Going home soon!
The Docs came in this morning, back to the original rotation of docs, and the head doc checked me out and said everything looks great, white counts are up, I could probably go home later in the week! I said you mean before Friday’s chemo? And he said yeah, we can figure out how to do that one down in SLO, assuming you continue to recover as you are, we resolve the nutropinia (low auto-immune ie low white blood cells), you could go home mid-week. Awesome. I did the jig around the room a little, they said you know we cannot commit at this time but it all looks great, and I said of course I understand. Hah!
Didn’t get enough sleep last night for no particular reason, went to bed at 12:30 and awoke at 4:30 and read for a couple of hours. I will nap later, no doubt. I am getting pumped with calcium chloride right now, and had 2 potassium pills earlier, they are huge, like swallowing a potato bug. Those chemical deficiencies are probably causing the weird hand cramping thing. I haven’t had the cramp problem today though, and after they are done pumping me I am going to do some yoga and stretching and walking and running and then some hang-gliding off the roof and take a helicopter flight around the city and then run a freaking marathon up a mountain! Then shower. Yippee eye oh tie aye, cowboy. Course, I will still have leukemia, it will just be that I am certified as kicking it’s dumb ass up and down the street. I told it I would and I am Da Man!
Vending hell
I would have liked to be kicking the vending machine up and down the street last night. I had a normal dinner last night, roast chicken, green beans and a bowl of soup and a dinner roll. By 8:00 I was hungry again, I have this huge appetite probably from the prednisone, so since my weight is back to normal (two nights of fever), I went and heated some delicious eggplant parmesan my delicious wife left me in the freezer. An hour later I was hungry again.
I had this awful craving for salt, don’t want chocolate and have tons of that laying around, but I want chips. I hardly ever eat potato chips at home and haven’t ordered them here with meals, but man, I was dying for some chips around 9:00. So I have a couple $1 bills and some change, I fold the bills across my waistband because I don’t have pockets, and I put the change in my electric razor satchel and tuck that in my waistband, and I head out in search of chips.
First I head toward the Children’s Hosp. vending as it’s a little closer, but they are stripping the floors and waxing when I get there and I can’t get in. So I head the other way, get up to a student area vending machine, see that chips are $.90 and I take out the coin pouch but I only have $.70 in coin. I am thinking I want Sun Chips anyway, and they don’t have them in this machine, so I head to the main cafeteria vending area.
I notice here they have the Barbecue Potato Chips, man they look good. I take out a dollar and notice there is only 1, I must have dropped the other bill down my pants. I iron that sad looking dollar for a minute on the side of the machine and slip it in the slot, and it takes. The machine reads out $1.00 credit, I press A9 for Barbecue Potato Chips, and the machine does nothing and reads out ‘Have A Nice Day’.
The Docs came in this morning, back to the original rotation of docs, and the head doc checked me out and said everything looks great, white counts are up, I could probably go home later in the week! I said you mean before Friday’s chemo? And he said yeah, we can figure out how to do that one down in SLO, assuming you continue to recover as you are, we resolve the nutropinia (low auto-immune ie low white blood cells), you could go home mid-week. Awesome. I did the jig around the room a little, they said you know we cannot commit at this time but it all looks great, and I said of course I understand. Hah!
Didn’t get enough sleep last night for no particular reason, went to bed at 12:30 and awoke at 4:30 and read for a couple of hours. I will nap later, no doubt. I am getting pumped with calcium chloride right now, and had 2 potassium pills earlier, they are huge, like swallowing a potato bug. Those chemical deficiencies are probably causing the weird hand cramping thing. I haven’t had the cramp problem today though, and after they are done pumping me I am going to do some yoga and stretching and walking and running and then some hang-gliding off the roof and take a helicopter flight around the city and then run a freaking marathon up a mountain! Then shower. Yippee eye oh tie aye, cowboy. Course, I will still have leukemia, it will just be that I am certified as kicking it’s dumb ass up and down the street. I told it I would and I am Da Man!
Vending hell
I would have liked to be kicking the vending machine up and down the street last night. I had a normal dinner last night, roast chicken, green beans and a bowl of soup and a dinner roll. By 8:00 I was hungry again, I have this huge appetite probably from the prednisone, so since my weight is back to normal (two nights of fever), I went and heated some delicious eggplant parmesan my delicious wife left me in the freezer. An hour later I was hungry again.
I had this awful craving for salt, don’t want chocolate and have tons of that laying around, but I want chips. I hardly ever eat potato chips at home and haven’t ordered them here with meals, but man, I was dying for some chips around 9:00. So I have a couple $1 bills and some change, I fold the bills across my waistband because I don’t have pockets, and I put the change in my electric razor satchel and tuck that in my waistband, and I head out in search of chips.
First I head toward the Children’s Hosp. vending as it’s a little closer, but they are stripping the floors and waxing when I get there and I can’t get in. So I head the other way, get up to a student area vending machine, see that chips are $.90 and I take out the coin pouch but I only have $.70 in coin. I am thinking I want Sun Chips anyway, and they don’t have them in this machine, so I head to the main cafeteria vending area.
I notice here they have the Barbecue Potato Chips, man they look good. I take out a dollar and notice there is only 1, I must have dropped the other bill down my pants. I iron that sad looking dollar for a minute on the side of the machine and slip it in the slot, and it takes. The machine reads out $1.00 credit, I press A9 for Barbecue Potato Chips, and the machine does nothing and reads out ‘Have A Nice Day’.
The Terminator
Now here I am in my HEPA mask, cursing an unintelligible blue streak at this damn fool machine, and the only good thing is even though I am in this highly public area there are only workers around because it is after visiting hours end. Of course my first inclination is to slam the sucker, but one little cut could be bad, so next thing I am doing the hully gully dance - I know that other dollar is in my pants, probably at my ankles, and I am reaching all the way down my pants searching everywhere for that other dollar, but I can’t find it. All around my underwear I search, and I am just about to yank my pants down right in the lobby when I realize there are about 5 people all watching me do this shimmy. I go find a men’s room and strip search myself, no dollar.
So now I am really determined to get my chips, and I figure I must’ve dropped my other dollar when I pulled out the coin pouch, and I start backtracking. Sure enough, there is my dollar, right in one of the hallways. I snag it and head back to the student vending area because I am not trying my luck with the Have A Nice Day Terminator Vendor Machine again. Lo and behold the student machine has the Barbecue Potato Chips, takes my dollar, gives me the chips and $.10 change, mission accomplished. Those were some of the best potato chips ever, I ate them ¼ at a time to avoid mouth cuts and savored every bite. I ordered some with lunch and dinner for tomorrow.
Meditative Walkers
I went to take some photos of my personal art gallery this afternoon, and as I approached the main entrance there was this group of about 25 people, all spread out through the entire hallway and all walking at about 1 mph, very slow. I walk at a fast pace, so I started winding through them, when I realized they were like a funeral march or something. I stopped at information and asked, and they said they were the meditative slow walkers. !!??
Here are some pics of the gardens, fountains and art of the hosp. I have tried to think of this place as an Art Gallery during a lot of my walking around time here, and there is tons of art, even if a lot of it is just posters of art.
ART
Now here I am in my HEPA mask, cursing an unintelligible blue streak at this damn fool machine, and the only good thing is even though I am in this highly public area there are only workers around because it is after visiting hours end. Of course my first inclination is to slam the sucker, but one little cut could be bad, so next thing I am doing the hully gully dance - I know that other dollar is in my pants, probably at my ankles, and I am reaching all the way down my pants searching everywhere for that other dollar, but I can’t find it. All around my underwear I search, and I am just about to yank my pants down right in the lobby when I realize there are about 5 people all watching me do this shimmy. I go find a men’s room and strip search myself, no dollar.
So now I am really determined to get my chips, and I figure I must’ve dropped my other dollar when I pulled out the coin pouch, and I start backtracking. Sure enough, there is my dollar, right in one of the hallways. I snag it and head back to the student vending area because I am not trying my luck with the Have A Nice Day Terminator Vendor Machine again. Lo and behold the student machine has the Barbecue Potato Chips, takes my dollar, gives me the chips and $.10 change, mission accomplished. Those were some of the best potato chips ever, I ate them ¼ at a time to avoid mouth cuts and savored every bite. I ordered some with lunch and dinner for tomorrow.
Meditative Walkers
I went to take some photos of my personal art gallery this afternoon, and as I approached the main entrance there was this group of about 25 people, all spread out through the entire hallway and all walking at about 1 mph, very slow. I walk at a fast pace, so I started winding through them, when I realized they were like a funeral march or something. I stopped at information and asked, and they said they were the meditative slow walkers. !!??
Here are some pics of the gardens, fountains and art of the hosp. I have tried to think of this place as an Art Gallery during a lot of my walking around time here, and there is tons of art, even if a lot of it is just posters of art.
ART
Garden on Roof of Children's Hospital
There are 8 halls like this, 1000' at least, all with art. From Children's looking into Stanford.
One of the inner garden areas, this one in Children's Hospital
Email quote of the day, from a Brit no doubt:
Blog (n) from the word Block (n) meaning 1. a large solid piece of wood, stone or other material, having at least one fairly flat face. 2. such a piece on which particular tasks may be done such as chopping or beheading. 3. (inf) to do one's block (blog) (Austral. sl.) to become peeved.
Blogified (ad) the act of blogging, leading to the condition known as bloghead or blockhead.
Overuse of blogging may cause male gonads to shrivel. Blogificated (v) when blogging has had such effect, usually signalled by complaints from spouse. De-Blogorification (adj) the intake of testosterone to counteract such effect, often accompanied by spouse-smiles and many helpings of steak pie.
Blogified (ad) the act of blogging, leading to the condition known as bloghead or blockhead.
Overuse of blogging may cause male gonads to shrivel. Blogificated (v) when blogging has had such effect, usually signalled by complaints from spouse. De-Blogorification (adj) the intake of testosterone to counteract such effect, often accompanied by spouse-smiles and many helpings of steak pie.
Yippee eye oh tie aye is right babe. We are doing the happy dance down here with our sights set on midweek! And speaking of dancing...the jig and the hully gully in the same day? Are you leading the jazzersize class tomorrow too? Seriously though, your vending machine story had me laughing out loud. Little froggy throated snorts. It's so sad that now you are down to just change. I'll bet you'd have some luck with a little tin cup. Drag the IV pole out with you too. That outta do it. Heck...you could even pull out all the pity stops and make yourself a little sign. "Have Leukemia. Need money for chips." Oh, and you could even add "Have a nie day!" (No need to tell them you're kicking its ass.
ReplyDeleteYou ARE da Ma-yan!
Love you babe!
Spudhead
Incredible news, John! You must be like the poster child of chemo treatment. Although I wouldn't downplay that surge during your guided imagery -- I swear I felt a surge just reading your description.
ReplyDeleteCongrats on kicking butt in the recovery process! I'm counting on seeing you back in SLO-town later this week!
And, see there Dane? He did need all of that cash I tried to slip him at Sierra Vista after all.
Lots of love,
Little Sis-In-Law
Lmao, great story dad. Have a nice day... ROFL. I'm achin to see the "hully gully" dance when you get home. Thanks for the laugh!
ReplyDeleteLove,
Mikey
Johnny Boy, you definitely Da Man. What great news. A little advice: Leave the white hat there, unless you plan to use it for golf at some point.
ReplyDeleteHey, I loved Spud's idea about the panhandling. You'll likely get more stash if you put one of those Republican tag lines at the bottom of the sign, i.e. W-Still The Prez, or just draw a pic of the GOP elephant. Republicans love that shit and, as you know, that's where the big $$$ are. OH, WAIT-WAIT, my Republicanism is kicking in here for ya big time. Here it is: drag that tabel from your room out into the hallway and collect about 38 or 39 pieces of all that artwork. Then sell it. Man, we're talkin big bucks now. We are talking patotoe (Dan Quayle's spelling) chips for life. You'll have enough bread to buy the vending machine from hell and take it for a little ride - Soprano style. Oh man, we could really think of some neat Italiany things to so with that machine. I'll bet we could get it to have a REEEEEEEALLY nice day.
Yeah, I have been playing golf with this scab face. Except for yesterday, it's worked pretty well. When I'm in the passenger side of the golf cart, I get uncomfortably inside my opponent's space, almost touching him with the scabby and leaky face. It really rattles most of the guys to a point where I can pounce when the opportunity presents itself. I do have the big hat. Don't know if you remember this or not, but my favorite hat is one I bought at the little pro shop at the Pismo Beach course when you and I played there a few years back. We'll have to do that again.
No Republican golf here today in Alabama. We're expecting a lot of rain and that's OK. I have a fire going in the fireplace and am catching up on my crap-to-do list. Plus, it's a great opp to watch the last day of match play at La Costa.
For Frankie: So how long does it take for the face and head to heal once you put the breaks on the chemo cream? My last application is tomorrow. I look so bad now the cat won't even sit on my lap.
John, that's about it for me for a while. I'll check back in on the blog this evening. I can't tell you how happy we are here to learn about your great news of getting back to SLO. You should know that everyone who has witnessed this blog are no less than totally blown away with your attitude and courage under fire. I'm proud just to know you John. We love you and you're in our thoughts constantly.
Mac
Great news about going home, John. I was dancing a jig in your honor, smelling my cats, drinking tequila, kissing my honey ...
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of whom, my husband also went through the chemo cream on the face a few years ago, Mac. I am sorry to report that it took about 4-6 weeks for it to heal entirely after the last application, though every day it got a bit better. His skin looks far clearer now than before the treatment, but during it, he had to endure the loving endearment of "Pepperoni Pizza Face". Guess he should have put me in the ice cream freezer... He would tell people that I was afraid to kiss him for fear his face would fall off, and I'd have to spit it out. Ptooey. They don't call it "suck face" for nothing. But it's not true. I always kissed him very romantically - with my eyes closed.
One of John's sisters
Oh great news about coming home! I have been out of town for a few days and couldn't get to a computer to get my 'blog fix'. You are truly an inspiration John. Your wit, your strength, your courage, your sarcasm...Good for you for getting out 'the can of whoop ass' and fighting!!!
ReplyDeleteLooking forward to your homecoming!
Hey Mac, I found a guy here about Chief Broom's size and I think I can get him to pick up that vending machine and land it in the front fountain! Two Flew over the cuckoo's nest, and I am the cheif bull goose loony here. Made $27,500 on the art, sold it to the Hospital under a grant, that's liberal arts!
ReplyDeleteHey there John, We were down visiting my brother Mike and Family a few weeks and he told us of your luekemia, your Stanford visit and your website. Good to know you got a sense of humor in all this. It sure will see your through. Now I need to find a sense of humor in this shitty Lyme disease!! Sometimes I find humor and sometimes just I just enjoy a brief "Pity Party" like our sister Dianne phrased it!
ReplyDeleteHang in there John. And oh yeah, I still got some of my R.I./ Mass accent left after being away from there for about 25 years. Oh well it is a great conversation starter out here. Matt, Gabe and I send our best wishes. Marian (Beauchemin) Farris