chest when they put the port in. (I know Vicki and Bobby Cradit are now laughing) Anyway back to the wrapping. After pressing and sealing we then tried to tape the edges. Remember there is a tube coming out. That white adhesive claims its waterproof but no.

Moving on, we then, using the fanny pack belt, tied chemo sabe to the door handle of the shower stall. Again, tube hanging out, so door not shut, shower on, you get the picture. After all that we still failed. The port got a tad wet, the tape didn’t hold, then we had to rip off the taped press and seal without pulling everything out. I would have taken pictures but I don’t want to be arrested for porn! How many of you have saran wrap and press and seal wrap in your bathrooms??? Now close your eyes and get the picture!

The good news is when dressed and with a sweater on you can hardly see sabe and he looks normal. He doesn’t look like a f—ing tourist (Bob’s comments before today.) We also stopped at Walgreens and I bought 6 different types of tape so we should find something that works! Sponge baths are definitely out of the question.

That’s our Thursday, how was yours?

Today I had the port installed and now have a “fanny pack” that I wear all the time that has a weeks worth of chemo.  Sue and I had to be at the Hospital at 7:00 for the procedure.  Wow, there sure are a lot of people on the road at that time of the day.  Wonder where they were all going.  Anyway…………….

I have to go in weekly to get a refill of the chemo.  Plan is 3 weeks on chemo and one off.  We will do this twice and then get another CT to see how much effect the new drug is having on the tumors.  Off weeks will be March 20 and April 17.   I also will get a shot every two weeks to help in red blood cell production.  The shot and the fact I am getting a constant, but slower dose of chemo should help considerably in how I feel.  Lets hope so, and hope that this drug does some good.

 All of your concerns and well wishes are greatly appreciated.  I have said this before, but it makes the entire process much more tollerable.  Thanks to all of you……

Bob