Days go by

Monday April 23, 2012
Lithia Springs Park Site 25

 

Thursday we went to the Moffitt Cancer Center for a meeting with the Bone Marrow Transplant team who explained the procedure and its time lines.  Looks like we will be unable to move from here until 3 months after the procedure which isn’t likely to happen until mid to late summer. The whole thing is quite complicated and very intense.  Each patient is different and so the time lines and outcomes are only estimates.  Sounded very scary but there are an amazing number of people with this disease and pretty much all of them do it.

 

Over the week-end we laid low.  Mostly doing things like this in our anti gravity chairs.  Some of us with our eyes open and looking at the pages of a book and others of us with our eyes looking at the inside of our eyelids.

 

 

 

We also did various versions of this.

 

 

Saturday night we had a big rainstorm. There were tornado warnings and we had some winds but nothing even strong enough to shake the awning.  As you can see, we are surrounded by woods so that may have helped.   And we are about 20 miles east of Tampa Bay rather than on or near the water.  In any case, I went to sleep to the sound of rain on the roof on Saturday night and not the party noises of the warriors.  Well done Mother Nature!

 

Most the rain soaked week-end warriors left on Sunday, all except the two pick up trucks, tent, large pit bull dog and boom box in the site next to us.  But that gives me all the more reason to go down by the river to sit and read.  I’m out of ear range of the music and almost of the dog.

 

Like yesterday, today was another cool after the storm day.  We woke to 52 degrees and the warmest it got was 74.  But it felt colder since we were gone all day at the Moffitt Cancer Center to talk to a Neurosurgeon about David’s back pain.  Each time we’ve been there, it has been cold inside which I really don’t get because many of the patients are very thin and don’t have any insulation to keep them warm.  You’d think a hospital would be warm.  But I digress……

Usually if you talk to a surgeon, you pretty much expect him to recommend surgery.  But this one did not.  He is the head of Neurosurgery at Moffitt and he said the back pain is not due to the bulging discs since the disc is on the left side of the back and the pain on the right.   This appears to be a flare up of a long ago racquetball injury and the degeneration in the spine caused over time by it.   The chemo drugs often cause neuropathy and this may well be related to that.  The drugs cause the nerves to be much more sensitive and combined with weight loss and muscle tone loss the spinal column is not holding like it had been.  So the possible solutions are, see a rheumatologist for more information about maintenance and management options, steroid injections being another one of those, long term yoga and physical therapy.  It MAY resolve after all this is over when he’s able to regain strength and weight but for now he’s trying yet a different pain medication.   When all this is over, looks like it is going to be a long time from now.

 

BUT at least no surgery and that’s a big plus!

 

More doctors tomorrow.  Not really what we had pictured when we planned our full timing life.  But you never know and there are no guarantees.  Thanks so much for staying  with us on this detour.