1/7 of our lives are Mondays.
Everything is funny as long as it's happening to someone else. Or you have a day's perspective.
God writes a lot of comedy.
Soooooooo.....Monday afternoon, I got home after work to find Bill home at 4:30, which is early for him. He had been laying down because he wasn't feeling good. I made dinner, and about 5:15, he came down to sit, but said he wasn't hungry. After watching him sit there for about 30 minutes looking and sounding pitiful, I called Summit Express to see if they were still open (a doc-in-the-box experience). I was kinda worried that he had the flu or the stomach bug that's been going around, and I really didn't want to 'catch' it, and figured that if we could stop it early, it would be best.
Bill decided to drive himself, and got there right before closing. By 6:30, he called me and said that the doctor wanted him to go by ambulance to the hospital, considering that he was talking about tightness in the chest with the nausea and the doc didn't want to take any chances with heart attack possibilities.
I met Bill at the emergency room. After EKG, chest x-ray, and blood enzyme reviews, the doc didn't think that his nausea and chest constriction was heart related, but to rule that out, they needed to keep him overnight to continue checking blood enzymes and to have a stress test Tuesday morning. We got him settled in a room, and around 11:30 he was able to enjoy a turkey sandwich (with no food or liquids after midnight due to this morning's tests). If you know Bill, you know this part is important because, since he hadn't eaten since noon or so, he was pretty loopy from needing to eat!!
I came home after the sandwich was delivered and got a bit of sleep before getting back there around 7:15 this morning. In the meantime, Cathy Corley said she would go to the Kirklin appointment with me at 9:00 so I would have another pair of ears/eyes. Bill and I had determined that he would probably be in the stress test at that time, so I went forward with the appointment rather than reschedule.
Sure enough, about 8:15 they came to get Bill, and I got back in the car to meet Cathy at Kirklin. I got back to Brookwood at about 10:45, where he was resting from his testing. He said he had gotten the report that the test came back with no indication that his heart was at risk. Good news! This same kind of event happened about 7 years ago (tightness in chest/nausea), and he had to spend the night then again as well. He had been diagnosed with reflux and was placed on prescription which has worked very well for many years. This morning, we called that doctor again for a review of medications and to see if there may be additional things to do gastro-wise. He has an appointment with Dr. Denton on Wednesday at 3:00. At about 2:30 he was released from Brookwood, and we came home where he has been sleeping ever since!
I'm telling everyone that Bill was just feeling neglected and that he wanted some attention. Ha!!
At discharge time, the nurse said that if he felt the same way again, he needed to come back to the emergency room again because you never know...
His work colleagues were very supportive re: his managerial duties, and helped ease his mind about he was supposed to finish yesterday! And my peeps, as usual, would have done anything they needed to do. If I didn't contact you, it's only because things were basically under control and no news was no news until we knew something!
A big thank you to Cathy for being at Dr. Nabell's office with me. Some highlights of that meeting:
1. Nurse Nancy checked my port and said it looked perfect and showed me how they would be using it.
2. Received the pathology report from the sentinel node with the cancer that was taken 1.5 weeks ago. Good news in that it is NOT lymphoma. The other 2 nodes had no cancer in them. Based on the report, Dr. Nabell still wants an MRI of the chest which will give additional insights as to if there is a blip(s) of cancer in any of the breast tissue.
3. I'm paraphrasing here, but she basically said that she did not believe that the shadow on the liver would be anything but benign, but again, it's a necessary precaution.
4. Based on what she knows as of today, she still thinks the original treatment plan is appropriate, and is ready to schedule that. Obviously, if the liver information comes back differently, we would talk again. Since that procedure is tomorrow (Wednesday), she anticipates getting that info back Monday.
5. I will get a phone call today or tomorrow to schedule my first treatment, which will be probably Wednesday of next week (March 25). The regimen will be treatments once every two weeks for 4 treatments (8 weeks). Those treatments will consist of adriamycin and another one that I didn't write down! (But I'll make sure to ask the person who calls me for my appointment). After the 8 weeks, I will have weekly treatments of taxol for 12 weeks.
6. Dr. Nabell gave me some prescriptions for anti-nausea (anti-nausea protocol), and for a cranial prosthesis. Yes, that means a wig! The medication prescriptions I will start immediately following treatment. The hair issues will happen within/by the end of the initial 2 weeks.
So grateful for all the people who care about and for us.
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