Teri came home on Saturday afternoon!
A local friend Jody who helped with transport logistics, massage, and groceries. We are back in the home routine of IV medications twice daily, and oral medications three times a day, some before food, some with fat. Teri takes an appetite stimulant progestin which has helped her to eat and snack after midnight. Her taste buds have been altered by chemotherapy and many foods either taste off or too spicy but the one constant is pureed watermelon, which apparently is high on post-chemo proclivities.
Paul and Dean came from Madison and brought Vietnamese bun (cold salad noodles) and won ton noodles and brought old video memories on Sunday. You see, Paul was the ringleader of our merry band of pediatric residents cum SNL wannabees who put on annual skits ridiculing the faculty and all things medical. He brought a super 8 mm (Neanderthal format) movie shot in 1978 called Star WarDs in which Steve, Kok Peng, and B (bearded) played star raving wild and crazy guys – did we really look and act like that?
Status report
Despite being ‘out’ of the hospital, we are stuck in a nearby orbit with re-entry to the Day (outpatient) Hospital at the Cancer Center on Sunday (blood work), Monday (blood work, platelets, 2 units of red cells, and KCl – 8 hours), and Tuesday today (blood work – 11 tubes, clinic appointment, albumin and lasix infusions). Everything lab-wise is improving, white cell count (4,100), kidney function (Cr down to 1.5 from 2.1), and liver functions normal (but bilirubin still > 2.0), but her CD4 virus-fighting lymphocytes are still slow to grow. Alll good news.
Teri still doesn’t feel good physically. The problem is edema (swelling) stretching her abdomen pregnant-like and legs Michelin-like. The team today estimates 6-7 liters or 13-15 pounds are retained in her abdomen! Her foot has a new egg-sized blister and she has outsized all her shoes. The only pair she can fit into is my unlaced running shoes. We did ‘emergency’ shopping yesterday for open-backed shoes that at 2 sizes larger than normal (+ wide) are a tight fit. Monica helped find pants that stretch from 32-48”. The plan is to use IV albumin (protein) and lasix (diuretic) to remove fluid and abdominal paracentesis (abdominal needle) to remove fluid from the abdomen.
The decision
Teri, influenced by her recent complication that landed her in the MICU and the interminable hospitalizations, told me that she does not ever want to return to the hospital as an in-patient. In fact, she said she will refuse to be readmitted. I asked the ‘what if’ it were a reversible infection? She said no, she was adamant. I hope we don’t have to come to that river.
The music that kept me going
There were two songs that carried me through the worst of her hospitalizations. I played them over and over repetitiously on my way home after a hard day’s night. Both were on the album Love’s Melody by Kim Waters, a tenor saxophonist. “Easy Going” (track 4) with a Spanish guitar reminds me of Teri’s innate gentle spirit and warmth, and the wailing saxophone on “Two Hearts of Mine” (track 9) recalls the times we slow danced together.
Hi Uncle B,
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for these updates. And for sharing so much of your lives, the intimate details and your innermost thoughts. It's illuminating reading about what you are both going through. And some of what you write really resonates with things I've also thought about with respect to my own cancer diagnosis and potential recurrence and inevitible mortality (if not from cancer then it will happen one day).
I've also found that in my darkest days music would often be the one thing to help me keep putting one foot in front of the other. Glad that it has sustained you.
Love,
Jen