Sunday, January 1 thru Saturday, January 7, 2017
Last night, our friend, Jackie, fell at the New Year’s Eve party tearing her hamstring. She was in so much pain, she went into shock and was taken to the hospital via ambulance. She was released from the hospital and they returned to the yacht club a few minutes before midnight to retrieve some things from their boat before going home. So, we had a chance to start the New Year with them after all.
On Monday, we drove to Moffitt for Rick to receive his 5th infusion of Keytruda, but were surprised to hear that the appointment had been rescheduled to Friday. We received an e-mail from our daughter-in-law, Kellie, showing Emma at her first day of pre-school. She looked very happy.
I did some house cleaning on Tuesday, while Rick ran some errands. He also put all of the Christmas decorations in the attic at the new house and was very happy that there was a set of pull-down steps.
Wednesday morning, I started organizing the office. That effort led to another shopping list. So, we joined Bill and Ruth for lunch, did our shopping and returned to the house mid-afternoon.
Thursday morning , we drove to Bradenton to the 21st Century Oncology office near Blake Hospital for me to receive my first radiation treatment. As soon as I was done, we went to Moffitt for Rick’s scheduled CT Scan. When we got back to the house, I laid down to take a nap. While I was napping, Rick went to the boat to get some of our “winter” clothes as we have a cold front coming through on Saturday. He brought supper home from the club, so I wouldn’t have to cook tonight.
Friday, 1/6 – We drove to Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa where Rick had bloodwork done and then met with Dr. Tan, his Mesothelioma specialist. Dr. Tan showed us the CT Scan taken yesterday and compared it to one taken in October. His cancer continues to grow in the left lung. It is now significantly pushing against his esophagus. There are also a couple of spots in his right lung. Dr. Tan told us that the Keytruda does not seem to have helped, but we have other options. Before the morning was over, Rick had signed up for a different clinical trial; had additional blood work done; and met with the doctor in Internal Radiology who will administer the new drug cocktail through a catheter into an artery near the aorta. This gets the medicine closer to the area of concern rather than having it go through his entire system through his veins, as his previous chemotherapy has done. Therefore, he should have fewer side-effects than he did with his original chemotherapy. Rick tried to get into this clinical trial last year, but they only have 5 slots and they were full. Thankfully, there was an opening today. When we left Moffitt, we drove to Ormond Beach to stay a couple of nights with Rick’s brother, Edward. One of the things we needed to do on this visit was finalize the invitation to their mother’s “Celebration of Life” which will be held at Edward’s home next month. We had sent out a “Save the Date” e-mail soon after she died, letting people know that we expected to have this gathering near what would have been her 92st birthday. The day after she died, in October, Hurricane Mathew hit the Daytona Beach area – after hitting Andros Island in the Bahamas. Since we have relatives living in both areas, and Edward’s home was damaged by the storm, we decided to put off the gathering until family members could recover from the storm as well as to give others, from out of town, a better chance to plan to attend.
Sunday, January 8 through Saturday, January 14, 2017
We drove from Ormond Beach to the Ocala Forest on Sunday morning in the hopes of selling Dad’s jeep. Unfortunately, when the fella looked it over, he found too many things needing repair. We drove into Ocala for me to have a short visit with Dad and then continued home to Palmetto.
Rick had a dentist appointment first thing Monday morning. I worked in the office a little more today.
On Tuesday, before driving to the Bradenton Yacht Club to attend the monthly power fleet dinner meeting, we received notification from our attorneys that the VA had reversed their previous decision and had awarded Rick 100% disability as of April, 2015. We spent the night on the boat.
We worked around the boat Wednesday until after lunch. Rick got a call from the clinical trial coordinator telling him that he was accepted in the trial, “A Phase 2 Study of Transarterial Chemoperfusion Treatment with Cisplatin, Methotrexate and Gemcitabine in Patients with Unresectable Pleural Mesothelioma”. His first infusion will be next week.
I had my second session of radiation on Thursday, 1/12. Rick bought some shelving units for the garage and spent some time putting them together in the afternoon while I rested.
We took a day trip up to the cabin in the Ocala Forest on Friday. After checking Dad’s mail and messages, we went into Ocala for a short visit with him. The weather was nice, so I brought him out to the patio where Rick could join us. He doesn’t go inside the rehabilitation center, so as not to be exposed to illnesses that might cause him a lot of trouble.
Rick went shopping for a grill again on Saturday morning while I got some housework done. In the afternoon, we drove to the yacht club where we met Ken and Jackie for dinner and stayed the night on the boat.
It visit for info cheap cialis is, once again, safe for both sexes alike.
Sunday, January 15 – Saturday, January 21, 2017
We ate a delicious breakfast at the yacht club on Sunday. While Rick was napping, we got a call from Loan Rolle. We spent a lot of time with Loan while we were staying on Compass Cay in the Exuma chain of the Bahamas. He told us that he and his friend were in Ruskin (not far from us) and we agreed to meet at our house in an hour. Since our friends, Ken and Jackie, have met Loan, we called them to let them know that he was stopping by for a short visit. The six of us spent a couple of hours at the Blu Mangrove catching up before they left to continue their trip south.
Monday morning Loan called from Miami to say how much they enjoyed their short visit.
On Tuesday, 1/17 – Rick went to the local VA office in the morning and we went to Moffitt in the afternoon. He had to lay flat for two hours after the procedure was finished and within 15 minutes of sitting up, he was throwing up. L We arrived back at the house around 9:30 and he went to bed.
On Wednesday, Rick was feeling good. He was supposed to rest for 24 hours, but we met Bill and Ruth for lunch and then went shopping for a vacuum cleaner. We finally found what we wanted at the Sun City Center about 12 miles from here. Rick also wasn’t supposed to lift anything heavier than a half-gallon of milk, so I put our purchases in the car and we left the vacuum in the garage until tomorrow when Rick can resume his normal activities.
Rick took me to 21st Century Oncology for my third and final session of radiation therapy on Thursday morning. While I was resting Thursday afternoon, he went to Harbor Freight and bought a workbench. After putting it together, he joined me resting – saying that he thought he might have “overdone” it.
Rick still didn’t feel good on Friday. He remembered that when he was getting conventional chemotherapy, he would get sick on the third day after treatment and thinks he must be experiencing the same thing now. He was in bed most of the day in between bouts of nausea.
We were supposed to stay on the boat Saturday night and attend a wine tasting at the Bradenton Yacht Club, but by noon it became obvious that Rick was not going to be comfortable drinking wine tonight and we cancelled.
Sunday, January 22 thru Saturday January 28, 2017
On Sunday, Rick was still feeling “puny”, but on Monday, he was feeling better. He took me to a doctor’s appointment in the afternoon. We met Bill and Ruth for supper at a favorite Mexican restaurant and Rick was able to tolerate the food. We did a lot of running around on Tuesday. I made chili for supper, but, unfortunately that didn’t agree with him. I had a follow-up with my oncologist on Wednesday morning. She told me that I needed to heal a little more from the radiation and scheduled me to return in three weeks. Then we drove to Ormond Beach to spend a couple of nights with Rick’s brother, Edward. Thursday morning, we went to a nearby hotel and made reservations for JP, Kellie, Vanessa and Emma to stay when we have Mom’s “Celebration of Life” in a few weeks. We went to Sam’s and then one of the local grocery stores to buy some of the food and drink for the Celebration. The three of us had collaborated on making a bookmark to be given out to the attendees. We took a picture of one of her favorite elephant pieces and combined it with a nice saying. We also went to Office Depot and had them print, laminate and cut them. We met with a cleaning service and hired them to come to the house at the beginning of the week of the Celebration to give it a thorough cleaning from top to bottom. They estimate that will take at least three whole days. As if our day hadn’t been busy enough, we met our cousins (the Vigliotti’s) for dinner and had a very nice visit. I think there were 12 of us at the table. Friday morning found Rick and me back on the road driving to Ocala. We picked up Dad’s mail and then went in to town for a short visit with him. We stopped in at the Moffitt Cancer Center on our way south to Palmetto where they drew blood from Rick (part of the new clinical trial he is participating in.) We stopped at JP’s house where we planned a morning trip next week to go and look at a couple of houses in the “NextGen” style. It is basically two houses under one roof. The smaller of the two is like a “mother-in-law” suite. If we like what we see, we’ll get Kellie to join us in further pursuit. Saturday morning, Rick and I went shopping. He needed some new long-sleeved shirts and belts and jeans, as everything he had was getting too big for him. We went to the boat about 5:00 p.m. and prepared to attend the Commodore’s Gala. We sat at a table for eight with Past Commodore Bill Baker and Ruth; Past Commodore Deborah Ross and Richard; Past Power Fleet Captain Ken Sosville and Jackie. Rounding out the “pasts” was Past Power Fleet Captain Rick and me. We had a very nice time.
Sunday, January 29 thru Tuesday, January 31, 2017
We had Sunday breakfast at the yacht club with Bill and Mary Beth Westbrook and enjoyed having time to catch up. Rick took a nap on the boat after breakfast then we drove home. I took a nap at home while he went to Lowe’s and bought a barbeque grill.
I did housework while Rick worked on the boat Monday.
On Tuesday, 1/31, we met JP in the morning and went house hunting with his friend and real estate agent, Val. Today we looked at specialty homes called NextGen or Multi-gen homes. But, they would not change their floor plans to suit our needs, so we will continue to look.
