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Grex > Health > #87: Sindi Keesan's Lymphoma Journal |  |
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| 25 new of 480 responses total. |
edina
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response 70 of 480:
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Oct 7 20:01 UTC 2003 |
If they want you to drink 12 glasses of water, my suggestion is to try and
get as close to it as you can. I'm supposed to get 8 - but right after
surgery, I was concerned becuase I just couldn't get it all in, and when I
asked the nutritionist, she said 8 was the goal. Just try to get it in.
You're trying to flush chemotherapy out - I'm just flushing fat - your waater
intake is far more important than mine.
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keesan
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response 71 of 480:
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Oct 7 22:09 UTC 2003 |
Two cups oatmeal, one cup lentil stew, one cup tomatoes, two cups milk, two
cups tea. The 12 glasses was at some website and may be appropriate for
someone who lives on meat sandwiches (not much liquid in them) and weighs
twice what I do. I am going to the bathroom pretty frequently already.
Water comes in foods, not just cups.
We had a nice late lunch with jor, who is willing to learn to install Win98
so he can show Jim how, and also to help weed the yard while he can see to
do so. They are out right now trying to fix the starting problem on his car
then we will show him my apartment.
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tpryan
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response 72 of 480:
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Oct 8 00:21 UTC 2003 |
Hope you don't mind getting the floriculturally diverse
polyfragrant soilistically challenged multipetaled victims of
pesticidal food chain chauvinism.
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keesan
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response 73 of 480:
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Oct 8 19:36 UTC 2003 |
We are eating mostly organic fruits and vegetables, if that is what you mean.
Yesterday before taking jor (john) to see my apartment we fed him breakfast
and lunch and Jim 'fixed' his car until 7:30 pm (cleaned spark plugs and added
some fluids) at which point I started feeling the effects of all the drugs
so let them go without me. They came back at 8:00 - my help is needed to
uncover the bed and kitchen. John is staying in Jim's small spare bedroom
instead on a futon that Mary Remmers gave us. He spent the morning automating
the m-net idle-out program and now they are trying to install Win98 on a
curbside find 500MHz pentium on which Jim managed to kill Redhat 9 (which was
too slow anyway). We will take him to outpatient surgery Friday and if he
feels well enough afterwards, bring him back here to save the cost of an
uninsured hospital room for the night. (same cost as three months in Jim's
small room used to be last time he had a paying roommate). He is a perfect
guest and even likes Jim's cooking (including the Indian hot pickled lime).
By Saturday I should be feeling enough better to help more.
The chemotherapy drugs are, I think, what is giving me hot spells. The
prednisone that I took at 4:00 pm (one hour after taking Prilosec) wore off
about 10 pm so I started losing the retained fluid and had to go to the
bathroom every half hour until 2:30 am. We walked to the pharmacy after a
very late breakfast, about 3/4 mile each way, and got back to discover that
instead of 8 pills (2x50 mg per day) they somehow multiplied to get 16 pills
but charged for 8 so next month's supply is here in advance. Today I woke
at 7:30 and took the pills by 9:30 and then napped. The jitters hit again
around 2:00 so we went for a jittery walk. The man-eating ladybugs are out.
We found another wind-up clock where the first one was, and a lot of old Win31
and even Win20 disks and a snow shovel (just in time). I had to choose my
streets carefully to avoid the sun (which can cause a reaction due to one of
the drugs). Jim also found a bunk-bed frame but left it there.
Anyone know why there were a lot of very slow bees crawling all over the front
steps at Zion church Sunday afternoon?
Jim wonders where to buy cheap recordable CDs so the neighbor can download
and copy him some software for use with Win98 (picture editing). Would K-mart
have cheap ones? Something within easy biking distance please.
I am eating rather tasteless but wet and fibrous and potassium-containing
yellow watermelon from a friend's organic farm. Jim got all the cracked ones.
Prednisone tastes only half as bad as Benadryl.
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scott
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response 74 of 480:
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Oct 8 23:20 UTC 2003 |
Cheapest CD-Rs are at Comp-USA, in packs of 25-50. I'd be happy to share a
smaller number out of my current 50 pack.
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tpryan
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response 75 of 480:
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Oct 8 23:33 UTC 2003 |
re 72: getting flowers
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polygon
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response 76 of 480:
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Oct 9 05:40 UTC 2003 |
Following my throat surgery last year, when my throat was much too raw for
ANY solid pills, let alone the horribly rough and terrible-tasting Zantac
pills, I had a prescription for liquid Zantac. Wonderful stuff, delicious
peppermint flavored syrup. But it was very difficult to fill the
prescription -- most drug stores were out of it, and the others would
offer a small fraction of the prescribed quantity. Zantac pills are OTC,
but the liquid form is mysteriously prescription-only, and very expensive.
Later, I heard that liquid Zantac is usually for children, hence, the
quantities in stock were likely to be small.
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keesan
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response 77 of 480:
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Oct 9 12:15 UTC 2003 |
What is Zantac for?
I have emailed the cancer center nurse to ask if I can take half as much
prednisone. I got to sleep after 1:30 and woke before 3:30 am last night.
Scott, thanks for the offer of the CD but I don't want to take the faintest
chance of catching your flu before at least January.
Is Comp-USA within a couple miles of Jims house near Zion Lutheran Church?
We will see if another friend can drop off a CD today.
I will probably have to start again tomorrow with the thrush treatment. Maybe
some people consider the fruit/banana taste delicious due to the 33% sucrose?
Someone else suggested that maybe just a salt water gargle would work instead.
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davel
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response 78 of 480:
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Oct 9 13:07 UTC 2003 |
Sindi, Comp-USA is almost next to Best Buy. Turn off AA-Saline Road at the
traffic light by Meijer, then go on past Meijer a short way. It's rather more
than a couple of miles from Jim's house, though.
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keesan
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response 79 of 480:
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Oct 9 16:02 UTC 2003 |
Jim is not going to bike to Best Buy area. AA-Saline road is one of the worst
roads to bike on - full of cars and trucks, shoulder is thick gravel. We will
get a CD-R from a friend, no hurry.
Jor is looking for linux scanner software for Jim's latest scanner. I have
a pointer to the correct linux software for my BW scanner (HP).
I slept from 9:30 to 11:30 (part of it, anyway). Jim is pushing watermelons.
I have to wait until after the prednisone period ends (through Friday) before
doing the salt water gargle. Last cycle the thrush started on Friday
(overlap). Maybe I can just rinse all the salt out?
Tomorrow is a Zion rummage sale to walk to. Wonder where to go today while
avoiding that nasty sun. We are planning to get jor to surgery around 10:30
and pick him up late afternoon once he wakes up. Maybe he would like to
listen to Jim's books on tape for a few days. Jim made a big pot of oatmeal
this morning but finished it after jor went off on errands (finished cooking
it, and finished eating all but my small bowlful!).
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mdw
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response 80 of 480:
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Oct 9 16:22 UTC 2003 |
"Very slow" bees probably means either (a) they were cold, or (b) they
had been sprayed with something nasty. Honey bees do swam and find new
haunts every so often, and I suppose other bees might do the same.
Swarming bees are usually less aggressive.
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keesan
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response 81 of 480:
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Oct 9 19:31 UTC 2003 |
But what did they want from the church steps?
Today we set off on foot for the library but I was so tired we just did a loop
through the 70's chicken-coop-style neighborhood, where people have planted
a lot of interesting things. I am going back to sleep again now. Prednisone
also causes muscle weakness in addition to lack of sleep. I will do library
next Tuesday when my immune system comes back. I might sleep until then
starting Saturday when the prednisone wears off.
Jim put the living room back together as a living room now that I am in a
bedroom. Still waiting for the 3' wide 3" thick mattress topper. They think
they mailed it a week ago and UPS takes 2-3 business days to deliver.
We met a new neighbor who was out working in her front garden and Jim tried
to convince her that it was the easiest thing in the world to add a basement
toilet. The houses on this block are mostly built the same way. You just
need to bash a hole in the basement floor in the right place and cut a hole
in the cast iron drain, he says. A day's work, maybe two..... She has
planted four small burning bushes. The one next door is about 8' in diameter,
or maybe 10'. Lots of new fall color - maples, dogwoods, sumac, berries.
Jim's 12' tall jerusalem artichokes that came into the front yard along with
compost for the last housemate's cabbages are covered with yellow flowers.
They are bigger than some of the trees.
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keesan
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response 82 of 480:
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Oct 9 23:30 UTC 2003 |
Got another 1 hour nap after the walk but am still exhausted. About a week
ago my soles of my feet started to feel numb. Today I can tell the drugs are
working because now the palms of my hands feel numb, not just the finger tips.
They said the side effects could be cumulative and that I would feel more
tired each time but last time I had a cold so I can't tell how tired I would
have felt without it. No cold this time at least.
Jor just went for a walk. He is probably feeling even more jittery than me,
having looked up on the web everything that could go wrong. I told him to
concentrate on things he could change and try to stop worrying. He can do
a good job following instructions during recovery.
Jim is cooking. I watched a video. Jor watched it with one eye. I happened
to pick one about a blind boy, accidentally.
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jaklumen
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response 83 of 480:
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Oct 10 00:08 UTC 2003 |
Zantac? Heartburn, right?
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glenda
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response 84 of 480:
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Oct 10 02:53 UTC 2003 |
Works similarly to Prilosec. It is now available over the counter at a
reduced for Rx strength. Didn't do much for me. Not like the magic purple
pill.
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keesan
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response 85 of 480:
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Oct 10 03:23 UTC 2003 |
I asked the price of the Nexium purple pill - $7 each!
The Prilosec is supposed to keep the prednisone from making my stomach lining
bleed. Only one more of each to go this cycle before I can sleep again.
Today things are starting to taste funny including water which probably means
the thrush will be here tomorrow. I gargled salt water.
Are there cheaper cell phone services than 15 cents/min evenings?
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scg
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response 86 of 480:
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Oct 10 06:16 UTC 2003 |
The standard nationwide cell service rate now seems to be around $35 per month
for 500 minutes per month. That's 7 cents per minute if you use all 500
minutes, but considerably mroe per minute if you use it considerably less.
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keesan
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response 87 of 480:
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Oct 10 10:32 UTC 2003 |
Thanks, I will tell jor. He got something in a hurry so people could find
him while he was in transition. Regular phone service is still cheaper unless
you make lots of long distance calls and few local ones. (I pay 5 cents/min
to call Hawaii but 15 cents for Michigan.)
Today I managed to sleep between 12:30 and 5:30. It gets light about 7:40.
I checked my first cycle blood values and today is when they will probably
drop in half and then keep dropping, but half of my last value is still low
normal. Normal is 1.4-7.5 k/mm3 and I was 4.2 on Monday. I expect to be up
to about 5.4 next Thursday based on past history so Tuesday might be low
normal again. This is sort of interesting, more so on 5 than 2 hours sleep.
The prednisone also induces hunger. I expect to be sleepy and not very hungry
when I stop taking it Saturday.
The 4.2 blood value is neutrophils (which fight off bacteria). My platelet
count is high normal (stops bleeding) so I can still floss my teeth.
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keesan
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response 88 of 480:
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Oct 10 17:04 UTC 2003 |
Jim (and maybe I) will go back to Kellogg Eye Center around 3:00 to keep jor
company while he wakes up and to get instructions for recovery. For some
reason they don't trust the patient to understand it all after general
anesthesia starts wearing off.
While delivering jor this morning Jim ran into a nurse who was sure she had
seen him somewhere. After exhausting all other possibilities, they discovered
that they had both attended the 2-year nursing program at WCC together about
20 years ago.
People ask Jim what he does for a living. He has decided he is a homemaker.
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rcurl
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response 89 of 480:
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Oct 10 19:52 UTC 2003 |
He could be a "home technician".
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drew
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response 90 of 480:
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Oct 10 20:52 UTC 2003 |
Re #87:
To get the cheaper interstate rate (instead of the jacked up "local zone"
or whatever the phone companydoes with your call) for calls instate, prefix
all calls with the access code for your favorite long distance company - even
if you have it as the default. Manually reroute them to force them through
the cheaper company.
I personally use 1010629- which is 4 cents per minute, no minimums, and
no monthly fees.
As for cell phones, I concur with you on that conclusion.
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rcurl
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response 91 of 480:
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Oct 10 21:11 UTC 2003 |
You can get $19.99 cell phone service. We also use an AT&T Calling Card
that was sold at Sam's Club for 3.5 cents/min.
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keesan
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response 92 of 480:
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Oct 10 21:39 UTC 2003 |
Where do you get the 19.99 service?
Jor is still not ready for pickup. Jim called at 4 and was told at least one
more hour but not whether he was in the recovery room yet. I spent 7 hours
in the recovery room after minor surgery since it got infected. I should get
offline soon.
Apart from being exhausted it has not been a bad day. My cousin mailed me
a box of novels. The neighbor sneaked over with some apples for us and
mentioned that she is the one that told Kiwanis I was sick (they sent
flowers). Someone else at Kiwanis will stop by in an hour with some little
thing for me - we set him up to use grex for email (and got the rest of the
computer from his son working with Windows and Netscape for him but he forgot
again how to print, having learned at age 81.)
Got to check on jor again. Surgery was supposed to start around 11:30 and
take maybe 4 hours at most - hope it went okey.
I don't make enough Michigan phone calls (outside of Detroit, which Jim calls
twice a year for 7 cents/minute) to bother with another service. I called
Lansing once this year. But it is odd that the local company charges twice
as much for Lansing as Detroit.
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keesan
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response 93 of 480:
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Oct 11 00:12 UTC 2003 |
I have procmail set to filter (to a 'penis' folder) subject lines with
p*e*n*i*s. The nurse's reply to my question about prednisone ended up in that
folder. They give everyone 100 mg and may be able to adjust my dose next
time.
Jim fetched jor home about 7:30 and went off to get him some expensive
eyedrops. It is no fun coming home from surgery. Nausea and vomiting are
common and all lights and noises are painful. He is trying to sleep on the
couch (the painkiller should have worked by now). It is supposed to get a
lot better within 24 hours. They go back in the morning early. I did not
hear about the details of the surgery.
Some friends from Kiwanis with a nice flower garden brought me pink roses and
altheria (?) and baby's breath in a vase.
I am done with pills for a couple of weeks. Now Jim gets to meter out things
to jor instead of mashing up pills for me in applesauce. He may get up every
4 hours with the pain pills since it is hard to take them at the right time
when you cannot see to read a clock easily. Jim is a nice guy.
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slynne
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response 94 of 480:
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Oct 11 03:06 UTC 2003 |
No kidding. Jim should get a medal of honor or something for being
kind.
You can get $19.99 nationwide cell phone plans from T-Mobile. I have
that. I get 60 "anytime" minutes and 500 weekend minutes. Since I use
my cell phone mostly on weekends, this works out for me. I think the
regional plans might have more minutes but I am not sure. I wanted the
nationwide plan because one of the times I most want a cell phone is
when I travel.
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