It has been quite a while since the last post. I know many of you follow this to see how I am doing and are interested in progress.
Early in the morning of March 16th, I woke up and used the restroom. While going back to bed, I passed out and fell on a space heater we had going in our bedroom. I was kind of banged up and had a pretty extensive second degree burn on my abdomen. We went to the emergency room at the University Hospital. They took some x-rays and did a CT of my neck area to make sure nothing was broken since I had some pain in both my neck and arm from the fall. They also treated the burn and made appointments at the burn clinic the next day. The conclusion was that I passed out because of dehydration and some anemia resulting from chemotherapy.
Since then we have made weekly trips to the burn clinic. Until just a week ago we changed the dressing twice a day, but now we changed medicines and are doing the changing just once a day. It is healing, but it's taking twice as long because of the chemotherapy. It is a really slow process with another six to eight weeks to go.
After the ER evaluation, we went back a few days for our regular appointment with the oncologist (nurse practitioner on this particular visit). That day, we skipped the infusion of chemo drugs and instead did a blood transfusion with hydration at the infusion center. I have had blood transfusions before, but I noted how doubly careful they are these days. They verbally double-checked between two nurses all the various things on the paperwork and on the actual bag of blood to make sure it is exactly the right thing. They monitor vitals every fifteen minutes while it is dripping in, making sure there is no allergic or otherwise adverse reaction. I did fine with the transfusion and immediately felt lots better.
Since then, I've had three more chemo infusions and things seem to be going along with them. We've seen the therapy dogs a couple more times. A young cancer survivor (about twenty years old) and her mother came by, stopping at every infusion chair to say hello and give out a gift card for ten dollars worth of gasoline and a candy bar or treat. We didn't know she was a survivor until we asked the nurse later. All she had said was "we hope these things make your day a little brighter as you deal with this stuff in your life." It was pretty touching, especially after we knew a little more about her.
The last two chemo infusions have been positively different in a couple of ways. Our son Alex came for a visit from New Mexico and went with us to the infusion on April 15th. He said he wanted to get a picture of how it all works; now he knows what the 5-6 hours entails. He helped pass the time and we appreciated his visit, as well as the many "honey-do's" he took care of for us at home.
On that same day, Alex and Kath walked over to the Primary Children's Hospital to see my niece and her husband, Candice and Cache Summers, and their new baby who is in the newborn intensive care unit there. The baby had some complications at birth, and that facility is the best one in the Intermountain West to deal with serious pediatric problems. It was my parents' favorite charity because of excellent care to both baby and family. Anyway, Candice and Cache came to the Huntsman Center to visit me during infusion. It also helped pass the time for me, and gave them a break to think about something else for an hour in their lives. Thanks Alex, Candice and Cache.
At the infusion center we've also made the acquaintance of a young man who volunteers there, passing out snacks and running errands. His name is Erik and he is an accountant but going back to school to be a doctor. When Kath was "friending" him on Facebook, she discovered they had a common friend: a young man from Los Alamos, Keith Morgan. Erik is Keith's cousin, and Keith and I served in the church together in Los Alamos as team teachers in Primary about ten years ago. Keith is now in Austria doing a change of station for the Lab. Yesterday, Erik showed me a Facebook post from Keith Morgan: a picture of his family holding up a sign wishing me well in the fight with cancer. I sure appreciated that.
Yesterday we also got results of the tumor marker bloodwork and the CT scan that was done earlier in the week. Both showed that the chemotherapy is working again. Lesions in the lungs are smaller and fewer. The tumor marker is down to half of what it was in December. I am encouraged by this good news and hoping for another remission in the future.
I want to close by again thanking all those who are supporting me in this fight. It makes it easier for me to keep a positive attitude, which according to the doctor, is a major key in the battle. Your e-mails, text messages, phone calls, good thoughts, prayers, and even Facebook messages all the way from Austria make such a difference to me. Thanks for all your support and things you do. I cannot really express how much I appreciate it.
