Day: June 22, 2023

22 June 2023

I had a good night last night and didn’t have to get up once with diarrhea. Of course, that was probably due to the dosage of Lomotil and Imodium I took and I’ll probably be stopped up all day but that’s preferable to having to go every five minutes. Like I said before, take your victories where you can.

Northwest Exterminating showed up around 9 am and I showed the guy where the termites were discovered in the renovation of the east wall and below the window. The company uses a no-tenting technique where they drill into the wall board and squirt a gel that attracts termites. They take the gel back to the queen and it kills her.

Over the 28 years I’ve lived in the house, I’ve had the house tented for termites twice and it is quite an involved process where all food stuffs have to be removed and things packed in plastic bags. It’s kind of like an colonoscopy – the prep is the worst part. When they do tent, you have to stay somewhere else for two nights.

With this no-tent process, it’s no mess and no move out. I’m not sure how effective it is but it is sufficiently good that if you sell a house and you maintain the treatment, it’s enough for the sell of the house with a termite free certificate.

Next up was checking on my Lomotil prescription with CVS. The liquid form has to be ordered and I thought they ordered it. Apparently, it is still on order. Meanwhile, they have me under two separate profiles. That means I get notified under one profile when a prescription is ready but not the other. It also means that if I go to pick up a drug and they look under the wrong profile, they tell me the drug is not ready. I asked them to merge the profiles and was told no one in the pharmacy knew how to do that. They provided the corporate number.

When I called the corporate and finally got to a person, I was very quickly disabused of the notion that was their job. I was abruptly told that was the problem of the pharmacy and that was what the pharmacy’s help desk number was for. Back to my local CVS. They said it would be sent to their manager and handled.

My endocrinologist office called and wanted to know what the hell was wrong with my blood tests. Actually, the nurse for Dr. Jellinger, Farah, told me Dr. Jellinger thought it was due to chemotherapy (I told him about the cancer at an earlier visit) but she wanted to confirm I was undergoing chemo. I then related the convoluted story of the infusion, the emergency room, the hospitalization, and the diarrhea. She agreed with me 14 days after infusion was not a good sign. The endocrinologist blood draw was on the 19th of June, the infusion on the 5th and my white blood cells should have been closer to normal parameters.

In any case, she wanted to fax a copy of my blood work to the hematologist/oncologist. I explained there was a new one and I had fired the old one. Anyway, I provided the fax number this morning. My white blood cell count was through the roof. Then again, maybe that’s why I’m still fighting diarrhea.

Tomorrow I take my friend Tom to Miami at Jackson Memorial for a consult with a neurologist. One problem with getting old is most of your friends are old and you spend time trading taking people to doctor visits. The good news is we all have good days we can do that for each other.

Stay tuned!

20 June 2023

Yesterday was a good day! As of this writing, no diarrhea (thank you Lomotil)! Not only did I make it to the credit union and filled the jeep up with diesel, I managed to rake leaves on the west side of the house where the mango is shedding so much, sweep the path, clean the pool filter, clean the patio, but also managed to kill weeds that were threatening to overgrow the house from all the rain.

My stamina held up pretty well until the very last. After the weed killing, I jumped in the pool for the first time since the end of May. I’m sure the water temp was in the 90’s from the hot afternoons. Even so, it was a refreshing dip.

Funny thing about cleaning the pool filter. It was exceptionally dirty since I haven’t cleaned it since June 5th. I use a water hose to clean the pleats and today the water pressure was only so-so. At times, usually the mornings, the water pressure is pretty good but sometimes in the afternoon, it is rather weak. I wonder if it has something to do with water usage? It was so weak I walked around to the front to check to see if the construction people had accidentally left the front hose running. It wasn’t that.

I wrote the above yesterday. That tends to be how I do these blogs. I start the day before posting, write a little, let it sit, then come back and review and then add anything new.

What’s new is around 1:30 am the diarrhea came back with a vengeance. I was up and down until around 8:30 am with episodes about every 15 minutes apart. I finally got it tamed with both a Lomotil and an Imodium. I still pretty weak from the episodes. It’s back to bananas, rice, applesauce, toast and tea. I had just gotten started back on a regular diet.

I would say there’s something more going on besides the chemo with my diarrhea but they performed a fecal occult blood test (to check for cancer and bleeding polyps) and also tested for Clostridium difficile (bacterium that can damage the large intestine) and both were negative. I can only lay it at the feet of the chemotherapy. Seems like 18 days is a little long for the symptoms to persist.

I canceled the afternoon’s dental appointment (cleaning). I dreaded the thought of being trapped in a dentist chair with the need to flee the room to find the bathroom. At least my bathroom is only steps away. The one in the dental office is down two long halls. I’d never make it in time.

Holy Cross called again this morning to see how I was doing. I mentioned the diarrhea and also that no one had sent the orders to my primary for me to get an x-ray and EKG. I’ll give it another day or two and then call the surgeon’s office and see what the hold up is. I can’t get them more than a week before surgery, so I have time.

With iffy digestive issues, I’ve decided to lay low for the day and stay in bed, read, and try to get enough nourishment and fluids to prevent dehydration.

Stay tuned!