cancer
Finally home from the hospital…was told I was being discharged around 12:30 but didn’t get home until 4:00…We had to go and pick up LOADS of medicine and medical supplies, after finding out the cost, I kinda freaked out… Wednesday at 10:30 is the meeting with Medicaid, I actually do not have to go to it, the women from the claim aid office at the hospital goes, and I am not sure I will feel up to going anyway…Please keep that in your prayers because I just don’t know what the next step is if we don’t get that. They are expediting the process because of the diagnosis of cancer, so it should not take 90 days to find out…everyone seems to think I qualify, but today I am having a hard time having to wait…One great thing is that if approved the coverage goes back three months so that will be great to have the doctors re-bill through Medicaid and to redo the prescriptions…Physically: I am exhausted…I slept from 5pm-9pm today and am off to bed again soon…I took a shower and that zapped me of ALL energy…my stomach has not been happy for over three days…I have to learn …Read more
(disclaimer; this is a bit of a long post)It is Friday night and I am hanging out in my hospital room watching T.V…I am getting tired, and hope to be able to sleep well tonight…I slept better last night than the first so maybe it will get easier these next three nights…The Dr. confirmed that I will be here for sure until Monday…I didn’t get around to writing a post last night so I will start withThursday…It was a LONG day, after a crappy night of sleep I was up early for breakfast and a shower…Carla came to be with me for a few hours and got to go with me to the cancer center for the beginning of my 9hrs of chemo treatment…They give it to you in two days the first time so that they can monitor you closely and make sure you are tolerating it well…My blood pressure was taken at least 25 times when I was there and toward the end we had to really slow the meds because my pressure was rising and I was getting really hot…After the 9hrs in the center I came back to my room just in time to meet my …Read more
After another long morning of tests and waiting I was finally admitted to the hospital…room number 2550…it is a really nice room, single person which is GREAT, so I thought I would take you on a little tour… I of course had to pack pictures and things to make sure I feel at home so there is my little attempt at bringing home to the hospitalEveryone knows my love of all things bird so I wanted to show you the great pair of PJ bottoms we found at Wal-Mart last night…even birdies on my pants baby! brought a bird to hang on my IV stand, and a bird to hang in the room, I brought a stuffed little bird to hold during chemo, and a bird figurine to sit on the nightstand…I will not forget Matthew 6:26 through these next days…I will not forget Matthew 6:26 because I will be surrounded by birds…I will be surrounded by birds given to me by people who care…and represent Christ to me…I will see Christ when I see the birds…and I will be free…Tomorrow I start chemo…at 8:30 for 6hrs I will be getting the first drug of the regimen…they are introducing them …Read more
The information in BLUE in this post is technical information I copied and pasted from the internetThe diagnosis is official…it isNON-HODGKIN’S DIFFUSE LARGE B-CELL LYMPHOMAI don’t know too terribly much about it and when I do a Google search I don’t learn too much more…basically it is an aggressive type of lymphoma that is treatable…can’t say it is curable of course…they seem to think it will respond well to chemotherapy and is potentially curable…I will be admitted to the hospital tomorrow (Wednesday) morning and will be there through the weekend probably being released Monday…to monitor fluids and make sure I am tolerating the chemotherapy well…it can cause kidney failure…so they want to monitor me closely…The kind of chemo regimen I will be on is called CHOPCHOP is one of the most common chemotherapy regimens for treating Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Regimen Drugs.The following are the drugs used in the regimen. Select a drug to see a page and pertinent information. Cyclophosphamide (brand names cytoxan, neosar) Adriamycin (doxorubicin / hydroxydoxorubicin) Vincristine (Oncovin) Prednisone (sometimes called Deltasone or Orasone) Side Effects:These drugs can cause nausea, vomiting, and loss of appetite. There are medications your doctor can prescribe such as Zofran or Kytril that may lessen chemotherapy induced nausea.Fatigue is common during chemotherapy treatment. Proper rest and …Read more
