Watching wildlife graze

Our day started at 5:30 am.  We got ready, packed up the car and we were at the Zangmeister Center on the East side of town by 7:00am for the latest round of chemo.  Sitting in the chair all I could think about was a dear friend who’s been down this road.  She’s done with treatment and is having scans today to make sure the treatment worked and this ordeal is over.  I’m praying and those of you inclined, I invite you to say a little prayer for her too.

My treatment went off without a hitch.  Shortly after the infusion started we saw a doe with her young charge from this spring.  The doe was teaching the young one that the best way to stay alive during deer hunting season is to find a nice stand of woods within city limits.  And they had done just that.

Later on during the infusion Johnny got a call from our insurance company.  We have won yet another billing battle with the hospital grifters at Ohio Health.  One more small victory.

So now for my side of the story. She did her chemo, came home and made some soup up for dinners, fed the dogs, then dropped them off with me at worked and headed off to work herself. Once out of work she picked up a few items at the store, came home and started laundry, heated the soup and fed the dogs their dinner. Right now she’s folding laundry. It’s 9:30. In the evening.

Oh for the sake of fairness the latest little billing skirmish wasn’t with Ohio Health it was with a radiology office from back in July. They’d submitted a second bill in October, which was turned down by the insurance company as unnecessary. So they billed us. I made an effort to contact them but was put on permanent hold by their automated answering system. It kept telling me I had a two minute wait, for about 15 minutes. That’s when I turned it over to the insurance company. Say what you will about insurance companies but they have agreements with providers for what they’ll pay and take exception to providers trying to collect anything over and above an agreed upon copay. Since we’re way past the deductible for the year, the radiology group agreed to drop the bill after being reminded of the rules by the insurance company.

Halfway Through

Sorry the posts have not been that frequent. Thank you for all the cards and prayers, they really mean a lot. The good news is that things have been relatively boring and there isn’t all that much new information.

Due to Thanksgiving, Wednesday was chemo day; the 6^th of 12 of weekly treatments for those keeping count.  I’ve been doing well as far as chemotherapy goes, I have very few side effects.  Keep your fingers crossed for me. I really only feel it when I exercise.  There’s just not enough oxygen to do the sustained exercise that I’m used to.  But I’m still exercising every day to keep some level of fitness.

Jake and Elizabeth were wonderful hosts for this year’s Thanksgiving Dinner.  We can’t thank them enough for stepping in and taking over dinner duties.  The food was wonderful and Josh made an excellent pumpkin pie. Caroline entertained us with her stuffed animals Sheep and Hop Hop and later in the day we Skyped with Paul and Deb in Florida.

So anyway she started writing this and here I am finishing it up. She’s really doing amazingly well, better than a lot of “healthy” people let alone someone who’s getting poison intravenously on a weekly basis. She might not have hosted Thanksgiving this year but over the weekend she moped the floors, did a big load of ironing, walked dogs, worked out, put together a pot of chicken vegetable soup and that’s just part of the list. She’s heard all the horror stories about how this will catch up with her or side effects that may still come. But the truth is it hits everyone differently. Let’s hope she continues to be different.

Yet another treatment over with

The Former Boyfriend didn’t sleep well last night, so I decided to do another update to keep everyone informed.  Okay I’ll admit I didn’t sleep that well either but they pump me full of steroids before pumping me full of Benadryl  before getting on to the strong stuff.

So, I’ve finished the fifth treatment of taxol, only 7 more to go on the chemo train.  I’m not really sure where the train is going perhaps Chernobyl or Three Mile Island, where I hear it’s lovely this time of year.  

Seriously, I haven’t noticed many side effects yet, but I know that I’m a mere babe in the chemo woods.  They tell me that by the end of treatment I will experience severe fatigue.  I can hardly wait!  It’s like being a kid and having to eat all the cereal in the box before you get the toy.

I continue to navigate the taboo world of alternative medicine in an effort to salvage my body from the wreckage of conventional cancer treatment.  And I must say, I haven’t fared too badly. I haven’t missed any work so far.  What a shame that people have to search for holistic treatment like drug addicts in a dark alley or else face the disdain of their doctors.

Despite the upcoming holiday no holidays from chemo. They won't be infusing on Thanksgiving (nor black Friday for that matter). But they did manage to get me in first thing on Wednesday so I stay on schedule. The girls who do the scheduling have worked magic for the most part, which helps make it all just a bit easier. 

All in all a good week

Taking care of me is a full time job and the Former Boyfriend is exhausted and stressed more than he’s willing to admit (picture George Jetson on his treadmill – for those of you old enough to remember) so I decided that I would take the time to update everyone today.

It’s been a week of good news.  Since the passing of Louise one of the traditions that I have carried on is Thanksgiving dinner.  I didn’t believe I would be able to do dinner this year, so my nephew Josh called on Veterans Day and said that he would take care of the details and nephew Jake and wife Elizabeth are graciously hosting this year’s dinner.  I had tears in my eyes. It’s a special day for me.

This was followed by my friend Elisabeth calling to let me know the love of her life Bart has proposed marriage and she’s accepted.  She’s been my rock through all this chemo and together they’re a wonderful couple and Johnny and I are very excited for them and can’t wait for all the wedding details.

Today was my 4^th in a series of 12 chemo treatments with taxol.  All of my blood work looks good, and I feel good.  A big part of this is Kim and Beth my chemo nurses.  They are two very funny, kind hearted individuals making this part of the journey as easy for me as they possibly can.

We're so boring I haven't written (and that's a good thing)

Jeannie has now had two rounds of the Taxol and overall she's done quite nicely. There's definitely  a fatigue factor. She about dozes through the entire infusion since they dose her with IV benadryl before the chemo. The drug itself often causes an allergic reaction, thus the benadryl. She really hasn't reacted so the benadryl dosage was cut in half for the second treatment. Since she didn't know how she'd react she took a long weekend for the first treatment. But after the second treatment she went right back to her old routine, heading to work after the treatment.  Her weight is holding steady, her appetite is good. Over the weekend she commented that considering the steroids she gets in the pre-treatment meds she's not at all surprised she has a good appetite. Her white blood count remains strong, while her red count is on the anemic side. She's fired up her juicer to try and build that up.

Though she admits she's feeling fatigued she's still doing things like taking the dogs to the park for walks both Saturday and Sunday. Saturday she did a load of ironing while watching what was supposed to be a football game. Sunday she did some cleaning in the garden. She also did cleaning in the house and dog walks through the neighborhood. So she's a bit drained but has really done phenomenally well for what they're putting her through.

So all and all no excitement. Like I said kind of boring, but that's a good thing. Since Thursday was Halloween everyone was in costume when we showed up for Jeannie's treatment. I don't know if they do that every year (and don't want to be there next year to find out) but the fact is it was a great idea on someones part. It was great for employee morale not to mention the spirits of the patients. And there were a lot of great costumes. We didn't get to see them all. But the funniest might have been a guy who walked in looking normal, prompting a coworker to ask what he was supposed to be. At that point he opened up his jacket and said "I'm Jake from State Farm". Sure enough this guy had on a pair of khakis and a State Farm polo with a name tag that said Jake looking for all the world like the guy at the State Farm call center in the TV commercial. The 60s tie dyed hippie was also pretty good since we share the same hair color leading me to suspect he had some first hand experience in actually being his character once upon a time.

Jeannie is continuing to avoid all contact with the outside world where possible to avoid any bugs anyone might be passing around. She's also continuing to be as low key as possible but word might be poised to leak out in the neighborhood. On our late afternoon/early evening dog walk last night we spoke with a neighbor who did a double take on her ball cap since there used to be hair everywhere. But short of asking something like did you get your hair cut really short there's no real way to politely ask what the hell is going on. Many people would wallow in all the attention they'd get from being in her situation. Jeannie is more about getting it over with and moving on as soon as possible the less said the better. As always, Louise's daughter.

Another treatment draws near

Thursday’s first round of chemo with the new drug is getting closer and quite honestly Jeannie is just now starting to bounce back from the last treatment. It’s taken her longer to fight back from the fatigue, to get her energy back. Still she’s amazing in all she does get done. The cooking, cleaning and laundry she’s always handled plus her job and walking the dogs. So when she tells me how exhausted she was it wasn’t surprising but is still hard to believe. She even picked up the phone today to complain to Ohio Health’s billing department because she must have felt her blood pressure wasn’t high enough. Did we tell you the one about the billing for the anesthesia that was never provided? This goes back to when the chemo iv port was installed in August, normally done under anesthesia but Jeannie knew it could be done with a simple local. Ohio Health billed the insurance company for the anesthesia anyway and was paid for it. We get the bill for the balance and after requesting an itemized bill called this to everyone’s attention. (we’re also demanding some changes in the recovery room fees for recovery services that were never needed). Anyway the whole thing is being re-billed but we get a past due notice and the girl with the perfect credit decides to call about this not wanting it to go to collection. Naturally she gets some lacky who tells her the bill is due regardless of what might be changed. This defies logic but we’re talking medical billing here. I made a second call and got a second clueless lacky but did talk with his supervisor who agreed it only made sense to change the status of the bill. No doubt there will be more such fun in the future.

Jeannie has also started reading more. Normally a voracious reader, she’d kind of backed off the books a bit. But she’s gotten a couple as gifts and has been enjoying them thoroughly plus she got the kindle app for her Ipad and has downloaded a book so she’s back to reading her butt off (which is a good sign). She’s also received a number of cards and note which always cheer her and for which she is grateful. Here are a few.