Friday, March 5, 2010 7:19 PM, CST
Hello everyone,
Over the past 5 days I have been:
Stuck, bent, aspirated, biopsied, taped, untaped, injected, radiated, MRIed, pet scanned, cardio-gramed, sona-gramed, inserted, ejected, rolled, data managed and asked some strange questions. The strangest from a research person while another nurse is pulling bone marrow from my hip. The question, "Have you grown any hair and if so what was the date." This is in the middle of the bone marrow puller "pulling" marrow through a needle stuck through your hip bone into the marrow beneath.
For those whom have never had this experience, it is like having a 220 volt bolt hit you down both legs and into the feet for as long as the nurse is pulling...usually 4 segments each lasting 10-15 seconds. Very invigorating. Hence, the humor in the interest of my hair growth fro research.
Karen and I met with the "doc" Thursday ... he said my cancer has been smoldering (dormant) for many years ... now it is under control. While remission is the goal the important markers they watch are all good. He said it takes most people a year or more to reach remission..but if my disease never reaches remission it is nothing to worry about because it is under control and doing no damage..it is back to a dormant type stage.
Every Tuesday all the docs in Ozdom meet and discuss cases. He said that my case was studied at this meeting a month ago and all the OZ's in Ozdom concurred on the above. He even said the head OZman, Barlogie, concluded that my disease was doing well with the treatments and nothing to be concerned about. As a Frenchman told me many years ago "no problem to me."
Started with Mrs. Hall today..she will be with me 4 days, slowly pumping chemo and killing what little MM is hanging around.
For those not familiar with Mrs. Hall please refer to past journal post around Sept of last year.
Well enough of medicine.
Many years ago, I sold a bunch of Insurance and won a trip to England for Karen and myself. The company said we could invite 2 others to go if they paid. So my mother and mother-in-law were mustered and volunteered. Of course, being 28 years old, I had no idea what one would encounter with such a diverse group in a foreign country.
We arrive in England with jet lag and go to our rooms to rest. Of course they have a mini-bar ..Mom and i decide we need an adult beverage of sort...however the key to the bar does not open it in either room. Therefore, I call room service and a frenchman comes to our room..we explain the problem and he says "may I see the key".
Now this key is LARGE about 8 inches long by 3 inches wide and made of thick metal. You could pry a door open with it.
Our French chap trys to open the bar as we did with no success. He looks a little perplexed ..however being the true service pro, he proceeds to put the key into the door crack and pry...much to our surprise the door does not budge...our man trys much harder and completely bends the steel key into an L shape...pulls it out of the bar door (which is still not open but is also bent)..he looks at the key and us, then flips the key onto the bed. As our man makes his exit from the room, he shrugs his shoulders and says in a french accent "no problem to me!" Needless to say we forgot about the mini and went to the lounge downstairs.
SIDE NOTES AND VICIOUS RUMORS
Love from LR
Over the past 5 days I have been:
Stuck, bent, aspirated, biopsied, taped, untaped, injected, radiated, MRIed, pet scanned, cardio-gramed, sona-gramed, inserted, ejected, rolled, data managed and asked some strange questions. The strangest from a research person while another nurse is pulling bone marrow from my hip. The question, "Have you grown any hair and if so what was the date." This is in the middle of the bone marrow puller "pulling" marrow through a needle stuck through your hip bone into the marrow beneath.
For those whom have never had this experience, it is like having a 220 volt bolt hit you down both legs and into the feet for as long as the nurse is pulling...usually 4 segments each lasting 10-15 seconds. Very invigorating. Hence, the humor in the interest of my hair growth fro research.
Karen and I met with the "doc" Thursday ... he said my cancer has been smoldering (dormant) for many years ... now it is under control. While remission is the goal the important markers they watch are all good. He said it takes most people a year or more to reach remission..but if my disease never reaches remission it is nothing to worry about because it is under control and doing no damage..it is back to a dormant type stage.
Every Tuesday all the docs in Ozdom meet and discuss cases. He said that my case was studied at this meeting a month ago and all the OZ's in Ozdom concurred on the above. He even said the head OZman, Barlogie, concluded that my disease was doing well with the treatments and nothing to be concerned about. As a Frenchman told me many years ago "no problem to me."
Started with Mrs. Hall today..she will be with me 4 days, slowly pumping chemo and killing what little MM is hanging around.
For those not familiar with Mrs. Hall please refer to past journal post around Sept of last year.
Well enough of medicine.
Many years ago, I sold a bunch of Insurance and won a trip to England for Karen and myself. The company said we could invite 2 others to go if they paid. So my mother and mother-in-law were mustered and volunteered. Of course, being 28 years old, I had no idea what one would encounter with such a diverse group in a foreign country.
We arrive in England with jet lag and go to our rooms to rest. Of course they have a mini-bar ..Mom and i decide we need an adult beverage of sort...however the key to the bar does not open it in either room. Therefore, I call room service and a frenchman comes to our room..we explain the problem and he says "may I see the key".
Now this key is LARGE about 8 inches long by 3 inches wide and made of thick metal. You could pry a door open with it.
Our French chap trys to open the bar as we did with no success. He looks a little perplexed ..however being the true service pro, he proceeds to put the key into the door crack and pry...much to our surprise the door does not budge...our man trys much harder and completely bends the steel key into an L shape...pulls it out of the bar door (which is still not open but is also bent)..he looks at the key and us, then flips the key onto the bed. As our man makes his exit from the room, he shrugs his shoulders and says in a french accent "no problem to me!" Needless to say we forgot about the mini and went to the lounge downstairs.
SIDE NOTES AND VICIOUS RUMORS
- Everyday we awake with little pain, we should immediately thank God ..for it is truly a precious thing to behold and enjoy!
- God has been good to me all my life ... just do not know why
- Forget water boarding terrorists .. bring them to Little Rock for a bone marrow aspirate biopsy..they will tell you ALL
- glad Olympics are over ... kind of like being at an all weekend revival..can only take so much
- eat an apple and drink some wine everyday is not an old wives tale
Love from LR
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