Thursday - Two Days Out

Omi Susanne took some great shots of the boy while he visited at her house. Here are a couple of good ones.


I am doing ok here in chemo-land. Yesterday when I went in for my Neulasta shot we told the nurse about my pulse rate being pretty high. Orthostatic, my mother called it. Ok when lying down, too high when standing up, with an accompanying drop in blood pressure. I was impressed with how responsive they were in bringing Dr. George out to see me and talk about it. He decided a quick EKG would be a good idea just to check on my heart function. He felt my high heart rate was most likely do to a little dehydration, but just to be sure, they sent me outpatient into the hospital for an EKG. Took 15 minutes and they let me take a printout back to Dr. George in the Cancer Center. An 'interpreted' printout will come later after the cardiologist looks at it, but a plain old printout was enough to make Dr. George feel ok about sending me home to rest. My mom made sure I was laying on my butt for the rest of the day and much of today. I am to report any chest pain and keep checking my pulse and blood pressure. We have an electronic unit here at the house so I just slip it on every few hours and check. Pulse is still a little high, but not as much as yesterday. And I feel pretty beat, but no chest pain. Just tired.

It did scare me a little to see the readout yesterday say my pulse was 149 because David just did that stress test on the treadmill and they had him walk and run on it for half an hour to get his heart rate up to 150. And I just got out of bed first thing in the morning to a heart rate equivalent to that. Not good. But I am glad we checked it out. It worries me a little that my right atrium is showing enlarged. Some of the chemo meds cause heart damage and I hope this isn't a sign of things to come. Mom thinks the right side is enlarged because of all those months trying to pump blood through my screwed up right lung. Maybe. I just will have to keep an eye on it for well...forever I guess.

Today my Dad came and took over for my mom. He and Jackson went to the grocery store and came home successfully having picked up staples and stuff to make chicken alfredo lasagna, which was great. I am keeping a bit better control of my appetite this time and not eating us out of house and home. I eat when I am hungry and ignore the Prednisone monster in my gut. It actually isn't so intense this time. Maybe my body is starting to realize that I am well fed again and don't need to stuff my face all day long. Which is good. I also feel in better control of my mind this round. Not so foggy, not so confused and emotional. I am very tired and drained and ready to be done with this whole treatment process, but my coping this time is better. Resigned. I rested on the couch and in my bed today without panicking that life is going on without me and that I have to get out and do something and not waste a whole day. Today I just lay around and tried to rest.

Tomorrow I hope I'll be strong enough for an outing with my Dad and son. Not sure what to do. Don't really need to shop. Maybe the park or to get the boy a haircut. We shall see.

Hope everyone is doing well out there in the real world. I hope to see you all there again real soon.