Jerry is also supposed to avoid bleeding, which is a good policy, I think, for all people, every day, not just cancer patients. Because his platelets are low he should avoid using a real razor blade, use a soft toothbrush, and generally try to keep from cutting himself. Annette also said that in a couple of days Dad's immune system would take a real dip, and he should start to wear his Cancer Mask if he is going to be in a crowded place like a movie theatre, or a bus. She also advised him to avoid opening doors by himself and to let someone else do it because door knobs are filthy. I asked about the Schnauzers because Nolie read somewhere that chemo. patients shouldn't be around dogs. Annette says there's no problem as long as they're healthy, indoor dogs, that are current on their vaccinations. YEA! Dogs good. Cancer bad.
While we will not know definitively whether or not the chemo. is working until two weeks after the third round when Dad gets another CT scan, Annette did say that the fact that his pain is under control, and he hasn't gotten worse is a "hint" that the chemo. is doing what it's supposed to. I guess no bad news is good news.
Good News is so
mething you hear about a lot here. A standard greeting among the Cancer People is "Did you receive good news today?" You hear this as you make small talk with strangers in waiting rooms and elevators. People also inquire if you received Good News on the Cancer Van at the end of the day. On our first visit here, on December 18th, we were waiting outside for the Cancer Van to pick us up, and I asked another couple how they were doing. They both beamed and said that they had received Good News, and that his doctor asked him what he was doing here because he had no cancer. They both seemed so happy, and I keep wondering how long they had been coming here, how often, from where, and how many Bad News days they had compared to Good
News days.
We had two hours to kill between the blood work appointment and the Nurse Practitioner appointment, so Mom wanted to show me the part of the campus where the chemo. actually takes place. It is a nine minute walk, according to the directional signage, across a very, very, very, very long sky bridge where they run golf cart shuttles on a regular schedule. Kind of like the golf carts that used to run between the two Hyatt towers at DFW, or like old people ride around in at airports and in Florida. Anyway, Dad walked the whole distance there, then rode the cart back. The Visa Card Panic has escalated, and I cannot believe it is still not resolved. Nolie cried for two different Citibank people today, and I have a feeling I'm going to be up all night helping her draft a letter to Citibank. At one point during the screaming, yelling and crying, in the Gatehouse, another guest glanced over to see what the commotion was about. I smiled and said that she was sometimes loud and embarrassing, but that she usually gets what she wants. The guest politely ignored us all and pretended we were not in the room.
2 comments:
The whole Visa Card Panic scenario is giving me flashbacks of when I lost my Exxon card in the mid-90s. As soon as I returned to Laredo from a trip to Houston, I realized it was missing, so I called to cancel it. But the bozos just mailed me a new card with the same account number. When I got my next bill, it was in the amount of several hundred dollars, with a couple of charges in Laredo and dozens of charges in Houston, many on the same days as the charges in Laredo. I called "customer service" to explain what had happened and was told that it was IMPOSSIBLE - a new card must have been issued with a different account number, and I had obviously been going wild, charging up a storm at Exxons all across both Harris and Webb Counties all month long. So I gave her a long speech about how I was the only one of my pinko-commie-left-wing-bleeding-heart friends who hadn't boycotted Exxon after the Valdez fiasco, feeling a sense of loyalty to the company that had employed my grandfather for decades. But screw you, Exxon! I cut up the card and for the first time in my life applied for Texaco, Chevron and Shell cards. Because those huge oil companies are much less likely to cause devastation to the environment and hire idiots to handle their customer service phone lines, right? Anyway... I hope Jerry's still doing well! XOXOXO Camille
When my American Express card was stolen in college, they were pretty sure the fradulent charges were not mine. Anyone who knows me knows that I would never spend $54.00 in the "Casual Shoe" department at J. C. Penney.
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