DeBary, FL.
80 deg. mostly cloudy, E. wind @ 2 mph.
Forecast = Cloudy early with scattered thunderstorms developing this afternoon. High 87F. Winds SSE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 60%.
Yeah!!! I know!!!! It's been over a week since I've last posted, but I wanted to find out what happened at Jim's doctor visit yesterday before I did.
If you remember, Jim was scheduled to get a larger dose of the Chemo treatment on Friday the 18th than he had been receiving in the past. Well, that went off without a hitch, but he did have to go through 5 hours of treatment instead of the normal 3 hours.
Saturday, Jim was feeling fine and Dave and Dee Dee, (the part of the "Illinois bunch" that wintered over by Tampa), stopped by for a couple hours. They were visiting some friends in Orange City and were able to swing by here for a visit. It sure was good of them to come as we hadn't seen them since last fall, up in Rantoul. From here they were heading over to Ocala to see someone else and then heading home to Illinois for the summer.
Sunday Jim was still feeling pretty well, although he was starting to get some bone/muscle aches from the heavier dose of Chemo. He was pretty much able to control it with normal pain meds though.
Monday, Laura took Linda over to an appointment with Dr. Molpus, the doctor who did Linda's surgery at the Halifax Hospital in Daytona Beach a few years ago. Linda was real worried as one of the tests that she had when we returned here last fall came back "abnormal"!!! Everything turned out OK though and a further test and an examination confirmed that there was no cancer present!!!!!!!
Yaaaaay!!!!!
Meanwhile, "back at the ranch" Jim was dealing with some severe bone/muscle pain throughout his whole body, that even the pain meds that had been prescribed by the doctor would not help much. He was also experiencing very heavy fatigue which made it very difficult to even walk from one end of the house to the other. This pain and fatigue was to last all the way to Wednesday when the pain subsided some but the fatigue persisted.
Then, Wednesday night nausea set in and he battled that until well into Thursday. Being that he was feeling lousy, he didn't eat or drink much, so by the time he and Linda went in to see Dr. Saferali on Friday for a follow-up appointment, he had lost a bunch of weight and was dehydrated!! :-( Dr. Saferali strongly suggested he stay for awhile and get an infusion for the dehydration, so that's what he did while Linda waited in the waiting room.
Jim's white cell blood count had also fallen quite low, so he received an injection to help that and was given instructions not to be around too many people for the next week so as not to get any kind of infection or virus as his immune system would not be able to fight the off and he could get very sick.
Of course, this Sunday is Easter Sunday and Jim and Linda have been invited over to Marv and Inez's house for an Easter Dinner, but being that their small home will be packed with family, it's been decided that because of Jim's low white cell blood count, it would be better to be more "safe than sorry" and just have something here at home. :-(
So, , , , , that pretty much brings us up-to-date. Jim seems to be feeling better right now, (Saturday afternoon), with less fatigue and not as much pain, but that injection he received for his blood count may cause more bone/muscle pain in the next few days. We'll just have to see what happens.
His next appointment is this coming Friday, where they'll do another blood test and see how he's doing. Then if everything is going well, the week after that, (April 8th), he'll get another large Chemo dose which should be the last one of the series. After that, he'll have another PET Scan to check for cancer and then it'll be a matter of trying to recover from all the chemo and radiation treatments, which could take months.
A Quote to Ponder : “When I hear somebody sigh, 'Life is hard,' I am always tempted to ask, 'Compared to what?'”
Sydney Harris
Woof!!!
Saturday, March 26, 2016
Thursday, March 17, 2016
Update and A Celebration In The Neighborhood
DeBary, FL.
69 deg. mostly cloudy, no wind.
Forecast = Cloudy skies this morning followed by scattered showers and thunderstorms during the afternoon. High 88F. Winds W at 5 to 10 mph.
Not a whole lot to report. Jim has been doing OK, but the fatigue has been pretty severe. It really bothers him that he can't even seem to get the smallest chores/jobs done without having to sit down and rest after just a few minutes of any kind of activity. Then, on top of that, he's been sleeping longer in the mornings and then taking long naps almost every day too.
Because of his low energy level, he and Linda have not gone out to eat or do any shopping, in fact, Linda went to Public's by herself the other day and bought a whole bunch of groceries. Jim was able to help carry the groceries into the house however, so that helped Linda a lot.
Tomorrow, Jim will have one of the 2 last chemo treatments that he'll be getting. Both of these last 2 treatments will be a larger dose than what he's been getting in the past. They'll also be spaced 3 weeks apart so that he'll have some recovery time between treatments. Needless to say, Jim's pretty worried about what the larger dosage side effects will be. :-(
Hopefully they won't be too severe.
There is a couple living across the street from our house here in DeBary, and they had a wedding anniversary this past Tuesday. There names are Bill and Margarete (SP)?, and they are both really nice people. In fact, Bill insists on looking after our house when we're not around and will call Jim if anything out of the ordinary happens. He even cleans the junk mail out of the mailbox while we're gone for the summer and saves it for Jim and Linda's return.
Margarete fell and severely injured her leg about a year ago and has spent a lot of this last year in rehab, so she hasn't been too active, but Bill takes care of her and does all yard maintenance, the shopping and running around that needs to be done. In fact, Bill worked as a "porter" at a car dealership until just a few years ago.
Now, you might be wondering why I'm telling you all of this, but you see, both Bill and Margarete are in their 90's and Tuesday, they celebrated their 69th wedding anniversary!!!!!
That's right!!! 69 years!!!!!
They are a great couple and we're so lucky to have them as our very good neighbors.
Happy Anniversary!!!!
Did you know that the St. Patrick’s Day custom came to America in 1737? It was first celebrated publicly in, the U.S. in Boston.
69 deg. mostly cloudy, no wind.
Forecast = Cloudy skies this morning followed by scattered showers and thunderstorms during the afternoon. High 88F. Winds W at 5 to 10 mph.
Not a whole lot to report. Jim has been doing OK, but the fatigue has been pretty severe. It really bothers him that he can't even seem to get the smallest chores/jobs done without having to sit down and rest after just a few minutes of any kind of activity. Then, on top of that, he's been sleeping longer in the mornings and then taking long naps almost every day too.
Because of his low energy level, he and Linda have not gone out to eat or do any shopping, in fact, Linda went to Public's by herself the other day and bought a whole bunch of groceries. Jim was able to help carry the groceries into the house however, so that helped Linda a lot.
Tomorrow, Jim will have one of the 2 last chemo treatments that he'll be getting. Both of these last 2 treatments will be a larger dose than what he's been getting in the past. They'll also be spaced 3 weeks apart so that he'll have some recovery time between treatments. Needless to say, Jim's pretty worried about what the larger dosage side effects will be. :-(
Hopefully they won't be too severe.
There is a couple living across the street from our house here in DeBary, and they had a wedding anniversary this past Tuesday. There names are Bill and Margarete (SP)?, and they are both really nice people. In fact, Bill insists on looking after our house when we're not around and will call Jim if anything out of the ordinary happens. He even cleans the junk mail out of the mailbox while we're gone for the summer and saves it for Jim and Linda's return.
Margarete fell and severely injured her leg about a year ago and has spent a lot of this last year in rehab, so she hasn't been too active, but Bill takes care of her and does all yard maintenance, the shopping and running around that needs to be done. In fact, Bill worked as a "porter" at a car dealership until just a few years ago.
Now, you might be wondering why I'm telling you all of this, but you see, both Bill and Margarete are in their 90's and Tuesday, they celebrated their 69th wedding anniversary!!!!!
That's right!!! 69 years!!!!!
They are a great couple and we're so lucky to have them as our very good neighbors.
Happy Anniversary!!!!
Did you know that the St. Patrick’s Day custom came to America in 1737? It was first celebrated publicly in, the U.S. in Boston.
Tuesday, March 8, 2016
It's Been Awhile
DeBary, FL.
60 deg. mostly cloudy, no wind.
Forecast - Sunshine and clouds mixed. High near 80F. Winds ESE at 10 to 20 mph.
It's been quite awhile since I've posted, so I though I'd better let you know what's been going on lately.
Jim has been feeling pretty good, but still has a lot of fatigue. He get's quite discouraged every time he tries to do something and then has to stop and rest all the time, after just doing a little. He had a blood test last Friday and everything was OK there. He'll have another one this Friday and is hoping that those results will be as good.
Linda had an appointment yesterday with Dr. Barnard, (her retinaologist down here in Florida), and everything looked good with her eyes. She was really worried that she would need an injection in one or both of her eyes, so it was a great relief when the doctor gave her the good news. :-) Since it was lunch time by the time she was finished at Dr. Barnard s, she and Jim decided to head over to Bob Evans where they had breakfast for lunch.
Not much else to report. Jim hasn't been doing much because of the fatigue. Linda has been working on her Family Tree program. She really enjoys gathering all kinds of info about her and Jim's family and can work on it for hours at a time.
Did you know that today is "International Pancake Day?"
Woof!!!
60 deg. mostly cloudy, no wind.
Forecast - Sunshine and clouds mixed. High near 80F. Winds ESE at 10 to 20 mph.
It's been quite awhile since I've posted, so I though I'd better let you know what's been going on lately.
Jim has been feeling pretty good, but still has a lot of fatigue. He get's quite discouraged every time he tries to do something and then has to stop and rest all the time, after just doing a little. He had a blood test last Friday and everything was OK there. He'll have another one this Friday and is hoping that those results will be as good.
Linda had an appointment yesterday with Dr. Barnard, (her retinaologist down here in Florida), and everything looked good with her eyes. She was really worried that she would need an injection in one or both of her eyes, so it was a great relief when the doctor gave her the good news. :-) Since it was lunch time by the time she was finished at Dr. Barnard s, she and Jim decided to head over to Bob Evans where they had breakfast for lunch.
Not much else to report. Jim hasn't been doing much because of the fatigue. Linda has been working on her Family Tree program. She really enjoys gathering all kinds of info about her and Jim's family and can work on it for hours at a time.
Did you know that today is "International Pancake Day?"
Woof!!!
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