Today Neil and Kay started out the day expecting a busy morning.... up early awaiting the PT guy (who didn't show or call), then Jean came at 9am to get Neil ready for his outing to the oncologist at 11am. Ellen was on duty today to get him there... since Kay had her own dr appt. The orders were to leave the house by 10am due to all the transporting, loading and unloading, standing, moving, shifting, etc. to get there by 11am.I truly do not know how Kay does all this by herself, the wheelchair isn't light for a 70 year old. I guess I do things a bit faster since we left on time as instructed but arrived by 10:30am only to wait, and wait, and wait til 11:10am to get in to see the doc. Neil was worn out by this time, and cold... so with blanket in tow he slept and waited for "the appearance" of one said, Doctor Vinnie.
The doctor was in and out about 3-4 times, not sure why but sure seemed busy... came in to talk to him briefly...and Neil mentioned he had a sore throat.... he left to return with a flashlight to examine the throat situation. Indeed he felt it needed some attention so returned with some samples of some type of numbing medicine to alleviate the pain and since Neil is already on some anti-biotics there was little else to do. During chemo he is just highly suseptable...the swollen leg was much improved after much elevating.... so of little concern today it would appear. Then the doctor informed Neil he would need some blood work drawn.... which brought on much anxiety when the nurse wanted to get it out of his veins instead of the port.... but upon looking and not seeing any veins.... they went "port" instead, much to his relief. The blood results came back super fast and his white blood cell count was low...so immediately a nurse, Valerie came in to give him a shot in the back of the arm... which is now going to need to be done daily at least this week to get those white blood counts up! Got to fight, fight, fight!
Kay showed up just after this and after finishing her own appt with the doctor's wife.... to set up appointment times with calendar in tow. Alas, after 4 rounds of cancer you apparently have some free time to come and go as you need to for said, shots! So they need to go every day for the next 4 days, so friends will be coming to take him each day.... Me tomorrow and then Dan Rapp offered and then Kay is back on duty unless I can get some time off work to help out?
That's the update... ooh, I made the mistake of giving dad some pain killers upon returning causing him to get sick.... live and learn! Around here we take one day at a time and learn with each moment... the whole time praying for a "miracle" to take all the pain and suffering away so they can both have their lives back! Keep those prayers coming, we believe they are keeping him with us...and that God's not through with him yet!
Love to all, Ellen
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