Marshall's Cancer Updates

Monday (5/23) was my first day in the infusion bay. It was a long one -- 8:30 am to 6:30 pm with about 9 or so different medications combinations through the port in my chest.  Ouch-cha-cha! I'll remember the  lidocaine-prilocain cream on that port prep next time. The meds were a mixture of pain meds, anti-anxiety meds, Benadryl-type meds, steroids, anti-nausea meds, chemo meds, and immune meds. They kept me sedate and somewhat sleepy with no other adverse effects. I had brought my computer and some bills to process and other light plans, but never got to any of it. I'm not quite sure what i did for 10 hours. Corrine drove me to the infusion center and sat with me for a few hours until Laura and her husband Doug arrived.    BRIEF UPDATE (Friday a.m.): I felt great at first (from the steroids, I'm told), but the toxins from the chemo kicked in by Wednesday night and the past two days have been incredibly rough. I'll have to come back later to fill in the gaps. For now...

  The pain isn't nearly as bad now that we've found the right dosage of dilaudid and added on the fentanyl patch, in addition to a decrease in pain from the humerus starting to heal. I've had 4 days back-to-back of radiation on the humerus. It felt like each day was a quicker and easier treatment, but the med techs told me that there were no changes to the duration or intensity, I was just adjusting to them. However, I have been totally wiped out physically, sleeping late in the morning (until time for the treatment) and then returning home to sleep more in the afternoon and evening and then again through the night (with a little help from the dilaudid, fentanyl, Ativan, edibles, and cpap.) I feel like I've spent most of this week sleeping, but this weekend I've started perking up a bit. The pain in my shoulder has lessened a lot and I'm starting to taper off the dilaudid.  Thanks to neighbor Tim for driving me to treatment on Tuesday and an opportunity to wande...

Mom and Pris, August 2022, Old City Cemetery, Monroe, LA Happy Mother's Day. I'm fortunate to still have my mother in my life, though I know right now that she and the rest of my family are very concerned about my health.  This past week has been much better by far than the few weeks prior. The Dilaudid (2 pills every 4 hours) was doing a bit better than the Oxy, but I was still in quite a bit of pain and having trouble sleeping, moving from the bed to an arm chair to the couch. I met with Tim, the Palliative Care Coordinator, on Monday.  Tim appears to be about my age, a nurse with a great deal of experience in palliative care, with a grey chin puff and a Pride button on his lapel. That was reassuring to me that we would be getting care from someone a bit openminded and on the same wavelength. As a number of people have said, it's important to have a good match. If you ever wonder whether or not these signs or signals can put patients at ease, I can attest that they do. Pa...

Moon rise over Emerson Lake (5/5/2023) Reader caveat: Keep in mind that this information is filtered through a narcotic haze and may not be entirely accurate. Or discrete.  It's been a rough week, and I'm wiped from the radiation. I had three sessions targeting the mass in my lower right lobe, with surgery on Monday, and radiation on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday. And then a fairly humiliating bout with constipation on Friday morning. Thanks to Corrine for the fleet enema, if that's not too much information.  And on top of all of that, I've had severe struggles with depression and anxiety that have grown worse since surgery. There is a heavy mantle of guilt over causing grief and hardship to others, mixed with a sense of hopelessness and despondency, and some regret over a shortened career. I hope to return to teaching in the fall, but feel a need to explore early retirement options, possibly phasing in next summer. I am fortunate and grateful to have those options, as...

April going out like a lion. WEEKEND SOCIAL First off, it was a fabulous weekend with friends from OU and a full house. We were grateful to have a space that could accommodate so many friends and a friendly canine. We were left with a fridge full of tasty treats and a plate of Jim's butter bars. We also scored a much needed recliner from Tim for helping to sleep through the night with the bum shoulder.  Since we're all Writing Project people (shoutout to NWP and MBWP), of course there was a writing prompt based on a  FB post  from our neighbor Ingrid, and on Sunday, we shared our own memories of parents' bedrooms. It was a fascinating divide between those whose parents had bibles on the nightstands and those who had  Playboys  or  Joy of Sex  stashed in the closet (or  Our Bodies Our Selves  displayed openly on shelves for curious pubescents). Or those with swinging 70's newly divorced dads who wallpapered the bathroom with centerfolds. Not n...

Better news today: Spoke with the orthopedic surgeon this morning and they're going to move quickly to stabilize that arm and bring me some relief. I'm scheduled for outpatient surgery at 7:30 am on Monday where they will insert pins and rods to secure the bone and help it start to heal and possible remove some of the tumor. They'll also inject a pain blocker into that arm to provide a bit of relief, which should be pretty immediate in terms of the pain I've been experiencing, with some residual pain from the surgery itself. Should heal up within a couple weeks. Also switching the meds from Norco to Oxycontin which should provide much more relief and help to sleep much better at night.   I will still continue with radiation on the tumor in my lung over the next week, but they'll hold off on radiating my shoulder until two weeks after the surgery. The surgeon seemed quite optimistic about the procedure and its efficacy in getting us where we want to be. All in all, m...

Waiting for radiation therapy to start has been a long and painful process. I'm beginning to learn ways of moving around that aren't quite so painful for my shoulder. I press my wrist to my chest with my free hand any time I stand up or sit down or roll over or walk around. I haven't quite figured out a way to use the sling so that it's effective. I finally googled some tips on getting in and out of bed and sleeping after shoulder surgery and learned that it helps to sleep on a large wedge pillow or in a recliner and have found that both help quite a bit. Still, I have to get up every 90-120 minutes to limber up a bit and take another hydrocodone. I now have a sock aid to help get dressed and am rocking the Danish fashion vibe with black lounge pants and t-shirts and clogs and cardigan.  No buttons or zippers or laces for me.  I've been able to get a bit of emotional support through bi-weekly tele-sessions with a social worker through the cancer treatment center and...