Tuesday, August 28, 2012

Just checking in with our peeps

You know things have been relatively quiet when I don't post for a while. To catch you up on the  past couple weeks, (if I can remember that far back), Glenn had his visit to the nephrology clinic and the dialysis is apparently doing what it's supposed to. He is scheduled for Sept 12 & 13 for training on the night time dialysis cycler, so he should be able to start doing that after his training. One thing it will help is when we have to go to G'ville or somewhere for the day, he won't have to be concerned about where and what time he can do a dialysis exchange, like we have to consider now. It's not really that big of a deal, but it would be a lot more convenient if he didn't have to plan for that during the day.
He has been feeling quite tired for the past week or so. I will be glad to find out what his labs are tomorrow when we go to G'ville. My guess is that he needs another unit or two of blood. That's just a guess, though. He also had a virus over the weekend, feeling achy with GI issues. He seems to be better now, but the tiredness is still there. Also, as a follow up about the blister-like spots on his leg: they have dried up and are almost gone now. Our best guess is that it was a bug bite of some kind.
As I mentioned earlier, we go to G'ville tomorrow, and Thursday he has an appointment in Tampa to evaluate his neck injury from the accident he had a couple months ago. So we are going to spend the night Wed. night somewhere between G'ville and Tampa. Not a good week to find an inexpensive hotel, since the RNC is going on there this week. Hopefully, we will avoid the riots, etc. while we are there. We could use some prayers about that, thanks. Thankfully,( hurricane) Isaac has left that area so we dodged that bullet. 
I'll fill you in on our Dr. visits later this week. 

Sunday, August 12, 2012

a little boost for the blood

We did go to G'ville Wednesday and Glenn got a unit of blood because his blood count didn't go up in spite of getting the shot for it the week before. The Dr. also told us that the markers for his disease have gone up, not out of normal range yet, but it made a significant jump. Now we go back in 3 weeks to find out about chemo. Glenn's only regret is that while he has been feeling good these last few weeks we haven't been able to travel anywhere.  Tomorrow we go to the renal clinic to see how his dialysis has been doing. He has been maintaining his weight and fluid balance well so far. We hope for a good report from tomorrow's testing so he can start doing  night time dialysis and free up his day time to drive me more crazy. Oh, did I just say that? I mean, so we can do more things during the day time together and enjoy more time of being with each other, (insert sarcasm).  ;-)
He discovered something on one of his legs that is a little concerning. It looks like a cluster of little blisters, but he says it doesn't hurt or itch. If it itched or hurt I wouldn't be as concerned, but that really narrows the possibilities of what it could be. I'll keep you posted on that development, or clearing up.  ttfn

Sunday, August 5, 2012

He survived

Got back from camping yesterday. It's a good thing Glenn didn't go; it wasn't for the faint of body strength/endurance. I thought I was going to get some rest and reflection there. Well, I did get the reflection each morning and evening at the devotionals, but the rest of the time wasn't rest, by any means. But it was all good in the end. I'll be happy to do it again next year.
Glenn survived his first solo visit to G'ville Wednesday. The Dr. told him he looked good and seemed to feel good. He wants him back in a week to check his blood work bc his counts were down and he may get a blood transfusion if it hasn't come up. Dr. M. doesn't know why that is happening since Glenn isn't on chemo. Something else obviously is going on. And he also goes back in a month to check other labs to determine if he will need to go back on chemo, depending on  what the underlying disease is doing.
He has been growing a beard for maybe a week or so. I don't like it, but he does get positive feedback from other people. He looks to me like a poor homeless man who was able to get a shower and some clean clothes. His days are filled with sleeping, facebooking, dialyzing, and writing his next book, (called "The Fine Art of Driving Customers Away", about bad customer service with a chapter on some good customer service). He's almost finished with it and his printer is itching to get his hands on it to print it and get it distributed. His next book will be political which is good bc he needs to get some of his frustrations and thoughts out, and to give me a rest from listening to it!
We go back to G'ville Wednesday and I'll fill you in on that visit then.   ttfn