Ongoing Infection

. . . or inflammation.

My doctors talked to each other and decided I should go back on cortisone for awhile. I can't tell what I was taking before that was cortisone, but this one is mild -- 10mg -- and I've only been prescribed 3 a day. As I am never awake at all the appropriate times, I've been taking 2 a day.

I ate two proper dinners: fish, rice and a bit of vegetable. Not much, but still. Today a neighbour sent a rice and fish dish, but it was too spicy for me in my current condition, so I had one of my Nestlé drinks, Renutryl.

Tomorrow more blood tests, ultrasound and collapse. Wednesday, chemo. Well, maybe.

Last week's Proteine C Reactive was 107.1. Normal is under 5.

See you around.

Fun Day at the Hospital

No, really.

My first roommate of the day was a woman who has been undergoing treatment for ovarian cancer for eight years . She has had 6 operations. She had all those things removed that I talked about a couple of weeks ago: bladder, intestine, anus, etc. But she doesn't have pouches. Her primary care is at a specialist research clinic in Lyon and she says the excision is temporary and then they put something back. I do believe I read something on the internet about that, but didn't understand it.

I almost fell out of bed when she told me she was 70. She looks 50. And, like me, she says she doesn't get colds or otherwise sick. (One of the nurses mentioned this phenomenon to me a few months ago.) "In fact," she says, channelling me, "if it weren't for the cancer, I'd be really healthy."

What more encouragement could I ask for?

I picked up my blood results on the way to the hospital. Good thing, because they were faxed to the wrong number. Anyway, I have platelets. Lots of platelets. More platelets than I've had since last summer.

Complete & Utter. . .

waste of time and diesel for a 3-hour round trip.

I saw the oncologist. I am to have another set of blood tests and another CT scan on 11 May. With those results, she will make a decision about treatment when I see her again on the 14th.

I had questions. None of the answers seemed liked answers to me. I'm starting to feel like one of those people I usually yell at for not getting enough information. It's really hard when the doctors don't understand that you want it all. Or think you won't understand. Or that you'll be demoralised. Or whatever.

Where's the cancer now? Restricted to my abdomen. But spread about -- besides bladder and intestines? In my abdomen.

Chemo: If nothing has changed since the last scan, chemo will be put off. However, I can't expect the cancer to "behave" itself, so when it reactivates, chemo will start again.

Whether it's active or not, wouldn't chemo still act to reduce the tumours and, therefore, be a good thing? No. Why? I cannot get a satisfactory answer to this or else I am being dense, but the answer just seems to be no.

The visit could have been put off until the 14th, it seems to me.

My pain is gone, but have I mentioned that my fingernails are peeling away from the finger?

Sigh.

Family Blood Tests

Got my blood results back today. CA-125 is at 51. Last reading was 66, so I don't figure to die -- or sue -- before my postponed surgery.

Van-Ly has results, too. (Dog blog, remember?) She's been mopey the past couple of weeks, so I finally called the vet for an appointment yesterday morning. I had hardly hung up the phone before she was her old self, but I'm the vengeful sort, so I made her go anyway.

She has high cholesterol. When her blood is separated from the plasma, you can actually see how greasy it is. Most peculiar. Cut down the fat, the vet said, and come back for a checkup in 3 months.

She obviously takes after Nick's side of the family.

Platelets, again

Had a little bleeding episode yesterday. Don't worry; "little" is the operative word. Emergency blood tests ordered by the oncologist (that means they have to get the results out fast) and a talk with my GP.

Platelets are low, but not low enough for a transfusion. Today the word is "rest."

Back to my book.

Colds, Blood Tests & HIV

Turns out I have a cold. Not too bad a one, but it wears me out. I was thrown off by the fever Sunday night. The last fever I remember having was when I had a mega case of the flu at age 15 or so, which means that if I've had any more recently, they couldn't have amounted to much.

Blood results came back. White stuff is doing O.K.; red stuff needs to get its act together. Protein C Reactive is up (right; I'm sick) and CA-125 is down to 66.60!

My new chemo appointment is for Monday and I have to have more blood drawn on Friday. As well as -- get this:

When I had the transfusion, I was given a paper to tell me that, while the odds were against it, it was possible to be infected from the blood. Nothing very specific.

Yesterday, I received a letter and a prescription in the post. The letter explains that, since I had a transfusion, the prescription is for another blood test to check for antibodies. (We still have not mentioned HIV.)

First rate service, don't you think? Or are follow-up blood tests normal everywhere after transfusions?

Medical Expert

As the nurse was hooking me up yesterday, I asked her what happens if the perfusion runs too fast. She seemed to have difficulty choosing between answers, so I asked if it would cause nausea. Could, she said. Then I asked the doctor. "We'll make sure it runs slowly," he said. (Dr. Litor wasn't there.)

Then, for the first time since I started chemo, they attached an electronic monitor and the nurse checked it with her watch.

Woohoo! No nausea today or, at least, nothing terrible.

Blood Results: In the week between the two blood panels, while I was wondering how my neutophiles were going to get from 868 to the required 1500, and if I was going to need another transfusion because the platelets didn't look too great, either, both counts returned to normal. And the CA-125 is down to 61. Another woohoo.

* * *

Domestic front: When I pick herbs from the garden and have leftovers, I keep them in bowls on the counter. Recently, I've been drying summer savory, thyme and mint.

When I collect enough leaves or run out of room, I throw them all together and have a taste surprise the next time I need a mixture.

As many of you know, when they were babies Miosa and her brothers were fed on the countertop (dishwasher, really), so that FloJo was handicapped in her effort to kill them.

Mio still gets on the countertops toward mealtimes or when she's feeling a little hunger pang, but it doesn't much matter because she won't touch anything except for meat and crab sticks. And I figure her behaviour is my fault, anyway.

So the other night, I emptied all the differnt herbs into a soup plate, turned my back for a minute, turned again, and Mio was on the counter.

You know what's coming, don't you?

Gee, a one-cat, grass-lined, urinal. I was laughing too hard to get the camera, but she didn't spill a drop.

"Urgent" Results

Blood test came back O.K. And it only took me 5 phone calls to find this out. I'll pick up my copy on the way to chemo on Monday.

Happy weekend, everyone.

Red-blooded American

Here is what you do for a transfusion. You get up at 5:45 am (pushing it, but Nick is feeding the animals) so you can leave Rémuzat at 6:30 and get to the hospital in Montélimar by 8:00.

The nurses put you in a room, check to make sure you are who they think you are (name, maiden name, married name, address, date of birth), take your blood group card, and telephone the lab where they will "make" the platelets. (What does that mean?)

The lab starts to work and, when they are finished, they send the platelets to Montélimar. The lab is at the main départementale hospital in Valence, the Préfecture (kind of the capital) of the Département.

Then you hang around, sleeping, reading and yawning at the nurses when they come to take your temperature and blood pressure every forty-five minutes. Then lunch: not the dreaded ham today, but absolutely the worst fish cake I've ever eaten. Or didn't eat.

The platelets arrived at 12:30 and the transfusion took no time at all.

Arriving home, the post contained my blood test results from Wednesday; my platelets were down to 20. Now why is my C-Reactive Protein count, which has been completely normal, suddenly risen -- to 11.9 and then 22.8?

Meanwhile, my nose has stopped bleeding and I feel like a new -- or the old -- woman.