Better than Last

This week has gone much better than last. There have been fewer appointments and I’ve felt better. ¶ The home health nurse visited again, checked my vitals, and removed the bandage from my arm and announced that the gash was ever so much better and I could go without the bandage. She’ll return one more time. I guess she likes my company. ¶ The occupational therapist made one last visit, told me to exercise and behave myself and said to call if I had need otherwise she would disappear from my schedule.

¶ The physical therapist came and took a walk with me and said his farewell. He declared that I’m doing fine. ¶ The nausea thing seems to hang on and strikes just about dinner time. I’ve learned to take a pill around 5:30 and then I can comfortably eat some dinner about one hour later. ¶ If anyone is wondering what retirement is like here is an example. Tuesday I had to set the alarm because the housekeeper was due. As he continued his work the home health nurse arrived for her visit. I then had to leave to have lunch with some teacher buddies. Returning home I changed clothes and went to the funeral of an old friend from 50 years previous. I returned home in time to meet the physical therapist and go for a walk with him. Then I changed again and went to my regular Tuesday Benedictine service and meeting. Following that I attended the Vestry meeting for a time to hear the presentation on the columbarium and finally returned home about 8:00 to dine about 9. Thankfully, not every day is like that but many are close to it. ¶ Wednesday was a tad less frantic but close to Tuesday in obligations of various types in disparate parts of the city which delayed lunch until 3:30 or so. I finished the leftovers thereof following choir practice at 9:30. ¶ Needless to say, I don’t reveal my schedule to the nurse who insists on regular and adequate nutrition. I operate under the principle that what they don’t know won’t bother them. ¶ Then I do dumb things like watching two movies last night and finally conking out at 2 AM which then throws the next day’s schedule into complete disarray. You’d think that I was old enough to know better. I guess not. ¶ I think we finally had a decent rain last night. There was a lot of lightning and associated noise. I haven’t put out the rain gauge yet so I’ve no idea how much. I must do that next. ¶ I saw daffodil blossoms appearing added to the plethora of green leaves pushing their way sunward. The tiny little tulips, squill, crocus, and early iris continue their determined path sunward. I find it amazing that the most delicate little blossoms are the first to show their beauty.

¶ Sophia met her first dog this week and seemed to be not all that impressed. One of my neighbors has a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel who goes by the name of Bruce. He came to visit with his family. He’s quite fond of me and greets me with great animation when I’m out walking. Sophia observed him carefully from under a plant stand with little reaction until he deigned to come closer. At that point she decided she’d better hiss at him so he would understand exactly who was in charge. His reaction was minimal which disconcerted her so she amped up the volume. This caused him to retreat which gave her great joy. ¶ All in all, this week has been much better than last and I look forward to next week being even better. Thanks for reading, for prayers and thoughts and for all you do for me and others. Bless you.

O How the Wind Blows

The wind doth blow, and blow, and blow. Anything not tied down today will end up in the next county. It’s been warm and humid, and did I mention windy. ¶ Today I’ve not been myself, that’s for sure. I’ve been exhausted since getting out of bed. Aside from one decent night’s sleep of nearly 10 hours in the last week, the rest of the nights have maxed out at 5 hours or less. ¶ Monday I met the home health nurse in charge of my case. She took my blood pressure, temperature, and oxygen level. She also perused my home to determine if I could live here, I guess. She was very positive and declared I wouldn’t need home health for long.

¶ The occupational therapist came in the afternoon, perused the house, declared I was doing very well and would not need her services, probably. ¶ The physical therapist came Wednesday afternoon and declared I would not need his services much longer as far as he could determine. He wants to take a walk with me outside but declared he was not interested in walking in the crummy weather we had that day. ¶ Tuesday I saw all three of my doctors, plus labs. The primary signed my home health form, gave me some antibiotic ointment for the gash in my arm achieved when I fell in the closet and hit my arm on one of the shelves. The oncologist pointed out new little things on my CT scan and MRI and declared I would start on a new chemo drug. The radiation oncologist talked about my new little spots on the brain and what he would do with his Gamma Knife. ¶ The new chemo is a new drug called Zepzelca or lurbinectedin. Most common side effects are tiredness, low white and red blood cell counts, nausea, decreased appetite, muscle and joint pain, vomiting, cough, etc. I had my first infusion on Wednesday. ¶ The upside of this new drug is that it is one infusion every 21 days. The old drug was five days of infusion every three weeks. That is much less seat time in the infusion center.

¶ The home health nurse said that most of the side effects, if not all, would subside after three days. I hope she’s right. This is day number 3 and I’d like to get on with my life. I’m not built to complain about my health or just sit around and wonder what will happen next. ¶ Back to this windy day. The wind has whipped off the canvas cover of the outside grill twice. In addition, some other household’s grill cover ended up in my front garden. I posted on the neighborhood watch bulletin board but so far there have been no takers.

¶ Sophia has decided that windy days are best for sleeping which she has done in abundance today. I wish I could borrow some of her sleep genes. They would be especially appreciated about 2 AM when I start tossing and turning and wondering if I’ll ever sleep again. ¶ In spite of the dry soil, due to lack of rain and excess of wind, new, little flowers continue to poke through with great determination. They look so fragile. Some tiny red tulips appeared today. There is squill and fragile irises as well as day lily leaves pushing up in abundance. ¶ One of these days I’ll try for a drive to Omaha where the daffodils at the gardens there are reported to be profuse. ¶ It’s amazing what spring does to uplift the senses and improve the mood. It is truly a gift. I hope you have a good week. I am determined to do so.

I have returned!

I thought I’d better catch you up. I see by looking back that I was not feeling all that perky a week ago Saturday when I wrote the April 2 blog. I was really not feeling well; by this past Saturday, one week ago I was definitely not well, and indeed, my cancer was eating up all my sodium. I was admitted to the hospital through the emergency room. Spending a few days in hospital is anything but a restful experience. The staff must be careful that the sodium level does not rise too rapidly. It was explained that nasty things can happen. So that necessitates a blood draw and taking vitals every two hours, day and night. Also included in delightful experiences was an x-ray, a CT scan, an MRI, and assorted others. The staff at the hospital is wonderful. They make the stay almost pleasant. The hospital is in dire need of a remodel. The rooms are tiny with a very cramped bathroom. To wit, the picture is of the nurses workstation crammed in the corner with a drawer than cannot be opened blocked by the computer.

It has been discovered that there are three new areas of concern in the brain, so I will have to have another gamma knife treatment of those. They are all less than 9mm in size. There are also new areas of concern in the liver indicating that my chemotherapy has outlived its usefulness so a new regimen will begin. Since.my sodium has now returned to normal, I was released on Wednesday afternoon late.

I have accomplished very little, actually since my homecoming. I did sing in the choir Thursday evening, and will again tonight and tomorrow, God willing. It seems to take an inordinate about of energy to accomplish the slightest task. I will persevere. The great discovery, for me, was that lack of any exercise at my age is not to my benefit. I have to keep going. Lesson learned. Conditional to my release was a promise to allow home health care into my home for an assessment and recommendations. Physical and Occupational Therapy will also be involved. This makes it sound like I’m getting old! This will happen on Monday morning, bright and early. In order to have home health care I need the permission of my primary physician. When they contacted him he announced he hadn’t seen me since 2020. I have enough physicians I really don’t need one more. I haven’t seen him because each time I’ve needed such he’s been on vacation. Anyway, I need to see him on Tuesday to make amends and to legalize the deal. So Tuesday I’ll have labs at 7:15, see the Oncologist, see the Radiation Oncologist and see the primary all before noon. The new infusion schedule is still a mystery, also to be revealed the same Tuesday morning. Who has time for anything else?

It is spring now, actually, and there are flowers to prove it even though the weather is still hesitant. There are many little things poking their way through the not-so-warm-yet soil. They are much more brave than I. It is easily apparent that Sophia eagerly awaits my return. She has been sorely lacking in attention and is trying to make up for that.

Now it’s April!

Yesterday began the first official month of Spring. It has been long awaited. Not that our winter has been all that bad, it’s just that it would be lovely if we could count on the weather being decent and the sun shining everyday. This morning there was fog! It wasn’t terribly dense in this neighborhood and burned off rapidly. In other parts of the city it was reported to be quite heavy.

¶ If you look really hard at the picture included today, you will see some tulip leaves that have emerged. So far there are amaryllis, daffodils, and day lilies and the aforementioned tulips showing that they are brave enough to face the “spring” weather. We will trust that they know what they are doing. ¶ I have continued to fret over what my sodium count might be, and what it means that it has dropped. Mostly, it’s the unknown that bothers me. Fretting about my health was something in previous times I never did. After going for my walk today I realize how out of shape I’ve become. Not only am I overweight but have to fight with myself to do something about it. At least, so I tell myself, now that it’s decent weather I can do more outside. Something has to change. In days past I was at the fitness center five days each week. Starting with COVID that stopped. I’m still hesitant to go back. The therapy pool works wonders and I long for it. Right now, that would be the biggest draw. ¶ The war in Ukraine is quite simply insane. It is for no good purpose (wars seldom are) and merely demonstrates who is in power. It appears from the reports that Vlad is not doing well on the war front. Whether he knows it or not is a big question. How can the rest of the world continue to question whether he should be accused of war crimes? Watch any newscast and the pictures of the refugees in the country should be evidence enough that civilians are being targeted. ¶ A trip to Costco is nearly like a journey to a war zone itself. I have almost been struck so many times by people pushing their carts from a side aisle into the flow of traffic not looking right, left, or ahead. A lady was trying to beat me into a turn. I stopped and allowed her to accomplish her deed. Did she even nod or say “Thank you,” or acknowledge in anyway that she had been helped? In a word, “no.” ¶ Perhaps people follow the example of the people they elect to congress. Or, their elected representatives represent the general

public. What hits the news nearly everyday from Capitol Hill is simply not to be believed. Is it necessary, I ask you, for the junior representative from North Carolina to share the information about a party to which he was invited? One might think that he would be embarrassed to be thought of as one interested in such an invitation. Then, possibly, it was the only party to which he has been invited in his brief time in Washington and sought to receive some kind of acknowledgment of his arrival on the social scene. Whatever. I’m not really sure that the whole nation needed to be informed. Given that he has won no rewards for truthfulness, one could question if he ever received the invitation or it was merely a figment of his imagination. ¶ Sophia continues her concern for her wildlife. I put out four corn cobs for the squirrels yesterday afternoon. By evening they had all been stolen. She has welcomed a rather large rabbit to her menagerie. All this concern is manifest in the few hours of wakefulness each day. ¶ On the whole things have gone well this week. I treasure your thoughts and prayers and your kind deeds.