KARDAS - Accbar Pita

* Chapter 9 *

22 March 1997

22 March 1997

HI,

YOU WOULD NOT BELIEVE!! After a strong gust of wind blew the electrical feed cables a bit, the screen froze and I lost a couple pages of this report!! So now I have to start all over again! S H I T !! Guess I shall have to press SAVE after each paragraph.

Monday the hospital called me about 9h saying that I should not come in until they call me -- no bed available yet. They finally called about 10:40, and after the seemingly longish admission process (during which I paid for the phone for 4 days), was told to appear in Room 488A. I was in bed by 11:20 -- when they told me to get ready to change rooms -- I would be moving to Room 477A, the same one I had the last time! GREAT, now I had to call down to get the phone changed to the new room -- don't know why I even needed it -- no one called and I called no one!! I could have saved $12!! At 12:20 I was in bed in the new room, A N D discovered that my day nurse (8h - 16h) would be Rosely, the one from Southern India about whom I wrote in my report of 22 February. She got the IV site done in one try. I listed the medications that I was using: Extra Strength Tylenol, the hydrocortisone suppositories and Biofine, that cream used on radiation burns. She got all three ready. IV now in place, with the freely flowing 5-FU, that wonderfully poisonous compound, set at 43ml/hr. She also obtained a fill-in menu for the next days meals -- it usually comes with breakfast, but somehow she got me one.

Then on to radiation, that happy buzzing sort of place where they use a sledgehammer to kill a gnat! That is until the local gnat population gets zapped enough times that, with a lab coat on, they might sort of resemble some of the technicians! It was the last day using that template covering A L L of my scrotal area and butt -- happy day!

After the very pleasant radiation session, toasting me on both sides, front and back, I saw Dr.Williamson who examined what is left of the stated parts. She wrote on the report (I always read them on the way up and down from my room) that I developed a moist skin reaction in the gluteal folds (any of the three muscles that form each of the buttocks -- THREE?? I only counted 2 halves to my butt! -- butt then again I can not usually see it to count how many I really have!) -- she did not add the red-purple colour that all of my groin area had developed!! She said that I could progress to Percocet, an opium derivative for the pain, which was/is excruciating (it might have been more historically/culturally significant if I could have taken the opium in one of those houses/dens reserved for same in certain Oriental countries!), and that there was no more Biofine -- B U T that I could go to buy some in Trenton! Really! I really felt like putting on a jacket, dragging the IV machine with me through the city looking for some place that sold the stuff!! IF YOU REMEMBER my remarks in the last update about my reservations concerning said MD, this was the real clincher! At least she always has her hair done up extremely well -- not like Dr. Schaebler who sort of reminds me of Agent Mulder of the X-Files, or like the stud in Dark Skies -- they seem to have that wind-tossed look, my favorite hairstyle!

Back to the room where Rosely put the Biofine (which did exist there!!) on the front and back of me -- she seemed surprised to find that the radiation effects were so pronounced. I asked her if she had ever had a patient with these burns -- she had not! She also administered the suppository.

The night nurse, a nice Asian-looking girl was also one of the ones I had the last time. She also coated my burned areas with the Biofine, and had also never had a patient with such burns.

Tuesday when breakfast arrived, it was NOT the selection I made the previous day -- SHIT! (don't I wish!) In any case it was as delicious as A L L of the meals were, so I was not too disappointed. Guess they misplaced the forms I filled out the day before!

Rosely was with me again -- WOW -- if you remember the comments I made in my report of 22 February, the last time I was in the hospital for chemo, about having a different nurse each and every shift, which I certainly did not appreciate! This was almost too good to be true. She put in a new IV in my right hand (missed the first time) for the Mitomycin, that beautifully blue-purple coloured caustic poison that is administered in one dose by way of syringe.

At radiation time they started using the three new templates, for the right and left sides and a butt view. NO, Hellenna did not save me the old template or even the plastic holder!

Jackie, the red headed assistant (of course she wore a cute little St.Patrick's pin on Monday!) of Dr.Schaebler, visited me each day, and even brought me a bag of oatmeal raisin cookies -- she remembered! They changed the flow of the 5-FU from 43 to 51 ml/hr to speed up my discharge on Friday. Dr. Schaebler also came to see me every day -- I missed him one of the days because I was asleep -- something that is supposed to be a reaction to the radiation and the opium derivative. I have never been so tired in my whole life -- with no energy to even sit up in bed or anything. And, even though I paid for 4 days of TV in my room, at $4/day (on a screen that was even smaller than that of the in-room computer monitor!). This week I shall not bother you with what I watched and all --- seems like padding -- who really cares??

Received a nice straight glass thingy filled with about eight daffodil buds. They were all shut -- B U T the next day they had all wonderfully popped open to display the brightest yellow flowers I think I ever saw! It was a great experience. They are still sitting on the dining room table here at home!

Wednesday I had Rosely again. She changed the 5-FU IV to the one on the right hand. Then I hear beep beep beep, beep beep beep beep -- seems as if a fire in a stairway with construction had set off the fire alarm -- I pictured me being dragged out of bed, bumped down the 4 flights of stairs to wind up prostrated on a cold sidewalk! Or even getting more fried than I already was! B U T, no such luck -- it was over in a couple minutes.

I had a visit from Ann, a former secretary at school who developed the same kind of leg cancer that Kennedy's son had. She had her leg amputated at the thigh, and was just getting used to a prosthesis. Said that only "young" people get that kind of cancer, usually up to age 20 or so, and that she was a very rare case. She seemed in good spirits, and looked physically great -- left school in about 1994 or so. So we chatted for a long while about school, cancer, etc. The only other visitor was Bernar, who stopped in briefly almost every day. He was still attempting to clear up the sewer clog at home. Said it seemed OK. Mieke (the female Brussels Griffon -- a dog) was found dead on the kitchen floor on one of his twice-daily visits to the house to feed the animals and all. No autopsy was performed and burial services were discretely private in the family plot.

As with the last time I was in the hospital, I could not evacuate my bowels (= shit). They gave me a bottle of citrate of magnesia, and after some hours I did manage to get a couple mini-turds down. Nothing like a "normal" bowel movement. They had been giving me these reddish gelatin capsules for loosening the stool, which was supposed to help reduce the pain when I really did let loose.

Thursday was the last day for Rosely -- she had off Friday. So we hugged and all before she left her shift -- then the countdown began.

The night nurse was Dutch, like from The Netherlands. She did the cream thing for me -- had also never seen radiation burns. I suggested to her that perhaps, since the hospital was also a teaching facility, that she might get any nurses who would be interested in a firsthand account of such burns to sign up for a class that I would hold in bed that evening -- after all, being such a great specimen and all, I imagined that it would round out their nursing background. Unfortunately the idea occurred to me too late to do anything about it -- I foresaw photocopying fliers announcing the event, had a patient history prepared (mentally), and was ready for my second medical school lecture (the first one was in Tenerife, concerning the influences of the Sun's radio waves on man). ALAS, it never happened -- somebody should have thought of it before that. It could have been announced in the local newspapers, my weekly reports could have appeared in serial form, and I might have even made some $$ out of it! Then there would be the book and movie rights, trips around the country signing copies of the "Best Selling" tome, appearances on talk shows, etc. Sorry -- it must be the effects of the opium!

So at 20:13h there was 510ml of 5-FU left to diffuse, and at 51 ml/hr it meant that the chemo would END in ten hours!!

On Friday at 6:14h I rang the Dutch nurse to remove the IV so that I could sleep some more without having to worry about the IV tubes, etc. When it was removed I seemed to have a flash of energy unlike anything experienced that whole week -- a very short lived flash, but every little flash is important!

After breakfast I slept some more. Changed into my normal clothes and waited for the radiation dude to pick me up.

Total number of sugar packets brought home: 33.

Found an Easter/get well card from my brother and his family. Get well cards from some teachers and kids at school, and one from my flea market neighbors, the ones who gave me the apple pie last Sunday. Guess it is time for another pain pill -- these are the generic brand (Roxicet) that HMO uses to cut costs (mine and theirs).

The car was still in the parking lot -- BUT the drive back home (about 8 minutes) was excruciating, even with those pain pills!

So there you have it. I am very tired. Got dizzy today when I was walking along the koi ponds (could have fallen in and might have been found floating in a day or 2 or 3!). Have no energy to really make food or let the doberman out. Have loads of bills on my desk with nothing in the bank to pay them! The cats still bother me at night in bed. Put Shiva (the female Siamese cat -- in heat again!) in Chucky's (male Siamese stud pussy) basement apartment so they can talk about old times, etc.! It's a wonderful life!

Oh, yes, that pipe thing I mentioned in one of the reports, where smoking a pipefull starts my bowels moving continues to work. When I got home I tried it and moved a big pile! Oh, well, I still wonder why it works -- I am not all that suggestive!

Another two weeks of radiation, then we wait for all the side effects to disappear (2 - 3 months!!) -- IF they do! -- and check on the results of all this heavenly treatment! AMEN!

Thanks to those who have e-mailed me this week -- sorry, but my energy reserves are at an all time low and I cannot return a reply as quickly or as certainly as I might like to.

And H a p p y E A S T E R , or whatever it is that you might celebrate at this time of year.

Sonny

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