This week is much better than last week! I'm glad these episodes of more than normal stress are short lived.
Owen went to stay last night at the Wolfe Compound (lucky them!) so Dave and I had a quiet evening of Storage Wars and Deadliest Catch watching *snicker* Today Dave had chemo. Our hospice bath aid is AWESOME and plans her schedule around his appointments so she can come bathe him and help me get him dressed before we go. Today was an early appointment so she came over at 8:30. I set my alarm for 8 but yeah... the snooze button is awesome so she woke me up. OOPS! I'm not complaining, I just felt bad that I answered the door in my pajamas. We're thankful that she is so easy going and so willing to accommodate us. We really like her.
So Dave went in for his appointment and they drew blood to run labs then we saw the doctor. We brought up our concerns about chemo that I touched on last week and this doctor (not our normal doctor) gave us a few options. He suggested that Dave could try another kind of chemo since he's not doing Temodar anymore. Yeah... I don't think that's on the agenda. We suspect he's just making sure he talks about ALL options. So we told him our primary concern, that we don't want to prolong things after he loses use of his arms. We barely got out the sentence when the dr said, "It won't" As he explained it the Avastin is only really in your system for a week or two (google says 11-50 days, nice range!) so once the decline has hit that critical of a point the Avastin isn't going to play a role in the last stage and we can expect things to move quickly. Is that wrong that hearing that the end stage will be quick is a giant relief to us? I mean yes, it's scary, but knowing what to expect makes us much more equipped to cope. We both agree that David will continue to do chemo until he declines so much that it's not worth it, he can't tolerate the trip anymore or he has some other side effect from it besides being tired. Sheesh, with how much his body is going through it's no wonder he's tired. I sometimes think about how flippantly some people say, "I'll sleep when I'm dead". I admit the thought has crossed my mind when I want to wake him up to tell him something but really I want to let him sleep now as much as he wants so that when he's awake he's actually alert. Although when I get excited about stupid things him being asleep has never stopped me before. LOL I should take advantage of it now while he's still here to tell my stupid things to! Poor guy would never sleep!
OH! I forgot to mention that when he got blood drawn it was hard for the lab guy to draw it and by the time he got enough and then got it in the vials it had started clotting (even with his blood thinners? odd) so when he got out of his dr visit someone chased us down on the way to the the chemo room to tell us they had to draw new labs! ACK! The second time worked great but it definitely stressed him out a little more than normal.
The weather was nice (for him) not sunny, low 70s, just rained so it smelled awesome. It's the first time he's gotten to sit outside when the weather was comfortable for him. We just sat and enjoyed being outside while we waited for our ride. I got him home and he stayed up long enough to help me mix up a batch of carne asada seasoning that we've been making for years and have yet to write down the recipe for, we just save a little from the last batch and taste test until it's close, or as Dave says, "Close enough for government work" then he went back to bed and napped for a while. I noticed that a couple of his toes have little sores like ingrown nails or something. This happened once before because of the edema. Nurse Marla to the rescue! I'll keep an eye on them to make sure they don't get infected. If it's not one thing it's another!
I feel very spoiled this week. Last friday I got to visit Betsy, my bff of 25 years (holy cow, that shows my age because we were in middle school... wait, don't do the math!) Sunday my mom and nana came over for a "picnic", monday Owen cleaned his room with no complaints (because I bribed him with going to a friend's house) because on tuesday the housekeepers came for I think the last time for reals (thanks to some very amazing friends, I love you guys! Really, words aren't enough, I'm gonna hug every one of you some day!) Also yesterday Ariana was in town for a little while so she stopped by to say hi. We miss her face plus she helps me more than she knows. I appreciate her and her timing was perfect. Maybe something prompted her to visit us. ;) Today our bath aide started her work early to come help us out, we got comforting news from the doctor and tonight Tim brought dinner when he brought Owen back. He also brought their kids so we got a visit and dinner and entertained by goofy teens and Rose got some time with a mostly quiet house, so really that was a gift for all of us. Hahaha It was good to see Tim. Tomorrow my dad and holly are coming over for a visit and dinner. It's a full week for sure but we welcome that, especially after how emotional and in our cave last week was.
Journal time!
"Strange Things Happen When
Strange things happen when we get a big package in the mail and it says do not open until christmas. Everyone starts guessing what it is. People sneek up and shake it or they go and feel it.
Strange things happen when I start typing in a program I know nothing about on the computer. Everyone wants to know what I'm typing in I just say, "I don't know" and we run it and it erases a disk. WHOOPS!"
The christmas gift part of that story reminds me that David has serious present issues. No shaking or guessing or touching whatever is wrapped up, strictly hands off. He says his dad could pick up any gift and shake it and know what was inside and it drove him crazy. I guess when you're a grown up you get to make your own rules and his rule is NO GUESSING!
As for the computer comments, he wrote so much about computers even in the mid-80s, it's no wonder he ended up in the IT field. I think eventually he learned what the programs do before he typed in them. ;)
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