Late Sunday night (August 17) about 10:30 pm Steve and I returned home from Sonoma State University. The back of the Suburban was packed with all the items Tom accumulated last year for apartment-like living. I rode in Toms car with him in order to get in one last visit before the school term started. Tom took me up to his suite where I stayed while he and Steve brought in the items. Tom is now totally settled on campus in the Beaujolais Village. His suite is the same floor plan as last year in that he has three other guys in the unit. Each guy has his own private bedroom with an attached private bathroom. Each bedroom has a card key slide-lock like a hotel room so privacy and security is always there unless you choose to have your door open. They share a full-sized kitchen (even has a dish washer), eating area and sitting area. It was a busy campus. I read somewhere that they have just over 3,000 students living in campus housing. There are currently over 9,000 students enrolled at the university. After unpacking, we went over to see the Student Center that opened last Fall after the beginning of the semester. Its a beautiful building that is primarily used as one of the meal service campus locations, along with a separate food court area for regular dining, a large book store, and then administrative offices. We then decided it was time to find a restaurant where we could sit down and enjoy dinner together. Finding the restaurant gave us an opportunity to explore a little more of the surrounding town area. The restaurant offered Oregon Marionberry pie so after dinner we bought two--one for Tom to take back and enjoy with his roommates today and one for us to take home and enjoy. The Safeway store near the university has Tillamook ice cream so Tom stopped there to buy some of the Old Fashioned Vanilla flavor for their pie and then we stopped at one of Vacaville stores to buy the same. Sunday was scheduled to be the final day before I would resume my chemo treatments in the hospital on Monday. That final day before treatments resume has been the only consistent day during this entire chemo process that I have always felt good. When I realized that the final day was going to fall on the day Tom would go back to the university, I was delighted and decided that it was meant to be that I should go. It was an absolutely beautiful day and evening--one of those special days with special memories. This past week was a busy one with two blood draws, one IV infusion for extra hydration, and appointments with the three specialty docs. On Wednesday, the infectious disease doctor who I see because of my EBV meningoencephalitis diagnosis said that it was under control. However, for the past six weeks Ive had soreness and ulcerations in my mouth. The doctors told me that the chemotherapy can cause the lining of the mouth to become very sore, and small ulcers may form because my white blood count drops too low too often. It also makes my throat sore and my voice hoarse. Soreness and ulceration of the lining of the mouth are known as mucositis and can be very painful. It is almost always difficult to eat most foods and drink fluids without pain. They have me taking a med to help the healing and then a med containing lidocaine that helps ease the pain. The infectious disease doc had me extend my appointment in order to give me an IV infusion of extra fluids. After returning home and taking a short nap, I woke up with excruciating pain in both of my knees. I took two pain meds, placed a lidocaine patch on each knee, and called the oncologist. We were told to go to immediately to the hospital ER. They determined it was a reaction to the chemo so I was able to go home with some additional meds and liodocaine patches. On Thursday, I met with the oncologist who told me that my sixth chemo treatment must be postponed for one week because of the ulcerations in my mouth, the low blood counts (both white and red), the low platelet count, the loss of weight and other factors. He wants another week to help my body recover from the previous chemo treatment. This will be the first time my body has had more than two weeks between treatments so Im hoping Ill have at least a few good days of rest. I am scheduled for a PET (positron emission tomography) Scan after next weeks sixth week of chemo in the hospital. It is an imaging test that uses a radioactive substance called a tracer to look for disease in the body. It shows how organs and tissues are working. This is different than magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and computed tomography (CT), which show the structure of and blood flow to and from organs. The PET Scan results will determine what any future treatments will be. On Friday, I met with my nephrologist at DGMC. He added one more prescription to my list of meds. It has to do with my PTH (parathyroid hormone). He is pleased with my progress. My next scheduled appointment with him will be in September. I will have to have an extra blood draw for his use the week before the appointment. Each of the specialist docs require specific items to be checked. Thank you to everyone for your comforting words of encouragement.
Posted on: Sat, 23 Aug 2014 23:17:27 +0000
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