Getting the outer bands of Hurricane Irene at the moment.

You know you're a cancer patient…….when you are happy that you GET to have chemo because your white blood cell count was high enough! 

Life is not about how fast you run or how high you climb but how well you bounce.  ~Vivian Komori

Well, I almost didn’t GET to have chemo yesterday because of my low blood counts.  It was actually supposed to be an “easy” day for me.  About every 3 weeks, they let me skip the doctor/ARNP visit (which adds a lot of time to the appointment….mostly waiting time) and just have the blood work and go directly to the chemo suite.  I usually have to wait about 10 minutes or so for the results of the blood work.  If everything looks good, they begin “the drip.”  So I was excited yesterday to have a “no-wait” day on my agenda…..until the nurse came over to my chemo chair and told me my numbers weren’t good, and they would have to talk to Dr. Sprawls to see if he wanted to proceed with the chemo.  Lovely.  It took an hour to get that authorization!  But he actually dropped whatever he was doing (seeing patients, keeping patients waiting, etc.) and came upstairs to the chemo suite to talk to me, which I thought was really nice.  My white count was 2.61.  My hemoglobin was low, too, at 9.97.  And my neutrophils and eosinophils were low, too.  He said I had “one toe over the line, but let’s keep going so we can get this over with.”  Can you believe I was excited to hear that?  Well, I’m just all for getting this crap over with.  HOWEVER, he also said that I should get a Neupogen injection (similar to the Neulasta injections I got after the A/C chemo regimen) to boost the blood counts.  So I will have that at 0800 tomorrow (oh joy) and more blood work on Monday morning at 0800 (oh joy) before Taxotere #8 (hopefully) on Wednesday morning. 

The next part of my “no-wait” day happened because Kenny actually dropped me off for my appointment so that he and his brother, Fred, could use the car for the morning.  I called Kenny at 1030 and told him I would be finished around 1130.  I called him at 1130 and told him I was finished, and he said they were getting stuff off the boat in Merritt Island!  So, an hour and 10 minutes later, they showed up to get me!  Good thing I had taken an anti-anxiety pill and had a good book of Sudoku puzzles with me!  So I just sat outside and didn’t even mind the wait!

After the guys picked me up, we went to the beach at Canaveral National Seashore because it was Fred’s last day in town.  It was really beautiful, although the surf was really ripping and churning due to the pre-Irene winds.  We enjoyed watching the surfers and having some solitude on the beach – it wasn’t very crowded at all, which was nice.  And, of course, we stopped at the tiki bar on the river on the way home.  The guys had a couple of drinks, and I had 3 glasses of ice water!  We went back to the RV, and Kenny took the dogs for a nice long walk since they had been cooped up for a good part of the day.  Fred and I went and took a dip in the pool, which felt great and was very enjoyable because there was nobody else in the pool.  After that, Fred treated us to a nice dinner at Paul’s Smokehouse, overlooking the Indian River in Titusville. 

The night before that, we had a really nice dinner at Atlantic Ocean Grille on the Cocoa Beach Pier.  It was Fred’s birthday, and we ended up with a great corner table by the window, overlooking the ocean – had a really nice meal with a great view, and they even brought Fred a free dessert.

Oh, I guess I haven’t posted on my blog since the guys made it down here with the boat.  Last time I posted, they were planning to anchor some place Monday night.  However, they decided to “keep chugging,” and they arrived at the marina in Merritt Island around 2130 on Monday night.  Very long day for them, but they were happy to get safely tied up and spend the night in the air-conditioned RV.  They had a good trip, overall, with a few “issues” that need to be dealt with – something with the stuffing box and some other engine things (that hopefully aren’t anything major).  The coolest thing about the whole trip is that they only burned 12 gallons of fuel from Jacksonville to Merritt Island (about 150 miles)!!  Now THAT really got my attention!!  I LIKE that!!

Our original plan was to put the boat in a marina here in Titusville for a month or so, so it would be convenient to use.  However, it’s not a very protected marina (from the weather), and on Monday it was looking like hurricane Irene was heading our way, so we needed a place with better protection.  We ended up putting it in the same marina we lived in when we lived on the houseboat for the last 5 years we owned it.  Very protected from the weather.  Just not as convenient to use.  But we’ll figure something out.

Sadly, Fred’s flight home was this morning.  It was nice having him down here, and I know we both really appreciated him coming down to help with the boat.  As luck would have it, as soon as he got back to Rhode Island, he had to pull his boat out of the water – a bit of a hassle – due to hurricane Irene heading to New England.  They actually pull the docks out of the water where he keeps his boat, so he had no choice but to pull it.   

We’re currently getting the outer bands of hurricane Irene – lots of rain and lots of wind – very squally, tropical weather.  But we’re counting our “lucky stars” that it looks like we’ll be spared the brunt of the hurricane.  Worried about our families up north, though.   

Well, I guess it’s about time for me to call it a day.  I slept terribly last night – tossed and turned most of the night – damn steroids.  I didn’t want to take a sleeping pill because I was afraid I would oversleep and the guys wouldn’t get up in time to get to the airport.  Sleeping pill tonight!  Hopefully I’ll wake up in time to go get my Neupogen injection – I’m so excited about that…..NOT!  I wonder what kind of side effects I can expect from that?!  Guess I’ll have to ask them tomorrow.  I’m not going to worry about it right now, though.  I’m going to go get me some much-needed sleep instead.