May 18, 2012
Back at Local Oncology
Good morning! I dropped the girls off at their schools and Michelle dropped the boys off at theirs. I'm working from home today. Michelle has an appointment this afternoon with her local Nashua oncologist. Hopefully they take labs and give her plenty of fluids. She's not feeling herself today.
Abby has the doctor appointment for things she needs to enter high school next year. My little Abby?!? It is likely that I'll be taking her if Michelle's time at oncology is as long as I anticipate.
Finally got my hair cut. I'd been so busy with other things these past several weeks, it was growing long.
A common experience in debugging: sometimes you feel a sense of accomplishment for getting to the root of some complex or subtle issue. Other times you find such stupid mistakes that you've made, you just have to form your hand into a fake pistol, point it at your temple, and ka-pow! This morning was like that.
After a couple of tears, Michelle and I said our goodbyes as she goes to see her awesome local oncologist, Dr. Gautami Rao in Nashua. Dr. Rao has always taken great care of Michelle through this battle. We hope they do some blood work (with signs of improvement) and give her plenty of fluids.
I went for some comfort food, New England Shepherd's Pie, at Cafe on the Oval and swung by DFE for a coffee to nurse this afternoon. Now back to debugging cubemap bugs and a two o'clock status meeting.
Coffee humor: I Am The Highlander!
Facebook is a Bug. I've expressed this opinion before, but for the average Joe, it falls on deaf ears. "But all my friends are there!" And they used to be on AOL, MySpace, ...
Just got back from the clinic with Abby. She had an uneventful physical which was needed for school next year. Michelle is still not back but I expect she will be soon. From talking with her on the phone, her visit went well and they are giving her a lot of fluids to help her flush the medicines.
The lawn crew is here working on the yard. I've not used one since our days in Nashua, but with all that's been going on this year, we didn't want to have to worry about upkeep every weekend. It's short money to have more time with Michelle and the kids on weekends. If you've seen my yard, you know it takes a few hours to do even when Michelle and I work together.
Cool! Just found out Qualcomm has an internal website dedicated to explaining common acronyms. There are so many (probably thousands) used within the company, it's nice to know there's a place to look up new ones I'd not heard of. Wish we had that back in my USAF days!
Yeah! Michelle just pulled up.
More test cases passing, weekly status written, hours logged... Wrapping up for the week. Eager to try the pizzas Claire made this afternoon and hear more from Michelle. It was sweet of Claire to try to make things easier for Michelle tonight.
Michelle says her blood work showed that the CK levels are still quite high, but coming down. She'll be tested twice a week for the next couple of weeks. She does not have any infection at this time. As happened on Wednesday, they gave her another 1½ liters of IV fluids to assist her kidneys in flushing things out. The Boston doctor leading her clinical study said by this weekend the medicines should be flushed out but it will take a while longer for the effects to settle. The doctors will likely wait two to three weeks before she starts on a protocol of Xeloda, a common treatment for women with metastatic breast cancer. And because she's tired of being stabbed all the time with needles, she will consult with a surgeon on Tuesday to have her "Power Port" put back in.
I ran to Walgreens with the boys to try to pick up a prescription for a modified "Miracle Mouthwash" compound without the Lidocaine, but it wasn't available. Still I bought 'em each a candy for coming with me. Michelle took the girls grocery shopping. We watched a bit of "Race to Witch Mountain" when we got home. I tucked the boys in bed with their prayers. Good night all!
“So you also are now in anguish.
But I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice,
and no one will take your joy away from you.” — John 16