Every morning we take a 20-minute stroll through the streets of Chicago. Leaving our apartment at 6:45 a.m., elevator down to the ground floor, through the double set of security doors and down the stairs to Damen Avenue. Our building is on the corner so it’s only 50 yards north to Polk Street where we head east. As the sun is just rising at this hour, it stares us in the face hovering above the city horizon. I usually walk…
Today Suzanne got some good news. Her Radiation Doctor informed her that they are already seeing some shrinkage in her tumor. Dr commented that they usually expect that for the HPV type tumor but not necessarily the negative type. As he told us, a smile came across his face so we knew he was happy with this result. Additionally, yesterday, her Chemotherapy Doctor was surprised to hear that so far she has not experienced any symptoms from her Chemo treatments;…
Suzanne has to undergo 7 Chemotherapy Infusions during her treatment. Today was treatment number three. The process which takes 4 1/2 hours for her looks just like you see it on TV & the movies. At Rush, they call the room consisting of 4 infusion chairs where she gets her Chemotherapy a ‘Pod’. Two of these pods are placed in a U-shape layout with the nurse’s station in the middle. It’s all open with privacy curtains available, which few use….
Last week I shared that I didn’t like the emphasis that was placed on the word ‘believe’ when used with Christianity. Believe connotates that something is true even without any evidence. Although my religious faith is a combination of biblical history and scientific fact, it still leads me to one conclusion, I don’t just ‘believe’, I know there is a God. As a child, I struggled with the concept of God but as a Catholic, that was taboo. I didn’t…
I started writing about our journey the day we found out that Suzanne had cancer, but you might not know how we got to that point. Let’s just say we both believe the hand of God pushed many people in our direction. Back in January, the Parkland Dental school noticed that Suzanne had a small bump on the side of her neck just below the jawline. Checking in with the local clinic, they believed it was just a swollen gland…
Hurray, it’s Friday! Suzanne is in treatment but we are heading home as soon as we can. Our plan is to come home on weekends as long as it is possible. Fridays are the days we meet with her Speech Therapist so we can’t get out of Dodge quite as quickly as we would like. His job is not what we expected as it has nothing to do with speech. His efforts are to ensure that Suzanne will be able…
Thursday is the only day that Suzanne doesn’t have any appointments other than her radiation treatment. Today, after treatment we walked down to the food court at the Hyatt for breakfast. It’s a really nice place with unusual, non-chain food stands and has just been open for a month. We both chose a made-to-order breakfast sandwich from one of the two vendors that are open at breakfast time. Each sandwich had double fried eggs; I had sausage, Suzanne bacon. Suzanne’s…
Yesterday’s post, today. It’s a rainy day here today so we decided to skip our daily stroll and opt for a drier trip, we took the shuttle this morning. Rush Hospital offers a free shuttle to anyone needing transportation within the Medical District who has an appointment at a Rush provider. Today, although Tuesday, was a combination day for Suzanne because of Labor Day, which means you may need a scorecard to keep up. First up was her usual radiation…
I spent most of the day writing a post about Day 39, Suzanne’s treatments, what happened, and how She did. The rain stopped long enough for the two us to walk home, although a cool walk it was. Then, as we opened the door to our apartment, Suzanne exclaimed, “We Got Mail” Whenever there is mail, the IMBD Guest House staff delivers it under our door. This was the most excitement I had seen all day, mainly because, it was!…
Growing up, Labor Day was a big day around our house. Dad was a union man, Secretary / Treasurer of his local union & involved in other labor activities. In town, there was always a ‘Labor Day Parade’ that had floats & cars with dignitaries. I rode with dad a couple of times and on a float or two over the years. Labor Day this year was just that, a lot of labor. We packed clothes for the next week…