End of March ramblings

March 31, 2017: Where has March gone? We are going over to Yuma to the park model for a few days. We sure appreciate having that get away. This will be the first time we will have to think about what we are leaving there to spend the summer in 100 degree plus temps. We plan to take a couple odd trips over for short periods but in the meantime, what can we leave there that will be able to stand the heat. We will leave the a/c on, set at 90 or 95 degrees and haven’t decided if we should again leave trash cans of water to offset the dry heat. Oh, the quality of our problems today.

BTW, David (me too) likes have this couple of weeks off with NO doctor visits or treatments. Still having issues with low blood sugar that we can’t figure out. The other night it was bad enough that I actually got dressed because I wasn’t sure if I’d be calling 911 or driving him to ER. I was wearing a cute area 51 night shirt but thought I’d feel more efficient in day wear clothes!

March 29, 2017: Today should be a happy day in that it is the last radiation treatment. We got there early and waited and waited. As suggested, at 20 minutes past appointed time, David went to the check in counter. Oh, she says you are next but you were supposed to be here at 9:15! Nobody told us, we had a print out with 9:45. A tech came out to talk to us. She relayed that appointment got changed about 30 or 40 minutes before David’s’ appointment yesterday, Tuesday so they were to give him the new schedule. Well, no one gave him a new schedule or said a word. I said you really need to call, paper hand out or not. I understand it throws them off too. As it was David didn’t get in until 10:35 and 11:15 we were out. A good hour after we should have been out. It really threw us off, I feel very bad for those who have to do weeks of radiation. David got 2 time changes in just 5 days; I would not have managed at all if we had been doing this for weeks. Grateful it was only 5 days and now that particular adventure is a wrap!

Now we have a few days of no appointments! Hip Hip Hooray

March 23 First Radiation Treatment

Today started off very early. I was not sleeping very well (no I was NOT anxious about today) so got up and started a pot of coffee. At 6am I brought David a cup of coffee and we both began to get ready for our trip to La Jolla. I’ve already forgotten what time we actually left. We got there and surprise the check in was open. They gave us our parking pass but would not check us in until we committed to staying in the small crowded waiting room. We went over to Thornton to have breakfast. It was a little tricky to figure out the proper order to get breakfast items; we’ll do better next time. We had breakfast, got coffees, sat and read a bit and about 8:30 went back to Moore’s Cancer Center and officially checked in.

We knew we were in for a wait so did some reading and web surfing. There was also a three-some waiting. They were there before us and after us so they much have done the same arriver early to beat the traffic. David’s appointment had been changed from 10 to 9:30. As it was approaching 10, I went to the front desk to verify schedule. As I was at the desk, Carmen, Social Worker, came in and was talking to David. I told the front desk, oh, I see someone is talking to my husband now, she informed me, no, no one was available but she would follow up. Well okay but… Since I saw Carmen there with David, I walked over to hear what was being said. Sorry for the delay. Well crumb, we could have left the house at 9 and gotten there just fine. At 10, the original appointment, David was called in.

I made myself comfortable and read and listened to others around me. Someone else had been rescheduled, came in earlier and was now waiting. Well, at least it wasn’t just us. After about 40 minutes, Carmen came out and told me David had done fine and was dressing and would be out soon. I thought it was nice she spent a couple minutes talking to me. The only issue I had was that I was just about to finish my book and I hate getting interrupted so close to the end! LOL

David felt fine. We were both tired. David told me all about his new adventure while we drove down to Sea World. Yes, I know, Sea World again! We have an annual dining pass so we popped in to do some walking and have a healthy wrap sandwich. We then rode the sky baskets since there was no crowd. David says he wants to ride the Manta rollercoaster but I don’t think so.

We got back to the house about 2 and both immediately took a nap! Tomorrow’s appointment is at 10 a.m. so we will leave the house about 9, no early morning beat the traffic needed.

March 20 Yuma and appt conflict notes

This is getting real old real fast. Last night David’s blood sugar went low, again. This is now 3 or 4 times in about the last week. We are trying to figure it out, have a couple ideas and we will redouble our efforts. My concern is if it happens too often, your body stops sending some of the signals and then will David wake up and know to take care of the low blood sugar.

What a fun few days we have had. We are getting more and more comfortable in our park model (tiny home) in Yuma and getting to know more folks. We attended a happy hour with a couple two doors down. Met some new people, one who is there most of the year and keeper of the keys for many who are gone for the summer. He is the one who can check on your house. Glad we got to meet him so now that is another small issue that can be checked off the list. I can’t imagine what we would need him to check but as life is full of surprises, good to have him for a back up. Our neighbor right across the street has been really good about helping us, already has a key and turned our a/c on once before we got over.

Confusion.  David got a reminder call for his chemo appointment Thursday. What? He is having his first radiation Thursday and we recall that there was to be no chemo treatments about 7 days before and after radiation. Called UCSD and called Kaiser Oncology. Everyone saying yes, you have appointment. That wasn’t the question. Later David checked on line his upcoming appointments for Kaiser and the correction had been made. No chemo for Thursday and a bonus, no oncology appointment for Wednesday. And the next chemo April 26. It’s like getting a pass to go play! Lesson is be sure to read information given (we reviewed the radiation handbook we had been given to verify the days off) and be your own advocate.  Double check and verify. Glad we did.

march 13 2017 Constant vigilance required.

Constant vigilance required: The other day we spent a pleasurable afternoon wandering around Sea World and catching one of the magic acts brought in for March. This included having a meal there which was balanced out by the extra walking we were doing – that’s how we justify having the red velvet cake desert. On the way home, we stopped to visit David’s dad at Frederica Manor. We ended up staying to join him and Jeanne for dinner there. We all enjoyed a good chat with some real belly laughs (always good medicine).  Later that evening, David was not feeling well at all. He was tired so we retired early. Before going to sleep, David again complains of feeling “off” and in a bit of pain but not like before. Thank goodness he then thought to check his blood sugar (Type II Diabetic). His blood sugar was 69 (this is too low). We did the necessary “get a snack with sugar for quick fix and protein to last through the night”. As we are waiting the 15 before rechecking blood sugar we reviewed the day and the carbs consumed to figure out what went wrong.

A lot went wrong. Lunch and dinner were both short on appropriate carb intake. We did have extra exercise which lowers blood sugar and some short, fast acting carbs without the usual bedtime snack to carry through the night. And he had intentionally skipped a pain pill. We just weren’t really paying attention. Looking back we both see what we could have done differently – actually not differently but routinely! It really is about constantly being aware and vigilant; boring, tedious, not fun but necessary.

Moral of the story: if you are young and/or in good health – ENJOY, please appreciate what you have, don’t take it for granted. And if you are older and not in the best of health – ENJOY that too

March 8 2017 SBRT mapping

Today we are mentally preparing for tomorrow. That is the day for mapping, the process of planning radiation treatment for David’s tumor. It will be a couple hours and then another 7 -10 days for the plan to be fully developed. Obviously much planning for a precise project. Today started with concern of when to leave the house to allow for traffic which led to what time is the appointment. Here’s a tip, don’t put your appointment on your google calendar when you are in AZ because when you are in San Diego the mountain time will be different. I thought I came to the rescue because I had used pencil and a paper calendar to write down the time, however, David still felt the need to call and verify. That is fine, better to be safe than sorry. That call informed us it would be another contrast scan which I think meant special instructions for medications. So now I will look at previous paperwork to verify what that might be. And here I thought retirement meant I would have lots of spare time on my hands. Ha. Has anybody found that to be true?

Now in the morning I will look at google maps for time and direction to UCSD La Jolla. Nothing like our days of full time rving, one large atlas supplemented with individual state maps that we picked up at the state visitor information center when we entered a new state. The visitor centers were a wealth of information from things to do and see, places to stay and eat and often a dump and fill station along with a long pull through where we could rest and eat. And even some where we spent the night while traveling from point to point. Our favorite rest areas were in Kansas. They actually had separate loops away from the main parking where you could park for the night with picnic and BBQ provided.

Back to the map issue. We had a small crate that held various maps and campground books. I often joked that I did not see much of the country because I was busy looking at maps and books. It was a real thrill when I got Streets and Trips mapping program on my computer. I could input our destination and stops along the way. It really was an improvement over paper maps. I still use it on a rare occasion but to tell you how useful it is – it’s no longer available! Gone to real time maps on smart phones.

March 3 2017

Today David is getting the gold fiducials implanted in his tumor. These will be used for precise targeting of high radiation doses. Since this is being done in San Diego we had to once again leave our Yuma retreat. We got up early hoping to beat the winds that were forecast. I always think leaving extra early before anyone else is up and the park is quiet means we are heading off for an adventure. It adds an extra element and reminds me of fun trips. I transferred our coffee into the travel pot and premeasured cereal that we would eat at the rest stop. Back in the days of the big diesel pusher I was able to do all sorts of things while David would be driving us down the road. I could put the coffee pot in the sink, for stability, and make a pot of coffee using the solar panel electricity. There was room up front to put the travel pot and I could pour us cups without having to leave my seat. And even though I am not the one who does most of the cooking, on travel days, I was up out of my seat, in the kitchen, putting together lunches and snacks. Probably not supposed to do all that moving around while the vehicle was moving but I loved being able to do that. I still can it just isn’t as roomy in little Mercy.

Yesterday turned out to be a very full day. Not only did we return from Yuma, unpack Mercy; meet with our contractor; go to Sea World for lunch and exercise and a nap; but also managed to get caught in traffic and took way too long to get back to the house which put a damper on the Sea World trip but that certainly distracted us from thinking about today’s procedure.

The plan is to go back to Yuma for a couple weeks after the mapping appointment and before the radiation begins. That should give us a chance to say goodbye until next season to our new friends in the park and Close up the park model for the summer. Although we think we may run over now and again even during some of the warmer times because the park is sort of fun when it is almost a ghost town with only a few year round residents. And if we time in right there are a lot of end-of- season sales.