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| Author |
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| 25 new of 257 responses total. |
jaklumen
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response 134 of 257:
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Sep 5 05:23 UTC 2003 |
Swedish foam mattress? The Tempur-Pedic System, a.k.a. memory foam?
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gull
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response 135 of 257:
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Sep 5 13:36 UTC 2003 |
My experience with Aiwa is that they have some of the worst front panel
designs in the world, from a usability standpoint. They look pretty,
though. I have an Aiwa Dolby Digital receiver, which I bought because
it was over $100 cheaper than any other Dolby Digital system on the
market. I've been satisfied with it, other than the really awkward
front panel and the intermittent remote control.
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keesan
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response 136 of 257:
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Sep 5 15:07 UTC 2003 |
I think the Aiwas are modelled on running shoes. I was looking for the usual
levers that you depress for play, FF, RW, stop, etc. Nothing similar. The
remote control at least has words on it but not PLAY, just Direction/Reset.
They should have tested their product on some real people before marketing.
The direction reset button on the remote control is part of a little set of
buttons with a teal background the rest of which I think are for the tuner.
Except what does SET do? The other tape-deck related button is in a different
area entirely and says tape deck 1/2. You would think they would have put
things together.
Oatmeal with dried Chinese jujubes. I am spitting out the skins. He was very
generous with them.
Got to go do a blood draw (after three pills - I am told I can mash them in
apple sauce instead of choking on them).
How to preset an AIWA? THere is a PRGM button and numbers 1-10+. The tuner
goes in increments of .05. I turned on some really bad music to drown out
this mornin'gs power mower. Lots of trumpets and drums and no melody.
Three pills and I am off to lie on a posturepedic mattress and hope I have
energy after hiking into the store and back to also make it into the hospital.
I will try to get Jim to leave the mattress until afterwards. Maybe I can
try the doggy bed instead, in the car. (Yes, we had to insure it, I can't
bike for a while).
The bad music was Glazunov 1895.
I am going to lie down for 15 minutes to recover from the jujube skins and
the cloying sweetness. Never again. I am thoroughly sick of sugar.
Yesterday he put ice cream and mango pulp on the oatmeal. I could have had
a second cup of milk instead.
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keesan
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response 137 of 257:
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Sep 5 15:34 UTC 2003 |
I keep choking on the pills - the thrush may be causing problems. Jim is now
mashing them in apple sauce and will get liquid vitamins. I have been
dreading taking them. Don't normally take pills.
Jim says his daily popcorn with olive oil and nutritional yeast is about 700
calories. He is active. He was biking to the hospital 2-3 times a day and
also biking all over on errands.
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keesan
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response 138 of 257:
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Sep 6 06:08 UTC 2003 |
Today we were supposed to go have a blood draw (well I was anyway) and wait
for results and if low hemoglobin have a transfusion. On the way we stopped
at the new mattress department of Birkenstock. (We had already quizzed the
guy all about his electric bikes a while back). I lay down and did not want
to get up. The bed itself is about $900. He had at home a camping mat (30")
wide 2" thick which I got instead for $200. It is heaven, no bones hitting
the futon or lost circulation waking me up. I went to his house to try it
on the living room floor and did not want to get up. (He is one of the people
who moved a house and then tried to make it livable again, in my
neighborhood).
I walked in and out of the store and the house. Then I walked around
Kerrytown a bit. Then I discovered (after walking) that I was actually hungry
for the first time in a few months - the lymphoma must have ruined my appetite
and maybe also the chemo which is now wearing off). We got Kerrytown figs,
Zing's bread and a really overripe avocado and picnicked at the cancer clinic.
Good news from the clinic but it will wait as I am going to try to get back
to sleep now. My digestion tends to keep me awake but that should get better
soon too. Tune in tomorrow. This is the good 10 days of the cycle coming.
I walked everywher instead of a wheelchair.
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keesan
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response 139 of 257:
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Sep 6 14:20 UTC 2003 |
Morning.
Yesterday went to draw blood and was told my hemoglobic was still fine and
no transfusions needed (hopefully won't need any at all again - the last one
was just after chemo). The visiting nurse told us they would change the
dressing on the PICC catheter and show Jim how (he has a box full). The
cancer clinic said they were busy and to have the visiting nurse come back
and show us how. She had come Wed and was coming back Wed. It needed
changing Monday so they rescheduled her. It is also a different nurse - first
one is changing to Chelsea and another one called us a few days ago.
Half an hour later they came back and said my white blood count was low and
I was supposed to have been given some injection or infusion on day 6 of chemo
(last day of prednisone) to boost white blood cell production. Day 6 was
labor day weekend and nobody remembered. Yesterday was day 12 and they said
my body would start making white blood cells on its own any day now so they
would skip it unless the count dropped and come back Mon and Thurs to draw
more blood. (This only ends up taking a few hours to get there and back, wait
an hour to draw blood, wait an hour for results).
Half an hour later they came back and said the PICC line was subject to
infection and since my count was low they would take it out. We WALKED to
a room that was locked, I got left standing there unsteady on my feet while
she hunted for the key and then another room and she pulled out 15" or so of
thin plastic tubing from my vein after which nobody needs to teach Jim to do
dressings. The one who put the thing in said it would be used for all
the chemo treatments (5 months). It is heaven to get it out, so what if they
stick needles in my veings twice a week and put in 7 more IVs (I have had that
many, they keep messing them up and redoing them) for 2 hours each.
The visiting nurse Monday got cancelled. The big box of supplies to care for
the PICC line will be picked up again (more phone calls). I can bathe without
Saran Wrap (Jim wonders why I took it out of the bathroom). I am ecstatic.
I can sleep on my left side without sticking my arm off the bed to protect
the little plastic dangly things. This is even better than getting the two
IVs out of my right arm so I could eat and brush my teeth and get out of bed
with it. I can sleep on both sides on my new foam camping mat thing.
Jim is still pushing calories but he said I hit over 30 yesterday. It helps
that I got hungry An awful lot of butter and avocado on the bread. My mother
did this to me when I was 12 (buttered everything) and went to overnight Girl
Scout Camp for two weeks and ate kosher with the other Jewish kids. They
served a lot of pork so we did not eat much (the alternate there was peanut
butter and jelly sandwiches which I find as edible as spaghetti with hot
sauce). At a computer recycling conference they served us box lunches (a few
years ago in conjunction with us doing truckloads of computers at Kiwanis we
got invited to the conference at the Ann Arbor plant). Carnivores got a
sandwish with an inch of meat and two slices of cucumber and one of tomato.
Vegetarians got a sandwich with the two slices of cucumber and one of tomato!
Jim put enough avocado on one slice for maybe 5 slices. Maybe he likes it
that way. The result may be that I each only half a slice of bread. I hated
when my mother buttered everything. Or maybe he had to weigh out an exact
2 ounces. He is going nuts with this calorie count. We had a long argument
about whether the pears a friend dropped off (not very sweet) had fewer
calories than the sugary ones in the store.
Yesterday I got a gift basket from the translation agency where the woman
started radiation this week. (She says it is 1 hour total drive, 1 hour wait,
and 30 seconds treatment every weekday for a couple months). She thought I
would enjoy being able to eat things that people usually can't eat because
of the calories and cholesterol and it is a huge basket full of cookies. I
have never in my life tasted a cookie that was closer to a candy. 250
calories for a 1" cookie. 20 g fat. 10% cholesterol. I forced down two with
2 cups of milk to dilute them. Jim got sick on 12 (3000 calories - my total
for the day) and wants to give them away now. Jim has met his match.
We are also weighing fresh figs and trying to guess how the size and calories
compare to dried (in the book). At 2 am. Jim enjoys this.
Next chemo may be (they left a message about an appointment) 8 am two Mondays
from now. The hospital continues to get me up early ;)
Jim's favorite Zing bread was covered with sesame seeds. Not the best choice
for a picnic at the clinic.
Today a bath!!!!!!! (what can I sit on in the tub?)
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davel
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response 140 of 257:
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Sep 6 17:19 UTC 2003 |
Go for it, Sindi! I hope you're feeling as much better as you're sounding.
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keesan
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response 141 of 257:
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Sep 6 18:48 UTC 2003 |
My big problem right now is to make/find a chair with enough padding that I
can sit on it. The short chairs at Jim's house are not very padded. His
living room chairs leave me feet four inches off the floor (with a painful
edge digging into my thighs) and the back of the chair is four inches from
my back. I have a low chair I use (which puts the table near my shoulder
leel) that we have been piling pillows on and using with a card table. I sent
him to my place to get some dense chair cushions. My office chair back is
really painful against my spine.
Right now I have one of Jim's chairs giving me a backache with a pile of stuff
under my feet and will go back to lying on my back to read instead.
Put a pillow behind my back, helps some but the edge of the chair is just
too high and rounded.
The AIWA tape player is a mystery to me. If I hit tape deck 1/2 and
Direction enough times at random (it took about 20) it will play a tape.
THe first deck may be dragging. Usually it just changes direction
without playing. Wonder how to get it to auto reverse. Someone should
give this one the 'worst design' prize, or the 'least instructions' prize.
--------------------------------
I get all sorts of encouraging email. Wonder how it got here so slowly
and how they knew on Aug 21 that I would be wanting to lose weight. I
found this buried among the things my spam filter caught (v;i;a;g;r;a,
online pharmacy, free health insurance quotes).
From bbb_6346_bs@hotmail.com Sat Sep 6 14:32:24 2003
Date: Thu, 21 Aug 2003 16:37:51 -1900
From: bbb_6346_bs@hotmail.com
To: Undisclosed.Recipients@cyberspace.org
Subject: tiny patch
[The following text is in the "Windows-1252" character set]
[Your display is set for the "iso-8859-1" character set]
[Some characters may be displayed incorrectly]
The ALL NEW "Patch" THAT ALLOWS YOU TO LOSE WEIGHT ALL DAY LONG!
THis is 100% safe & is guaranteed to work. MONEY BACK GUARANTEE!
* Increase Metabolic Rate
* Reduce Body Fat
* Boost Energy Levels & Feel Better
* Accelerate Weight Loss
* Decrease Apetite
* No side Effects
* AND PROVEN TO WORK!
If you haven't tried it, then you have no idea how much better it will
make you feel & change your life...Try it now...
http://www.freequotelkj.com/wl3
As seen On Tv!
If you have received this email and are not a member of our health club
then please remove yourself if you wish.
http://gadgitz.biz/1/
----------------
I suggest lymphoma to anyone to lose weight instead, or hospital food.
Today's mail was a letter from U of M Home MED with a consent form so they
can bill me for home medical supplies. This is the box they delivered Wed
with the syringes for cleaning the PICC line. We used two, and 6 ml
heparin. The clinic said something about getting them picked up. I
wonder if it is worth the hospital's time and money to bill for two
syringes or they could just replace them and seal up the box (Jim can bike
it back to S. Industrial Hwy for them).
I have saved the insurance company potentially 20 x $130 on changing
dressings. They really ought to go along with a prescription for a
mattress pad. Also saved them a bunch of $156 physical therapy sessions
by walking around Kerrytown on Jim's arm and forcing myself to do things
here. Durable medical supplies are covered - a pad is a lot cheaper than
a wheelchair.
I just got a flower from the artist girlfriend of a neighbor where we are
building and a small art book. They are remodeling big time (small
house). The Art of the Surrealists. I wonder if she likes cookies.
She had other helpful suggestions says Jim.
No visitors have showed up to share the cookies. Missed them all
yesterday.
Got to get off this backbreaking chair now.
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jaklumen
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response 142 of 257:
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Sep 6 21:05 UTC 2003 |
Hospital food? Oh no, last hospital I was in the food was decent-- I
just didn't have much of an appetite because of the reason I came in
for. No, I'd say airplane food would more be likely.
I wouldn't know about lymphoma personally, but a friend of mine did
lose a lot of weight in the initial stages of leukemia.
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klg
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response 143 of 257:
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Sep 7 01:22 UTC 2003 |
". . . Half an hour later they came back and said my white blood count
was low and I was supposed to have been given some injection or infusion
on day 6 of chemo (last day of prednisone) to boost white blood cell
production. . . ."
Neupogen??? @$400 a crack. Works good, but makes your pelvis & long
bones ache. Comes in vials or in pre-loaded syringes. Had to search
for a pharm. that carried it.
" . . . she pulled out 15" or so of thin plastic tubing from my vein
after which nobody needs to teach Jim to do dressings. The one who put
the thing in said it would be used for all the chemo treatments (5
months). It is heaven to get it out, so what if they stick needles in
my veings twice a week and put in 7 more IVs (I have had that many, they
keep messing them up and redoing them) for 2 hours each.. . . ."
No word on a "port"?? The dr. & nurses said that the chemo is caustic
stuff and injecting it through an IV would pose a risk to damaging blood
veins & surrounding tissue.
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keesan
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response 144 of 257:
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Sep 7 01:26 UTC 2003 |
Hospital food may be decent if you like meat and are trying to lose weight.
Today I rested and Jim cut my hair. Amazing how exhausted you can get from
walking around one day when you have been bedridden two weeks. What is left
of my muscles aches.
I now have an interesting red rash at the bend of my right leg that itches.
I suspected some other fungus infection so called the hospital to ask about
it. The nurse in the ward where I had been said it could be:
1. Allergy to allopurinol. Usually appears on the arms. Does not usually
appear after taking the stuff for weeks.
2. Irritated hairs. My leg is not terribly hair.
3. A fungal infection. Jim got me some cheap KMart antifungal cream to apply
twice a day.
The hoarse throat may go away if I stop swallowing the Nystatin.
I have no unusual symptoms. Stop flossing my teeth. Low platelet count.
A bit of blood in my nose. Nothing to worry about.
I forgot to take home my pain medicine.
I went back to sleep. Skipped the bath and showered instead as it was
quicker. Discovered I could barely lift my spoon at supper. Went back to
bed. Tomorrow is another rest day. Eat eat eat.
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keesan
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response 145 of 257:
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Sep 7 01:28 UTC 2003 |
I managed to program numbers 1 2 and 3 on the AIWA to Toledo, Lansing and
Toledo I think by hitting clear program 2 (etc) set. Cannot for the life of
me get 1 to program to Canada - what do I try next? When I hit 1 it goes to
Toledo instead while trying to program.
Jim discovered you can set the autoreverse on the unit not the remote control.
Now it repeats once instead of not at all or forever.
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scott
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response 146 of 257:
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Sep 7 02:35 UTC 2003 |
Often you set a preset by holding down the button for a couple seconds.
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jep
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response 147 of 257:
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Sep 7 03:07 UTC 2003 |
It's great news to hear you're doing so well, Sindi!
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keesan
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response 148 of 257:
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Sep 7 15:59 UTC 2003 |
Which button needs to be held down a couple seconds - the number, prgm, clear
or set?
I gained a pound but it seems to have gone away again before breakfast. Jim
is mashing my three pills in apple sauce. I am still hoarse.
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keesan
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response 149 of 257:
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Sep 7 19:28 UTC 2003 |
I will try programming Canada to number 4. Today is a video day as I don't
have the energy to turn pages. Manon of the Spring.
Dare I ask what library videos people recommend?
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scott
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response 150 of 257:
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Sep 7 20:15 UTC 2003 |
Usually you hold down the number button?
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tpryan
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response 151 of 257:
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Sep 7 21:43 UTC 2003 |
Sorry skipping last 60 or so responses. Anything happen?
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dah
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response 152 of 257:
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Sep 7 21:54 UTC 2003 |
Yeah, an ASSHOLE posted.
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keesan
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response 153 of 257:
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Sep 8 00:25 UTC 2003 |
Yes, the one in 152.
I think the CLEAR button is broken. I programmed 4 to Canada with no problem.
Jim suggested unplugging to clear but I don't mind two Toledo buttons.
We downloaded and printed all the book suggestions but the library catalog
(online) is broken today. I stopped reading Last of the Mohicans. Too many
rifles. Thoman Mann is unhappy. Jane Austen got lost (under the bed)?
My Macedonian friend who is playing in an international women's basketball
tournament in Orlando Sept 2-9 and will be in NY Sept 15-21 was hoping to
visit me and I have to get hold of her somehow. Can anyone track down the
Macedonian women's basketball team email address in Orlando for me? Or the
email address of an international tournament there? We tried.
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jor
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response 154 of 257:
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Sep 8 01:46 UTC 2003 |
Those damn Mohicans. I had to bail,
a third of the way through.
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keesan
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response 155 of 257:
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Sep 8 13:14 UTC 2003 |
Today another blood draw and we meet my doctor friend at noon. Maybe he can
figure out why I have been hoarse for a few days. Also decipher the
Macedonian letter better than I could. I think my friend's daughter is
waiting for test results (from Bulgaria) about possible stomach cancer.
In addition to the state universities (which I think are still free) Macedonia
now has 'more efficient' private ones for some subjects, but the tuition is
half a year's salary. I offered to help ($2000/year). Room and board
$150/month. She has two daughters, makes $330/month and has managed to save
$3000 in 6 years since the divorce. She has not seen or heard from or
received money from her ex and her employer is doing massive layoffs (1000
people at a time). Country of 2 million has half million unemployed. She
thinks she is safe until 2005 (from layoffs). Our unemployment is nothing
compared - programmers without jobs programming can still find some way to
make a living.
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gull
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response 156 of 257:
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Sep 8 15:22 UTC 2003 |
On my Aiwa I program a station by pressing the 'ENTER' button once.
It's assigned to the next available slot. To clear a slot I press ENTER
twice. Yours sounds like it's different, though.
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keesan
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response 157 of 257:
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Sep 9 01:32 UTC 2003 |
No ENTER button. Thanks anyway. We have two other mystery programmable
stereos that we gave up on elsewhere - this was actually usable.
Today we left at 10 for an early blood draw to 'avoid the rush' and waited
an hour for the blood draw and then went to see my doctor friend about my
throat. A mystery (I am very hoarse). He helped read the letter.
At about pm apparently someone called my name to tell me my blood test
results were okay and I could go home but Jim had gone to find me lunch and
I had fallen asleep. About 3 we asked and the same person came back out and
said we could see a doctor. About 4 they took height, weight, blood pressure
(first three cuffs were broken), pulse (down to 100), and temperature (all
normal) and I waited another hour to be told that I should gargle salt and
soda water four times a day after eating and before Nystatin. Let's hope it
helps.
The rash does not look fungal to the doctor. Maybe an Allupurinoal allergy.
I should have stopped taking it a few days ago. (On discharge I was told to
take it until chemo next monday). I will stop. No more need to wash and
apply antifungal cream twice a day or mash allopurinol in apple sauce. The
gargle is quick and easy.
I sat for 7 hours. I will recuperate from the blood draw for 2 days and do
another Thursday and go home and wait for results.
Platelets normal (no more bleeding from the nose when I wipe it). White blood
cells double last time but 1/1/4 normal but lots of litle precursors. I
should start feeling pretty good by about Sunday. More chemo Monday, first
appointment. So who needs sleep. They said I could bring breakfast.
Jim found 7 books on the list and I will be on my back for two days instead
of siting. Nice to spread out the exercise a bit but that is life.
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oval
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response 158 of 257:
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Sep 9 15:31 UTC 2003 |
jim sounds like a great guy - i'm glad he's taking care of you.
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