Daypass

I am doing so well on the days that I do not receive chemo that they are letting me have a daypass for today (Thursday, Day#4 of 5). I don't know all of the details yet, but they will let me go home for the day to return tonight. I don't get any medicines or IV fluids on Days 2 or 4, so I just sit here in the little hospital room or go downstairs to walk around. Lately, I have been taking advantage of this to walk around campus, to see the gardens in full bloom, and to visit the Duke chapel. I do my workout on the recumbent stepper machine, but I really enjoy getting outside for those walks even if they aren't exactly aerobic.

I am sitting in my hospital room right now, drinking a chocolate milk, waiting for Holly and the team to arrive. After the team goes over my labs and listens to my heart and lungs, they'll probably let me go for the day. I don't mind hanging out in here, reading, writiing, etc. but it is nice to have the option to go home and come back. And when I come back, I'll only have one more day of chemo with doses at 11am and 11pm. That will be good.

Hooked Up for #3 dose

And I am looking forward to my #4 dose tonight. They have disconnected me from the IV fluids, so I have been able to roam outside of the room yesterday and this morning. I got in a 45 min walk after Holly left this morning, but unfortunately, I missed a visit with Sandi and Amy, And they brought me a big ole box of Dunkin Donut holes. Yummy! Thank you both, and I'm sorry we missed each other. I like to take advantage of every chance I get to leave the hospital room, which is pretty small. I really like getting outside for a walk around campus or over to the gardens to see what is blooming. Holly and I spent many a friday lunching there 2 years ago when I was waiting to get my chemo for breast cancer. You might think that I'd have funny feelings about being there after such an association, but I love the place. It is always changing, and they have so many new features with ponds here and there which entice many more birds to the banks. I especially love seeing their herons.

We've been following my labs as usual. This round of chemo seems to be attacking my red blood cells most quickly. When I came in, my hemoglobin level was 11.2. Then it went down to 9.9 after 1 day of chemo, and today I am already down to 8.8. I will probably need to be transfused with packed red blood cells tomorrow. Both the white blood cell count (6200) and the platelet count (164,000) are great though. They are well above average and put me in no danger. They will transfuse red cells if my number gets to 8.0 or below. I bet that will be tomorrow.

Feels pretty humid and grey out this morning. I hope we get more rain. I'd like our soil to soften up so that we can put in trees this fall to buffer our house from the playground going up in the lot behind us and to give us more privacy from our neighbors on the sides of the yard.

Well have a good day. It's hump day for all of us. After this I'll only have 2 more doses of chemo on Friday. Then I'm out of here.

Camp Chemo, Day 2

Both of my previous entries for today were eaten by the computer gods. I had a nice picture of the hike we did this past w-e off the parkway. It was from Sam's knob, a great 360 degree view of the area near Shining Rock and Mt. Pisgah.

I also talked about my night-a good one because my nurse bunched all of the labs, vitals, and taking down the empty chemo bag at 1:00 am. No extra wake up at 4am to weigh me, draw labs and get vitals. Yeah!

And I related Freddi's story about her Dad's treatment for Colon Cancer at age 83. He kept thinking it was the cancer making him feel sick when it was really the chemo. He wanted to stop and just give up. Then someone took an interest in his legacy and work as an Anesthesiologist. He perked up and signed on for aggressive chemo-now he has something to live for.

We all need support, social support ,of course, but also a meaning for our life. I think that work or a good metier gives us that. I know that I am very thankful to have both good social support and work serving others.

Camp Chemo

Holly and I were joking last night about the next round of chemo since I am back in the hospital today for 5 days. She had the idea to call it Camp Chemo. Seems to fit actually. It is a place I go away to, and the time does pass in one big time warp. Just makes you think of fun, doesn't it? Wish I got a T-shirt or archery badge out of it at least.

The team just rounded on me, and now they will go behind the scenes to put in my orders for the exact amount of chemo drug I am to receive (it is based on wt and ht). And they will order labs to see what my baseline blood cell counts are. The drug works pretty quickly to lower all of the important counts-my platelets, my red blood cells, and my infection fighting white blood cells. But last time, it took a week for the counts to drop enough to require transfusions of blood and/or platelets. Then the counts started back up within that same week. It was so good to have only a brief need for blood and platelet transfusions. I expect this cycle to be the same.

We had a nice, busy w-e in Asheville. We did some work around the house and yard, got to Bent Creek for a mtn bike ride, ran around Beaver Lake, ate out at my favorite Indian place, and hiked a gorgeous loop off the Parkway (Sam's knob). I wanted to connect with my friends Shannon and Billie, but we ran out of time. It seems we always have more we want to do and more people we want to see than time allows. Oh well, I expect we'll be back there in a few weeks to pick up where we left off.

I am back in my old hospital room, #9202, with the good westerly view. No pneumonia this time, whew! I'll just be hanging out, waiting for my first dose of chemo and reading all the books and NY Times papers I brought with me. That is my Monday back to work routine for today. Hope yours goes well too.

Hair Here to Celebrate

Well sort of hair. It's really more like fuzz. But it is my own fuzz, on my own head, and that's all that counts. I do hope you can appreciate the copious amounts of hair in this photo. I promise it is there if your computer screen just doesn't do it justice. I am not sure exactly why or how I have hair. My last chemo was already a month ago, and usually, it only takes 2-3 weeks for the hair to leave. I guess the double dose a day of Ara-C I had wasn't enough to stop those tenacious hair follicles from producing. Soon I might even need to use shampoo instead of bar soap. Who would have thought? I'll try not to get too, too excited though since I start more chemo on Monday. You know, just in case it all falls out again.

Since we don't have to be here to go to clinic, we're heading to the mtns again tonight for the w-e. It will probably be our last visit there for about 3 weeks or so. I'll be back to everyday clinic visits to monitor my counts after I get out of the hospital next Saturday.

My rowing time dropped again this morning. Now I am only 5 seconds slower per 500 meters than I was before I was diagnosed with leukemia and had to go through all of this chemo. It's heartening to see that the speed and strength come back. Oh yeah, and I can do 50 pushups again. I swear it's all that Furlong's chocolate bark and regaining my usual weight. Or maybe it's all the time in the mtns. They do swear it's therapeutic.

Flexible like Gumby

My doctor's appt was at 12:30p today, but I didn't get home until after 3pm. My doctor sent me for a chest X-ray and EKG at the big hospital in preparation for my chemo next week. I figured it would just be a quick in and out visit to set up the hospital admission next week, but I have learned to ALWAYS carry something to read just in case. It turned out to be a good decision as I had to wait for him a bit. They were still backed up with overflow patients after being closed Monday (Labor Day holiday). Then, of course, I had a bit of a wait for the Chest X-ray and the EKG. Good reading time for the NY Times Book Review from last Sunday. Reminds me how fortunate I am to be flexible-like Gumby - as one of my friends used to say.

Dr Long and I did have a pretty brief visit since I am doing so well right now. I go back into the hospital Monday morning for the next 5 days of chemo. He isn't on the inpatient/hospital service now, so I will have one of his colleagues taking care of me while I am there. We planned out the rest of the chemo courses to occur roughly every 4 weeks. I should finish the fourth and last round at the beginning of November. He'd like me to stay out of work recovering until January 1st.

Wow, I never would have expected to be out of work from June 4th until the beginning of 2009 with this leukemia. But again, I'm not in charge, and it really is best to be flexible (I guess Gumby will go back to work in January of 2009). At least we are getting to Asheville on some of these w-e's when my blood cell counts are good. That has been an unexpected treat. Hopefully we'll get to do that with these coming rounds of chemo too. It has been a real treat to see friends, hike, and be in the Asheville house like old times.

I did a longer Hillsborough run this morning, about 4 miles. I am trying to work back up to 6 miles before Monday. I'd like to run my route around Beaver Lake when we are in the mtns this w-e.

Thanks you Gillian for my Dachshund Mug

Holly, her sister and I spent the long w-e in Asheville doing all the fun Asheville things-eating out, visiting a brewery or two, attending Shindig on the Green ( a weekly bluegrass event put on by the city complete with "pickers tents" for those who brought their own instruments), doing some lovely wildflower hikes, and hanging out in the backyard to enjoy the last of my flowers in the garden. We were blessed with good weather and even got some rain, which is desperately needed out there in Western NC.

Over the w-e, I got an email from Marty letting me know that her good friend Gillian had made me a mug. We met Brian and Gillian (and their adorable twins Iris and Trevor) briefly at Deb's son's wedding (that is alot of degrees of separation I know, but that is how these things go). Anyway, when we got back to town last night, we met Marty and Deb for dinner in downtown Hillsborough at the Wooden Nickel. They brought the ceramic mug that Gillian had made for me-a Beautiful, cool blue pottery piece decorated with long, long dachshunds peering at each other. It is so cute and functional. I used it for my coffee this morning. Again I am touched and amazed at all the kindness and generosity of our friends, and Gillian who is really a friend of a friend. Thank you very much.

I delivered Jill, Holly's sister, to the airport this morning for her flight back to Kansas City. It was a delightful visit with lots of fun outings. I was fortunate to have her help if I had needed it and even more fortunate that I didn't. I'll see Dr Long tomorrow at his clinic and get my marching orders for the next round of chemo which I am told will be next week.

Enjoy the beautiful clear day.