Enjoying Life – One Photo at a time!
Date: 2019 August 18, at 07:54:32 PDT, Weather: 63 °F Sunny
Getting up
Being Sunday I slept in. Getting up I quickly got upstairs routine behind me and went downstairs for breakfast to meet the time constrains for taking the antibiotics on time. Since leaving the hospital I take three different antibiotics, two for the fungus the other is a broad spectrum bacterial one to cover what ever caused my high fever.
Let me start by saying I am back home. I got back from a 3-day stay at John Muir Hospital in Concord. I had a 102.4 F fever the night before my chemo treatment and my CBC numbers just before starting the infusion were too low, so they send me to the ER.
Continue reading “2019-08-15/16/17 Living with Cancer Day 890/891/892”
You may have noticed that I did not publish yesterday. The reason being, starting around lunchtime I was to fatigue to do anything as I constantly dosed of. This morning, after night with constant stomach cramps, Dianne took me to the cancer center for my chemo treatment. Drawing blood for a CBC to determine my premeds, it was found that I was at the limit of going ahead, but because of my stomach issues during the night and a high fever, I was told that I need to check in at John Muir’s ER because I have neutropenic fever, which the CC is not setup for.
That is where I am now. I am very fatigue and even typing this short note has taken some time as I dozed of two times writing it.
I will try to get back to my regular reporting after they find out what is causing this, or I am no longer dozing off for long periods.
Date: 2019 August 12, at 06:37:31 PDT
Weather: 61 °F Clear
Getting up
Time to get up and ready for the day. Current status is, light stomach cramps, dizziness and ringing in the ears. After my morning routine I rested a bit before going downstairs.
Date: 2019 August 12, at 07:14:24 PDT
Weather: 64 °F Sunny
Now Downstairs
I went downstairs and had a light breakfast with tea because of my stomach aches. After that I rested and got ready for our walk.
Date: 2019 August 12, at 08:01:05 PDT
Weather: 72 °F Sunny
Out walking
The walk with Dean started of ok, however after 2/3 of our walk my left shoulder started to be painful. The pain forced me to stop and rest for the last 1/3 of the way. In addition to the shoulder pain my stomach started to act up. The good news I made it home.
Date: 2019 August 12, at 08:38:05 PDT
Weather: 73 °F Sunny
Back home from walking
Getting home Dean setup the Oxygen Compressor for me. It did help me with my breathing which was a bit shallow because of the pain. He watched me to make sure I was Ok before leaving. I had retired to my recliner and before I knew it was dozing off.
After about an hour later I was able to move around and get something to drink and eat. Not having much energy I just caught up with some TV shows I had recorded. Soon lunchtime did arrive.
Date: 2019 August 12, at 13:49:40 PDT
Weather: 91 °F Sunny
Lunch Time
Dean was so nice to get me a small salad from Wendys. In the meantime I was trying to get ESPN3 up on Apple TV. I was able to get it on my iPhone and Laptop but on ATV it tells me I have no account. I therefore watched Bayern vs Energie Cottbus on my laptop. However, not giving up with ATV I decided to logout and then back in, which suddenly allow me to have access to the game on ESPN3.
After the game was over I switched to regular TV watching some other shows I had recorded until I had to get ready for my doctor appointment.
Date: 2019 August 12, at 14:39:16 PDT
Weather: 93 °F Sunny
Time for Follow-Up Appointment
Dianne picked me up for my follow-up appointment with my oncology doctor. In summary the new cancer treatment seems to be very effective. The issue of fatigue is due to the fungus treatment, especially the antibiotics and its dosage.
Moving forward, my current antibiotic will be changed to one that does not have the skin issues as a side effect, a new trough ad fungus draw are scheduled for 1st week in September.
Before leaving, I went for a CBC and Myeloma blood draw. Since the result of the CBC draw sowed that the platelet count was low, 46, the doctor suspended taking the cancer pill (Pomalyst) for now.
Date: 2019 August 12, at 17:15:28 PDT
Weather: 95 °F Sunny
Dinner Time
Getting back home from the doctor appointment I rested since I was totally exhausted. Dinner time was not far away, therefore I watched some more recorded TV shows.
Once dinner was served, I just could not get my appetite up to eat much. Some of it is link to my lack of energy, the other that I still have stomach cramps.
Date: 2019 August 12, at 18:34:57 PDT
Weather: 93°F Sunny
Calling it a Day
As mention before, I am just unable to concentrate on anything. It took some doing to finished today’s blog. On the positive side, using the Day One application did help since I enter the events as they happen, leaving at the end of the day just the dinner and calling a day events to be entered.
Having finished dinner, we spend the rest of the evening watching TV before calling it a day.
Date: 2019 August 11, at 06:05:28 PDT
Weather: 63 °F Sunny
Not a good start
I woke up with my stomach not feeling right. Besides the stomach feeling like having to vomit I was very dizzy. I closed my eyes hoping to get back to sleep.
Date: 2019 August 10, at 07:20:48 PDT
Weather: 68 °F Mostly Cloudy
Location: Antioch, CA, United States
Getting up
Dieter, Carsten and Renée arrived late last night. I was already in bed, since after dinner, I had taken a shower which caused my system to be very low on energy.
Getting up I had some stomach aches and was a bit lightheaded. After finishing my morning routine, I went downstairs.
Today’s posting continues using the layout created by the application Day One which capture my activities. Let me know what you think.
Date: 2019 August 09, at 06:35:17 PDT
Weather: 64 °F Sunny
Location: Antioch, CA, United States
TGIF – Plans for today
Got up a bit early for an appointment at the Cancer Center for some hydration before the weekend. Having our weekly lunch with some of my Premenos friends that I worked with from 1990 to 2000.
Today’s posting looks different as I started to use the application Day One to capture my activities. I have had this app for two years and forgot after my cancer announcement about it. Let me know what you think of it, maybe have suggestion what to remove or add.
Date: 2019 August 08, at 06:49:50 PDT
Weather: 61 °F Sunny
Location: Antioch, CA, United States
Today was almost identical to yesterday, another so-so day, no real issues getting up and going downstairs for breakfast. Like yesterday, I did start sweating a bit once I got downstairs. Since today is Chemo Infusion Day, I did not go for my morning walk, but instead I got ready for my appointment. For most of the day I will be in a recliner. My vitals were good and my pain locations were the shoulder/neck and the lower back region.
Today was another *so-so day, no real issues getting up and going downstairs for breakfast. I did start sweating a bit once I got downstairs. I had my normal Shoulder/Neck pain and by the time I started my morning walk, my lower back pain started. Interesting enough it did not bother me during the morning walk. For most of the day my pain location with higher levels were the lower back, hip, and shoulder/neck. Close to dinner time my stomach acted up a bit and I started to have a light headache as well. In addition, my energy level was at a low level, I did drink some energy drinks, which did bring up the energy a bit. Since I will have a full chemo day tomorrow, I will also get hydration, which will bring up my energy level.