Sunday: Checked out!

Joe received two pints of blood on Saturday but it did not give him a boost of energy that he normally gets. Part B Chemo with the Rituzimab raged inside his body trying to kill those lymphoma cells and the toxins they give off as the die. Joe is just exhausted and sleeps more than he has ever slept before. The pooper drug mixture to help his body to expel the toxins is working but he hates the running to the potty and the mess it makes. Joe makes me throw away his underwear that had gotten stain. He just does not want to see it and wants it out of his sight so it is out of his mind.

It was about 8;30 PM when I headed to the "suite" to walk Max and give him some TLC. As soon as he does his business, he rushes back to the building as he can not wait to get back into the safety of the studio. On the way back to the hospital, I stopped at Randall's Supermarket and picked up a sandwich, chips, pretzels, cokes, OJ. Joe just loves the no pulp Tropicanna OJ in the 1/2 gallon container. My objective was to get back to the Joe by 10:30PM CST to watch Saturday Night Live which turned out to be a repeat of the Sue Sylvester hosting which was a good one. Since we had slept so much the day before, we stayed up and watched an old Richard Pryor concert. Joe loved Pryor and Joe laughed just as hard as he did the first time he saw it umpteenth years ago.

The clocks got set back in hour last night so even though we hit the pillow at 2AM, it was "Groundhog Night" where it was 1AM all over again. Joe had requested that one of the nurse's aide turn down the temperature in the room a few degrees as I slept. I semi woke up freezing cold, throat parched and scratchy and not happy tropper. The thermostat was cut down to the 50's!!!!!! I took a buck and 4 four quarters down the hall to the caregiver's room to the vending machine where another spouse was in a deep sleep snoring away with the TV blaring. The dang vending machine registered the dollar but when I put the coins in........nothing!! I hit the coin return button nothing....hit the button for the Coke.....nothing....put in another quarter.....nothing! Shook the machine....nothing... I went back to the room for another dollar bill and could not locate one but I dug up four quarters to ask the nurses to exchange it for a dollar bill. The third nurse had it. Head back to the vending machine where $1.00 was registered and put the dollar bill into the slot.....nothing!!!! I was now really pissed. One of the male nurses came out to help. He put in another quarter ....nothing. I mumbled disgracefully back to the room with the service phone number off the vending machine. Unfortunately, there was a real person at the end of the phone line as I stated my experience with the 9th floor Coke vending machine. Hey, what did I expect, someone to deliver a raging half  asleep cold middle aged white lady, a coke. LOL. Poor Joe, stating very little and that if I was cold, to put up the temp and that is when I saw how low it was set. Good grief, I would get sick again!  I grabbed my wallet as I went down to the first floor where the 24/7 Cafe was. Thank goodness no one else was there except the poor cashier who was sitting in the corner sulking of having to rework the hour that was lost to Daylight Savings Time. I told her that anyone who worked the night shift deserved triple time pay. I had my crazy striped pajamas on with socks on and my half asleep look, my hair disarrayed. I am sure she thought I was NUTS! I was at the particular moment but I got my Coke! Yeah! Yes, it was good as I gulped it down to relieve the parchness of my throat, I went back to sleep and woke up at 9AM! Good job!

I left the hospital at 9:30 to go back to the studio to tend to Max and I wanted to attend church service at St Philips Presbyterian. As I turned into the Homestead Studio's parking lot, the familiar ring tone of my cell alerted me Joe was calling. "Great News!," he states. " Dr Hagermeister says I could go "home" and please come back and get me." So after a quick walk with Max, I headed back over to MDACC to be with Joe. He wanted OUT right then and there. I warned him that it could take a couple of hours for the release papers to be completed. He had everything stacked and ready to go. He asked me to remove his IV lines and I said no way could I do that and that he would have to call the nurse to do that which I knew was not going to happen. I am sure there were lots of previous patients that as soon as they were unhooked, out they went before they were formally released which his assigned shift nurse confirmed to me later. Joe sat in the chair as I got into the comfortable hospital bed and fell fast asleep. Finally the supplies had arrived and now we took the trek down to the pharmacy to pick up $500 of medicine that cost us $32 out of pocket thanks to Joe's AT&T retiree medical benefits.

About 1:30PM we were on our way out of MDACCMadelines. Lunch consisted of their scrumptious Tomato Basil Soup, Potato Galette with Mushroom gravy, and a tuna salad on wheat for me. Joe enjoyed it.

Unpacking the car and putting stuff away, preparing lunch, taking care of Max, cleaning up the lunch dishes, took its toll on me so we both headed to the comfortable king size bed and took a solid couple hours nap. Joe continued to rest in the real bed after I had gotten up. I got a little stupid cough from the cold room temperature on Saturday night at MDACC. Aggravating!  We are now watching 60 minutes with Joe on the couch with a throw blanket over his legs. He looks at home.

Our new medical schedule shows that the next round of chemo will not be until 11/29 which means we will be here until at least December. Joe asked Dr Hagermeister if he could go home to Atlanta in the meantime and the doc highly advised against it. Joe needs to stay near MDACC in case he needed medical care. Joe must be very careful about picking up infections which can be deadly if not aggressively taken care of which MDACC knows how to take care of. We will be here over Thanksgiving and miss our annual Thanksgiving week with the family at Sea Pines on Hilton Head Island. I will find something special to do Thanksgiving Day for sure. The Great One has been directing this adventure into the known so I know that it will all work out. We will find the rainbow even in the storm.

Now to figure out what to bring in for dinner!!!


Joe platelets are down to a low 14 but the doctor stated a platelet transfusion was not needed at this time. I will list his CBC results another time.

Ciao my family and friends!
Bonnie