The oncology center

The second round of chemo has officially started as of this morning. We met with Roger's oncologist, Dr. Birhirray first thing this morning. Its part of the drill. Check in to talk about the last round of chemo, check blood work, etc. Dr. B said Roger's blood work looked good and that our reports about the past two weeks are in line with tolerance of the treatment. So, round 2 is underway. (here are the "before" and "after" photos of Roger - the after was taken within the last couple weeks)

Yesterday was a "bad" day by our unofficial ranking standards. It started out like any other day. I went to work. Roger took his morning meds and then set about to start his day. Around 1:30 in the afternoon, he called me to tell me he was feeling pretty bad and thought he might need to go to the emergency room. So, I left work and headed home. He said he had intolerable pain, nausea, cramps, etc. When I got home, I found him taking a bath to try to alleviate the pain. You see on top of this crappy cancer stuff Roger has yet MORE kidney stones. A couple in each kidney. So the pain he described was in his back in the kidney areas. A bath typically...in the past...could help alleviate the pain somewhat. The magic trick did not seem to be working. We decided to try to oncology infusion center first to get fluids and then if that did not help, we would head to the hospital. Turns out, what Roger most likely experienced as heat stress/exhaustion. He didn't fully appreciate the fact that his little compromised body cannot tolerate being out in this extreme heat for any period of time. Earlier in the day, he had been outside for a while. We're guessing it was really just too much for him. Today seems better compared to yesterday.

With the return of cancer, we have decided, well actually Roger decided, he is going to retire from work. Its a big change. A big decision but the right one. I looked at him cross eyed when he first told me because I can't imagine him doing "nothing". Likewise, his brain turning to mush from watching daytime TV is NOT an option. Roger told me that he wanted to retire because he stressed so much every time his phone rang. He was always worrying about the karting center, employee issues, if someone got hurt, etc. Made sense. So, he will slowly ease himself out of the karting center but will be "of counsel" whenever they need him. In place of going to work, Roger will take up his creative passions - more glass blowing, sculpture, making furniture, working on vintage cars, etc. We are going to adapt the garage with an AC unit and heat to serve as a make-shift studio. Much to Roger's dismay, I'm collecting requests for projects for him. A busy creative mind is a good mind. AND it keeps him busy to ward off the evil daytime TV zombie!!

Speaking of daytime TV, thought I'd share a recent funny. Well at least we thought it was funny. During one of the days of the first round of treatment, we were sitting as the chemo was pumping away through his veins. Naturally, the magic, zombie-making TV was on. A commercial came on for some sort of screen door device. We both sat transfixed watching the commercial and both said simultaneously "that would be perfect for the boat". I got his wallet, he got his phone, and away we dialed 1-800.... We got our little order placed and sat there rather pleased with ourselves. Roger then looked at me and burst our bubble of content when he said, "you realize, we JUST watched daytime TV commercial and ordered from a 1-800 number. We CANNOT watch anymore daytime TV. " Aughhhhhh!!!!!! The zombie-maker made us shopping zombies!!!!!! Aughhhhhh!!!! I told him we may need to block all QVC/Home Shopping Network type channels just in case.

We'll post more tomorrow. Hugs to everyone out there. Thanks for all the support. A&R