Medical stuff – treatments, outcomes, Dr visits
An early departure to Chicago yesterday as a busy schedule awaited. The usual, bloodwork was first on tap without hitch and as it turned out, all is fine. Her CT scan with contrast dye was another story. First, a little background, six months ago Suzanne had a minor reaction to this CT, some facial skin rosie appearance. At that time, we weren’t sure what caused the reaction, the CT or the infusion. Then, three months ago, she had a much…
A balmy -10 degrees when we pulled out of the garage this morning, but it was time to go and wasn’t going to get any warmer. Traffic was unusually bad when we hit the I-94 interchange and didn’t let up all the way to downtown. Passed a couple of stalled drivers and there seemed like there were more cars than normal, assuming that people avoided outdoor mass transit. After bloodwork, her only doctor visit was with her surgeon. I’m guessing…
Wednesday we took another trip to Chicago, strong crosswinds both on the way up and back made for difficult driving. On top of that, snow north of Kankakee was also an issue with whiteout conditions caused by the wind coming home which had us moving at 30mph with vehicle flashers on a number of times. This was Suzanne’s fourteenth infusion in the PATHway trial. The past few weeks, we have had a number of discussions about whether there were going…
It’s hard to believe that we have been at this for nine months now. When this clinical trial started, we wondered if it was the right choice, knowing it will be a big commitment and forcing our personal schedule into 3-week increments. Yet here we are, still cancer-free and living the lives put in front of us. The stars were aligned yesterday as it was the quickest turnaround to date. Leaving home at 6:30, we were back on the road…
The most uneventful trip to Chicago yet, it couldn’t get much better. We didn’t have to be at Rush till 10:00 am so we missed the heavy traffic inbound. We were out of there by 1:30 pm, so it wasn’t too bad coming home either. Actually, I could just end the post here but that’s no fun. Not wanting to just sit for the two hours between blood work and infusion, so we escaped! Well, actually, we asked our Clinical…
A major failure of the Bruns-O-Matic occurred this morning as a malfunction in its internal clock was discovered. I don’t remember such a failure within the system since was put into service some 24,856 days ago. Preparing to leave for Chicago, the Bruns-O-Matic inaccurately calculated the departure time by exactly one hour. Looking through system logs, I found a time adjustment made last Monday while visiting Indiana for the Covered Bridge Festival but also found that an adjustment was later…
Suzanne is over the hump and halfway through her clinical trial. Things continue to be pretty routine when it comes to her treatment; blood work, wait two hours, treatment, and head for home. Of course, this week had to be different. As I shared before, Suzanne’s thyroid is not doing well through all this. The original radiation & chemotherapy did a number on it, and now, the trial drug Keytruda (that we aren’t supposed to know she is getting) seems…
M – I – C . . . . K – E – Y . . . . MOUSE. How many times in your life have you sang those letters. Every time you do, thoughts of a fun place and time come to mind. Watching Wonderful World of Disney on the television; Disney cartoons in the movie theater before the show; and maybe a visit to the Magic Kingdom itself, the Walt Disney Company is known worldwide but I didn’t…
I couldn’t decide how to open this post so there are two for you to choose from. OPENING #1 – Travel Tip: Don’t drive to or from the downtown Chicago area on a Friday that is the start of a long holiday weekend. Our trip was twenty minutes plus both going and coming from Chicago yesterday. Suzanne commented that it was the first time in all our visits that we arrived late. By my watch, three minutes, LOL. OPENING #2…
Have you ever woke up one morning to find your feeding tube completely out and laying next to you? Probably not, LOL! Well, that’s what happened to Suzanne the day after her last trip to Rush. Let me rewind the last 8 months to bring you up to speed. Suzanne originally had a feeding tube placed last December because her radiation treatments had made it too difficult to swallow. At that point, it was considered to be temporary. Over the…