No more RAT POISON

As of Tuesday August 9 Frank no longer has to take COUMADIN^®, the formal name for the rat poison (seriously) that he's taken to keep his blood flowin' through the port a catheter. The 15 minute procedure went fine although we were at the hospital for 3 1/2 hours. Someone referred to it as entering the "hospital time zone". I was unselfish enough to wish out loud that I hoped that the person his surgeon was working on before Frank was ok, since it WAS taking so long and all. I also recognize how big it is of me to recognize exactly how "unselfish" I was being as I said it.

Sarcasm can bite, can't it? Seriously, I'm so worn from being in medical situations with him. Not that I wouldn't go to a thousand more with him, and then a thousand more after that if he needed me to. Being willing to go and liking it are two totally different things. I think my impatience is a result of having successfully moved past what has happened and focusing on what the future holds. Did I mention that I'm wearing sun-glasses as I type?

Life is returning to "normal". Frank is working mostly full days and feeling good energy wise. He's grateful for the anti-neuropathy drug that he can take that makes the constant tingle sensation in his extremities calm down enough for him to be able to sleep. He's decided to keep his hair on the shorter side. At least he's said he wants to, if so the boy needs to get a hair cut. (love you dear) I treat him like this even after the trauma I felt as he was loosing it, boy he's lucky isn't he? ;-)

We're talking about maybe doing a mission trip in the future; by his own admission it may be next summer or fall before he's ready to tackle something like that.

In the mean time he's helping me find a vacation spot where a girl friend and I can escape to at the end of January. As I wondered if my cell phone would work, say in Mexico, he instructed me that I will be leaving my cell phone behind. He rarely makes any kind of ultimatum, so I guess I will have a few days w/out my little silver life-line to the rest of the world.

As Emily Saliers says in the song, Get out the Map, “I'm gonna clear my head I'm gonna drink the sun” Mexico here I come. I did add that last bit.

You’d think with the heat around here of late (it’s only 96 degrees outside right now) that I’d be making plans to visit a cooler climate…

Thanks for checking in on us.

The Rev.

Keep on truckin'

Had my first post-RPLND CT today, as well as labs. Sarah started freaking out last night, "What if there are spots in the pictures? I told her, "Well, then I guess I'd be a leopard." She stopped talking about it after that.

As for today's pictures, they look good now that the "cancer leftovers" have been removed. Everything looks stable, including that one-time potential trouble spot in the lower lobe of my left lung.

Honestly we did more chit-chat w/ Dr. V. and nurse G. about life in general than talking about cancer; nice to feel mostly back to normal...There was of course that damn bump on my head that showed up about 5 minutes after they started pumping the contrast dye into my veins. So wonderful feeling like I'm wetting myself while my head sprouts a horn. They both chuckled at Sarah's comment regarding the cruel nature of removing a man's testicle and then surgically placing an arrow (the scars) on his body to point out the fact that it is gone. This is quickly becoming her favorite TC joke, but it makes me a little “testy” (which is her second favorite TC joke).

We did talk Dr. V about getting "Harry the Bastard" (the port-a-cath) out and he agreed it would be OK, so that'll be the next exciting thing. The best part about getting Harry out is that I can finally quit the coumadin I've been taking daily for the last 6+ months.

But, of course, I couldn't just give up one medicine without starting another now, could I? The neuropathy has been causing me problems at night, especially when trying to sleep, so I'm starting on Neurontin, which won't do anything about the numbness but will stop the pain receptors in my extremities from firing at random like they do presently. Hopefully this will help, and hopefully the neuropathy will eventually ride off into the sunset. The drug isn't cheap, even as a generic ($75 for this round, but I'll go the mail order route after since it's quite a bit cheaper), but if it helps it will definitely be worth it.