Weds Evening Ramblings

Deb just went to bed. Her back is doing better so we shifted her from a 12" wedge pillow to an 8" wedge pillow. She did the previous post with no editing from me! Her previous posts all needed touch-ups. Didn't she do great?

If you've led a healthy lifestyle and never seen the inside of a medical supply store, drop into one someday to see what many people have to have to exist.It will make you appreciate your health.

Change: Deb just called from the bedroom and said please bring the 12" wedge back: transition was too soon. Change: our new lifestyle!

Everyday we're surrounded by folks with all sorts of troubles. Then we see the medical staff caring for their needs. There are lots of nurses of various 'ranks'; boss nurses have a lot of authority. The Doctors come and go but aren't among the folks here often. I've come to appreciate the math and chemistry that Doctors and nurses have to contend with.

Another change: Deb called 4 more separate times to help her get settled in for the night. Her rib pain is really bugging her.

I was president of our High School Science club back last century and started out at UGA as a Chemistry major, and l feel really dumb! These folks are so sharp! Today I would have flunked out. I picked up a bottle of liquid meds from the hospital pharmacy. As I reviewed the label it did not say take a dab,pinch, or scoop like grandma's recipes said, or a tablespoon or so as an over the counter drug; instead it instructed me to give Deb precisely 30 ml on a set schedule. Temporary panic: how much is that? Fortunately I found a sympathetic pharmacist who had a small marked cup for us. I wisely did not divulge my forgotten science background.

Lots of new things going on around us. When Deb's stem cells are ready for harvest, they will remove the existing 3 port Cook port cut into her neck and replace it with much stiffer larger model. The reason? The machine that filters stem cells out of the marrow has a very strong suction and would collapse the current port. But it is too stiff to live with on a daily basis.

A classmate from Birmingham was a few chairs over from us today and in a talkative mood. I commented to him that we each had significant medical resources in our home areas and he said, 'let me tell you why I'm here!' His wife tried to hush him but he said what he had to say was true and he would say it. His story was that when diagnosed he was going to get hometown treatment but ran into a friend who also had myeloma and had been treated at the local hospital. His friend said that there were eight myeloma patients there and after two months of treatment only two were still alive. When he heard that he decided he was coming to Arkansas.

I do a little flight instructing and a while back was teaching the CEO of our local award-winning hospital to fly. One day he mentioned that his most common question asked him is 'if you found out you had cancer, where would you go?' and he said his answer was 'to the airport!' "Why?'Because I'd catch a flight out to MD Anderson!"
{That's a famous cancer hospital in Houston}

So, that brings up an interesting question: if a person comes down with a serious disease, do you stay with local,convenient, known medical facilities and doctors, or do you seek the best place you can find? Many factors weigh in on this and I recommend you ponder the question because many of you dear readers may have to answer the question for yourselves or loved ones. My eyes have been opened to how much cancer is around us, in addition to other serious diseases. If you face a serious disease, seek much information and counsel! Deb stated today that everyone has a terminal disease and it's just a matter of how and when we are departing this life.

Getting off the hotel transport tonight, a fellow caregiver was next to me. She is a teacher from Oregon assisting another teacher. She had an interesting necklace and I commented on it. It had a silver figure on either side of a cross. She said one represented her daughter that she still has, and one represented her hero son who was killed in Iraq.

I got to help my Brooklyn Jewish friend today over at the hospital. He has no caregiver and really needs one. He was so lost in the facility! He has no cell phone and I had to call him transport and get him to the pickup spot. Another classmate said he found him wandering lost in another building a few days ago.

Can you tell that relationships are on my mind? We are all in this together!

Be sure to check at earlier posts as I edit and add pix as I find time. I want you to share this experience with us. A wise person once said that it is essential to our souls that there are witnesses to our lives who will know we were once here.

Good night all!

Vern