Recovery - Part 17 & Weekend Update - March 9th
Recovery - Part 17
Doug went with me when I went to see the oncologist on Friday.
As visits have gone so far, this was another good one for me. All of the tests came back with positive results for me. Positive results means there were no adverse changes in my blood condition and other body functions. I gained another kilogram of weight from the last appointment and the doctor was pleased with that.
I guess that I am somewhat unusual in that I do not complain and moan and groan a lot when I am at the oncology clinic. I heard some patients berating the doctors about some minor things like not being to see them when they wanted to see them. I am a happy and smiling patient.
Friday was the first time that I have been seen by a male oncology resident. I think the doctor needs to tone down his vocabulary somewhat. I don’t think that using terms like “fantastic” and “great” are necessarily the best choices when commenting on patient reactions to the medication.
I also think the young residents need to get a better grip on the time – space continuum concept. The resident said he would step for five minutes while he reviewed my file with the attending physician. Most of the other residents have had a poor concept of how much time would be necessary for a consultation with their supervising physician.
The resident returned twenty five minutes later.
Then, we talked about their treatment plans for plans for me.
I take a drug called Oxaliplatin, once every three weeks. It is the main cancer drug in the treatment plan. Normally, patients only last for six sessions or cycles with the drug because of the drug’s main side affect of creating a sever sensitivity to cold with the patient.
In my case, this means no cold drinks [like cold Heineken’s] or cold food [like ice cream] for me for about two weeks after each infusion. Cold weather also bothers me but that is not too much of a concern since Summer is coming to Southern California and I will not be cold until October or November.
This is not a major burden for me.
The doctor would like me to take eight cycles of the Oxaliplatin because it will be give better results. I said I would be happy to do that since doing so clearly benefits me greatly. Besides, I get to see the infusion nurses more and that is a lot of fun for me.
We finished up with the doctor and went to get my prescription for Xeloda, the other drug that I take with the chemotherapy, filled at the hospital pharmacy. This is not an inexpensive pill. A two week supply of 98 pills costs USD$463 and change. I priced the drug at Wal-Mart and it was USD$1,037 there. I took a number and waited for my number to be called so I could turn in the prescription.
I didn’t get upset when someone cut in front of me. I just smiled and said, “Good morning” to the clerk. She apologized. I said, “People happen; it’s not your fault.”
The clerk entered my prescription and gasped at the price. I said, “I know its high but I don’t mind. It is, after all, much better than going without the medicine.”
I guess I made her feel good because she waived the charged for the prescription. I told Doug and he said she deserved a big chocolate brownie. I agree but I don’t know how I would give it to her without causing trouble.
Doug and I went to Fatburger for lunch. Doug went off his “no red meat” eating for the day. I had a Fatburger with cheese, fat fries, and medium Coke. Doug had a Kingburger with cheese, fat fries, and a medium Coke.
Doug said, “Coke always tastes better if it comes from a fountain or a glass bottle.” I think he is right on that count. Then, we went back to my flat to let our meals digest.
An hour later, we were on our way to Glacier Gelato for ice cream [for Doug] and gelato [for me]. I had two types of chocolate flavored gelato and one scoop of coffee flavored gelato. Doug had a scoop of Junior Mints ice cream and a scoop of Oreos ice cream. I think it tastes better than it looked.
After dessert, Doug headed south, behind the Orange Curtain for the weekend and a couple of days next week.
Weekend Update
I go to the clinic on a weekly basis to have my dressing changed. Changing is something that requires a skilled person and access to specific tools and supplies. You can not change your dressing successfully by yourself.
I have gone to the clinic after school. I wear a suit to school because that is the school’s dress policy for instructors. So wearing a suit is no burden for me. I have continued to wear a suit because it makes the nurses happy and a happy nurse is more likely to take better care of me.
I also noticed that I seem to get better treatment from people in general when I wear a suit. Thursday, I was wearing one of Michael Clayton suits, dark grey suit, white shirt, dark blue tie, and highly polished black shoes. Nurses smiled at me as walked through the hospital.
I think I must have looked very serious to them. I learned how to march when I was in Navy Reserve Office Training Corps in college. We were taught by a Marine Corps drill instructor. I picked up the habit of digging my heels in when I walked. I have yet to be able to break myself of that habit.
I was in an elevator with two doctors who were talking about medical stuff. I literally had no idea what they were talking about. When I got out, one of them wished me a good day. I thanked him and wished him the same.
Amazing how impressions can change one’s perspective.
My Thursday dressing change went off fairly well. There was one minor problem. The nurse will flush out the PICC line as one of the last steps in the process; this is but one of many examples why I can not change the dressing. It also takes two hands and I can only use one hand. The nurse also wants to get a partial blood backflow into the syringe as part of the process. On Thursday, the nurse was unable to get a blood backflow. It was not a failure per se but something that concerned me.
I plan to go in on Thursday and have my dressing changed so that they can get a blood backflow and so I will not have any troubles when it comes time for my next infusion on Friday. I have a few hours to spend on Thursday. I would rather make sure everything works right when I need it to work right.
The Princess called me on Saturday and we talked for about half an hour. She and the Golfer are in the lengthy process of unpacking and putting things away in Seattle. That will take some time. She said it wasn’t so bad since they had their furniture and the cats and dogs were getting used to the new setting.
I told the Princess that I will not be able to visit her in March for her birthday as we had planned because of my Monday morning class. Monday morning was when I had planned to fly back to Los Angeles. The Princess said that was fine with her; she understood completely and she pointed out that the weather was more likely to be much better in June than in March. If things go well for me, I plan to see her during my quarter break which should come in late May or early June.
Doug suggested that I take a walk along the beach this weekend. I took him up on his suggestion. I went for a walk along the Esplanade this morning. I think the walk was about a mile long. I am looking forward for more walks along the beach as the weather turns warmer and young women start wearing their bikinis when they play beach volleyball or roller skate.
Perfect way to spend a morning for me.
Seriously Guilty Pleasures
I went to the market Saturday because I was out of much of the food that I like to eat. It is hard to live without food.
It was also the start of the Girl Scout Cookie Drive. The Cookie Drive is a major fund raiser for the Girl Scouts and I almost always purchase a box or two of cookies, thin mints usually.
One of the Girl Scouts asked me if I want to buy some cookies. I said that I would see her on the way out and that I would be buying a box. She smiled.
True to my promise, I stopped on my way out and purchased three boxes of thin mints. That made her happy.
You have no idea how happy I was.
I nearly ate a half box of thin mints while I was finishing off the last of a book that I had ordered. I don’t know what I enjoyed more; the book or the cookies.
As it turned out, I left two things off of my food shopping list so I need to go back to the market this afternoon. I know I will buy the cream cheese for my onion bagels and paper towels.
Of course, I will also buy more thin mints. The nice thing about thin mints is they keep for a long time if you freeze.
I am very lucky to have a large freezer compartment in my refrigerator.
I went to the market today. I picked up the forgotten items and some more thin mints. I bought five more boxes of thin mints. I think my freezer shrunk in size over night. It seemed much smaller when I put the new thin mint boxes in the freezer.
The Girl Scouts were surprised at my order. One of them wished me a good day. As I left, I turned and smiled at her and said, “I certainly will now.”
I didn’t feel guilty at all.
School
I received a call from the Associate Dean late on Thursday afternoon. It was a good call for me. He wanted to know if I was interested in teaching a fourth class in the coming term which starts tomorrow morning.
I said I was and asked what the class was.
He said it was Composition II again for me with seventeen schedules students. I took the class. I will not have to prepare any new lesson plans since I just taught the course. I will be teaching on Monday morning, Wednesday afternoon and evening, and Saturday morning now.
Doug
Doug joined the ranks of the proletariat last week. He has a job writing for an Internet web site. He is getting paid so that is excellent; he can say he is a working writer. Hopefully, this writing job will lead to other and more profitable writing engagements.
Woman of the Moment Encore
This is the last of the Hankook Tires Girls. I will be starting with Eiko Koike as the next Woman of the Moment Encore presentation on Monday.
Visitors
We had another good week for visitors. We had visitors from Canada [14], Germany [5], Finland, Texas [11], Indonesia [3], United Kingdom [11], Switzerland [2], Singapore [2], Australia [6], Netherlands [3], Italy [4], Japan [5], France [4], Malaysia [2], Belgium, Spain [2], India, Philippines, Taiwan, Portugal [3], Greece, Poland [2], Ireland, Iran [2], Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Turkey, South Africa, and Korea.
We also had some visitors who came to the blog and stayed around for a while. We had two visitors who stayed for 26 minutes, three who stayed for 17 minutes, and three who stayed for 14 minutes.
There was one visitor who came and stayed for 72 minutes while looking at 163 pages.
I do appreciate all of you who took some time or a lot of your time to come and visit the blog.
Programming Note
Going forward into the new term, I don’t think I will be posting on Wednesdays because I will in school for most of the day and will not be home until after 10:00 PM, way past my usual bedtime.
Be well and stay happy.
Doug went with me when I went to see the oncologist on Friday.
As visits have gone so far, this was another good one for me. All of the tests came back with positive results for me. Positive results means there were no adverse changes in my blood condition and other body functions. I gained another kilogram of weight from the last appointment and the doctor was pleased with that.
I guess that I am somewhat unusual in that I do not complain and moan and groan a lot when I am at the oncology clinic. I heard some patients berating the doctors about some minor things like not being to see them when they wanted to see them. I am a happy and smiling patient.
Friday was the first time that I have been seen by a male oncology resident. I think the doctor needs to tone down his vocabulary somewhat. I don’t think that using terms like “fantastic” and “great” are necessarily the best choices when commenting on patient reactions to the medication.
I also think the young residents need to get a better grip on the time – space continuum concept. The resident said he would step for five minutes while he reviewed my file with the attending physician. Most of the other residents have had a poor concept of how much time would be necessary for a consultation with their supervising physician.
The resident returned twenty five minutes later.
Then, we talked about their treatment plans for plans for me.
I take a drug called Oxaliplatin, once every three weeks. It is the main cancer drug in the treatment plan. Normally, patients only last for six sessions or cycles with the drug because of the drug’s main side affect of creating a sever sensitivity to cold with the patient.
In my case, this means no cold drinks [like cold Heineken’s] or cold food [like ice cream] for me for about two weeks after each infusion. Cold weather also bothers me but that is not too much of a concern since Summer is coming to Southern California and I will not be cold until October or November.
This is not a major burden for me.
The doctor would like me to take eight cycles of the Oxaliplatin because it will be give better results. I said I would be happy to do that since doing so clearly benefits me greatly. Besides, I get to see the infusion nurses more and that is a lot of fun for me.
We finished up with the doctor and went to get my prescription for Xeloda, the other drug that I take with the chemotherapy, filled at the hospital pharmacy. This is not an inexpensive pill. A two week supply of 98 pills costs USD$463 and change. I priced the drug at Wal-Mart and it was USD$1,037 there. I took a number and waited for my number to be called so I could turn in the prescription.
I didn’t get upset when someone cut in front of me. I just smiled and said, “Good morning” to the clerk. She apologized. I said, “People happen; it’s not your fault.”
The clerk entered my prescription and gasped at the price. I said, “I know its high but I don’t mind. It is, after all, much better than going without the medicine.”
I guess I made her feel good because she waived the charged for the prescription. I told Doug and he said she deserved a big chocolate brownie. I agree but I don’t know how I would give it to her without causing trouble.
Doug and I went to Fatburger for lunch. Doug went off his “no red meat” eating for the day. I had a Fatburger with cheese, fat fries, and medium Coke. Doug had a Kingburger with cheese, fat fries, and a medium Coke.
Doug said, “Coke always tastes better if it comes from a fountain or a glass bottle.” I think he is right on that count. Then, we went back to my flat to let our meals digest.
An hour later, we were on our way to Glacier Gelato for ice cream [for Doug] and gelato [for me]. I had two types of chocolate flavored gelato and one scoop of coffee flavored gelato. Doug had a scoop of Junior Mints ice cream and a scoop of Oreos ice cream. I think it tastes better than it looked.
After dessert, Doug headed south, behind the Orange Curtain for the weekend and a couple of days next week.
Weekend Update
I go to the clinic on a weekly basis to have my dressing changed. Changing is something that requires a skilled person and access to specific tools and supplies. You can not change your dressing successfully by yourself.
I have gone to the clinic after school. I wear a suit to school because that is the school’s dress policy for instructors. So wearing a suit is no burden for me. I have continued to wear a suit because it makes the nurses happy and a happy nurse is more likely to take better care of me.
I also noticed that I seem to get better treatment from people in general when I wear a suit. Thursday, I was wearing one of Michael Clayton suits, dark grey suit, white shirt, dark blue tie, and highly polished black shoes. Nurses smiled at me as walked through the hospital.
I think I must have looked very serious to them. I learned how to march when I was in Navy Reserve Office Training Corps in college. We were taught by a Marine Corps drill instructor. I picked up the habit of digging my heels in when I walked. I have yet to be able to break myself of that habit.
I was in an elevator with two doctors who were talking about medical stuff. I literally had no idea what they were talking about. When I got out, one of them wished me a good day. I thanked him and wished him the same.
Amazing how impressions can change one’s perspective.
My Thursday dressing change went off fairly well. There was one minor problem. The nurse will flush out the PICC line as one of the last steps in the process; this is but one of many examples why I can not change the dressing. It also takes two hands and I can only use one hand. The nurse also wants to get a partial blood backflow into the syringe as part of the process. On Thursday, the nurse was unable to get a blood backflow. It was not a failure per se but something that concerned me.
I plan to go in on Thursday and have my dressing changed so that they can get a blood backflow and so I will not have any troubles when it comes time for my next infusion on Friday. I have a few hours to spend on Thursday. I would rather make sure everything works right when I need it to work right.
The Princess called me on Saturday and we talked for about half an hour. She and the Golfer are in the lengthy process of unpacking and putting things away in Seattle. That will take some time. She said it wasn’t so bad since they had their furniture and the cats and dogs were getting used to the new setting.
I told the Princess that I will not be able to visit her in March for her birthday as we had planned because of my Monday morning class. Monday morning was when I had planned to fly back to Los Angeles. The Princess said that was fine with her; she understood completely and she pointed out that the weather was more likely to be much better in June than in March. If things go well for me, I plan to see her during my quarter break which should come in late May or early June.
Doug suggested that I take a walk along the beach this weekend. I took him up on his suggestion. I went for a walk along the Esplanade this morning. I think the walk was about a mile long. I am looking forward for more walks along the beach as the weather turns warmer and young women start wearing their bikinis when they play beach volleyball or roller skate.
Perfect way to spend a morning for me.
Seriously Guilty Pleasures
I went to the market Saturday because I was out of much of the food that I like to eat. It is hard to live without food.
It was also the start of the Girl Scout Cookie Drive. The Cookie Drive is a major fund raiser for the Girl Scouts and I almost always purchase a box or two of cookies, thin mints usually.
One of the Girl Scouts asked me if I want to buy some cookies. I said that I would see her on the way out and that I would be buying a box. She smiled.
True to my promise, I stopped on my way out and purchased three boxes of thin mints. That made her happy.
You have no idea how happy I was.
I nearly ate a half box of thin mints while I was finishing off the last of a book that I had ordered. I don’t know what I enjoyed more; the book or the cookies.
As it turned out, I left two things off of my food shopping list so I need to go back to the market this afternoon. I know I will buy the cream cheese for my onion bagels and paper towels.
Of course, I will also buy more thin mints. The nice thing about thin mints is they keep for a long time if you freeze.
I am very lucky to have a large freezer compartment in my refrigerator.
I went to the market today. I picked up the forgotten items and some more thin mints. I bought five more boxes of thin mints. I think my freezer shrunk in size over night. It seemed much smaller when I put the new thin mint boxes in the freezer.
The Girl Scouts were surprised at my order. One of them wished me a good day. As I left, I turned and smiled at her and said, “I certainly will now.”
I didn’t feel guilty at all.
School
I received a call from the Associate Dean late on Thursday afternoon. It was a good call for me. He wanted to know if I was interested in teaching a fourth class in the coming term which starts tomorrow morning.
I said I was and asked what the class was.
He said it was Composition II again for me with seventeen schedules students. I took the class. I will not have to prepare any new lesson plans since I just taught the course. I will be teaching on Monday morning, Wednesday afternoon and evening, and Saturday morning now.
Doug
Doug joined the ranks of the proletariat last week. He has a job writing for an Internet web site. He is getting paid so that is excellent; he can say he is a working writer. Hopefully, this writing job will lead to other and more profitable writing engagements.
Woman of the Moment Encore
This is the last of the Hankook Tires Girls. I will be starting with Eiko Koike as the next Woman of the Moment Encore presentation on Monday.
Visitors
We had another good week for visitors. We had visitors from Canada [14], Germany [5], Finland, Texas [11], Indonesia [3], United Kingdom [11], Switzerland [2], Singapore [2], Australia [6], Netherlands [3], Italy [4], Japan [5], France [4], Malaysia [2], Belgium, Spain [2], India, Philippines, Taiwan, Portugal [3], Greece, Poland [2], Ireland, Iran [2], Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Turkey, South Africa, and Korea.
We also had some visitors who came to the blog and stayed around for a while. We had two visitors who stayed for 26 minutes, three who stayed for 17 minutes, and three who stayed for 14 minutes.
There was one visitor who came and stayed for 72 minutes while looking at 163 pages.
I do appreciate all of you who took some time or a lot of your time to come and visit the blog.
Programming Note
Going forward into the new term, I don’t think I will be posting on Wednesdays because I will in school for most of the day and will not be home until after 10:00 PM, way past my usual bedtime.
Be well and stay happy.
posted by Chuck Reinhardt at 3:40 PM
2 Comments:
I wish more of my patients wore suits, but I hate it when people come in by ambulance in really nice clothes, especially when they were in a car crash or are having a heart attack or stroke because it's hard to get the nice clothes off to do the ekg in time, so usually they get cut off and it makes me feel awful to be cutting off 200 dollar shirts. I
Life happens. I don't dress up when I have an infusion or have to sit and wait to see the oncologist.
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