2/24/11 Pumped Up with More MEDS

On Wednesday we were heading to MDACC for Joe's appointment with Dr. Torres, the Infectious Disease expert. As usual I was handling too much stuff. I was putting some items in the back seat of my car to head to MDACC when a piece of paper fell and as I went to grab it, BANG, the car door smashed my right middle finger. OUCH! OUCH! OUCH! I ran around the parking lot in great pain trying to get my mind off of it since I knew if I stood still that I would be screaming. I was screaming in my mind. Poor Joe knew I was hurt but had no idea what to so except say, "Let's go to the ER." No way, we needed to get to MDACC and what they heck will ER do for the smash finger except say ice it, take tylenol etc.... Without even trying to cry, the tears rolled down my face. Joe took over the driving job since I was incapable of concentrating on anything else but the dang finger. I held my hand up in the air with the middle finger sticking up thus I am sure that I will not earn Citizen of the Day Award in Houston. What was that award back in the "old" days, The Fickled Finger Award or something like that.

Our first stop was Panera Bread where I had requested a cup of ice water. Bad idea! Who would have thought that would make it hurt WORSE! Yep, I did another quiet dance at Panera Bread till the excruciating pain stopped. Joe drove over to MDACC where the appointment was for 10:30 with Dr. Torres. No "Fellow" came in first to examine Joe, it was the one and only Dr. Torres, such a nice smart doctor. He told us that now they were going to pump medication into Joe to cover any type of infection since Joe was finished taking the various tests. He did not want to put Joe on any meds until the testing was done or else the meds would have covered up the infection. He added to Joe's menagerie of pills, three more. Minocycline HCL is a tetracycline antibiotic. CIPROfloxacin HCL is a fluoroquinlone antibiotic. VFEND is an azole antifungal drug. The hardest part with these three drugs is timing them with the others since they can not be taken with certain ones with 2 hours before or 6 hours afterwards. It appears to me to be an impossible task with Joe so I will have to constantly remind him when to take the pills even though they are in a pill organizer. Dr Torres says none of the tests are back yet but when Joe comes back in for a follow up next Tuesday we may have an answer as to what he has. Dr Torres told us that he is recommending to Dr Romaguera that chemotherapy be held off for two weeks till the medication takes hold. Chemo decreases Joe's immune system thus the already nasty infection could become fatal. OK, we had no problem going along with that since he is the expert even it is means that we will be here in Houston a bit longer.

We went back to Neurology department to get Joe's Antarctica baseball hat that he left there the other day. We dropped off the three prescriptions that Torres gave us at the 10th floor Pharmacy. I tried to have Joe's cough medicine transferred from Emory to MDACC but the Pharmacy Department said that they could not do that and that Joe's doctor would need to write another script. Phooey, I had asked Torres' nurse about that before we left that clinic and she did not think it would be an issue. Now it was 12:05PM thus we could not get s script written since it was lunchtime till 1:30PM. Joe was dragging so I decided that I would e-mail Goley and ask to pick up a script. I called her to follow up my e-mail and guess what? Goley was not in today! The substitute PA would see what she could do. She called me back several hours later to get the information on the drugs and that she would call it in to the 2nd floor pharmacy. She made a follow up call later and told us that she called it in and that we could pick up the two drugs that we needed. I would wait till Thursday to do that. Joe and I both crashed on the bed from all the running around at MDACC and it felt so good. Later Joe headed to the store to buy a protective cover for my finger. He bought home three different ones since he wanted to make sure I got the best one. Sweet! He also went out and bought dinner back for the both of us from Kenny and Ziggys. Ditto Sweet!

Today is Thursday, February 25, and after breakfast we drove over to MDACC where Joe ran into the building to pick up the drugs as I drove around the block several times so I would not have to park in the parking garage. The Parking Garage makes enough money off of us with $12 a day parking though it is pro rata for the time used. We buy a Smart Chip for $100 that gives us $115 in parking credits. I was still beat from the previous day thus I told Joe that when we got back to the studio apartment that I wanted to get more sleep. We both did and we did not get up till 2PM. We had lunch outside at Jimmy Johns Sandwich Shop not to far from where we are staying but Joe did not like the tuna salad sandwich. My Roast Beef was decent but not as good as the Brown Bad Deli.

The rest of the afternoon was devoted to me washing clothes and changing Joe's bandages. The kit I used today was from Emory which was quite different from MDACC so I had to punt in figuring how to use it. I will buy some new kits from MDACC since I am used to those.

We do not have another medical appointment till next Tuesday which is a huge break for us. I still want to stay close to Houston to keep the focus on Joe getting lots of rest. I also need to get my middle finger to stop hurting. On Saturday is the huge Houston Rodeo Parade that starts at 10AM. I am going to buy us some cheap lawn chairs to make us comfortable. Houston has the largest Rodeo in the country. It starts 3/1 and lasts till 3/21. It has been going on for 80 years and last year 2,100,000 people attended. Every single day that have one big name act put on a show at the Reliant Stadium. I suppose after they clean up the horse and cow presents. They promote it like crazy on the TV news stations and I must admit, it looks enticing. Holli Baker who lives southeast of Houston says that we must go. So, we will. It will be a brand new experience for Joe and me and I will share with you our experiences.

Good Night!