The marvels of modern medicine.

Everyday when I come in from work I greet Jody with "Hi Hon, how was your day?" This opens the conversation on how his day was and in turn he asks how my day was. It's supposed to open the conversation, at least it does for me. Some days the conversation is a little one sided, to which I sometimes get this look from him that screams "is this going to be a long story?" As you can probably tell... mine are always long stories.

Yesterday wasn't any different than any other day, we went through the whole "my day was fine... yadda yadda," and his day was a little yucky with some pain and nausea. Then the phone rang. Jody doesn't answer the land line... "it's never for me, why should I answer it." This way of thinking began when Jolea was in Junior High School, when the phone never rang for anyone other than her. So even though the phone is next to him he hands it to me. It's his mother, we have the normal 'how's the weather and things' conversation and she then asks how Jody is feeling and what he's doing. I say to her "can't you hear that?" because he's playing the mandolin... he must be getting good enough to be mistaken for the TV! She's surprised and I hand the phone over to him.

Now is when I have to engage the not so supersonic hearing..... this is when I learn how he really feels and how is day really went. Jody begins telling his mom that he called the Doctor's office today because of the pain he was having from Monday's Neulasta shot. He said they had told him to come into the office for some blood work. OK that's par for the course... he said every time he walks in the door they poke him for two or three things. But the reason they wanted him to come in for this blood work was to check to see if his Spleen was beginning to rupture! Yeah... as in severe pain and bleed to death internally!

Don't you just love the side effects of modern day drugs??? This is a side effect of Neulasta! Right along with what Jody calls the 'soft sell' of minor bone pain and fatigue, we have possible rupturing of the spleen. Monday afternoon he was acting like a Narcoleptic, the poor guy could barely hold his head up for more than 30 minutes, and it comes in waves. Rogue waves that just hit him, he's up for a good long time, most of the day, and then all of a sudden, he's out. Up again in 15 or 20 and then he's out.... But this aching spleen thing has me concerned, very concerned. I'll be coming home for lunch now. He hasn't wanted me to come home, because perhaps he's sleeping or if he's really ill and throwing up, he doesn't care for spectators or really anyone in the house at those times. So I have continued to tell him to call me if he needs me, it's 2 blocks and I can be there faster on my bike than I can in the car. The Narcoleptic thing doesn't concern me... I'll just step over him and let him snooze. But a ruptured spleen... can you imagine the paperwork on that one?

I know some of you are thinking why is he taking the Neulasta? The Neulasta helps keep his white blood cell count up. Remember... you can't get a Chemo treatment if your white cells are too low, because the Chemo kills the white cells and causes them to bottom out unless the count is good and high. Jody doesn't want to miss a treatment, he wants to stay on his schedule of a treatment every other Friday come Hell or high water. He's a Sagittarius... do you know what the Funny Horoscopes says about Sagittarius? Here it is: You are optimistic and enthusiastic. You have a reckless tendency to rely on luck since you have no talent. The majority of Sagittarius are drunks. Nixon was a Sagittarius. You are indeed a worthless piece of shit. I didn't make that up! It's just sarcastic humor, we know he's pessimistic and negative.... and he has loads of talent, he can make anything when he decides to make it. He quit drinking 27 years ago when we got married. Let's not talk politics. No comment on the last statement in the description. I should know... I live with 3 Sagittarians, when they are all in town.

Any of you readers out there who have gone through this illness or treatment who have any suggestions, please chime in or email me.... Jody's goal is to go back to work after the first of the year, completely whole and healthy. With or without a spleen I guess. He has possibly 3, maybe 5 more treatments then radiation. I also learned from his conversation with his Mom, that the PET scan showed random cancer cells still in his lymph node, adenoids, tonsils and in his larynx, that's why they are saying 10 treatments instead of just 8. The Doctor also thinks that maybe this cancer had been there so long and that the inflammation of the nasal passages for the extended length of time, caused a lack of blood flow, so now that the inflammation is gone, the blood doesn't flow as well to these areas and the chemo isn't reaching these points. That just doesn't make sense to me.... if blood isn't flowing to a part of your body, doesn't it die? A lot of things aren't making sense to me these days, like drugs that cause your spleen to explode. I'm putting one more check beside Dr. Julie the Acupuncturists name. I think I'll pick up some of those detoxifying foot pads too while I'm at it... couldn't hurt.

Let's end with my Funny Horoscope: Taurus - You are practical and persistent. You have a dogged determination and stick-to-it-tivness because you never do anything right the first time. Most people think you are stubborn and bull-headed. You are nothing but a .... I'm going to leave it at that... it gets really ugly.

Have a good day, we're going to try to. By the way.... Jody's spleen wasn't rupturing. It just felt like it was.