4 PM Tuesday, March 15, 2011

We are settled in here at Club Dread (Los Robles hospital oncology unit) but have met up with some of the nurses we vacationed with on our last trip here, so it's been a bit of a reunion.  I guess I should post a VIEWER DISCRETION WARNING at this point, as we've both been bitten with the sarcastic humor bug today.  We'll check the "steps" later to see where this coping mechanism fits in, but it's working for us today.

We went to bed emotionally prepared for the day today (it's a very weird feeling to VOLUNTARILY sign up for and drive to a location where you will be intentionally poisoned).  We woke up to a phone call from the nurse explaining that one of the main chemo drugs Ed was scheduled to receive today is .... hold onto your hats ........on NATIONAL BACKORDER and unavailable until the end of the month!  (Dr. Menco wasn't notified until 9 PM last night.)  I immediately called City of Hope but Dr. Menco had beat me to the punch, along with UCLA and several other cancer treatment centers.  NO DICE.  We reported to the hospital anyway and Dr. Menco met us to explain how we will proceed.

Ed is having a CAT scan right now to determine how effective the previous chemo has been.  When he gets back to the room, they will administer the Rituxan chemo test dose.  Because the Rituxan is so aggressive, they will watch his reaction and if all goes well, finish the dose tomorrow late afternoon.  If the CAT scan results show that improvement was made with the previous combination of chemo drugs, Dr. Menco will repeat a treatment of those in some modified formula this week.   He'll decide tomorrow with the folks from City of Hope looking at the results together.

Meanwhile, AND HERE'S WHERE THE VIEWER DISCRETION KICKS IN... we've been celebrating a monumental event.....and I don't mean the wedding.  For those of you who appreciate Ed's sense of humor, read on.  Otherwise, I guess you'll read on and chalk it up to garden-variety curiosity.  After more than 8 months (yes 8 months!) of continuous and often rampant diarrhea, Ed produced a small, well-formed (?) turd this morning.  In a hasty move, undoubtedly the result of successful childhood toilet training, he hastily flushed it away like a week-old carnival goldfish.  Regrettable, in hindsight.

When we were going through the routine police-like interrogation that accompanies all hospital admissions, Ed and I and the nurse all agreed that the appearance of the aforementioned turd was absolute cause for celebration.  Then, as mental exhaustion and sleep deprevation often can do, Ed and I both got a serious case of the giggles and decided not only should we celebrate the turd, but given the opportunity, we should protect it, perhaps bronze it and put it on the mantle next to the baby shoes.... or perhaps make a donaton to the hospital so significant that they would be forced to allow us to set up some type of shrine or display in the visitor's lobby.   DON'T SAY I DIDN'T WARN YOU....... We laughed until we cried..... which was a wonderful feeling, since mostly, we've been crying til we cry some more!

Well, right on cue, they just brought Ed back from downstairs, so I'll jump off the blog and get the TV warmed up for the Factor in 10 minutes.  I also have to adjust the window blinds, plump his pillows and post the appropriate "You Are Entering The No-Spin Zone" signage on the door.....and these things take time.

I promise to post more info soon, and hopefully there will still be at least a small number of you left who are brave enough to log on and read the next post.

One last thing I wanted to mention - we picked up a book yesterday in Dr. Menco's office titled "I'd Rather Do Chemo Than Clean Out My Garage".  I'm going to try and download it to my Kindle later tonight cause we realize that humor is going to be a big part of hanging on through this.  We hope you all understand how important it is to us to be able to laugh.  It probably feels a little strange, but we're going to use ALL the tools we can find to forge ahead....... and it's uphill both directions.

We both hope you will laugh with someone you love today.