I'm writing this from the hospital, where I don't have internet access. (AAARRGGHH!!!!) I'll post it after I get out. After losing 13 pounds and being dehydrated and very low in potassium from a week of chemo-related diarrhea, the doctor skipped this past chemo session and had me come in for 3 consecutive days of just re-hydrating me intravenously with potassium and salt-laced water. He assured me that a week or two off chemo now wouldn't be a big deal, but 3-4 sessions off later would be, and that would be what will happen if we don't stop now and get the diarrhea under control. On the 3rd day of trying to rehydrate me on an outpatient basis, with the potassium levels still low, he convinced me to stay in the hospital as an inpatient so they could pump fluids into me 24 hours a day and get a handle on the diarrhea. I checked in on Thursday, 14 June 2007. The diarrhea has gotten better and the oncologist liked what he heard and felt when he poked around on my belly on Friday, and evidently what he's seeing from the daily tests they're doing daily. The diarrhea is apparently just an unusually severe response to the chemo. At any rate, it looks like, having checked in on Thursday afternoon, I'll be heading home with everything under control again Sunday afternoon or Monday morning, skipping chemo on Tuesday, 19 June 2007 and then coming back in for chemo as usual on Tuesday, 26 June 2007. I was 40 pounds lighter when I checked into the hospital than I was on 5 March, 2007 when the cancer was diagnosed, and I wasn't overweight then. Half the weight loss was from the initial naturapathic diet I went on after the original diagnosis. The naturapathic diet changed after 52 days, but while the new, permanent anti-cancer naturapathic diet didn't make me keep losing weight, it didn't help me gain back what I'd already lost, either. Then, the other half of my weight loss was from the various effects of the chemo. The good news is I've gained back a significant amount of weight while in the hospital, so I should be able to safely resume chemo and the naturapathic diet as soon as I get home, without fear of further weight loss and without fear of being at such a low weight as to rob me of normal strength, energy and immune system responses.
Meanwhile, I've actually had a surprisingly good time in the oncology ward. It's always nice being waited on hand and foot, of course. The food is good, and I've got hot sauce from the house for those meals when my taste buds just don't taste anything at all. Dulled taste buds is another of the unfortunate effects of chemo. And they've got a little kitchenette on the ward, just for patients, so I can stroll down there in the middle of the night, as I did once last night and help myself to a chunk of cheddar cheese, a dab of peanut butter and Vegemite and a cup of tea with milk in it. It was great.
And visiting with the nursing staff is fun. One was interested in my Churchill book on my nightstand. One uses terms of endearment like honey and sweetheart the way Texans do but that I was warned that Australians generally don't. And a couple of the nurses are from India. I got to chat with them about India, about our common experiences as immigrants, and about our shared taste for hot, spicy foods that Australians generally don't like.
Even without internet access here in the hospital, I've got my laptop, so I've got this blog update as well as updates for www.choosing2live.com ready to upload as soon as I get home tomorrow, and with the Bible program on the laptop, I've been catching up on “daily” devotions that I'd gotten behind on.. So whether I have 3 months to live or 30 years, I feel like I've spent this day doing the things that make this day matter.
And moving quickly from the sublime to the ridiculous, what kind of computer spell check function doesn't recognize the word “blog”!?! This goofy spell check doesn't know that word and thinks maybe I meant flog or biog instead. Good grief! It's a limited enough dictionary anyway, you'd think it would at least know basic computer and internet-related words! It does insist I show a little respect for the internet by advising me to always capitalize it, though. I guess it's heart is in the right place.
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