The Good: Cheryl's back home and we're on our fourth day back from the hospital, so it doesn't look like we're going back anytime soon. Huzzah! Also, Cheryl is actually eating solid food and not, I repeat, not barfing it up ten minutes later. Sure, she's not eating a whole bunch, but she's eating! Not enough to get get rid of the milkshake-in-a-bag as yet, but we're trending in the right direction. She's also not having to hit the "BAD CADD" as often (the BAD in this case stands for the Benadryl, Atavan and dexamethazone cocktail she can inject herself with as needed for cramping and nausea.
The Bad: Dear Lord, my wife has absolutely zero muscle tone. It's improving, but simply standing up takes a fair amount of effort. You squeeze her arms, it's like holding a soggy balloon! This calls for more high-protein smoothies and low-low-low impact exercises to build up those cankles!
The Ugly: Getting up and off the toilet is currently a nigh-impossibility, and since Cheryl's still on the Lasix to get rid of all her excess water weight, so that means a lot of piddling, and we've had to get a commode.
Cleaning one of those things out is absolutely zero fun, let me tell you. I really deserve a raise if'n you ask me.
Dave
Saturday, August 30, 2008
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Hopefully, this will last longer than the last time
Hooray, Cheryl's home! (again) Fortunately, this should last longer the last time - she spent a week in the hospital working on improving her strength, and is doing much, much better. She still needs a little help getting around, and the shower could be an adventure, but all in all, this is a vast improvement over last week. Her folks are staying with us for a few days and are being a big help. And she managed to eat a decent dinner of fresh pesto fettucine, too! Her nausea is becoming less and less of a problem (it's still there, but it's manageable).
Big shout out to Apria, the folks who make her milkshake-in-a-bag. These folks have been a tremendous help to us and they have our thanks, big time.
We'll see how she does in the next few days, and hopefully is able to get a shower in the next day or so...she is kinda stinky right now...
Big shout out to Apria, the folks who make her milkshake-in-a-bag. These folks have been a tremendous help to us and they have our thanks, big time.
We'll see how she does in the next few days, and hopefully is able to get a shower in the next day or so...she is kinda stinky right now...
Sunday, August 24, 2008
Po-dunk
So, Vanessa and I got over to Lentil Fest in Pullman about four o'clock. There was the beer garden, and I see a few vendors...where are the lentils?
Oh, that happened at three o'clock. No more lentils anymore?
Call me crazy, but if this is the "National Lentil Festival," shouldn't there be lentils, lentils, everywhere? But there was nary a dry pea to be found anywhere.
Gotta love the city of Pullman. They don't even half-ass this garbage, maybe quarter-ass, best case.
It's funny: Moscow is five miles away, across the border, and is also a college town, but actually feels like an actual town; there's a definite sense of community. That would apparently be too much work for the City of Pullman, who's idea of community is apparently collecting Busch Light cans off of College Hill after football games.
Vanessa and I wandered to Pullman's downtown and found a new German/Czech place, specializing in all sorts of odd goodies (head cheese or tongue-and-blood sausage, anyone)? How unique! Being Pullman, I give them three months, tops. But we did get some beer and sausage, to the day was not a complete loss.
On to the Cheryl news: she is feeling much better, and may come home in the next day or two. She's spent the last few days working on building up her strength so she can "at least get off the toilet," in her words, and is actually eating some actual solid food and getting out for laps around the ward. Her folks are coming up tomorrow, too, to help out, which is good - I'm just about out of sick/vacation days. Still, any excuse to miss work is a good one...
Oh, that happened at three o'clock. No more lentils anymore?
Call me crazy, but if this is the "National Lentil Festival," shouldn't there be lentils, lentils, everywhere? But there was nary a dry pea to be found anywhere.
Gotta love the city of Pullman. They don't even half-ass this garbage, maybe quarter-ass, best case.
It's funny: Moscow is five miles away, across the border, and is also a college town, but actually feels like an actual town; there's a definite sense of community. That would apparently be too much work for the City of Pullman, who's idea of community is apparently collecting Busch Light cans off of College Hill after football games.
Vanessa and I wandered to Pullman's downtown and found a new German/Czech place, specializing in all sorts of odd goodies (head cheese or tongue-and-blood sausage, anyone)? How unique! Being Pullman, I give them three months, tops. But we did get some beer and sausage, to the day was not a complete loss.
On to the Cheryl news: she is feeling much better, and may come home in the next day or two. She's spent the last few days working on building up her strength so she can "at least get off the toilet," in her words, and is actually eating some actual solid food and getting out for laps around the ward. Her folks are coming up tomorrow, too, to help out, which is good - I'm just about out of sick/vacation days. Still, any excuse to miss work is a good one...
Friday, August 22, 2008
Some days are diamonds, some days are rocks...
Then apparently I own a damn gravel pit.
At least Cheryl is feeling a bit better. She's still swollen up like Veruca Salt due to fluid retention, but is feeling stronger and actually eating solid food. Just a little, but we'll take what we can get.
As for when she gets released, who knows? Hopefully later next week; that appears to be the best case scenario.
I just got through with a week of hell at work at WSU ("Killing Your Hopes And Dreams Since 1905!"), and will have double that next week - beginning of Fall Term is always that way, and, as usual, I'm understaffed and overworked; my back is absolutely killing me, and I don't think I've gotten a decent night's sleep in about six months.
There is one bright spot, the return of our dear dear DEAR friend Vanessa, and believe you me, simply having a friendly face in the area who understands what we're going through is a tremendous boon. In fact, we're going to Lentil Fest tomorrow.
You know how some small towns have these big national festivals, like the Garlic Festival in Gilroy, CA, that are really big deals?
Now imagine one of those being run on a $42 budget, and you have Lentil Fest.
At least Cheryl is feeling a bit better. She's still swollen up like Veruca Salt due to fluid retention, but is feeling stronger and actually eating solid food. Just a little, but we'll take what we can get.
As for when she gets released, who knows? Hopefully later next week; that appears to be the best case scenario.
I just got through with a week of hell at work at WSU ("Killing Your Hopes And Dreams Since 1905!"), and will have double that next week - beginning of Fall Term is always that way, and, as usual, I'm understaffed and overworked; my back is absolutely killing me, and I don't think I've gotten a decent night's sleep in about six months.
There is one bright spot, the return of our dear dear DEAR friend Vanessa, and believe you me, simply having a friendly face in the area who understands what we're going through is a tremendous boon. In fact, we're going to Lentil Fest tomorrow.
You know how some small towns have these big national festivals, like the Garlic Festival in Gilroy, CA, that are really big deals?
Now imagine one of those being run on a $42 budget, and you have Lentil Fest.
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
That was short
About two o'clock last night, Cheryl desperately needed to go to the bathroom. We tried getting her to a standing position, but she was too weak. She tried crawling there but couldn't get up to the bowl, so we had no choice but to call 911 to get an ambulance and have her carted back to the hospital here in Moscow.
At least she was home for ten hours :(
The docs think this utter weakness might be due to abysmally low albumen counts - no albumen, no protein production; no protein production, no muscle mass; no muscle mass, I have a jellyfish for a wife. But, really, there's no great consensus onto why she's so weak all of the sudden.
More news will be posted as I get it. Hopefully some of it will be good for once.
Dave
At least she was home for ten hours :(
The docs think this utter weakness might be due to abysmally low albumen counts - no albumen, no protein production; no protein production, no muscle mass; no muscle mass, I have a jellyfish for a wife. But, really, there's no great consensus onto why she's so weak all of the sudden.
More news will be posted as I get it. Hopefully some of it will be good for once.
Dave
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Well, at least we're home
You know the old phrase, "weak as a kitten?" That, sadly, describes Cheryl right now. When I can say she can barely stand, I ain't kidding. I was able to push her up the stairs, barely, which is good, as the only other option was carrying her, something the Dave of 2006 might have been able to accomplish, but the Dave of 2008 is older, flabbier, and in much worse shape.
At present, Cheryl is zonked out on the couch, as getting to the bedroom was going to be too much effort. To no one's surprise, she's covered in cats - I see once again where I fall in the hierarchy of things - "not the mama!"
Hopefully, after a good night's rest (and once the pharmacy running through her veins is depleted), she'll at least be a little more conscious...and be able to get to the bathroom unassisted.
At present, Cheryl is zonked out on the couch, as getting to the bedroom was going to be too much effort. To no one's surprise, she's covered in cats - I see once again where I fall in the hierarchy of things - "not the mama!"
Hopefully, after a good night's rest (and once the pharmacy running through her veins is depleted), she'll at least be a little more conscious...and be able to get to the bathroom unassisted.
Monday, August 18, 2008
O frabjous day!
Good news, everyone! Cheryl finally returns home tomorrow after...jeeze, how long has it been? Hopefully we can keep her well for longer than three days before returning to the hospital. Fingers and toes crossed, people.
But also, our dear dear friend Vanessa is returning to the Palouse, so at the very least we've got someone else to commiserate with in the coming days.
I'd better hurry up and finish this post - there's a monster thunderboomer coming through and boy howdy, I'm getting quite the free lightshow.
But also, our dear dear friend Vanessa is returning to the Palouse, so at the very least we've got someone else to commiserate with in the coming days.
I'd better hurry up and finish this post - there's a monster thunderboomer coming through and boy howdy, I'm getting quite the free lightshow.
Saturday, August 9, 2008
Time for the big weekend info dump
Well, now I know why Tim the Housesitter didn't see Pearl while he was here: she'd gotten stuck in a closet for five days! Aside from being very thirsty, she seems none the worse for wear; when left alone, she truly does hibernate. Apparently, she decided to have her revenge by meowing loudly at me last night, every hour, on the hour, which certainly beats the dreaded Kitty Surprise, if'n you know what I mean.
I'd like to think that maybe she's learned her lesson and won't climb into closets anymore, but both Cheryl and I know that our cats really aren't very bright.
The drive home wasn't too bad - I ended up taking the slightly longer route through Lewiston to try to avoid a massive thunderstorm to the north, which I managed to do for the most part. The air was thick with ozone and the smells of rain and freshly-cut wheat, which combined with the pyrotechnics to the north, actually made for an enjoyable trip.
Friday morning, I happened to bump into Chris Fountain, the nurse who's in charge of coordinating all the various clinical trials at Providence, and got to pick his brain for a bit. Right now, the plan is for he and Dr. Crocenzi to get a CAT scan after the radiation therapy and see what, if anything, has changed, and if Cheryl's still good to go on ipilumimab therapy - even though the study is fairly liberal, she may not be eligible to continue with it (although, it's worth noting, "ipi" is close to FDA approval, which would open it up to everyone). Chris did mention that they're another couple of trials opening up soon, so we do have a Plan E should the current therapy crap out. He also mentioned that, simply to improve her quality of life, surgery to remove the tumor-riddled portions of her gastrointestinal tract is not unthinkable, but major surgery like that is very risky and would most likely be a last resort.
Also, according to Chris, what he has seen with stomach tumors and radiation therapy is that, occasionally, a lot of the tumor tissue will be killed and end up being...well...barfed up. And it looks like meatloaf.
Say it with me: ewwww! And Cheryl doesn't even like meatloaf.
At present, Cheryl is kind of riding the roller coaster of nausea and stomach cramps, but she's usually getting plenty of dilaudid and other Happy Fun Drugs that keep her feeling okay, but pretty sleepy. She's only got two more treatments to go, and if all goes well, we'll have her back home by the end of next week, and she can sit on the couch and watch the Olympics to her heart's content.
Saw The Dark Knight on an IMAX screen down in Tigard (and, guys, if we're paying $13 for a movie, I think you can spare a little Windex and clean the damn lenses! It's very annoying to have these giant black spots on the screen because the projector is dirty).
That aside, I really liked the film, although I'm reluctant to call it The Greatest Thing Since Sliced Bread. Worth the price of admission, definitely, and Heath Ledger's performance truly was all that and a bag of chips.
Dave
I'd like to think that maybe she's learned her lesson and won't climb into closets anymore, but both Cheryl and I know that our cats really aren't very bright.
The drive home wasn't too bad - I ended up taking the slightly longer route through Lewiston to try to avoid a massive thunderstorm to the north, which I managed to do for the most part. The air was thick with ozone and the smells of rain and freshly-cut wheat, which combined with the pyrotechnics to the north, actually made for an enjoyable trip.
Friday morning, I happened to bump into Chris Fountain, the nurse who's in charge of coordinating all the various clinical trials at Providence, and got to pick his brain for a bit. Right now, the plan is for he and Dr. Crocenzi to get a CAT scan after the radiation therapy and see what, if anything, has changed, and if Cheryl's still good to go on ipilumimab therapy - even though the study is fairly liberal, she may not be eligible to continue with it (although, it's worth noting, "ipi" is close to FDA approval, which would open it up to everyone). Chris did mention that they're another couple of trials opening up soon, so we do have a Plan E should the current therapy crap out. He also mentioned that, simply to improve her quality of life, surgery to remove the tumor-riddled portions of her gastrointestinal tract is not unthinkable, but major surgery like that is very risky and would most likely be a last resort.
Also, according to Chris, what he has seen with stomach tumors and radiation therapy is that, occasionally, a lot of the tumor tissue will be killed and end up being...well...barfed up. And it looks like meatloaf.
Say it with me: ewwww! And Cheryl doesn't even like meatloaf.
At present, Cheryl is kind of riding the roller coaster of nausea and stomach cramps, but she's usually getting plenty of dilaudid and other Happy Fun Drugs that keep her feeling okay, but pretty sleepy. She's only got two more treatments to go, and if all goes well, we'll have her back home by the end of next week, and she can sit on the couch and watch the Olympics to her heart's content.
Saw The Dark Knight on an IMAX screen down in Tigard (and, guys, if we're paying $13 for a movie, I think you can spare a little Windex and clean the damn lenses! It's very annoying to have these giant black spots on the screen because the projector is dirty).
That aside, I really liked the film, although I'm reluctant to call it The Greatest Thing Since Sliced Bread. Worth the price of admission, definitely, and Heath Ledger's performance truly was all that and a bag of chips.
Dave
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
Up and down the roller coaster we go
This morning, Cheryl got taken away early to get irradiated, and upon return, was nauseous and pretty much out of it. By this afternoon, thanks to happy fun drugs, we were fairly close to "normal" Cheryl, able to carry on a conversation with her parents and aunt and uncle to came to visit for our anniversary (and brought tasty cake, the bulk of which will probably be eaten by the nursing staff).
As of now, we're back to sleepy, nauseous Cheryl, as I think that visit pretty much tuckered her out (yes, I have a wife with the stamina of a one-year-old at present, 'twould appear, but that's the joys of radiation therapy and god knows what else). I suspect we will not get around to watching The Simpsons Movie tonight, and I'm sure I'll hear about it that I forgot to set up the TiVo to tape Project Runway (that show is on perpetual repeat on Bravo, however, so I'm sure she'll be able to catch up).
For some reason, Cheryl has taken to being a regular watcher of Mariners games. I can't imagine why, unless she's a closet masochist or has an unnatural and bewildering fascination with Yuniesky Betancourt.
Maybe she's just getting ready to watch lots of horrible University of Oregon baseball next year and needs to steel herself (oh, I'm gonna hear it for that one...)
As of now, we're back to sleepy, nauseous Cheryl, as I think that visit pretty much tuckered her out (yes, I have a wife with the stamina of a one-year-old at present, 'twould appear, but that's the joys of radiation therapy and god knows what else). I suspect we will not get around to watching The Simpsons Movie tonight, and I'm sure I'll hear about it that I forgot to set up the TiVo to tape Project Runway (that show is on perpetual repeat on Bravo, however, so I'm sure she'll be able to catch up).
For some reason, Cheryl has taken to being a regular watcher of Mariners games. I can't imagine why, unless she's a closet masochist or has an unnatural and bewildering fascination with Yuniesky Betancourt.
Maybe she's just getting ready to watch lots of horrible University of Oregon baseball next year and needs to steel herself (oh, I'm gonna hear it for that one...)
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
At this rate, I should make reservations for Barrow, AK
Tomorrow will our 3rd wedding anniversary - funny, I thought the typical present of the 3rd anniversary was leather, not toxic radiation. Shows you what I know.
Our anniversaries have continually gotten worse. Our first was spent in Winthrop, WA, a sleepy little town in northern Washington, and it would have been fun had there not been this massive forest fire a few miles away smoking the place out. We ended up going to Lewiston for our 2nd anniversary and eating at this nice-looking but very underwhelming restaurant (when I order a steak, I do not expect it to be cut up for me; I still have all my teeth, tyvm), and days later we got the current diagnosis. And now our third is being spent in a hospital.
Cheryl's doing pretty well, but tends to have periods of "bleargh-iness" due to the radiation, but she's able to get up and walk around a bit, and happily chowed down on some naan I brought back for her (and, by happily chowed, I mean she nibbled on small pieces like a squirrel).
I will probably be heading out to one of the giant shopping malls to do some no-sales-tax shopping later, and I just found out that there's a local IMAX theater...and I haven't seen The Dark Knight yet...
Are you thinking what I'm thinking, Pinky?
Our anniversaries have continually gotten worse. Our first was spent in Winthrop, WA, a sleepy little town in northern Washington, and it would have been fun had there not been this massive forest fire a few miles away smoking the place out. We ended up going to Lewiston for our 2nd anniversary and eating at this nice-looking but very underwhelming restaurant (when I order a steak, I do not expect it to be cut up for me; I still have all my teeth, tyvm), and days later we got the current diagnosis. And now our third is being spent in a hospital.
Cheryl's doing pretty well, but tends to have periods of "bleargh-iness" due to the radiation, but she's able to get up and walk around a bit, and happily chowed down on some naan I brought back for her (and, by happily chowed, I mean she nibbled on small pieces like a squirrel).
I will probably be heading out to one of the giant shopping malls to do some no-sales-tax shopping later, and I just found out that there's a local IMAX theater...and I haven't seen The Dark Knight yet...
Are you thinking what I'm thinking, Pinky?
Sunday, August 3, 2008
I used to love road trips
One year of ferrying to Portland and back (plus a cranky lower back) definitely takes the fun I once enjoyed out of driving. I really need to learn how to ride a motorcycle one of these years - I'd certainly be saving fat bank on gas.
Anywho, I'm here in Portland with the missus, who feels kind of "meh" today - tomorrow is more radiation therapy, and I'll be visiting a friend of ours tomorrow and going out for Indian food - mmm, Indian food. Yes, tandoori chicken, you shall soon be mine...all mine...
More updates later. The Simpsons are on now.
Dave
Anywho, I'm here in Portland with the missus, who feels kind of "meh" today - tomorrow is more radiation therapy, and I'll be visiting a friend of ours tomorrow and going out for Indian food - mmm, Indian food. Yes, tandoori chicken, you shall soon be mine...all mine...
More updates later. The Simpsons are on now.
Dave
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