13 October 2023
Ugh! Another bad night and lack of sleep. I took two Advil PM in hopes of getting some rest but either they are too old or they just didn’t work. It looks like I’m back to Xanax before chemo and infusions. To make it worse, I was totally stopped up last night. My nasal passages just didn’t want to cooperate. I’m dragging today and probably will be until I get a boost from the infusion this afternoon.
I did manage to clean the pool filter and spray for weeds. That was about all I was able to accomplish. The weeds get out of control in a few days’ time and it’s a constant battle.
UPS is updating me frequently about the arrival of my new iPhone. First it was out for delivery, then out for delivery between 7 am and 9 pm and now it’s out for delivery from 4 pm until 8 pm. Take your pick. My money is that it arrives either tomorrow or Monday.
Everything at the cancer center was late today. Pat was my nurse and I like her and she’s very competent. Not so the person that ended up helping her. If you don’t hear from me for the next few days, I’m probably in the hospital with sepsis. The person helping Pat dragged the tubing for the IV across the floor and the nipple that goes into my port was on the floor. She was about to insert it when I started to correct her and she said “I’m gonna clean that off.” My thought was why did you let it drag across the floor in the first place. She did clean it with an alcohol wipe and then used the same alcohol wipe to clean the port entrance. Some people have no concept of sterile technique.
The good news is the only thing wrong with my Complete Metabolic Panel was high glucose (always) and low protein. Everything else that is normally out of wack was normal. They didn’t do CBC today. Even with just the saline and magnesium (always low) it took 3 hours for the infusion.
I told Pat that Tuesday is my last Taxol session. She went out of her way to tell me that the Herceptin will be much, much easier on me. About the only thing to expect is some fatigue during the 3 week intervals but that I should be able to handle that much better than the Taxol. That gives me some hope. Maybe I can also hope for some reversal of the side effects of Taxol.
After the infusion, I ran a pair of gloves up to Kurt on the 6th floor of Holy Cross. He’s had some real problems and this is his third week in Holy Cross. Both of us complain about how cold our hands and feet get. I took him a pair of my lightweight hiking gloves for the rest of his stay and I ordered us both a pair of woolen gloves that will allow you to use electronic devices. I don’t know if they will work but if they do, it’ll be worth it not having to pull off gloves to make a phone call.
Amazingly, UPS delivered my phone just now (5:50 pm). I’ll probably spend Saturday getting it set up and my old iPhone ready to be returned. Exciting times!
Dialecta
Holley mentioned another phrase using the word carry as in “I’m fixing to carry y’all to the store.” Then she mentioned using the word buggy for shopping cart. I had forgotten about buggy.
Somewhere I read that the Southern accent is the most closely related to the English accent. I’m not sure that is true but there are hints of it here and there.
Stay tuned!