Mary had her blood drawn right after arriving and then went up to the chemo area. They made her wait until 2:30 and called her in for her treatment where she gets to sit in the recliner and relax until the needles come out--or go in, depending on your perspective. At 3PM, they came to apologize for being late and to explain that her blood count wasn't absolutely good enough to allow the Gemzar. Apparently the reading was borderline so she wasn't sent home but rather the nurses contacted the doctor for permission to continue. At 4PM, they started the injection. This nurse was a bit more hurry up than last week and Mary said it stung a bit during the injection and she was done shortly after 5PM. When she was done, she called her pickup driver, Jean, and all in all, Mary was home by 6PM. You might wonder what Mary does during all this waiting. She has loaded up an iPod with audiobooks and listens to them while waiting. She finds that more relaxing than trying to read or watching TV provided at each injection reclining chair.
Thank you Jean! Thank you Ingrid!
Mary didn't want anything fancy for dinner and shortly afterwards she went to bed at 9PM, same time as last Monday. This wasn't all that early because I didn't get home from work until almost 8PM. This chemo really knocks her down. I imaging Tues and Wed will be very bad for our girl. Hopefully, she'll start to gain her strength by Thursday.
In other news...
Mary has been complaining about upper back pain. Sunday, I cleaned out our hot tub and filled it, treated the water, warmed it up and we had a great soak last night. She really enjoyed it and it took a lot of the pressure off her back. Our tub is a teak wood tub, semi-custom design. It's 4' 6" (1.4m) deep which means Mary has to stand on tippy toes to keep her mouth out of the water when it is full to the brim. We haven't used the tub since last winter, before Mary's symptoms appeared. Why did we install this deep tub? So Mary can do stand up exercises for the arthritis in her lower back. Works great, too! Check it out! Click on the picture.
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| From 2008-04-12 Sister's Gardens |
The plastic sheeting on the unsecured patio doors worked in the storm on Tues and Wed last week. The service guy showed up on Thursday as promised and fixed that door plus adjusted several others that had become difficult over the 8 years since they were installed. Its really nice when you don't have to fight the door and window hardware! Saturday, I removed the sheeting and the residue from the duck tape. I was careful to only put it on the glass to minimize any paint damage. And yes, it was duck tape. Out here, ACE Hardware sells duct tape by 3M and duck tape by some knockoff company. The role I used was duck tape.
I did see my cardiologist last week. No problems, issues or concerns. She is continuing the blood pressure medicine my internist prescribed because she likes the BP numbers. Otherwise, see you in six months. Oh, yeah, something about exercise, diet, you know, the usual.
I also saw my dermatologist. She removed some additional superficial basel cell carcinoma and nitrogen zapped some cosmetic stuff. No serious concern about the BCC. This is my fifth or sixth instance of BCC. Apparently, my light, Irish skin is very susceptible to sun damage and I didn't really start understanding and using sun block until ~20 years ago. For those who have never seen it, I have a picture somewhere of me at the age of 25 with my black, black hair and red beard! The red beard is a genetic clue to my skin's sensitivity to the sun. As for the cosmetic items, she called them "age spots" to which I protested--I am only 62!
Last but not least, I am reporting to the courthouse for jury duty at 8AM sharp tomorrow. Mary mentioned that an espionage case was starting jury selection tomorrow. That could be very interesting but its gonna be long so I am not raising my hand. Check it out here.
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