Renewal

Posted on by Dan

After being sprung from the hospital on Tuesday, I was greeted in our yard by all manner of spring things in the process of renewal. As the days wore on during this last stay, I had a feeling I would miss out on the most exciting time of the year (as far as our yard is concerned). Granted, I did miss out on the crab apple and most of the tulips, but there are still enough reminders around me to illustrate the ever-growing and renewing side of nature. I feel a bit more compelled this year to take that all in, to appreciate it just a bit more, and to let it translate to my own body. Spring is the time for overcoming odds, for taking the energy that has been stored for the past 5 months (or 8 if you live in Minnesota) and converting it to something like this:

Hostas

Tulips

Snowball Verbenum

Iris

I have one more round of chemotherapy to go (fingers crossed) — most likely to start in two weeks or so. But, I am encouraged and renewed by the sight of these things.

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Home at last… again

Posted on by Dan

That’s right. The oncologists agreed to send me home today. I’m still neutropenic, so they made me promise to come back if my condition changed, and packed my bags with a whole arsenal of antibiotics. So far, so good. I’m awfully tired (2-and-a-half weeks of hospital stay is no way to build strength and endurance), but very happy to be able to spend the better part of the day hanging out somewhere other than room 8109. And, since it is our 8th anniversary today, it’s especially nice to be home.

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Distractions

Posted on by Dan

A week ago Sunday (has it been that long?) I was admitted back in to the oncology ward (referred to as 8 East – has a better ring to it, doesn’t it?). The fevers I had on Sunday and Monday went away (probably because of the antibiotics they had me on again), but my numbers are still taking their time to get back up to where I can fight off infection. So, even though I’m feeling relatively good, here I am. This time around I’m one of the easy patients — other than 3 transfusions of platelets and 2 transfusions of packed red blood cells, I’m just sort of hanging out (although, the days when my hemoglobin is down I tend to sleep a lot, so that doesn’t really count as hanging out).

So, the other day they talked me into getting a DVD player in the room (provided by 8 East) as well as a Playstation (a PS2, if I’m not mistaken). The last time I spent any serious time on a gaming console was when I bought a second-hand SEGA Genesis with my hard-earned allowance in junior high. Twenty years later and a couple of hours of some arduous training, I still might have a chance to become a mechanized cop ready to free the world of terrorists and robots. Of course, Andy (the nurse that hooked me up with this particular distraction) has coached and encouraged me a little (in between his rounds, of course).

So, while I save the world from the bad guys, I wait here in the hospital while the real heroes (sorry for the cheesy comparison) work on getting my bone marrow to start functioning properly again.

I’m hoping to head home early this coming week, so keep your fingers crossed. And, after a few days of rest and rebuilding of strength, I’ll be repeating the whole process all over again. Let’s just hope they don’t overwrite the memory card on the PS2 between now and then…

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Back to bad food and sleepless nights

Posted on by Dan

Well, that patience that I was talking about could have come in handy yesterday. I spiked a fever in the morning, and after consulting with the on-call oncologist, went to the emergency room. Eight hours later (most of that time spent sitting and stewing about the inefficencies of the system, lack of communication and the fact that the eight-hour wait could have been avoided if they had just admitted me like last time) I was welcomed back by the staff in the oncology ward for another stay.

So, here I am again, waiting for my blood counts to go back up, waiting for the fevers to subside.

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A little patience

Posted on by Dan

I realized it has been awhile since my last update, so for those of you still keeping tabs on what has been going on with me, here’s the scoop.

I started my second round of chemo two Mondays ago (technically it’s the first round of my consolidation treatment, but to me it’s the second time being administered chemo). I went to my new home away from home (Regions Hospital Cancer Care Center) three days in a row for a 15-minute injection of Idarubicin. There’s something disconcerting about seeing a bright orange liquid entering your body; even more disconcerting when the nurse administering the drug is wearing googles, gloves and protective gown; and, if you didn’t think the medicine was potent enough, when they suggest you flush the toilet twice during the days that follow… well, you catch my drift.

Now that the three infusions are finished we wait. My blood counts started to drop on Monday. By Wednesday I was back to being neutropenic and Friday I received another transfusion of platelets. I kind of wish I had kept track of the amount of blood products I have received over the course of my hospital stay and now during these rounds of consolidation… you could probably start measuring it in gallons. It certainly has made me a more outspoken advocate of blood donation. In fact, let me just restate my request to those of you who have asked what you could do during this time… give blood!

The silver lining in all of this is that I am still at home. As long as I don’t get an infection, I can continue to hang out and wait for the cell counts to start increasing again. But, waiting starts to become more like sitting around the house and getting grouchy. I’m not sure how Virginia puts up with me, but she does. More than that, she takes care of me so much that I feel like I’m probably getting spoiled.

So, as we make adjustments to our schedules for our tri-weekly visits to the cancer care center, wait for the marrow to start making non-mutated white blood cells again, and do a lot of other rearranging of priorities, we require patience and a little bit of flexibility. Some days are better than others, as this is not the most forgiving way of developing patience.

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