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Phoenix520
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#201

Post by Phoenix520 »

:bighug: :bighug: :bighug:

It occurs to me from time to time that I might have a kinda jaundiced view of humanity these days from spending so much time on MAGAts.
Thanks slim for reminding me of all the good people we shouldn’t be so shocked to encounter. :bighug:
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Kendra
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#202

Post by Kendra »

Off Topic
Back a few decades ago (way before MAGA assholes), when my mother was still alive, she was in poor health and on oxygen. When I could get to AZ and we'd do some sightseeing, I was shocked how inconsiderate some folks could be. We'd be in a museum and step away to look at an exhibit, and trying to get back into the flow of the crowds and NO ONE would let us back in. Try to get into an entrance and NO ONE would stop to let us by, let alone stop to open the door. Sit in a restaurant with her and the oxygen and the folks at the next table would just puff away on their cigarettes.

Glad to hear there are still good people in the world. I learned from my experience, and always, always stop to open the door for a senior, or disabled person and damn, the look of gratitude is worth every penny.

Sorry to vent, but happy to hear humanity still exists.
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Lani
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#203

Post by Lani »

We love you, Slim :kiss: :bighug:
Image You can't wait until life isn't hard anymore before you decide to be happy.
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#204

Post by AndyinPA »

:thumbsup: :bighug:

Glad some things are going right. Every little bit helps.
"Choose your leaders with wisdom and forethought. To be led by a coward is to be controlled by all that the coward fears… To be led by a liar is to ask to be told lies." -Octavia E. Butler
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June bug
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#205

Post by June bug »

I’m so glad you’ve had so many lights to help you on your way, so that you can be a light for your hubs.

❤️❤️ and :bighug: :bighug: to both of you.
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#206

Post by Tiredretiredlawyer »

Thanks for the update, slim. Been thinking about you and hubs. :bighug:
"Mickey Mouse and I grew up together." - Ruthie Tompson, Disney animation checker and scene planner and one of the first women to become a member of the International Photographers Union in 1952.
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RVInit
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#207

Post by RVInit »

:bighug: I've been wondering how things were going for you, glad to hear some positive news. I agree there are many good people out there, and have also been grateful of late for the kindnesses of both friends and strangers.
There's a lot of things that need to change. One specifically? Police brutality.
--Colin Kaepernick
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#208

Post by Volkonski »

Tiredretiredlawyer wrote: Wed Dec 14, 2022 9:21 pm Thanks for the update, slim. Been thinking about you and hubs. :bighug:
:yeahthat: :bighug: :bighug: :bighug: :bighug: :bighug:
“If everyone fought for their own convictions there would be no war.” ― Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace
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#209

Post by Foggy »

I thank you for the update, Slim. Good luck with the 21-day post chemo bone marrow bx. :bighug:
Some things are simply too fast, or too relentless to avoid. Like the North Carolina rain.

Or the future.
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#210

Post by Kriselda Gray »

:bighug: :bighug: :bighug: :bighug: :bighug:
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#211

Post by Slim Cognito »

Hope I'm not jinxing anything but . . . Hubs' follow up Bx results were great! Now he moves on to phase 2, a five day infusion with a new drug, then back to the first oral treatment.

He's still very weak, needing twice weekly infusions but hopefully that will improve soon.

:boxing:
Pup Dennis in training to be a guide dog & given to a deserving vet. Thx! ImageImageImage x4
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#212

Post by Tiredretiredlawyer »

:dog: :bunny:
"Mickey Mouse and I grew up together." - Ruthie Tompson, Disney animation checker and scene planner and one of the first women to become a member of the International Photographers Union in 1952.
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#213

Post by Volkonski »

:thumbsup: :thumbsup: :bighug:
“If everyone fought for their own convictions there would be no war.” ― Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace
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#214

Post by Tiredretiredlawyer »

Slim - if you are the Warrior Queen is your Mister the Warrior Consort? :biggrin:
"Mickey Mouse and I grew up together." - Ruthie Tompson, Disney animation checker and scene planner and one of the first women to become a member of the International Photographers Union in 1952.
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#215

Post by Phoenix520 »

Such good news, Queen!! :bunny: :kickface: :bunny: :girlbutt:
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#216

Post by Maybenaut »

:bighug:
"Hey! We left this England place because it was bogus, and if we don't get some cool rules ourselves, pronto, we'll just be bogus too!" -- Thomas Jefferson
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#217

Post by AndyinPA »

Great news! :bighug:
"Choose your leaders with wisdom and forethought. To be led by a coward is to be controlled by all that the coward fears… To be led by a liar is to ask to be told lies." -Octavia E. Butler
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#218

Post by Annrc »

:thumbsup:
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#219

Post by Kriselda Gray »

:mbounce: :cheer2: :cheer1: :mbounce:

:grouphug:
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Kendra
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#220

Post by Kendra »

Yay, good news!
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#221

Post by June bug »

That’s great, Slim! :thumbsup: :bighug:
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#222

Post by jemcanada2 »

:dance: :dance: :cheer2: :cheer1:
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#223

Post by Foggy »

Oh man. Finally some good news!
Some things are simply too fast, or too relentless to avoid. Like the North Carolina rain.

Or the future.
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RVInit
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#224

Post by RVInit »

:blissy: :bunny: :mbounce: :groupdance:
There's a lot of things that need to change. One specifically? Police brutality.
--Colin Kaepernick
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#225

Post by Slim Cognito »

Latest update:

Hubs was doing fairly well on simultaneous treatments 2 and 3. #2 was a five-day-in-a-row infusion which he tolerated amazingly well. #3 was a repeat of #1, a 14 day oral chemotherapeutic, he had to take four every night.

He started out well enough but a couple of days ago I was having trouble getting his vitals stabilized. He was to be off oxygen during the day, then on 2L at night, which worked great. But on Tuesday I had to put him back on in the afternoon because his heart rate was too high. The extra oxygen took the strain off his heart and Wednesday ended as always, take the oral, pass out for about 15-16 hours, wake up, eat then take it again.

Wednesday, even with the oxygen cranked to 4, I couldn't get his heart rate below 100 (remember, he's had 5-6 heart attacks, the last one being in the cancer center last Thanksgiving) and his blood pressure dropped. Hubs has always been hypotensive, we joke it's part of his laid-back nature, but seriously, this was too low. I was supposed to go for a mammogram but I was afraid to leave him so I called the cancer triage hotline and they told me to get his ass to the ER because, at this point in his chemo treatment, his white cell count is frighteningly low. Now that's actually good, because it's his white cells that are trying to kill him and they have to be killed off by the chemo so he can have a nice, healthy bone marrow transplant, but also, he's now susceptible to everything. I mean E V E R Y T H I N G!!!. I have cleaned and cleaned and gone through disinfectant wipes like they were toilet paper, shutting him in another room so I can vacuum and dust, keeping all the dirty dishes in the dishwasher, wiping down every counter possible, not to mention wearing masks everywhere and practically bathing in sanitizer when I get in the car, but still something slipped through. He has pneumonia. Specifically what, I don't know because I can never catch a doctor. Pneumonia, as many of you know, is a catch-all term for a problem in the lungs, but he did have some "fluffy infiltrates" * which they're trying to fix with antibiotics, so he's back in the hospital (more on that fiasco below). They've decided to pause chemo for now. At first I wasn't sure if it was to concentrate on the pneumonia or because they were unable to get this specific agent because it's a trial study drug. Either way, they wanted me to bring Moffitt documentation and the drug itself to the hospital but when I got there today, the nurse informed me they'd decided to hold off for now so I brought the med back home. I wasn't going to risk a $13,000 trial chemo drug disappearing. I can take it back whenever/if ever they want it. (I did make copies of the docs and left them for the doctor or get thrown away by housekeeping, whatev.) Hopefully, it won't be too long a pause and no damage done in that respect. He was soooooooo close to being through this round.

Now for the hospital visit itself, and let me be clear up front I am NOT knocking the hospital. Those people were working their asses off. I was already exhausted but watching them rush around like they were on speed wore me out even further.

We've been reading about the terrible trifecta this winter, COVID, RSV and the flu. Well, they ain't pulling your chain. When we got to the hospital, we noticed a large area of chairs set up in the car park, cutting the ER visitor parking almost in half. That was only the first bad sign. Luckily for us, our doctor had called ahead and they were ready for him. When I wrangled him and his oxygen tank into a wheelchair and started in, it was packed wall to wall with people, not to mention those sitting outside in the parking lot. But we were waved to the desk and taken to triage immediately.

Because of his compromised system, they didn't return him to the lobby after triage, they took him back into the bowels of the ER, put him on a gurney between two ER rooms. There was a piece of paper with B53 written in big black marker. I thought that was the room they were to take him to when it was ready. Boy, was I in for a surprise. That WAS his "room." Yes, the hallway space between two doors with gurneys and wheelchairs whizzing back and forth was his "room." They took good care of him, he was checked, rechecked, oxygen tank replaced, blood drawn, chest x-ray then CT scan obtained and each time brought back to his "room." He was given IV fluids and escorted to a bathroom as it was going right through him, (no food since lunch). I asked when he'd go to his room and his nurse told me, "The hospital is full. There are no beds." I then carried his empty oxygen tank out to our car (this one was mine, Hubs was now on hospital tanks) and he was right. I was too stressed to notice on the way in but every hallway, between every room door, someone was lying on a gurney or sitting in a recliner with a piece of paper tacked to the wall over their head. If this situation is even 1/2 of what the healthcare system was going through during the height of COVID, I don't know what kept every last one of the workers from walking out the door and into the ocean.

The place looked like a war zone, and I've worked night shifts in inner city hospitals. (BTW, those workers also ran their asses off because, face it, who wants to work nights in an inner city hospital when there are all these beautiful huge new campuses in suburbia that need help. You have to be pretty damn dedicated to put up with those conditions**), but everyone had a smile on their face, everyone was polite and helpful and busting their ass.

Of course, I'm freaking out. Yes, we were wearing masks and most of the staff and a lot of the patients were wearing masks but there were still a lot of people who weren't, INCLUDING STAFF!! I mean WTF?????

I spent six hours on a folding chair across from his gurney waiting for a decision to be made. As I note below, I'd already read all the reports on the patient portal so I was just waiting for a doctor to come talk to us. Finally, about 9:00 (I'm assuming) the hospitalist came down and had a fit this leukemia patient was lying in a busy hallway and assured me he would get Hubs in a room. Well bless his heart, he got him into an ER room, probably pushing someone without immunity issues into the hallway) where he still lies today, over 24 hours later because....no rooms. Now an ER room is better than an ER hallway so I'm not complaining but an ER room is not designed as a living space. It's designed as a holding space so I don't know what happens tonight or tomorrow but I'm hoping the antibiotics work their miracle and he's able to come home on oral soon because I don't care how careful you are, hospitals are dangerous places when your immune-suppressed.

Updated update, as I was proofing this, he texted me to say he was going upstairs to a patient room. :biggrin:

*One thing I love about this health system is their patient portal. It immediately uploads all test results which are then available to the patient. Since I spent 30 years typing these medical records, I know how to read them and had already seen the chest x-ray, CT scan and blood work results before the doctor ever showed so I knew what we were in for.

**people like me who need a break for their first job in the biz.
Pup Dennis in training to be a guide dog & given to a deserving vet. Thx! ImageImageImage x4
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