The Great Escape

There's no place like home...There's no place like home...

And here I am back home again. Whew. Now I have to concentrate on staying out of the hospital. I haven't had a good track record these past two weeks.

I'm still on oxygen, but I passed the test for the mini tanks that
come in a shoulder holder today. Unfortunately this is the start of
the holiday weekend, so I won't get to switch my stock of big tanks
for little ones til next week.

I go back on Monday to get my counts checked and if they're okay I'll start on the VP-16 pills again. Until then I'm taking neupogen shots for the weekend to build up some white cells.

The fluid/swelling in my chest, abdomen and now upper thighs is still a problem, and continues to come up with new weird variations. The only thing that will significantly change that is if the chemo works to shrink the nodes that are blocking drainage.

But for now, I'm just glad to be home eating real food again and not wearing those stupid masks anymore. The hospital masks look like Donald Duck's beak and they are even yellow. There ought to be a law... I had to keep swatting people who would walk behind me making quacking noises--and those were my friends!

Naptime for me. Just wanted to let you know what's happening here.

From the hospital on Wed, July 2

It took me 2 1/2 days of fighting the bureaucracy that controls the
new digital (non-compatible) phone system at the hospital, and
getting on my soapbox with anyone official looking who entered my
room, but I finally got hooked up just fine.

The funny thing is that it was the chaplain who made it happen. I
gave her a good speil about how this affects my morale and that of
cancer patients in general to be cut off from all support systems,
except germy ones. She was ready to fight the good fight for me
when she left my room. Lo and behold by last night there was a
phone call from patient relations saying the tech guy would be here
first thing in the morning to hook up the adapter. (I had been told
by several different departments that an adapter didn't exist...)
And here I am!!! I feel like I vanquished a foe and this is my
reward.

I didn't get a chance to tell many people about going into the hospital Sunday night with a fever of 103.3. I am feeling much better now and they are switching me to oral antibiotics this morning and if I stay fever free for 24 hours, I'll go home tomorrow (Thurs).

I'll still need oxygen some of the time, but I'm supposed to get a
lightwieght pack instead of the heavy tank, and the doc wants me off oxygen for several hours a days while I'm reading or sedentary, to try to avoid nose bleeds.

I'm getting daily neupogen to bring up my neutriphils, so the VP-16
is stopped until Monday. Hopefully then I'll get back on it because
the respiratory doc says that's what's going to solve the breathing
prolem, nnot any "bandaid" measures he takes.

I would have loved one of his bandaid measures last night when I
woke up feeling like I couldn't breathe. I had such a panic attack
with that, ehich of course made it worse. Turns out they just gave
me too much fluid yesterday, along with 2 units of blood. My poor
body was all filled up with not much space left for lung expansion.
My oxygen saturation level stayed good though.

Now that I have me internet connection, I am promising to stop
playing tricks on the new little residents (July 1 was the start for
the new batch.) It's hard though. They look so you and earnest...
I've even tried to stop torturing the dieticians, although they are
such an inviting target...

I think they need to send me home quick before my subversive
influence spreads!