Song of the day: “Marry you” by Bruno Mars. I know, very unlike me, what with my views on that particular institution, but what the hey, it’s cheery and lord knows I need some cheery at the moment.
Like I explained yesterday, some stuff is going to change around here on the blog. I don’t have the time to do an every other day blog anymore, so instead I’ve decided to try a Monday, Wednesday, Friday sequence for a while. If that is still too much, depending on all the work that needs to be done, I will bring that down to two a week even. Sacrifices have to be made, I’m sorry to say.
I have discovered that there is nothing quite as depressing as being in a hospital practically every day of the week. It doesn’t help that for the most part we’ve been getting nothing but bad news. Don’t worry, I’ve asked Sally, and she has no problems with me talking about her toils. Well, let’s get to it then.
First off, we finally got to talk to her treating doctor. Not good. We got to see her photos and it’s bad. There’s a mass the size of something between a golf ball and a tennis ball in her right lung, and this has metastasized to her brain, causing lesions, which is what’s to blame for her distractedness, lack of coordination and whatnot. According to him if we hadn’t brought her in when we did, and she hadn’t gotten on the steroids that she’s been getting for more than a week now, she probably wouldn’t have made it. A daunting thought, that.
But anyway, he showed us several MRIs, some of a healthy brain, and the others of Sally. Not good. Basically the right side of her brain is distorted with lesions and growths, which is nothing, if not incredibly scary to see.
He spoke about what to do next, and how they were unable to get a proper sample from the biopsy they did last week. Apparently the mass is too far away from her bronchia for them to scrape of any of the affected cells. They had hoped that they would get a hint from the first attempt but that was a no go. They’re going to have to go in again and try it differently…which is better than the other option where they’d have to cut her open in order to get a sample. Very dangerous, he says…to which I say: Duh.
Be as that may, the doc is a nice fellow, thoughtful, informative and clear, which is something Sally needs right now. He spoke to us about possible options once they figure out her treatment, but on the most part, what I can understand of it, he’s not expecting to see her make it through a year. Yikes. I have not told her this opinion yet, it is hard enough for her to keep her head clear with the not knowing part…but she’ll have to know at some point, I guess. I asked her if she wanted to know if the news was bad (once they know, that is) and she does, so I better rehearse that a bit in the near future. I mean seriously, how do you tell someone you’ve known for more than twenty years that they’re going to die??? Seriously, a hint would be awesome.
As to the options (again, what I understood. Doctors confuse me, they are never really, really clear in their answers) I was a little startled to hear him talk in terms of months, rather than years, when he started talking about chemo and radio. I mean, I always figured that they got better at that sort of thing, but if things are the way he suspects (that’s what he wants the good test results for) chemo would give her, maybe three to four months extra. I mean seriously, isn’t that just postponing the inevitable with a lot of misery? Gawd. How am I going to tell her that?
But I’m going to wait with the actual explanations until the test results get in. Her next biopsy will be on Friday, which was a relief to hear considering that’s when the cabin should arrive. So, best case scenario, she will be allowed to go home sometime next week, which is when we should have the new cabin as good as ready (foundation is done)…I hope. There are other things to arrange as well, including someone who comes for a few hours a day to help out. Since we’ll have two people who can’t take care of themselves now, and we (they neither) can’t afford to have a full time carer for both of them, so we’ll have to see how that goes. Considering they are both unable to take care of themselves, social care should be supplied to them according to the law, so…let’s keep our fingers crossed.
Now the nasty bit of news…I know, that was more than enough, but what the hey, let’s go all out…last night she got a doctor in her room telling her that she needed a colonoscopy, so they gave her some really nasty medication with strong diuretic effects, and had her drink three liters of water in two hours. Oh, my, gawd. She was on the toilet till six in the morning, didn’t sleep a wink, and then they told her that the colonoscopy was cancelled and that she would be rescheduled for another day…which was what had her in tears when we arrived this morning. Worse thing is, when the doctor arrived almost an hour later than planned, it turned out that there had been a mistake and that she wasn’t supposed to get a colonoscopy, but that it had been meant for a different patient. Made me want to do some serious damage. Jeez. Sally almost burst into tears over it, while the doctor kept apologizing, and saying that a mistake like that hadn’t happened in nine years and that it wouldn’t happen again because he’d ripped the ones responsible a new one…well, he didn’t use those words, but that’s what we liked to imagine. Hah. Jeez! That’s what happens when you treat folks like a number.
Okay, enough about the depressing stuff. Let’s get to the normal life things, for as far as that’s possible.
Big brother had to pick up grandpa again, seeing as his moped gave the spirit again, so we finally gave up and decided to retire the katana and head on down to our insurance agent (on our way to Sally) to transfer the insurance to the Keeway Milan. Got a good deal for it, too. Heck, the price was half the old one, which was a bit of news I could live with very well, thank you very much. It did take almost fifty minutes to arrange (making us a little late for Sally) but then it was done. Yay.
Day before yesterday, I had a busy morning. Since we weren’t sure whether Sally would be coming home that day, I headed down after chores such as laundry, to clean up her apartment a little. There was garbage all over the floor (I hadn’t been in there for a while), laundry everywhere, and once I was done, I had to carry along three bags. Still, it looked better in there.
Then it was off to the igloo to do some final cleaning, to hang the last painting, check the lamps and to put a mug, glass and some tea in there. Now all she needs is a microwave to heat water, some sheets and then our visitor (arriving tomorrow) is all set for the next week or so.
Was a bit under the weather myself that day. In particular after we got home from the hospital and the DIY store where we bought a toilet to install in Sally’s cabin, some groceries and then headed home in high ninety temps. Definitely needed a dip in the pool after that.
There were two cooking sessions since the last blog. Stir fry noodles with lots of sambal and baked eggs. It made up most of yesterday’s meal too. Since I was cooking anyway, some cleaning got done too, making things look a lot better down there. Need to clean more, though, in particular since we’ll have visitor visiting. And I’ve got to clean my cabin, which at the moment resembles a friggin’ pigsty. Arrrgh.
Thank gawd for the yard, which is a blessing in days like these. I did two watering sessions and they really calmed me down. In particular yesterday when my day hadn’t been going all that well, and I needed to get my head on straight. Of course it didn’t help I had to go out a second time afterward (wanted a jog really bad, but there just wasn’t time) to get electrical supplies for Sally’s cabin, including one more pot of varnish.
Also had to take Sitabah to the vet. She’s been suffering from a cough I don’t like and I had her checked out. Now she’s on an anti-inflammatory, and if the problem persists until Saturday, I will have to go back for a second shot, along with an x-ray of her chest. The vet didn’t like the sound of her lungs all that much. As if she’s not using all of them.
Got home late last night, and found that a bucket of paint had topped over in the car port, meaning dogs had spread it everywhere, including over my chairs and my floor…meaning I had to scrub it all with paint remover. *sigh*
As for writing. Considering my limited time at the moment, along with my exhaustion at the end of the evening, I’m not getting more than a couple of pages a day done. Have reached 81K word count now, though, so it’s a good thing the story is slowly coming to the end. I’m writing about an oracle at the moment, and I’m wondering what the heck you’d ask of an oracle? I mean, something other than the thing you went to the oracle for, because I can’t just have my heroine ask one question and then have her leave again. There has to be some dialogue for crying out loud.
The dogs…well, they’re there, and despite the fact that at the moment I wouldn’t mind some peace and quiet, they are also a comfort when you’re a bit down. Hah.
Well, that’s it. Gotta go. Seeya on Friday, I hope.
No comments:
Post a Comment