Thursday, October 15, 2009 10:11 PM, CDT

Well Mrs. Hall has about made me cry. She is powerful!

Mark slept well last night despite the cords, pump, and bone marrow bandage. In fact he has slept most of the day. A nice way to go through chemo. I finally got him up to walk a bit - he has to walk. Then I got him up again around 12:30 for his clinic appointment.

We saw Tom and his Dad, he was finally going to start his chemo today. He was ready to go!!

Hang in there Tom!

The nurses recharged Mrs. Hall and we had to stay for a couple of hours. We were told to make sure he drank at least 2 liters of water a day. Mark has always been a water pusher - it always “cures what ails you”. Mark slept through all of the clinic session. He was retaining fluid so he was given an injection of Lasix. He was so cute, round as a pumpkin.

We were about half way back to the apartment in this dreadful Little Rock 5 o’clock traffic when our APN, Alaina called us to return. Some of Mark’s test weren’t good. I quickly got the car turned around and headed back. He saw the clinic dr. and she told us that Mark was going into the hospital for the night to have his sodium monitored. For some reason it plummeted - but after having to wait on a room (aren’t all hospitals the same) for a couple of hours - our nurse decided to test Mark again and the sodium numbers were rising. The doc gave us a script for salt tablets (could have called a coach) and told Mark not to drink any water - just ice chips or Gatorade. Also told him to go eat the saltiest foods he could find - olives, pickles, chips- and to go home.

Mark and I are just so confused - chemo changes everything you know. You eat salt and don’t drink water?? We were thrilled he didn’t have to go into the hospital. They had told me that I would have to beg to stay with him after he was admitted. Little did they know that they would have had to deal with a totally unruly wife if they had not let me stay.

Mark has been craving liver and onions L . So one of the ladies told us of a good restaurant - we stopped there on the way back to the apartment. He loved it and practically licked his plate. He said it was saltyJ We were going to take it out, but since it was late there were very few people in the restaurant, so we at in. Nice for me not to have to cook and clean.

A few of you have ask about Mark’s chemo. He is taking about 35 pills a day. Thalidomide and Dexamethasone, Granistron, and Filgrastim are some of the pills. The other pills are supportive care - antibiotic, antifungal, antivirul, tamiflu, laxative, anti ulcer.

Mrs. Hall contains Velcade, Melphan, Cisplatin, Doxorubibin, Cyclophosphamide, Etopside, Cisplatin, Aprepitant, Ganisetron - and I don’t know what most of that is. He also gets a Lovenox injection in his tummy every day. That alone would do me in. UGH!

One of the most stressful parts of this situation is driving Mark around Little Rock - I drive just fine except when he is with me. I may have to hire a chauffeur!

Happy 89th Birthday Uncle Mickey!

Love to you all, Karen