Friday, February 13, 2009

Snore war

Hey, not only did I win but the words rhyme. Last night, I guess I was sufficiently loud enough in my snoring, that I drove Diana off to another bedroom. Earplugs and all. Maybe I'm onto something here! The good thing is I was either drugged up or quite relaxed. I think it was a combination of the two. I'm still in a bit of pain and discomfort from the lung tap procedure so I'm taking some pretty good pain relief meds. Ah, the good old cause and effect. Pain relief and able to relax (sleep) equals pretty darn good constipation. I'll take the pain relief.

Monday is my next chemo session and I guess I will be getting some more info on Dr. Erlich and his departure. In the mean time, one of the other oncologists in the same practice will be taking care of me through this current chemo regimen. Nothing changes for at least the next 6 weeks (3 sessions). I will also see Dr. Skaryak on Monday after chemo. We have lots of questions for her!!!

I haven't been feeling the greatest over the past couple of days. I need to get physically and mentally strong for Monday. The fact that Rob is coming home today and will be here over the weekend, will be a huge tonic for me.

Carpe Diem.

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Those body blows just keeping coming

This is like an ugly boxing match. Just as soon as one blow is absorbed another comes along. Last night one of the RN's that works with Dr. Erlich called to inform us that Dr. Erlich had just resigned from his Sinai Hospital practice. This was really not what we wanted to hear at this moment in time. There isn't much more information available right now, suffice to say, wherever Dr. Erlich ends up practicing, we will follow him there. I will elaborate more on this situation at the appropriate time. It's just not now.

I had my blood work done with Mary at the infusion center yesterday. The only recent good news was that all is ok with the blood counts. So for this week no more Neupogen shots. My next chemo treatment is scheduled for Monday February 16th.

Carpe Diem.

Sunday, February 8, 2009

Weekend update and what a weekend!

There is nothing like anticipating one thing and having something else done.

Diana and I went into Sinai hospital around Friday lunch time expecting to get another fairly straight forward lung tap, maybe some talc powder and a temporary chest tube drain done. We essentially did get all the previously mentioned procedures but our timeline was slightly off. Only by 2 days. What should have given things away was during the pre-op questions and answers was the fact they at I was going to get a general anesthetic. The fact that Dr. Skaryak told us they would probably be removing the chest tube drain on Sunday, was the other dead giveaway. Boy, there is no pulling the wool over our eyes. I guess, ultimately, we heard what we wanted to hear and no, we don't make these mistakes often.

So fast forward 48 hours. The constant waking up for various tests etc. was unbelievably fatiguing. Toss in the lack of good food and the ever constipating medications and you can see this is a disaster waiting to happen. Now combine that with the cosmic pain relief medication and I may have almost come unglued!!! It was bloody awful.

I guess the good thing was that the intended procedures went well. The lung tap drained another 1.1 litres of fluid from the lung and the talc was able to seal the pleura to the lung lining. For the 2 days, the chest tube drain did it's job. So all in all, things went well except for our little timetable misunderstanding. Now it's recovery time - at home. Phew.

Carpe Diem.