Back Home

The white count is starting to recover so Steve was sprung from the 4th floor in Augusta this morning. Next stop was his dentist to figure out the problem with his mouth, and then back to the cancer center for two units of blood while I ran to the pharmacy for more antibiotics. I also managed to squeeze in a swim, followed by a steam bath and a sauna before I went back and picked him up and drove home in a snow storm (again).

It's back to the dentist tomorrow for some dental work to relieve the mouth pain. It turns out Steve doesn't have mouth sores, which is a good thing, but it may be a dental problem, which is a bad thing. My therapeutic medicine of the day will be a ski around the x-country loop.

Friday morning is more blood work, an appointment with the hematologist, and possibly another blood transfusion in the afternoon. I will fit in a tennis game in between.

Remember him when he was healthy and went years without seeing a doctor?

Hospital blues

I just returned home from seeing Steve in the hospital. Not much has changed since he was admitted although he hasn't had a fever in a day or so. But the mouth pain continues unabated. He hopes to go his dentist tomorrow in Waterville. Steve also would like to go home but his doctor says not yet, considering the mouth pain, recent fevers, and a zero in the absolute neutrophil count (ANC) category. They aren't giving him a date when he can go home, but not before he has an ANC of at least 500, which hopefully will happen soon since the ANC should start to climb any day now. In the mean time, he lays around in bed and gets IV antibiotics.
He is discouraged and uncomfortable with the mouth pain and frustrated at being in the hospital. Despite his blue mood, he asked me for a game of Scrabble, and he almost won, but I pulled out a 66-pointer with a triple word point on QUIZ. I am boasting a bit -- before he was sick I rarely beat him in Scrabble. (But even with this whopper I only won by one point.) Hate to admit I'm taking advantage of him.

Email him if you have a minute; he reads his emails: buxie54@gmail.com

Feverish

We have been watching Steve's temperature go up and down for the last day, but this afternoon it reached that bad magic number of 100.4. He is now at Maine General in Augusta getting IV antibiotics and will probably be there for the next few days. It is unclear what the source of the fever is, but we think it's from the mouth sore sitting on top of his tooth. Hopefully the antibiotic will alleviate the pain in his mouth. And of course, he needs more platelets tonight. Poor guy! It's time he caught a break.

Buxie update

Steve is starting the final week of recovery from round two of chemo in which his white blood cells and platelets are expected to recover in time for the round three of chemo which starts on March 4. There is another wrinkle in that he has developed a painful mouth sore from the chemo. We are trying all sorts of remedies to provide some pain relief and to heal it up, or at least to keep it from getting infected while waiting for the infection-fighting neutrophils to recover, which have been zero for the past 10 days. He has a low-grade fever right now, but less than 100.4, which is the point when he has to go to the hospital. He will go to the hospital this time if his doctor tells him to, he says.

Despite the latest setback with his mouth, the overall picture remains good with no serious complications. Phew! Today we went for a short snowshoe so he could figure out which trees need to be cut for the photo voltaic panels that will be installed in the spring.

He's not nauseous this time around and is enjoying eating. He also enjoys getting his bald head massaged, so if you're in the neighborhood stop by and give it a little rub.

The Journey

Blood, blood, blood, who ever thought I would be talking so much about my blood? I feel like I am sailing on a vast ocean, on a seven month voyage out of sight of land, and I am halfway done. I can’t see land yet but my mood is improving. Fortunately, my navigator Gina is steady at the helm. I would be lost without her.

Steve

buxie54@gmail.com

Two down, two to go

I picked up Steve after Storm Nemo (you might have heard about NEMO) ended on Saturday afternoon. He was anxious to get out of the hospital and was just squeezing the last drops of red blood cells from a blood transfusion he was receiving.

The hospitalization went smoothly with chemo every other day. Although uneventful, it was stressful and exhausting and Steve couldn't wait to go home. On Sunday, he spiked a fever, like he did the last time he finished up with the chemotherapy. We called his doctor and she told him to go to the emergency room where he would be admitted for a few days of antibiotics. "Let's wait," he said. And so instead of listening to our quarterback and going to the hospital, we took his temperature over and over while watching about five hours of T.V to distract us from worrying about whether this was an infection or not. About an hour into the three hours of Downton Abby, his fever went down. Like last time, we think his fever was a reaction to the chemotherapy.

Fortunately the fever turned out to be nothing. But his doctor asked him to listen to her, and we assured her that if there's another fever, she's calling the plays. And while Steve is still looking pretty good for all he's been through, I think I can tackle him and get him into the car if he's feverish. Usually he's a team player, but as he said today as he put on his mask and dragged himself into the Cancer center for one of the daily visits this week (sometimes twice daily), "We are going to sick of this. I'm already sick of it!"

His bone marrow is also tired of it, and already is depleted despite having just finished up the chemo on Saturday. He's needed three blood transfusions since Saturday, and his white count is already dangerously low. As insane as this treatment is, the effects on his bone marrow is the reaction the doctors want.

We are now approaching half-time and he's doing well. He is scheduled to return for dose three on March 4th, but in the event that his blood counts haven't recovered by then (which is likely), the treatment will be delayed. We're doing all we can to prevent complications  -- avoiding crowds, no lifting couches, staying on top of potential problems-- we don't want to drop the ball at this point; he's already done so much to get cured of this thing.

Nemo casualty -- the guy who plows for us slid off the driveway. With the help of his friends, and a sturdy maple tree in the driveway, he was able to winch the truck up onto the driveway. 

As for shoveling, shoveling angels showed up on Saturday and this morning! Thank you!! 

Visualize Steve here at the cancer center several times a week. It is his life-line. 

Back in the Saddle . . .

Steve was admitted today to Maine General Hospital for round two of chemotherapy. His platelets rebounded so he was given the green light for getting whacked again. He'll be home again on Saturday.

He was relieved that the blood is recovering and that he can get on with treatment.

My sister Patti and our friend Tina delivered this painting done by our niece Nathalie Coughlin. 

We love our cow painting and are proudly hanging in our home. 

Steve with Patti and Tina in front of the window quilts I recently made. Patti and Tina insisted I blog this!

Steve is looking a little pale, but is feeling better than he has in several weeks.