Monday, October 22, 2007

Chemo Day3

Today is my third and final dose for this round of one of my chemo meds. The premedication has helped so far. I have had no nausea but have noticed the last day or so that my appetite is a little less. I now have 4 more days of continuous therapy of my other chemo drug to go. Then we see how low my counts go and what kind of infection I get. They tell me that everyone gets some kind of infection. It usually takes a couple of weeks to get everything cleared up from that. When that occurs I may get to go home.

Marc Steinberg from Passavant was up to see me tonight. He is one of the administrators and has been a good friend. His wife helped us buy our first house in Jacksonville and sold our last house for us. They have been trying to get together with my daughter and her husband and Teresa and I to take us out to a Thai restaurant in Springfield. They would like to see if Kim thinks it is close to what they had in Thailand. When they first offered last year when Kim came home, she had appendicitis and then was still pregnant. After Ian was born, she did not feel she could leave him for very long while she was nursing and did not want to take him with so we have been waiting to get together. Now that Ian is over a year old, it is easier to watch him for a longer time and he could have his food with so now we are just trying to find a time that works.
Maybe when I get out of here we can do it!

Peter Trace also called me today to offer his best wishes. We started at Passavant Hospital within a month of each other and shared office space in the beginning. He also delivered Jon, Daniel and Michael for us and also was Ian's obstetrician! He is a Cubs fan like I am and a good friend.

Dr. Walter Meyer also called today. He is a retired doctor in Jacksonville. He is very well respected and we served on the board of directors together for more than 10 years. I remember when I first started that he was an Icon for Jacksonville. He was one of the docs who made house calls, delivered babies and saw a hundred patients some days between the ER , the office and house calls and covering for other physicians. It took me over a year before I was able to call him by his first name instead of Dr. Meyer. I knew I was accepted in Jacksonville when he started to refer patients to me. He is my hero also as he got to practice in what I believe was the golden age of medicine. There was plenty of new technology like the CAT scanner but it was before the takeover of medical care by government bureaucracy and insurance companies. He also retired while he still had a good reputation and has stayed involved in medicine in many ways including a stroke support group among others. While on the board we worked for many years to try and get a shortcut from the ER to the radiology department. The last couple of years, they remodeled part of XRay and we got them to put in the shortcut! I am not sure whether we decided it was the Fox-Meyer hallway or the Meyer-Fox hallway but it is there and we are both happy because it cuts down the time an ER patient has to spend traveling to and from the CAT scanner or ultrasound and that can be important for a sick or injured patient!

Teresa and I spent some time on the computer today. I am teaching her how to keep track our home and office finances on the computer. She used to do it all when we just wrote checks. When we switched to computer, I did it all. I showed her how to do it before when I was sick but that was 10 years ago and she needed a refresher course. It was something we've been trying to do for a long time but just had not gotten around to it. Now seems like a good time for the computer class!

Now it is just the waiting game, waiting to see what the final bone marrow reports show and waiting to see how low my counts go and what kind of infection I get. Those of you who know me know that I am not a good "waiter". So I am trying to keep busy with other things. I walk 6-8 times a day and have been using my breathing machine(spirometer) to help lessen the chance of blood clots and pneumonia. I am also writing this blog, checking email and keeping track of things at the office. I want to be sure my patients are being taken care of while I am "on vacation". Phone calls and visitors have also helped pass the time as well as reading comments on this blog. Thanks to all who have been a part of that. Got to get my rest now. More tomorrow!

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