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| Author |
Message |
| 25 new of 480 responses total. |
keesan
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response 392 of 480:
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Dec 9 21:56 UTC 2003 |
My mother also slept in socks. But I did not need to do that until 9 years
ago. Can you inherit things suddenly at age 45? And then uninherit them 9
years later?
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tod
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response 393 of 480:
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Dec 9 23:50 UTC 2003 |
This response has been erased.
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rcurl
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response 394 of 480:
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Dec 10 04:09 UTC 2003 |
Chemical changes in your body occur every day (every second too).
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davel
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response 395 of 480:
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Dec 10 15:37 UTC 2003 |
Heh. Even if you're dead ...
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gull
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response 396 of 480:
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Dec 10 19:12 UTC 2003 |
Re resp:391: I have the same problem, but I drape a folded blanket over
the end of the bed to keep my feet warm. I find caffiene aggravates the
poor circulation so you may want to avoid it close to bedtime, even if
it doesn't keep you awake.
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willcome
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response 397 of 480:
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Dec 10 19:53 UTC 2003 |
Sissies.
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keesan
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response 398 of 480:
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Dec 11 02:30 UTC 2003 |
I have never used caffeine. I will try being barefooted next time it goes
over 70.
Today we got up at 7 am. I put batteries in a rooster alarm clock and when
it went off I thought at first it was me wheezing really loudly. We got there
at quarter to 8 and saw the nurse practitioner at 8:15 and then waited until
only 9:30 for the 9 am infusion. Lost of empty seats but not many nurses yet.
They let us be #1 so as to cough on other people in only one direction. The
first two people next to me did not blast the TV so we played some back oboe
concertoes. Three of the nurses stopped by to appreciate them. My nurse said
she had been to a meeting where she and some others urged that they require
headphones for people listening TV, for the benefit of both other patients
and staff. 10 hours of screaming and banging is hard on my nerves.
My first neighbor left as I was getting my IV.
My second one had breast cancer and spoke Greek. This was her first therapy
after surgery and she would also have radiation. She had diabetes. The nurse
spent about an hour explaining what was happening and what to do at home.
The third had multiply myeloma and had to have infusions every month, forever,
recently upped to every two weeks,. Only 2 hours at a time. And then four
steroid pill days, four off, four on, four off. She has trouble walking as
a result. She said when someone in the room happens to have their last
therapy everyone cheers. Nobody will be cheering for her.
It is apparently up to the doctor to decide whether I get two more sessions
if every sign of the tumor is gone. Probably I will get them since it shows
I am responding, and we can go after any invisible ones. If there is no sign
of change maybe I won't get two more sessions, but perhaps a PET scan will
reveal surviving tumor cells. I won't know much until the 29th. With luck
a doctor will come in day after Christmas to read the results of my Dec 24
scan.
Jim is supposed to get a flu shot (not oral live vaccine) after he gets over
his current infection of 3 weeks duration so that I don't get flu from him.
He boosted his immunity by sampling all the cupcakes. I ate tylenol,
benadryl, kytril and some other pill in applesauce.
My blood pressure today started at 98 over 52 and went down to 92 at one
point. The benadryl does that. My pulse gradually drifted down from 100
(when I walked in) to 82 (after sitting two hours).
We wound down by taking a few photos and checking out C++ courses at WCC with
Glenda, who runs the lab there. We will go back tomorrow to their annual
holiday buffet banquet, cooked and served by students and with lots of
vegetables.
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keesan
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response 399 of 480:
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Dec 12 03:11 UTC 2003 |
Today we signed Jim up at WCC for a C++ programming course and got him a
half-price textbook (used) at half.com. I eventually figured out how to
unsubscribe him from all the junk mail that they warned us about, and we did
not fill out the survey to get $10 off the next book he buys within 3 months
because that also signs you up for something else that costs $9/month if you
forget to unsubscribe after the first month - half price meals at Pizza Hut,
etc. He got the professor's signature to override the prerequisite, which
was some type of high school algebra. He mentioned he had already taken a
course in programming assembly language.
The banquet included mushroom soup, pineapple lime soup, cactus leaf and squid
salad, fried plantains, green beans, artichoke-cauliflower-celery, squash,
potato croquettes, two types of noodles, some meats, and cheesecake. My
sense of taste comes back at the end of each cycle and lasts a few days into
the next one, also the prednisone has restored my appetite which the couch
took away, so I disregarded the fact that I should not be eating salt. It
helped me to get down three glasses of water (needed to flush out the
chemicals). Jim does not eat cheesecake (milk and eggs) unless it gets close
enough. The other side of the room was close enough.
We sat at a table with one of the cooks, who is 19 and really enthusiastic
about opening his own restaurant some day. The culinary arts program first
teaches the students how to clear tables, then how to serve soups and entrees
wearing white jackets and tall white hats, then how to cook, and only then
how to wait tables. He also took a course in 'drinks' in which they went on
winery tours but could not sample the wines. He is 19. They are allowed to
sample wines in class for educational purposes. The waiters need to be able
to recommend wines to go with different dead animal dishes. He is also
working in a local restaurant where he says everyone takes turns doing
everything. That way the cooks don't make too many dishes dirty since they
have been dishwashers. Also at our table was an art professor who donated
the WCC sculpture.
On arrival home a friend called to let us know she had dropped off a small
apple pie so we had that for supper (with two more cups of liquid for me).
WCC has buffets every Wed and Thurs (starting again in Feb.) but fewer courses
and about half the price. Same menu both days. And sit-down meals Mon and
Wed. Today we had two tablecloths, cloth napkins, fancy water glasses, bread
and butter plates, and a jazz band. This was the international banquet, which
included Europe and Mexico.
Jim still has a bad cold. I wish I could lend him some neutrophils as my
count was more than double last time.
Today's exercise was walking around three buildings at WCC and climbing some
tall stairs a few times. The place is really overheated.
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glenda
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response 400 of 480:
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Dec 12 03:52 UTC 2003 |
It depends on where you go. The classroom you saw me in yesterday is usually
very cold. The one I spent today in was the hottest on campus, until they
finally figured out what was causing the air conditioner to not work, now it
is almost as cold as yesterday's.
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keesan
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response 401 of 480:
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Dec 12 13:56 UTC 2003 |
The thermostat in the hallway outside the computer lab was set at 74, which
is pretty warm for winter. The computer lab felt even hotter. U of M Cancer
Center is 70. You need air conditioning in computer classrooms in winter?
We used to air condition the gym in winter for folk dance classes because if
you turned the heat below maybe 75 the air conditioning automatically came
on. In the old gym we only had to open the window - no window in the new gym.
I got about 5 hours sleep after 3 am. This was the two days I had to drink
a lot and it comes back out when the prednisone wears off in the evening.
I should still drink a lot and eat lots of fiber while taking prednisone.
My other side effects have not escalated again yet. Hands still have
sensation, leg muscles still work pretty much okay. Probably by tonight my
hands will be numb again. Laryngitis hit yesterday morning, which made it
even harder to talk to people over the loud jazz band. My tongue and throat
are not feeling raw yet or my hands shaky. Jim has not been feeling well
enough to drag me out walking recently, but of course that did not stop him
from dragging us all over WCC for two days. Everyone keeps telling me to get
a flu shot except my doctors who tell me specifically not to because I am
likely to get flu from it with a weakened immune system. One friend called
and said Washtenaw and Oakland counties are out of the nasal spray, which Jim
is not supposed to get either because it is live vaccine. Is the dead vaccine
(the injection) free somewhere?
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gull
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response 402 of 480:
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Dec 12 15:36 UTC 2003 |
If you put enough computers in a room it heats up pretty good. My
office is in the server room at work and it hovers around 80 degrees in
there, year 'round. I've been trying to get them to put a separate A/C
system in here but they keep putting it off because they don't want to
spend the money.
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mynxcat
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response 403 of 480:
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Dec 12 16:47 UTC 2003 |
Depends on how they tend to cool the room. The server room where I
work is freezing, because they have the temperature way down to off-
set the heat from the computers.
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flem
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response 404 of 480:
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Dec 12 18:14 UTC 2003 |
I used to have this huge old compaq file server running in my apartment.
When I finally managed to offload all its functions onto other
computers and turn it off, the average temperature in that room dropped
at least 5 degrees. Not to mention the noise level.
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keesan
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response 405 of 480:
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Dec 12 20:35 UTC 2003 |
Can WCC take the heat from the computer labs and move it to where it is
wanted? For a start, they could turn the hallway thermostat down to 70 and
run a fan in the doorway of the lab.
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glenda
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response 406 of 480:
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Dec 12 21:13 UTC 2003 |
There isn't much that can be done. The power plant is old and outdated. It
was going to be replaced with a modern, more efficient one when the state
budget cuts hit. That caused a cutback in a lot of planned renovations to
avoid huge tuition increases. We deal with it. We have learned to dress in
layers in the winter and to carry a sweater or long sleeved shirt in the
summer. We run fans when necessary, but they don't help much and add to the
electricity bill. Most people don't complain about the heat until it gets
closer to 80, and complain when it goes much below 72. I have called about
a room being too cold when the thermostat read 75 because most of the
workstations in it were directly under a vent. So we just cope.
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keesan
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response 407 of 480:
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Dec 13 15:26 UTC 2003 |
The timing was just right on postponing chemotherapy. Wed chemo, Thursday
pharyngitis and less coughing, Friday stuffy nose, today sneezing, which means
I am finally fighting off that cold before my immunity is gone tomorrow.
The side effects come back within a couple of days of therapy - hands are a
bit shaky again (but still not numb), laryngitis hit the morning after.
Today I managed to sleep from 1:30 to 6:30 and another 2 hours in the morning
and feel the best in a couple of weeks.
I took a bath yesterday since the water was already hot from Jim soaking in
it. His cold is still worse than mine and he is also eating lots of
grapefruits. Grapefruits don't mix well with baths - the oil gets in the
water and burns. I noticed in the bath that all the skin had finished peeling
off my soles, that I have very small red speckles all over my front torso
where small blood vessels are not healing, and that my upper thighs are now
actually larger than they were and I can no longer reach around them with
thumb and middle finger -there is a 1" gap. Last night I was able to sleep
without a pillow between my knees as cushioning, and I have gained back enough
muscles and/or fat around my shoulders that I also don't need a pillow under
my upper arm to sleep. It was rather a nuisance having to rearrange all this
whenever I wanted to turn over, or when I woke up every hour to throw off the
blankets due to hot flashes (which are also much better). Sleep is nice.
I have to get back to exercising but perhaps had better wait until I stop
sneezing since it is unlikely to get warmer soon.
We are finally going through the last 20 or so sets of small headphones that
we took home four years ago to fix from Kiwanis. Made four pairs into one
good one since they broke in different places - plastic things that the actual
speakers fit into tend to break easily, the cords break in multiple places
and cannot always to diagnosed to solder them, and sometimes the speakers
themselves go bad. Jim has been making new foam pads, too. We have one pair
with purple foam, and one with green foam.
Jep stopped by yesterday and we confirmed that his vacuum cleaner did indeed
need a new roller because it was made of plastic and the race for the ball
bearings had worn out from friction. It was nice to see him. He said he had
already had our cough/cold. I am now going to avoid people for about five
days until my immune system comes back.
Only today and tomorrow and I am done with prednisone for a while, and only
two more months of therapy. It was nice of the doctor not to let me know at
first that it was likely to be 8 sessions total.
My hair is coming out faster again. My leg muscles are still not weaker.
I have an occasional shooting pain in my left hand where the IV was but
otherwise am feeling pretty good for this time of cycle. My sense of taste
is getting worse again but the prednisone at least makes me hungry. I still
have a chance of hitting 110 by Jan 1, but not a high chance since I lost two
pounds instead of gaining last cycle. I will aim instead at 115 pounds by
the end of therapy in mid February. More than I have weighed for 4 years.
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keesan
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response 408 of 480:
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Dec 14 10:55 UTC 2003 |
I got four hours sleep (prednisone keeps me up late) before waking at 5 with
a long hot flash and sweating. I don't know why it let up for a few days -
either the cold was keeping me cooler, or the chemotherapy has knocked out
whatever estrogen-producing cells were starting to recover. I am hoping for
the latter, because it implies that I will recover again shortly after about
Feb. 20.
My bone marrow is 'depressed' again. I am blowing my nose a lot and getting
a bit of blood on the ripped up old sheet that I am using instead of good
handkerchiefs. It is odd to be off the usual weekly schedule, since I expect
my bone marrow to be worst from Friday to Monday and today it started on
Sunday instead. By next Friday I should be back to normal blood counts again.
Luckily there is only one more day of prednisone so not too much overlap with
the hot flashes and I hope to get some sleep Monday night (the garbage trucks
will wake me Monday morning). My hands and leg muscles are still not numb.
It is nice the side effects are somewhat spread out.
Jim spent two hours on the phone talking with his sister in Warren. We are
probably not going to have Christmas dinner with his family there since I may
be continuing infusions the 29th. I don't want to risk catching any illnesses
first. It would have been cheaper to drive to Detroit and back than talk two
hours on the phone, but she likes talking on the phone anyway. And it is
warmer than driving 3 hours in late December. The small nephew with
hemophilia has not had any problems with it yet, or needed treatments yet.
When babies get bigger they start to injure themselves.
It is nice not to be up half the night coughing (and the other half of the
night with hot flashes and prednisone side effects). I am too hungry to fall
back asleep because prednisone makes me hungry. My mother (with a brain tumor
that you cannot treat with chemotherapy because of the blood-brain barrier)
was given prednisone indefinitely and at the nursing home would eat double
meals. I wish my taste buds would keep working during the hungry period.
Lima beans taste fairly normal. Rice/bread/noodles do not. Tangerines tasted
better three days ago. I will try a warmed up glass of milk. The pharyngitis
makes me cough if I drink cold things.
How long does this cough/cold last? It is two weeks now and I still feel
contagious.
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keesan
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response 409 of 480:
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Dec 14 19:27 UTC 2003 |
Jim still feels more awful than I do but he went out to help his next door
neighbor finish shoveling off Jim's walk. The neighbor is a nurse and said
flu shots may be rationed to babies and the elderly and we might need a
prescription for Jim since he was told to get one to protect me because I
should not get vaccinated until I finish chemotherapy since I could get the
flu from even a weakened vaccine.
I hope my neighbors are shoveling my walk where we are supposed to be building
a house. Usually whoever gets there first does both walks. It will be more
difficult for us to reciprocate this year. But they do seem to think they
owe Jim something for the plumbing repairs besides a watermelon.
Jim is fixing headphone radios while waiting for the water to get hotter for
his daily boiling bath. I am learning to make slackware packages. We got
dosemu to save files to D: (/home/user/).
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twenex
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response 410 of 480:
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Dec 14 19:34 UTC 2003 |
yay slack, and yay dosemu.
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keesan
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response 411 of 480:
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Dec 14 21:09 UTC 2003 |
Yay linux but I just failed to compile lynx. Echo: command not found ???
I think I have to manually edit makefile before I can do make. configure
seemed to work except for not finding a directory that I know is there.
The author of a small free linux wordprocessor is letting basiclinux (or me,
anyway) test his latest beta version. To read online documentation from the
program do I just dial the ISP before accessing the 'help' menu item? He
added four new mysterious features that are not on the menu, just on the
toolbar, with cryptic icons for them. There is also an arrow that is chasing
its own tail, which is different from the back arrow which lets you write from
right to left.
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davel
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response 412 of 480:
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Dec 15 01:25 UTC 2003 |
(In your error message: was the capital "E" in "Echo" in the original message?
There's probably not a command "Echo" - it's "echo".)
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keesan
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response 413 of 480:
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Dec 15 03:11 UTC 2003 |
When I typed make all I got:
/bin/sh -c' .cfg -defs.sh
make: echo: Command not found [upper case C in command, lower case e in echo]
make *** [help-files.sed] Error 127
I think I need to edit makefile to tell it where to find my source code and
where to put the output files.
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keesan
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response 414 of 480:
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Dec 15 15:52 UTC 2003 |
Makefile does not need to be edited except for changing shell from sh to bash.
I have been given instructions how to test by typing 'type echo' and then
invoking /bin/sh/ and doing it again. What is this all about? What is sh,
a simpler shell than bash? We have bash, which does echo.
Today I don't need to take any more prednisone which is nice for both of us
since I did not need to wake Jim up to mash pills for me. I woke up at 4
(after 3 hours sleep) with hot flashes back full blast, digestive problems
(due to the chemicals acting like a broad spectrum antibiotic) and a runny
nose (probably normal with this cold, but I am in my second of four days of
little immunity). It is all uphill this cycle starting tomorrow when I can
get a full night's sleep. This morning I fell back asleep before the 7:30
garbage truck and actually slept through the next three for two hours to get
a grand total of about 5 hours sleep. Linux seems to work okay on 5 hours.
Hands are getting numb again gradually. Laryngitis is at its worst now. Legs
are not yet wobbly/numb for a day or two.
I emailed our doctor friend asking his opinion on whether JIm's five lab tests
were 'routine annual exam' type tests so that I can have this info when I call
the insurance company to ask what happened to my written appeal.
This would be a good year to cash in a savings bond to pay for the rest of
this year's expenses and the $5000 for the 8th chemotherapy in January and
the first couple of CT scans next year and our property taxes in June, since
I doubt I will be paying any income tax this year with no work earnings and
high medical expenses. I am lucky I don't need to work during chemotherapy.
This week I have been receiving lots of mail. Frequent little emails from
a Macedonian friend whose boyfriend was recently diagnosed with stomach
cancer, more from the older daughter of another Macedonian friend whose mother
died of it, snail mail from someone who is about to go to Florida to care for
her daughter who is being treated for it, email from a high school friend
whose father in law is in the hospital with leukemia and her father is also
in the hospital after his second stroke and now they put in a pacemaker. I
am very happy not to have stomach cancer. So what if things taste funny.
Or leukemia that needs to be treated forever. A friend in Trieste writes that
her sister finished chemotherapy and surgery for stomach cancer in July and
was able to go on summer vacation. The friend was taking care of her while
working full time and was exhausted and taking sleeping pills but is better
now. Jim is lucky he is not working full time and I hope he will get over
his cold soon. It is discouraging to make nice meals for someone without a
good sense of taste.
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keesan
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response 415 of 480:
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Dec 15 17:36 UTC 2003 |
I changed SHELL = /bin/sh to /bin/bash in the configuration script, as
instructed, and it compiled for about 15 minutes of making .c files and
produced 1M of lynx that works!!!!!!! It sure helped to have this supervised
by a world expert in compiling lynx for DOS and other systems. All I need
to do now is install the executable, config file, manual and doc pages with
make install and then create a lynx package for basiclinux.
The next three garbage trucks after 7:30 did not wake me because they did not
come by until after 9:30.
My hands are shaky again.
Jim is playing with a slide scanner. At 1200x800 dpi it scanned a slide to
340Mb, which I think is too big for our computer that has a 1G drive. I
suppose he could make a CD from each slide but why bother?
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keesan
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response 416 of 480:
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Dec 15 19:26 UTC 2003 |
Today's mail brought a letter from the insurance company for Jim.
This is an adjustment of a previously processed claim, they say.
They agreed to pay 80% of the $138, or $110.66, leaving $27.66 for us to pay.
Hooray!
We have to check my mail at my apt to see if they will also pay for my
mattress pad that Medicare would have paid for.
Just got both an emailed and a snail mailed photo of Jim's niece's really cute
kid dressed in a Santa hat. He can sit up by himself. He does special
exercise for kids with Down syndrome because they have joint and muscle
problems. I am not the only one working hard to get better.
Jim is thinking of something yummy to do with last year's frozen zucchini and
I think I may have regained two pounds unless it is still fluid retention.
The 340MB slide was scanned at 400%, which increased it from 5MB.
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