Yeah, I know -- we're not writing much. There's not a heckuva lot to write about, though. dp's days consist mostly of tv, knitting, and Games magazine puzzles, punctuated by eating, sleeping, and escorted trips to the bathroom. Three days a week, there's physical therapy, and Dede's here for massage two days a week. dp continues to make progress, but she's still weak, tired, and unsteady.
We went to see Dr. C for a follow-up this morning. He's fairly satisfied with the progress -- he says that dp looks better on paper than in person. Her various blood counts are all pretty much where they are supposed to be, and he cut the steroids down again today, with the target of stopping altogether in a week.
We took a bunch of pictures of dp's chemo caps -- I'll try and get something to show off together soon, but I don't think you want me to put this post off until I do that...
We put off the gyn-onc follow-up schedule for last week. As you may recall, the doctor there had said that he saw nothing in the ultrasound, and the follow-up was really just a precaution. Given that, both Drs. A and C agreed that we could probably put that one off until the weather is better and dp is stronger. Next Thursday, there's a brain MRI, so we'll see if anything has escaped the surgery and radiation. Barring any bad news there, Dr. C has tentatively scheduled a follow-up for the end of February.
We had a two-day break from winter -- Monday, it hit 50, I think. By this morning, though, it was 10 below. Still, January is almost over, and I'm looking forward to warmer weather already.
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Sunday, January 20, 2008
Mehndi Head
The woman who does Mehndi henna art came over today. With Dede watching on, she spent about three hours to do this. Pretty cool, huh?
Dr. C called yesterday morning (yep, Saturday) to check in. We've cut the steroids down to 4mg once a day now, and he confirmed my interpretation of the biopsy delay -- it makes no difference, because Diana isn't strong enough to do another surgery now anyway. It sounds like if it is cancer, they'll remove the kidney, but we'll worry about that later. He's a little concerned that Diana has been having some weird nerve things on her right side (temperature sensations, mostly), but says we'll just wait for the follow-up CT to see what's going on. That's scheduled for February 3.
This Friday, there's a follow-up ultrasound and gynecology exam from the not-tumor incident of last fall. I'm fully expecting that one to be negative, too.
Diana's getting a little more energy back, but she's still poops out pretty quickly. She took a real shower (in a chair) today for the first time since sometime in November. She's gotta bunch of cranium covers knitted up, and is working on more. She's also working on puzzles in Games magazine, and feels that is helping her exercise her brain. Mary the PT will be back tomorrow to exercise the rest of her...
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
The Ides of January (+3)
Up to now, there's been nothing much to report. Diana is spending most of her time sleeping -- less so this week than last. Her appetite is good, and we walk from the bed to the bathroom several times a day. Her PT has her doing work with weights. No news is good news, ya know?
Unfortunately, there's news.
I think I mentioned a spot on dp's left kidney when they looked at the CT. It was right at the bottom of the field, so they couldn't tell what it was, and we scheduled an ultrasound today.
The ultrasound tech took pictures for about 15 minutes. She said that "the Doctors" wanted to see the results before we left, and she left the room. Ten minutes later, another tech came in and she took pictures for ten minutes. Finally, a doctor came in, introduced himself, and did the ultrasound himself.
When I asked him what he thought it was, he said it might be a cyst that had hemorrhaged, but they'd have to look at the composite images. He was pretty careful to say nothing.
Dr. C called an hour or so later, and said we'll need to schedule a biopsy. I looked it up, and it appears to be done with a long needle, and takes an hour or so. Diana talked to him, and he didn't seem to be in a real hurry. The tumor is pretty small (5mm, I think) and he's not wanting to subject her to any more treatment until she's feeling stronger anyway.
There's supposed to be another major winter storm coming in tonight. A good time to hide out in da woods, I think.
Unfortunately, there's news.
I think I mentioned a spot on dp's left kidney when they looked at the CT. It was right at the bottom of the field, so they couldn't tell what it was, and we scheduled an ultrasound today.
The ultrasound tech took pictures for about 15 minutes. She said that "the Doctors" wanted to see the results before we left, and she left the room. Ten minutes later, another tech came in and she took pictures for ten minutes. Finally, a doctor came in, introduced himself, and did the ultrasound himself.
When I asked him what he thought it was, he said it might be a cyst that had hemorrhaged, but they'd have to look at the composite images. He was pretty careful to say nothing.
Dr. C called an hour or so later, and said we'll need to schedule a biopsy. I looked it up, and it appears to be done with a long needle, and takes an hour or so. Diana talked to him, and he didn't seem to be in a real hurry. The tumor is pretty small (5mm, I think) and he's not wanting to subject her to any more treatment until she's feeling stronger anyway.
There's supposed to be another major winter storm coming in tonight. A good time to hide out in da woods, I think.
Sunday, January 6, 2008
Caucusing With Cancer
The last radiation treatment was Friday -- they gave Diana her positioning face mask (flower basket? bird feeder? avant-garde sculpture?) and a 'Certificate of Completion.' We'll talk to Dr. C next week, and start tapering the steriods down. Then two to six weeks of sleep and she'll be starting to get back to normal. The PT talked about trying stairs next week -- that's what we need to get back to our home.
We both did the caucus Thursday -- you can part a pretty good-sized crowd with a wheelchair and a loud voice. We were in the City High Auditorium -- never a very good place to caucus, particularly with a wheelchair and more particularly with a crowd twice the size of four years ago. Still, we found a more-or-less handicapped-accessible parking space and with the incredible assistance of a City High teacher who was caucusing in the cafeteria next door, we got a space down in the front with the Edwards people.
They used a different procedure this year -- rather than clumping in groups and counting bodies, everybody got a 'preference card' -- a three by five card with a sequential number. They determined the total turnout by the number of cards handed out (541), and then you 'cast your vote' by giving your preference card to your candidate's precinct captain -- the organized campaigns have a designated precinct captain there, and the Kucinich people elect somebody on the spot. The photo shows the precinct captains for each candidate (the woman on the left represents the undecideds), as they are each announcing how many preliminary preference cards they have and making their pitch to attract switchers.
To be viable, you had to have 15% of the available preference cards -- that was 82 in our precinct this year. (Four years ago, I think it was more like 40.) Since we were so close to the Edwards folks, we first learned that Edwards had 153 cards. There was a gasp from the crowd as the Hillary person (at the podium in the photo) announced that they only had 73 cards. Obama had 209, which caused another gasp. Richardson had fifty-something, I think, and nobody else was over 30. After 30 minutes of politicking, Hillary found enough to get viable, and the Richardson people finally gave up finding enough and moved to one of the other three. Obama got three delegates, Edwards got two and Hillary got one. They'll go to a County Caucus and do it all over again to figure delegates to send to the state level. We split as soon as the delegates were divvied up, but hardcores and the inexperienced probably spent another hour at least debating individual platform planks.
We live in the People's Republic of Johnson County, and our votes are generally nowhere near representative of the rest of the state. Hillary did better in the rest of the state, but we were closer to norm than usual.
The Obama people seem like they've got a pretty good organization -- they turned out a lot of new caucusers and they arrived ready to lead them. His campaign is ready to go toe to toe with Clinton. Speaking for all Iowa caucusers, you're welcome, the rest of the country. We did our part to make the nomination race interesting.
We both did the caucus Thursday -- you can part a pretty good-sized crowd with a wheelchair and a loud voice. We were in the City High Auditorium -- never a very good place to caucus, particularly with a wheelchair and more particularly with a crowd twice the size of four years ago. Still, we found a more-or-less handicapped-accessible parking space and with the incredible assistance of a City High teacher who was caucusing in the cafeteria next door, we got a space down in the front with the Edwards people.They used a different procedure this year -- rather than clumping in groups and counting bodies, everybody got a 'preference card' -- a three by five card with a sequential number. They determined the total turnout by the number of cards handed out (541), and then you 'cast your vote' by giving your preference card to your candidate's precinct captain -- the organized campaigns have a designated precinct captain there, and the Kucinich people elect somebody on the spot. The photo shows the precinct captains for each candidate (the woman on the left represents the undecideds), as they are each announcing how many preliminary preference cards they have and making their pitch to attract switchers.
To be viable, you had to have 15% of the available preference cards -- that was 82 in our precinct this year. (Four years ago, I think it was more like 40.) Since we were so close to the Edwards folks, we first learned that Edwards had 153 cards. There was a gasp from the crowd as the Hillary person (at the podium in the photo) announced that they only had 73 cards. Obama had 209, which caused another gasp. Richardson had fifty-something, I think, and nobody else was over 30. After 30 minutes of politicking, Hillary found enough to get viable, and the Richardson people finally gave up finding enough and moved to one of the other three. Obama got three delegates, Edwards got two and Hillary got one. They'll go to a County Caucus and do it all over again to figure delegates to send to the state level. We split as soon as the delegates were divvied up, but hardcores and the inexperienced probably spent another hour at least debating individual platform planks.
We live in the People's Republic of Johnson County, and our votes are generally nowhere near representative of the rest of the state. Hillary did better in the rest of the state, but we were closer to norm than usual.
The Obama people seem like they've got a pretty good organization -- they turned out a lot of new caucusers and they arrived ready to lead them. His campaign is ready to go toe to toe with Clinton. Speaking for all Iowa caucusers, you're welcome, the rest of the country. We did our part to make the nomination race interesting.
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