More Needles

Miraculously, as of this writing (slightly more than 24 hours since the first chemo infusion), Peach is doing great.  The mild nausea seems to be being controlled by medication.  She was very tired this afternoon, but we had a busy day and it's not surprising.

We awoke to snow!

 

The temps were in the mid-20s and it was obvious this was not going to be a day when I would casually sling my jacket over my arm in case I needed it.  I needed it.

Peach had two appointments today, but the first wasn't until 3 p.m., so in the morning, she gave me a tour of the facility here.  Today is Veterans Day and there were special things planned for the veterans, of which Bob is one (his picture is on the wall)

But Peach had appointments, so she left him in his exercise class and then gave me a tour of the facility. This place (Mallard Point), a part of Holiday Retirement, is not part of the group that runs Springfield Retirement Community where we were originally going to put my mother, but it is so similar that I am certain the same architects were involved.  I will later (on slow days) talk more about the facility here.

The one thing I can say about this place is that it is 1000% more friendly than Atria.  There is constant interaction among the residents and the managers, Bob and Peach seem to know most of the residents and it has been a constant stream of visitors at the door and stopping by the dinner table asking "How's Carolyn?"  (Of course, I think Peach is probably similar to my friend Peg, who was the gregarious one at Atria!)

Anyway, at 3, Peach's son-in-law Tom picked us up and we went off to the hospital, where she had an appointment with her surgeon to drain the fluid which has been collecting at her incision.

This is a center really built to take care of the frightened patients.  The hall is lined with displays of letters spelling Hope, Love, Healing.  Patients sign the display, Peach's signature under the "Hope" section.

The nurses are very gentle.

The procedure is not gentle, but with Lidocaine, she didn't seem to feel much while the doctor drained 215 cc (not quite a cup) of fluid from the site of her surgery (this is the 4th time the incision has been drained, but the amount of fluid get less and less, so that is a good sign,.

And there were comforting words on the way out.

We had time to kill before she had to return to the cancer center for another injection, so we went to Applebee's, which was offering free meals for veterans (Tom was in the Navy),  They had wonderful, welcoming decorations.

Each table had been decorated with drawings from local schools.  The restaurant was filled and it looked like almost every table had a veteran seated with his or her family.

 While we were eating, there were snow flurries outside, but it had stopped before we left the restaurant.

The last stop was the cancer center where she was to receive an injection of Neulasta, a drug which will help to keep from lowering her white blood cells during the chemotherapy (my vocabulary of cancer words is growing!).  The possible side effect of this injection is bone pain ("only the long bones--legs, arms, shoulders, neck...") but they say it should only last a day or two.

Peach does not like needles.

(She has, by the way, asked me to record this journey for her and we hope to get a blog started using these photos, as well as her description of what is going on, for women about to undertake this journey and want to know what it's really like.)

We got back to Mallard Place around 3 and Peach went right down for a nap. Bob and I watched Criminal Minds until time to go to dinner.  Bob seems to know everyone here and everyone he met got an update on Peach's condition. We hope tomorrow she'll feel well enough to come to dinner.  I don't want the place gossiping about the gorgeous woman Bob has been dining with while his wife is at home dealing with the effects of her chemotherapy.