Well, it’s been a while, I suppose I should write another hospitalization post. The problem is, there’s very little news to report. I continue to be stuck in the hospital. I continue to feel OK. The doctors say I’ll be able to go home for a few weeks when my blood counts, especially the neutrophils, come up to a level where I can reasonably fight off the slings and arrows of outrageous pathogens in the real world. My blood counts continue to rise, albeit verrrrry sloooooowly.
The doctors are talking about doing yet another bone marrow biopsy next Monday. That’s the only way they have of seeing if I’m really truly in remission or not.
It turns out, the extended recovery process is one of the drawbacks of Vyxeos, and maybe that is exacerbated by the clinical trial drug, Glasdegib. If I’d been on the standard 7+3 chemotherapy, I’d be further along the process by now. But, I would have had more yucky side effects, and maybe maybe a worse chance of a complete recovery. So perhaps the extended timeline is worth it. But I continue to be an extremely impatient patient.
I’ve become far too proficient at killing time without actually doing anything. Part of the reason for that is that the day here is fractured into small splinters, with vital signs checks, meals, a daily shower, hall walks, doctor visits, blood draws, and going pee every fifteen minutes fracturing any time I might use to do anything constructive into brief segments which are easily filled by online pinochle and Youtube videos. I had such plans. I was going to read a bunch of books. I was going to work on my own book. I was going to do some money work. I was going to solve great genealogical mysteries. But little of that is actually happening. Sigh.
Hi Garth:
You sound good. That’s how we know the treatment is going well. As for boredom, I can send you audiobooks. Just let me know which titles you’d like to try.
As a UC Berkeley fan, you may know the baseball player, Korey Lee, who was a star with UC a few years ago. He’s already played in the majors for the Astros and is considered a top major league prospect. He was Aaron’s batboy at UC San Diego. Aaron’s still in touch with him and his brother, who played with Aaron.
I’m itching to bring you the 2023 New Year Scotch to you. When you’re ready, we’ll toast your health!
All best,
Larry
Well, Garth, hats off to you for keeping your sense of humor when some days must seem to pass so slowly. I know after my weekly chemotherapy infusions for colon cancer I had great plans to do this and that–such as deleting all the photos on my computer which I would never look at again, but alas, a long afternoon nap or just playing solitaire on the phone, occupied my time! Hang in there, Garth!