08/08/2012:

6:30: I am awakened by an email.  I read it, but not in the mood to respond right back to it.  Just feel like laying still for a while.  I doze back off.

7:15: I am just awake.  I had a nice nap yesterday, plus 7 hours of sleep for the night, so I am awake, but I just lay in bed with my wife and Buster.

8:30: I get a phone call from a client having trouble installing iTunes.  I remote into the computer, redownload iTunes and install it.  I also download and install QuickTime.  I then configure iTunes to pull the media library from the server instead of the local computer because of the large amount of iTunes media that is already on the server exceeds the limit of the desktop hard drive.

9:15: I am up out of bed.  I let Buster out.

9:30:  I fix myself 2 Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwiches on toasted wheat bread.

10:00: I am on my computer checking banking accounts paying bills on a personal front.

11:00: Starting to do admin work once again.

11:15: I am following up with a few emails from a client wanting to meet for some help with a tutorial, but I cannot spend much time with others because of the possibility of catching something that they may have, that they may not even have any side effects because their body is healthy enough to fight it off without even noticing it, but in my case any minor cold can easily get me very sick with my immune system weakened from the chemo.

11:30: Burping through out the day.  Some burping is more than a burp and doesn’t taste good at all, if you catch my drift, but just keep on drinking my Ginger Ale to flush down the awful taste.

12:00: I am actually doing some web programming for a tool that I am making.

3:00: Still programming, but now talking to my business partner on Google Talk about business plans and the outlook over the next few months with me being sick and with him busy with his other side contract job for the time being.

4:00: My dad is home, and my mom is at Rouses, I feel like a burger tonight, so she is picking up a few things to make that happen.

4:30: My mom gets home, I go outside and make one trip inside with 2 bags of groceries and told not to go back outside.

5:00: They start cooking, and I start catching up on some more admin tasks with a new bank account I started to open before all the medical craziness.  I finally finished opening the account and gained access to it online.  I will have to do a few more things to enable me to completely use the account like I want, but until then its open and that can be worked on.

6:00: I have to call a client to help remotely with getting a printer to work, so that is what I am going to do now.

8:30: I finish up the printer install, quick books update, scanner setup, and removing and resetting user account passwords, time to eat.

9:30: Good burgers and sweet potato fries.

10:00: I rest a little bit.

10:20: I go take a shower.

10:35: I am back on the previous computer doing a clean up.  It was so slow during the work I was doing and needs to be cleaned up.

08/07/2012:

9:45: I am feeling sick this morning.  I am in the bathroom the usual, my wife is there to help me, although she should be heading to work.

10:15: I am feeling ok, and my wife has to help me back to the bedroom.

10:35: I am back in bed and will try to fall asleep again.

10:45: My wife leaves for work.

11:00: I cannot fall back asleep, I am up out of bed, my legs feel heavy when I get out of bed and walk around.  I fix myself 2 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches on wheat toasted, something plain.  Followed up by some gingerale.

11:30: I take one pill to stop my hiccups, and then get on the computer following up emails for a third party.

12:30: The pills still haven’t stopped my hiccups, and the bottle says I can take two, so I take a second pill.

1:00: I remote into a computer to install updates.

1:30: I get a call from the Leukemia and Lymphoma society.  They will be sending me out some information soon.

1:35: The hiccups start up again.

2:00: Here I am updating my blog. Still hiccuping.

2:05: Back to some billing and admin work.

2:40: Stopped hipcupping.

3:00: Returned a phone call from yesterday, just another client needing some more toner.

3:30: Working, but working is better than nothing…

3:50: The hiccups return!

4:40: The hiccups stop.

5:00: I start getting tired and dozing off in my computer chair, so I move to the Lazy-Boy.

5:15: I am knocked out on the lazy-boy.

9:30: I wake up and am hungry.  I warm up a can of Progresso Chicken Gumbo.  However that is not enough.

9:50: I warm up a few tator tots that my wife had in the fridge.  However, I need some more food.

10:00: My mom makes some Kfraft Mac and Cheese.  I eat a nice bowl of that.  YUMMY

10:30: I am back in the Lazy-Boy, waiting for Franklin and Bash to come on, in the meantime I watch some Frasier.

11:00: No Franklin and Bash?  What’s up with that.  Oh well, then I guess it will be time to go to bed.  I brush my teeth and wash my mouth out.

11:15: I let Buster out and the hiccups start again, oh boy…

11:59: I am off to bed, goodnight!

08/06/2012:

10:20: I am awake.

10:30: Still laying in bed, but following up with emails on my phone.

10:45: I am up out of bed and take Buster out.

10:50: I get a phone call from a client verifying some information.

11:10: Picking out my clothes for today.

11:20: About to jump in the shower.

11:30: Shaved my head and face.

11:45: I jump into the shower.

11:52: I am out of the shower.

12:00: I am dressed and ready to go.  Just need to get my laptop and liquids.

12:10:  My sister and I are leaving the house heading to the office to pick up a server and toner for a doctor at EJGH.

12:17:  We get to my office and I go upstairs and get the toner and server and bring it down on a hand truck and then bring the hand truck back upstairs.

12:25: We are leaving my office.

12:35: We get to the doctor’s office.  I hook up the server and there is an issue starting it.  I open it reseat a cable and then the server starts up with no issues.  They just need it to run a few last reports as this is an older server that is being removed in less than a month.

12:50: We are heading over to the Yenni Treatment Center.

12:57: We park.

1:00: I check in at the front desk and sent upstairs.

1:05: I am seated in a chair by the front desk upstairs waiting to be shown to a chair or bed.

1:20: I am shown to a bed and now sitting here waiting for my vitals to be taken.

1:30: I am just quickly updating the blog about to start the ustream video.

1:40: They take my vitals.  122/87 for my blood pressure and 99.0 for my temperature.

2:05: The nurse comes in and has me sign my consents for the 4 Chemo Drugs they are going to pump into me today.

2:10: Time to access the port 😛

2:15: The port has been accessed.  I didn’t feel a thing.  Thank goodness for the lidocane cream.  They stuck me with the needle into the port and I didn’t feel a thing!  They start the saline fluid drip.

2:20: My wife arrives.

2:31: They hang my emend bag and start pumping that into me.  This is for anti nausea.

3:01: The Zofran and the Decadron beg is hung and starting to be pumped into me.

3:25: The Adriamycin is starting to be pumped into me.  See the nice red color 😛

3:40: They want to flush the Adriamycin so they hook the saline drip back up.  However there is a 1 foot gap of air in the line, so i hit the stop button on the IV pump.  The alarm comes off, they ask what’s going on, and I tell them.  They pump up to a certain part and then pull out the air from the line with a syringe hooked to the line and then continue pumping

3:50:  They hook up my Bleomucin and start pumping that into me.

4:17: They push  the Vinblastine out of the syringe.

4:20: They hook up my Dacarbazine and start pumping that into me.

4:25: I am eating some fries from Wendy’s with no salt.  My wife is also providing me with Nabisco Graham crackers and Apple Juice and Crangrape Juice provided by the center.  Good stuff, simple, and bland, hard to get sick off of this.

5:00: The Dacarbazine is done, they are now just flushing me with saline  They take my vitals. 122/79 for my blood pressure and 98.6 for my temperature.

5:07: The pull out the needle and put a piece of tape over me.

5:15: I am packing up my laptop, and we are heading out of here!  I am riding home with my dad.

5:30: We get home.  I feel the side effects of the Ativan kicking in good now.  A little woozy with a little bit of a whatever I don’t care attitude.  Great for days of getting Chemo and not really worrying about what they are doing to you or thinking too much about it.

5:45: I am sitting in my Lazy-Boy with my Dell Mini.  Updating the blog, checking emails and just a few things in between.  Feeling a little bit out of it, but I am still good to go.

6:15: This fighting with being out of it is not working.  I am getting tired and can’t even talk.  Time for me to take a nap.  I put my laptop down and doze off.

9:00: I wake up, that was a nice nap.  I pick up my laptop and continue to work on what I was working on.

10:30: My mom warms me up some corn and chicken chowder soup.

10:40: I finish that and ask my dad to put together some chicken noodle soup for me.

11:00: I catchup my blog for tonight.

08/05/2012:

6:20: I am barely awake, but my wife has work for 7:00 so I nudge her to wake up and fall back asleep.

10:40: My wife calls me on her break at work, which wakes me up.  Even though I am a little tired, my throat is dry, and I need to get up to get something to drink, so I am up for the day.

11:00: I start writing thank you notes for different things that people have done for me, such as cooking dinner and bringing it over, and a number of different mass offerings for the purpose of healing.

11:30: I eat a bowl of grits from a pot that my mom had prepared.

12:00: I am relaxing on the Lazy-Boy.  No TV, just catching up on emails and a few other things online.

2:40: My wife gets home and goes to take a nap.

2:50: My mom had cooked a turkey, and my dad had sliced it up.  We also have mashed potatoes, pasta, and chicken gizzards and liver in gravy.  YUMMY.  I also got the turkey heart 🙂

3:20: I got outside and walk around the block and around the adjacent block.

4:00: I am back inside, a little warm outside, but I got my exercise.

4:45: I am updating the blog for today’s events.  In the Lazy-Boy watching the gladiator.

5:00: Aunt Estella and Uncle Victor come over with some Homemade Oatmeal Cookies just for me.  I won’t be in the mood to really eat anything tomorrow evening.  YUMMY, Good Cookies I eat at least 12-15 cookies with milk :P.

6:00: They leave, but it was great company.  Now I am just relaxing on the Lazy-Boy again, waiting for the Saints vs Cardinals Hall of Fame Game to start.

7:00: The Saints vs The Cardinals is on 🙂  I’ll be busy watching this.

10:00: My mom brings out the Sugar Free Chocolate Pudding Pie that she made.  MMM Good Stuff.

10:15: The Saints win the game.  Yeah Yeah its just preseason, but good enough for me…

11:00: I am off to bed.  Long day tomorrow that I am not completely looking forward to, but what choice do I have, time just keeps on ticking.

08/04/2012:

6:45: I am awaken by my wife who is getting up to go to work.

7:00: My wife leaves the house, but too late, I am awake and Buster needs to go out.

7:15: I lay back in bed, but can’t fall back asleep.  It is also storming like crazy outside.

8:00:  My dad starts to cook pancakes, and I am checking the TV Guide on my phone to see what comes on today.  I see what I am going to do all day.  On TNT starting at noon: The Bourne Identity. At 3:30: The Bourne Supremacy. At 5:30: The Bourne Ultimatum.

8:15: Pancakes are ready.

8:45: I am back in the Lazy-Boy watching the Olympics with Women’s Tennis for the gold.

10:00:  I am still in the Lazy-Boy just watching more Olympic coverage and on my dell mini.  Nothing too exciting today.  And I am not going out in the weather, I can’t afford to get sick…

12:00: The Bourne Identity, just laying in bed watching this while on my laptop.

1:30:  My dad needed some help changing my sister’s headlight on her 2008 Honda CRV.  It was a little tricky as the fuse box assembly and bracket had to be remove to get to the light.  I helped him remove the bracket and then pull the rubber grommet from the back of the light and then release the metal tension bracket.  I then removed the light bulb and put the new light bulb in, put the tension bracket back in place, put the grommet back in place.  My dad said he would then put the bracket and the fuse box assembly back together as the sun was out and it was a little warm outside and he didn’t want me getting overheated, plus the mosquitoes were biting as well..

3:00: My wife gets home from work with some baked pork and chicken and some mashed potatoes.  MMM Food 🙂

3:30: The Bourne Supremacy, still in bed just sitting up, still on the laptop.

5:30: The Bourne Ultimatum, the last of them, and yep still relaxing in bed.

7:00: They are all over, great movies.  Inglorious Bastards is on next, I have only seen the beginning, but I like my war movies, so I will be watching this 🙂

7:30: I get up out of bed, and my mom had some minute steaks cooking in gravy that was put over spaghetti, added some Toni’s Seasoning, and all is good.  My dad also mashed some cauliflower, which was a great side as well.  I am stuffed!

10:20: Inglorious Bastards is playing again, I am just letting it run again because most of the movie is in French or German and if you miss the subtitles you miss completely what is going on in the movie.

08/03/2012:

10:00: I am awaken by my wife’s alarm since she has work.  I used to be able to get 6-8 hours of sleep with no issues waking up.  Ever since the symptoms started I noticed I need about 8-10 hours of sleep to be completely rested.

10:05: I am up out of bed and let buster out.

10:30: I get a call from a client that is experience a power outage.  The UPS is beeping and they want to know if they should turn off their server.  I tell them to monitor the UPS and if the UPS gets to low battery to shut down their equipment, but the power will probably come back on before the battery gets low.

10:50: I jump into the shower.

11:10: I jump out the shower.  I like to jump, can you tell?  LOL j/k

11:30: I get a call from the power client again.  The power comes back on for my clients office, but they are unable to get online or onto the server from the office computers.  After rebooting computers and checking the network devices I decide to see if I can see the computers remotely.  The only computer I can see it their server.  I log into their server.  I then log into their router.  The router’s DHCP server somehow has been turned off. I turn back on the DHCP server and have the client reboot all the machines, and all the computers come back online and can connect to the server again with no issues.

12:00: Another client called while I was on the phone with the power client, so I return their phone call.  He needs two power adapters for his sons’ laptops.  I can order those as soon as he emails me the make and model numbers of the laptops.  His laptop is also running slow and he needs me to take a look at it.  He will call me tomorrow for me to look at it remotely.

12:15: I am off to a client’s office to drop off some toner.  If this toner works, I will bring them additional toner on Monday before my Chemo because they are also located at EJGH.

12:30: I get to the office, and put in the toner and the printer comes online with no issues.  An older linux server that they have will not boot after a power outage on Wednesday.  I do some quick troubleshooting, but will have to bring the server back to the office to do a more in depth look over.

12:45: I am leaving EJGH.  I stop by McDonalds for 2 McDoubles on my way back to the shop.

1:00: I am back at the shop.  I bring up my food and other materials first, I then go back downstairs with a hand truck to bring up the computer in my van.

1:15: I eat my lunch and do some admin work.

2:30: I am running to the bank to make two deposits.

2:45: I am back at the office and make two more deposits to my Bank of Internet accounts.

3:00: I am going to work on that computer I brought back today, and the other computer I have in the office.

4:10: I just finished unseating and reseating and reconnecting all the wires in the computer I brought back today.  The computer boots with no issues.  I blew out the computer because it was one big dust ball.

4:30: I go across the hall to check on their faxing issues that I believe I have resolved by changing the settings on the fax machines.

4:45: I start working on a computer across the hall that will be discontinued for office use and brought home for personal use and needs to be cleaned up and reconfigured.

5:30: After trying to remove programs and clean up the computer I found it easier just to reimage the computer with the factory default from when it was shipped from Dell.

5:50: I am over in my office updating my blog and checking on a few things while I wait for the computer across the hall.

6:05: I go back across the hall, the image is finished installing.  I setup the basics on the computer including Microsoft Office, Mozilla, Adobe Reader and Flash Player, Trend Micro, and LogMeIn for remote access.

6:20: I am back in my office getting ready to head out the door. Just getting a few things together.

6:25: I am outta here.

6:35: I get home.  The TV is on with the Olypmics.

7:25: My sister and dad leave to go see Fiddler on the Roof at Tulane University.

7:35: I warm up the minute steaks from the other night for my dinner.

7:50: My wife gets home.  She brought home some tomato soup along with some shrimp and crayfish etouffe.  The etouffe was great as well!

8:15: I am back in the Lazy-Boy watching the Olympics with my wife.

10:00:  My wife goes off, just me and Buster.

10:15: My mom comes from the back and watches the Olympics as well.

10:50: I get together some Graham Crackers and Nutella, yummy.

11:00: My dad and sister get home, they say the musical they went to see was great, I wish I could have gone, but too many people to be around…

11:50: Time to head to bed, I am feeling a little tired, and not much else to do tonight.

08/02/2012:

10:00:  I am awake.  I wake my wife up as she has work in the morning, but she is not feeling good.

10:10: I get out of bed and I let Buster out.

10:30: My wife is still not feeling good and nauseated 🙁  Well she took care of me last week when I wasn’t feeling good, so I guess it’s my turn this week.  Getting her a cold rag, some drink, but I am limited on what I can do since I cannot afford to get sick if she has something.

10:50: I call my wife’s work to let them know she isn’t feeling good and may be running a little late.

11:25: My wife still is not feeling good, she calls work and let’s them know she is not going to be in at all today.  No calls or emails today for me, so I can stay home and take care of her this morning.  Although if she does have the flu or something I cannot afford to catch it, so it’s time for me to keep some distance as my immune system is weakened from the Chemo.  She is feeling a little better, so I will have to let her fend for herself.

12:00 I am on the computer updating my blog.  I gotta get a shower soon as I need to get to the hospital for blood work to check my blood counts before I can be administered the next round of Chemo on Monday.  So you may be asking what and why the blood work is done, well here is the answer:

Chemotherapy kills cancer cells and is a vital part of treatment. But in the process it also kills some important normal cells in the body. The most important of these are cells in your bone marrow which produce blood cells.

White blood cells or leucocytes are important for fighting infections in the body. Drugs used in chemotherapy can kill these cells and increase the chances of getting an infection.

Chemotherapy also kills platelet cells in marrow which are important to prevent bleeding from different parts of the body. If platelet counts fall, there is a risk that bleeding may occur.

Before each cycle of chemotherapy it is important to make sure that the numbers of white blood cells and platelets are acceptable. If not, it is often advisable to wait for them to rise to normal before administering another cycle of chemotherapy. It may be necessary to give some medicines that help the blood counts rise. Platelet or blood transfusions may be sometimes required.

Taken from: http://lymphoma.about.com/od/issuesduringtreatment/f/bloodtests.htm

12:40:  Time for a shower and to get outta here and to EJGH.  I’ll update you from my phone 😛

12:50: Out the shower.

12:55: Out the house.

1:05: I arrive at EGJH Yenni Treatment Center. What is it with people that can’t park and others that just sit in their cars in the parking lot blocking the small pathway to drive through to begin with. I finally have to pull around the car and manage to back into a spot.

1:10: I check in with the front desk and sent upstairs.

1:15: The nurse calls my name in the waiting room, and we are brought over to the infusion room.

1:30: Still waiting for them to find my chart so that they can take my blood. So much fun….. NOT!

1:35: They finally found the chart. Now I gotta wait for the nurse.

1:55: The nurse is prepping the blood draw cart.

2:05: They stick me once no blood. Right anticubital area. Not too painful.

2:10: The same nurse sticks me again, no blood. Left anticubital area. Not to painful either.

2:15: A new nurse tries to stick me. No luck, but very painful on my left arm. I feel weak and ask for an orange juice.

2:20: The IV team is coming over for another patient so they are going to use them to get my blood.

2:30: The IV team started another man’s IV and then turned her attention to me.  Is started an IV in my left inner anticubital area and drew about 60ccs of blood, and then removed the IV and filled up the two tubes that the nurses were trying to fill with the normal butterfly needles.

2:37: I am outta there.  1.5 hours for 2 little tubes of blood, blah!

2:40: I am back to my van, and headed to the office.

2:50: I stop by McDonalds for two McDoubles.  I have a McDonalds gift card, so no big deal 😛

3:00: I am in my office.  I eat my McDoubles and start some admin work.

3:20: I am here updating the blog…

3:30: I get an email from a client with issues accessing an older computer system after a power outage.  As in all cases. I ask the client to restart the server, and desktops of the older system before going out on site and that’s all that needed to happen.

3:45: I call a client who called me on my Chemo day with a virus on their computer.  I am just getting back to this client 🙁  The said that their computer was infected with a virus and they couldn’t really use it.  I will attempt to fix it tomorrow remotely when they are home, but if that doesn’t work, I will have to work on the computer in person at the shop.

3:55: I check on a computer that I had my wife pick up last week.  It appears that the computer was affected by a lightning strike.  It won’t power on, and the power light button stays lit.  I will have to try to take it apart tomorrow for further analysis, but it appears to be a goner.

4:35: I get an email from a client needing a new account/email/ftp created.  I remote into the server, create all the needed items, I test the items, then email the client back with all the info.

5:00: Done with that client’s request.  I do billing for yesterday and email out the invoices.

5:30: I go across hall and make one final adjustment to the fax machines so that they only fax out on the first line and not try to fax out on the second line of the machines.

5:45: I bring a package that was delivered across the hall.  It is replacement toners for a batch of 5 bad toners that I had received. I will bring one of these out to a client tomorrow.

5:55: I remove the battery from the lightning computer to see if a full reset will bring it back to life, otherwise the motherboard is dead.

6:00: I am walking out of the office.  A neighbor in the building sees me and talks to me asks me how I am doing, and I update her on everything.  I will also email her this blog as soon as I am done entering in my updates.

6:10: I am heading home.

6:25: I get home.  There was some traffic on the way home on Causeway.

6:40: I start updating this blog again.

6:45: I am sending out that email.

7:00: Dinner is here.  Mrs. Cindy, my grade school teacher, and our family friend, cooked supper for us tonight, and my parents went and picked it up.

7:30: I get away from the computer and eat.  We have salad, pasta, mashed broccoli, chicken, and cake.  Very good!!!

8:30:  I am back in the Lazy-Boy, with the TV on, watching Burn Notice, and on my Dell mini Laptop.

9:00: The Mentalist is on.  Just researching a few things while watching tv…

8:50: I wake up to a vendor calling the office and just ignore it.

10:00: I am up and awake.  I take out Buster and prepare to get a shower.

10:15: A client emails and calls me about not being able to print.  I remote into the computer and change a setting on the printer, and the printer starts working again.

10:30:  While I am on the computer I check a few admin things.

10:45: I shave with an electric clipper, waiting on my electric razor to come in.

10:50: I am into the shower, the first shower in over a month with all the biopsies going on and unable to get stitches and skin wet…

11:30: I am out of the shower.  Wow, that felt good, to just let the water massage your head and back.  A little to warm maybe, I need to remember to not have the water on so hot, it just weakens me for some reason.

11:40: I am back on the computer updating the world on what I have been doing so far today.  I think I will head over to the office soon, just gotta grab a bite to eat before heading out.

12:10: So after 2 left over Wendy’s Double Stacks, I am feeling better.  Time for me to head out and head to the office.  Let’s see if my van starts, haven’t started it in a little under 3 weeks.

12:20: I am at my office.  I talk to a client I see in the parking lot, and then head up to my office and get started on catching up on mail and additional admin work.

1:30: Sending out Invoices and Monthly Statements.

2:00: More admin work, wow this stuff piles up when you are not here…

3:00: I call a client who had issues faxing and walk them through the steps of faxing again.  I also show the client how to now use their printer to scan to their computer over the wireless network since I installed the software last week.

3:20: My wife arrives at the office with a client’s computer that will not power on after a lightning strike.  I bring the handtruck downstairs and bring it back up rather than carrying it.

3:30: I call back the client I briefly worked with yesterday on installing the full printer software for scanning and printing at the office.

4:00: I am done with the clients, back to office work.

5:00: Jamie, my business partner, drops by for a little bit to let rush hour traffic drop down before continuing home to Chalmette.

5:45: Jamie leaves and I go back to some admin work before its time to head home to let some additional rush hour traffic to drop down.

6:15: I go across the hall and start troubleshooting the fax machines.  I fine that they are on fine and super fine which is not good for VOIP faxing.  I change these to standard.  I also change the fax type to just text, not text/photo.  I turn off the ECM (Error Correction Mode) and I make sure the speed is set at 9600bps for transmitting.  I set the number of redials to 10.  I also correct the fax numbers in the machines as they are not setup correctly.  I find one of the two fax machines is plugged into the phone port and not the line in port.  I send a number of test faxes to my fax machine in my office, with better results.  I will check with them tomorrow to see how their faxing is.

7:00:  Time for me to go home. I spent a little more time than I wanted working on the fax machines, but it had to be done.

7:10: I arrive home and the food is ready.  My parents fried some minute steaks, cauliflower, and eggplant.  They also baked some sweet potato french fries.

8:00: I turn on AMC, tonight is Scarface on MOB WEEK.

8:15: My wife comes home and I finish eating, but its too late I have eaten too much.  YUM YUM!  I am definitely feeling better if I can eat too much…

8:45: I test out my new electric razor my dad picked up from Walmart today since it was delivered via Site to Store.  The razor works great.  I just need to let the AA batteries that I have completely charge.

9:15:  I am just relaxing in the Lazy-Boy.  I am stuffed too much food, but its a good feeling 🙂

11:15: I am actually in bed.  Just researching a few things on the computer with the rerun of Scarface playing in the background 😛

07/31/2012:

9:15:  An incoming email wakes me up.  I check the email, and then just lay in bed for a little longer.

9:30: Another incoming email, this time with a link allowing me to make some changes to a client’s computer.  I get out of bed, let Buster out and sit at my desktop computer.  I email back the client to specify the settings for the new computer.

9:50: I get another email back with the setting details.  I then remote into the computer and setup the computer the way the client wants it.  The client see’s the setting they missed as I finish the setup, so everything is good to go.

10:00: I get an email from another client looking for a printer to be setup on a new computer remotely.

10:15: I walk my wife out to her car and pick up the recycle bins and trash can.  I need to get some exercise.  I’ll take a walk later today.

10:30: Back at my desk.  Following up with a call from the onc office from yesterday, and emails to my internist office.

11:00: Just still here on the computer working 😛

12:00: Leftover Spicy Chicken Sandwich from Wendy’s YUMMY!

12:20: I get a call from a client with an email issue. As usual its really an AT&T Issue.  I walk the client through the unnecessary steps AT&T has created to resolve the issue and we get it resolved.

12:50:  I go get some exercise.  I walk up and down the block twice, which is about 15 minutes of walking.

1:30: I connect to a client’s computer and to setup the printer, but the printer cannot be contacted, I will wait to the client returns.

1:45: I start some administration work and billing and send out invoices to clients.

2:30: I am wrapping up the administration work, just checking the blog and emails.

2:50: My client returns to his office and calls me back.  He gets his printer online, and then I install the printer using the Windows drivers.  He has a wifi card and the download of the complete 300MB package will take over an hour, so I will connect back later once it has completely downloaded.

3:10: Just doing some research on the radiology.  They have a really great website for where I will be going for my radiation treatments. http://www.jeffradonc.com

3:40:  Just updating the blog, I am still here 😛

4:00: My parents both arrive home at the same time.  Tonight’s menu is spaghetti and meatballs.  My mom picked up the ingredients needed from the store on the way home, so I helped her unload the car.

5:35: MMM, Great spaghetti and meatballs!  Very good!  I enjoyed this dinner!

6:00: A client calls me with an issue on their home computer. I remote in and start working on the issue.

6:30: My wife comes home with some corn and potato chowder from work, yummy as well.

7:00: Had another meatball 😛

7:30: Back working on the home computer.

7:45: Done working on that home computer, leave it to kids to mess the computer up, geesh.

8:00: Done some admin work and billing.

8:10: Time to go relax in the Lazy-Boy.  I watch The Godfather Part II

10:00: I take a little nap.

10:55: I am awake again.

11:00: I turn on Franklin and Bash.

07/30/2012:

12:15: I am done with my bath and the sterri strips for my port incision have been aggravating me.  Time to take them off.  I can’t find any rubbing alcohol, but I find some GermX which has 69% Alcohol in it.  I use this to soak the sterri strips in first.  I then start peeling off the sterri strips.  I peel off the top layer that is just over skin with no problem.  I then peel off the one which is over the incision.  I find out that I only peeled off the top layer of the sterri strip and the actually threads that give the underlying support are still across the incision.  I soak the area again with GermX and then I slowly peel off the remaining support threads.  You can barely see the incision when I get it off.  I clean it once more with some GermX and Hydrogen Peroxide and then put some ointment on the area.  I then brush my teeth and head to bed.

1:00: I am just getting in bed, my wife comes home and then we talk a little bit and then off to dreamland I go.

10:51: I am awaken by a phone call of a client calling the office.  I remote into their computer and fix the issue.

11:06: I am following up with another client’s questions that they emailed to me.

11:15: I am up out of bed.  I take out Buster and then warm me up some left over Pizza for Breakfast/Lunch.

11:30: I am back on my Desktop Computer at home following up with emails and admin work.

12:50: My wife and my mom bring me to my Radiologist Oncologist consult over at EGJH at the Yenni Treatment center.

1:00: I check in with the frontdesk, and given forms to fill out and sign.

1:10: I am sitting in the waiting room waiting to be seen.

1:30: I am showed to the back, I get my weight 242.9 lbs and height 6’1 and blood pressure 127/79 and temperature 98.6 taken along with my medical history.

1:40: The nurse leaves to update the doctor. I am just waiting in the patient room for the doctor.

2:20:  The doc comes and introduces himself and goes over my cancer and the benefits of also treating me with radiation as well.  He also says that my cancer is in Stage II with some B factors.  Treating Lymphoma just with Chemotherapy has been known to cure the areas infected, but have been known to allow the relapse of the disease in the area affected.  Treating Lymphoma with just Radiation has been known to cure the infected areas, but has been know to allow relapse down the line of areas not previously affected.  Therefore it has been seen that treating with both Chemotherapy and Radiation Therapy yields the best results in putting the cancer into remission and possible cure.  So depending on what my next PET scan results are, will decide how much longer Chemotherapy will be warranted and how soon Radiotherapy will begin.  To reduce the toxicity of the Chemotherapy after the cancer cannot be found in my system, only two more rounds, 4 more infusions of Chemotherapy will be given, then the radiotherapy will begin.  The Radiotherapy once begun will be done for 4 weeks, 5days per week, Mon-Fri.  The dosage of radiation will be low, and it will only be for a few minutes each day.  I will not notice any major side effects right away, and I will not have any burning of my skin.  The side effects will slowly onset with some fatigue, and will resolve itself within a month.  The information I have on the radiation is limited, as it was just a consult today.  Also please keep in mind that this information was given to me by the Radiologist Oncologist who needs to completely map out the treatment with my Oncologist.

3:20:  We are done with the appointment.  I schedule another appointment in September following my next PET Scan which I will schedule tomorrow.  I now need to go over to the hospital to get blood drawn for a SED rate test. The sedimentation rate (sed rate) blood test measures how quickly red blood cells (erythrocytes) settle in a test tube in one hour. The more red cells that fall to the bottom of the test tube in one hour, the higher the sed rate. When inflammation is present in the body, certain proteins cause red blood cells to stick together and fall more quickly than normal to the bottom of the tube. These proteins are produced by the liver and the immune system under many abnormal conditions, such as an infection, an autoimmune disease, or cancer.

3:35: We walk over to the EJGH and I check in with registration.  Then registration makes sure they have all my billing and insurance information before bring me over to the outpatient lab where they will be drawing my blood for the SED rate.

3:50: I tell the nurse I am a hard stick and she must use a butterfly needle, and it’s all by feel.  She does say that I am all by feel, and after feeling around for about a minute, she has the hit in my anticubital area that is my favorite for them to usually take blood.  She then sticks me and takes my blood, just a tube :P.

4:00:  We then go find my wife as she forgot her phone and got separated from us when we were walking from the Yenni Treatment Center to the Main Lobby of the hospital.

4:15: We find my wife sitting in the Main Lobby.

4:17: We are back in the car in the Hudson Parking Garage headed to the bank to deposit the checks that I have for Hands Free Help.

4:30: We deposit the checks for Hands Free Help at Iberia Bank.

4:35: We are at Wendy’s.  I got my appetite back and I am craving a Spicy Chicken Sandwich from Wendy’s

4:50: We return home, and my Dad is at home waiting.  He has been calling everyone’s phone’s wondering how the appointment went, but no one had their phone on them or on, but me, and he didn’t want to disturb me in case I was talking to the Doctor.

5:00:  I eat 2 of the Spicy Chicken Sandwiches from Wendy’s.

5:30: I am back on my computer following up with work Emailed in today.

8:00: Done with various remote computer work.

8:30:  I am back in the Lazy-Boy watching The Godfather, just relaxing and taking it easy.

11:00: Time for a bath.  I’ll try a shower out tomorrow.  The incision made to put in my port is healing nicely.

12/29/2012:

10:30: I am up and out of bed.  I go into the den where the family is already watching the Olympics.  I let Buster outside.

11:30:  I connect to 3 remote computers to do some work.

12:00: My dad made me some grits, so that I can put something into my stomach.  I need to eat more. I am used to eating one meal a day, and with everything going on, I need to force myself to eat more.  I also wake up my wife, who isn’t too happy to get up.

12:30: I answer some emails and finish up the computer work I am doing remotely.

1:00:  Back to the Olympics 🙂

1:30: My sister and brother-in-law come in from Prarieville.  They bring me some shirts from Cabella’s and some roasted Pecans.

1:45: My mother comes back from Whole Foods with some bottled smoothies for me, and some Pizza’s they make for lunch.

1:50: My wife leaves for work.

5:00: My sister and brother-in-law return to Prarieville.

6:40:  My dad and I go off to a client’s location to drop off some toner and check on something else at the location.  It is definitely hot outside.  Not sure If I would want to be outside all day in this heat.  Just feel weaker being outside.

7:00:  My dad and I get to the client’s location.  I put up the toner in storage.

7:20: My dad and I are headed back home.

7:40: My dad and I return home.

8:00: Back to the Olympics Coverage.  Very nice to have entertainment like this on my downtime.   Just on my laptop in the Lazy-Boy at the same time.

9:00: I eat some chicken pasta that my dad had cooked earlier.

11:00: Time for bath.

07/28/2012:

10:00:  I am awake, but I just lay in bed for a while.  My stomach hurts me a little bit, but nothing major, not nausea just a stomach ache.

11:00:  I get out of bed, and eat some Dunkin Doughnuts.

11:30:  I watch the Women’s Basketball Olympic Game’s, USA vs Croatia.

12:20: USA wins vs Croatia for the first game.

12:30: I watch the men’s 400M swimming.

12:45: I watch the women’s 400M swimming.

12:50: Time to go to my office and check on the mail and to get my volt meter to check a battery at the house for a client.  My dad is driving me over to my office.

1:00: We arrive at the office. I first check my mail which I have a good bit of.  I also have a note that I have a package next door.  I have keys to that office, so I let myself in and get the packages that were delivered there.

1:15: I enter payments I received through the mail into the system, scan some items into the computer, and prepare a 941 mailing envelope.

1:55: My dad and I head home and it is about to storm.

2:05: We get home.  I turn on the TV and watch some more Olympics.  The girls volleyball, USA vs Korea, Men’s Beach Volleyball USA vs South Africa, and Rowing.

5:00: Just the 5:00 news on WDSU, since they are broadcasting the olympics, doesn’t have too much choice, other than watch streaming video on the Internet, although I would rather watch more olympics coverage than the news.

6:00:  I eat a Ground Pati Apple Wood Bacon.  So I am good to eat anything really until my next chemo treatment.

7:00: Back to the Olympics Coverage 🙂

11:00 I am in bed watching Will Smith in I Am Legend.  I am a little tired, so I will be off sleep soon.

07/27/2012:

10:00:  I wake up, and wake up my wife because she has work for 11:00.  Today just laying in bed feels like it could be a better day, but I don’t want to jump out of bed and jinx it.

10:20:  I am up out of bed.  Not too bad.  I let Buster out and then pop 2 pieces of bread into the toaster and get my peanut butter and jelly ready.

10:30:  I am eating my first Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich.  Actually doing pretty good.  I feel like I can have a second.

10:40  I am eating my second Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich.  I actually drink a cup or two of 1% Lowfat Milk with no issues.  Not bad.  I take a anti gout pill, and a Zofran just to be safe.

11:00:  I get a call from my oncologist office about an appointment on Monday with a radiologist oncologist for an appointment just in case the doctors decide to do radiation treatment as well.

11:05:  I am in the Lazy-Boy, just watching the history channel, relaxing for now.

12:15: I brush my teeth and wash my mouth out.  One must be more on top of brushing their teeth and washing their mouth out during chemo.  Mouth care is a big deal, as you should not go to your dentist during your chemo period.  Reason being, is that they want as little risk of infection or bleeding possible during chemo.  Therefore no really good teeth cleaning which usually results in minimal bleeding.  During chemo, you shouldn’t do anything that will cause any type of bleeding as your blood platelets will be lower and your ability to stop bleeding is lowered.  Also I had my mom find a mouthwash that does not contain any alcohol in it.  During chemo, you need to keep your mouth moist.  Alcohol will cause your mouth to dry up because alcohol excels the evaporation of water.  To prevent mouth sores and to keep one’s mouth moist, one must do everything possible to keep one’s mouth moist.  Even rinsing the mouth out periodically with water just to add moisture to one’s mouth.

1:15: Time to take a little nap.

2:30:  I wake up.  Just back to watching TV and checking emails etc.  Nothing to exciting today.  That’s OK with me, as long as I am not having a bad day.

3:00:  I am watching Locomotives on Modern Marvels on the History Channel.

4:00: Modern Marvels from Start to Finish.

5:00: I am feeling good, I may eat something, going to get up and walk around a little bit first.

6:00: I eat some chicken noodle soup that my sister cooked.  Pretty good.  I also eat 3 oatmeal cookies.

6:30: My dad and I watch the opening ceremony of the Summer 2012 Olympics out of London.

8:15: My wife comes home.

9:30:  I am hungry.  I want a hamburger 🙂  I want a Big Mac from Mc Donalds.

9:40:  My wife and my mother go off to Mc Donalds.

9:50:  They return from Mc Donalds.

10:00:  I eat two Big Macs from Mc Donalds.  YUMMY!  REAL FOOD! Well I don’t know about real food, but better than my bland food I have been eating the last few days.  I may be good to go to my next round of Chemo, but we shall see what the next few days bring.

11:00:  The Olympic Opening Ceremony ends, and I am now updating my blog.  I’ll be around…

11:30: Time for a bath.

12:30: Goodnight…

10:00: Good morning.  Just me and Buster waking up this morning, my wife already left for work around 6:30.

10:10: By the kitchen table.  I eat 2 bananas, and feeling a little queasy so I take a Zofran.  I also take my anti gout pill as well.

10:45: I get my mini laptop computer and sit in the Lazy-Boy and update my blog.  I am just going to sit here until we go to my ENT doctor’s appointment at noon, the less I move, the easier it is, for now…

11:35: Time to get out of the Lazy-Boy, and get ready for my appointment and get out of here.

11:50: We are leaving the house for my doctor’s appointment at EJGH. My sister is driving me.

12:04: We are driving around in the parking garage. Once again people do not know how to park. People take up two spots with their big trucks, SUVs, and even cars. Not being able to park between two yellow lines should be a ticketable offense. We finally get a space.

12:10: We check in, and are sent into the back waiting room.

12:30: Just still sitting in the back waiting room. Feeling ok, just a little weak and a little warm.

12:45:  Dr. Jacob comes and gets us out of the waiting room and into the patient room.  Dr. Jacob comes into the room right after us, and talks to me about everything that has been going on.  I am feeling ok at this point.  Dr. Jacob wants to see me in 4 weeks right before my next treatment.

1:00:  Suzanne comes and checks on my vitals.  98.0 Temp and 120/70 Blood Pressure.  The she asks a few more questions and talks to my sister.  At this time the nausea feeling is starting to hit me.  I am answering some questions, but not completely there.  Then Suzanne gets up to leave and that’s it, I am done, my sister asks me if i want to get up, I tell her no, she asks if I want the garbage can, I tell her yes.  Suzanne also asks if I want a cold pack, so I get the ice pack out the freezer with paper towel as a barrier.  Dr. Jacob comes and checks on me and asks if I want something for the nausea, I tell him if he has something that he thinks will help, go ahead and give it to me, I had my Zofran about 2.5 hours ago, but whatever  he feels will help, I am game.  I am just feeling horrible at this time…  Suzanne then draws up the Phenergan and comes in and prepares my left arm, and then gives me the shot in my left arm.  Painful, blah.  I sit in the room for another 15 minutes, then I feel good enough to get up.

1:20: I walk out to my sister’s CRV and when I sit it in it, I can feel the Phenergan taking its affect as I am getting tired.  I notice it is raining outside of the parking garage as we are going around in circles to get out.  We continue to drive home.

1:40:  We are home, I have my sister go open the door while I sit in the car and wait.  I then get out the car and walk into the house and right to the Lazy-Boy.  That’s it, I am out, sleeping, gone.

6:30:  I wake up, and follow up on a voicemail, a friend referring some new business, but I am in no condition to follow up with this new client this evening or first thing tomorrow morning, so we just let that one go.

7:00:  I get up and eat 1 toasted peanut butter sandwich, and 2 toasted peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

7:30: I walk around the house and brush my teeth.

7:45:  I am back into the Lazy-Boy.  My dad turns on the TV.

8:15: I watch an episode of Burn Notice and also drink some Lemon Propel Zero Water that my dad gives me.

9:00: Suits comes on, I haven’t watched any episodes before, but I don’t have much else to do at the moment.

10:00: I eat a bowl of chicken noodle soup prepared by my mom.  I am sitting in the Lazy-Boy, I am not in the mood to get up, or move or anything.

11:30: I am laying in bed, not feeling good, I just want to go to sleep and put this bad day behind me.

07/25/2012:

12:15:  All fresh and clean and exhausted.  It won’t take me long to fall asleep once I hit that bed.

12:30: I am in bed, but always something work related going on in my head.  I do some quick research, remote into a computer and make some changes.

1:30: Time for me to go to bed, I put down my laptop on my nightstand roll over and fall asleep.

8:00:  I am awake on and off, phone calls, emails, text messages, reply, and doze back off.

10:00: I get out of bed and get something to drink then off to the computer to check up on emails and other things.

10:30: I remote into a client’s computer and copy back some files and folders that I moved last night to delete the user profile from that computer.  I had to wait to the client logged back in this morning to the computer to recreate the user profile, so that I could copy the files back to the computer.

11:00: Catching up on today’s blog.

11:15: I make a phone call to my oncologist’s office to find out when my next appointment is, if there are any results from my bone marrow biopsy #2 back, what about my blood work I need to do before next chemo, when is my next chemo, and if I can get a prescription to stop these constant hiccups.  My next appointment is August 23, 2012.  They will call me back with any biopsy results they get in, as the results trickle in and do not all come in at one time.  The orders will be in the computer for Quest Diagnostics so all I have to do is show up at a Quest Diagnostics Center.  I just need to call the Yenni Treatment Center to schedule my next treatment.  Also someone will call me back from the office for more info on the anti hiccup prescription.

11:25:  I call up the Yenni Treatment Center and schedule my next Chemo treatment for Monday, August 8, 2012 at 8:00AM.

11:35: My wife comes out of the room and needs to run to work to drop off some paperwork.  I get up to get something to eat, and then the nauseous feeling hits me.  I quickly sit at the table open up my medicine box, and find my Zofran and take one of those before it gets to out of hand.  I then about 1.5 cups of cheerios with no milk just to get some more whole grain in me and to get something neutral into my stomach.

12:00:  A client calls me asking me some questions about emails she is receiving.  I tell her they are most probably spam, but if she wants to forward some of them to me, I can double check them for her, she forwards them to me, and sure enough they are spam.

12:30:  I make calls to my dentist and periodontist to push back those appointments for 6 months because I cannot have any mouth/teeth work being done while on chemo.

12:40:  I email my internist’s staff to adjust an appointment so it does not follow 7-10 days from a chemo treatment because that is when my white blood cell counts will be at its lowest.

1:00: I am just on my computer, not much to do today, pretty slow day today at home.  Doing some technology research and getting things together for small things upcoming.

2:30: My oncologist office calls me back and tells me that the Bone Marrow Biopsy #2 came back negative.  They also said that they would call something into the pharmacy to control the hiccuping.  I haven’t eaten too much yet today because the hiccuping itself and make one feel a little nauseous as well especially when or right after eating.  So so far, good!

2:40:  It starts to Thunder and Buster gets his anxiety.  I wrap him up in his Thunder Blanket and move his bed next to my computer chair in the den.

2:50:  Three more cups of cheerios 😛  Simple easy to eat food, and bland 🙂

3:10: My dad calls me and asks me to plug in the battery for the weed eater so that when he gets home, he can cut the backyard and trim. It looks like the rain just missed us, but cooled down the temperature enough to do the grass.

3:50:  My dad arrives home.

3:52: My wife arrives home after going out to eat with Mrs. Cindy.  They bring me home a Jimmy John’s Slim 4 which is just a plain french bread and turkey sandwich no veggies or sauce.  YUMMY!!!

4:10: Back at the computer, feeling just peachy.

4:15: My mom calls the house and my dad meets her outside and they go off.

4:20: I go lay on the sofa and start falling asleep, my wife who is on the lazy-boy wake me up and tells me to switch with her because she knows the lazy-boy is much more comfortable for me.  So we switch.  I then get a power nap for 2 hours.

6:30:  I wake up and my parents are back home.  That was a good nap!

7:00: I watch an episode of NCIS.

8:00: My wife goes off to visit with a friend, and I watch an episode of Burn Notice.

8:30: My dad asks if i drank anything lately, and I haven’t, so I go by the kitchen table and he gets me a glass of Gatorade.  He also asks if I am hungry and I need to eat something, so he gives me some yellow rice from the night before that I didn’t eat, because I just at fish.  After I am done the yellow rice I ask for a sweet potato.  He warms up one we had from the previous night which just mashed easily with a plastic fork after being warmed up again.  I add some butter, and that’s good enough, I don’t want too many flavors, more bland is the way to go right now for me.  I finish up that sweet potato with no problems.  I then ask my dad to warm me up one more, which he does, this one is not as soft, but once I cut it open with a knife it is easily mashable with a plastic fork, and again I add some butter and eat this one as well.  Very good supper!  I gotta add my eatings to livestrong.com :P.  1381 Calories consumed not including my Gatorade and Gingerale.

9:30: I am sitting back here in the lazy-boy again watching the TV and the baseball game  of the Dodgers vs the Cardinals and catching up my blog.

11:00: The game is going no where. It is more background noise. Just reading reviews on an electric razor since I can’t use a real razor blade on my skin. Can’t take any chances now on cutting myself for risk of can’t stop the bleeding and the infection risk. I ordered it earlier today, just gotta wait for site to store shipping. Into the bath I go.

07/24/2012:

12:30: I am just up, watching TV, dozing off here and there, and catching up and polishing up my first chemo experience, and drinking plenty of fluids for a better flushing effect.

03:15: It’s time to go back to sleep.  I’ll catch you in the AM.

10:17: I wake up, and wake up my wife to get up and get ready for work.

10:20: I let Buster out.

11:00: I am on my computer following up on emails.

11:15: I eat 3.75 scrambled eggs and 2 slices of toast.  It’s my blog I can be exact and put 3.75 instead of 4.0!  I also drink my Gatorade.  Blah, I am going to have to explain this for all the people wondering the odd 3.75, too many questions.  So my sister cooked me 3 eggs.  I told her that I could eat more.  She then cooked 3 more eggs for herself.  I took a 4th of her plate of eggs, meaning that I took 0.75 eggs of her 3 eggs.  So my 3 eggs, plus her 0.75 eggs is where I come up with the 3.75 eggs.  This had to be exact for the next timed entry.

11:35: I am back on the computer, back on www.livestrong.com.  This website was created by Lance Armstrong to help people with their nutritional goals.  You can gain weight/lose weight up to 2 pounds a week, or you can maintain weight as well, just set your goals, put in everything as you eat it, and it will tell you how many calories you have left to consume for the day.  I have used this with success many times before, now its time to use it to maintain my weight throughout this Chemo if at all possible.  I may loose some, but I can afford to lose some 😉

12:15:  Back to some browsing.

12:30: Back to some business admin work, just working from home today.

12:55: Chemo hiccups, maybe, I don’t know, started at 12:55 and still ongoing here at 1:55.  Blah!!!

2:15: The hiccups have stopped, yay.

3:00: And the hiccups begin again…

3:50: My dad arrives home, and opens up the package that arrived for him today.  It is actually a present for me, a chemo day bag to bring to treatments with me.  It includes a blanket, water bottle, a book to read on chemo, a small container of queasy drops for me to suck on if I start feeling nauseated during the treatment.

4:00: The hiccups have stopped again!  yay!

4:45: I had to update the 3.75 egg entry so that people could understand how I got the .75 eggs.

4:49:  Oh boy the hiccups are back. 🙁

5:23:  The hiccups have stopped again! yay!

5:30: I open up my google drive and update my medications with all the new medications I have for anti nausea and anti gout medicines.  I can access this from my phone when filling out new patient forms and it’s another way to always have a current list of medications on hand, this list is also shared with my wife, and she can open it up on her phone as well.

5:45: I start testing out Ustream which Jamie referred me to, to use to integrate into my Chemo Day posts.  This way you can watch, if you want the events of my chemo days.  Nothing too exciting, just the huber needle placement,  the infusions of pre meds and the ABVD, and then some more flushing, the removal of the huber needle and bandaging up.

6:20: The hiccups come start up again.

6:40: The hiccups have stopped again! BLAH

6:45: I got outside for a little bit and walk around the front yard.

6:55: I am back inside updating this post.

7:05:  My wife arrives home.

7:15: I eat 3 baked chicken legs that that my wife brought home from work, then two helpings of baked catfish covered in tomato sauce and broccoli that my mom had put cooked.  Mmmm good stuff.

8:10:  I am watching the Franklin and Bash episode on my laptop that I missed last week.

9:00:  I am watching the Franklin and Bash episode on TNT and during commercials continuing the Franklin and Bash from last week on my laptop.

10:10:  I am done watching both episodes and caught up on my Franklin and bash.

10:25:  I have to finish working on a client’s issue with an application on their computer.

10:45:  I finished working on the application.  I will follow up withe the client in the morning.

10:50:  I have to finish some billing for yesterday.

11:00:  Time for a bath.

07/23/2012

7:35: I wake up. Check the time but don’t want to get up just yet. I doze back off.

8:00: I wake up again, this time, time to get out the bed.  My appointment is at 9:00.  I wake up my wife, take Buster out, and page Debbie Schmitz.

8:04: Debbie calls me right back.  She explains to me the whole process I will be going through today and she tells me she will meet me in the waiting room when I get there.

8:07: I get ready to leave the house for chemo.

8:45: We leave the house. My wife is driving me today.

8:55: We arrive at the Yenni center and I checkin . The girl checking me in was my sister Katie’s class and recognized me.

9:00: We are upstairs in the oncology waiting room.

9:07: My buzzer they gave me goes off, and I ask a nurse and they direct me into the infusion room.

9:10:  I am getting my vitals taken.

9:15: I am led to the media room to watch an intro video on the chemo treatment, side affects, nutrition, etc.  Debbie Schmitz also comes and give a presentation and goes through the entire oncology binder that is for me to keep and take home and refer to as needed. During the video, my wife puts on the lidocaine cream onto my port area and covers it with serran wrap.  I start to eat a sandwich bag of cheerios to have some whole grain fiber in my stomach before my therapy.  At this time I also swallow an antianxiety pill just to play it safe, I don’t want to feel weak at anytime during treatment from anxiety.  We then finish watching the videos.

10:10: We are done with the videos and report back to the oncology infusion center.

10:15: They direct me to room 1, bed 2 for my infusion.  I believe I am in a bed for this round because they will be throwing test amounts of drugs at me to see if I have a bad reaction to them.  If I have a bad reaction, then they will have to make arrangements for a replacement drug.

10:25: The nurse comes in and accesses my port and tapes down the port.  He flushes it with no problems.  He has issues pulling blood back on it, but flushing and pushing liquids through the port is not a problem.

10:42:  I am just sitting around in the room waiting for additional directions/drugs.

The Test Dosage

11:05: The nurse comes back in and flushed the line some more saline flush and prepares me for the test dose of Bleomycin  He hooks up the IV and stats the saline drip.

11:10: I am started the test dose of Bleomycin into my IV Line to see if I have any reactions to it.  We will flush this for 30 minutes before the next step is taken.

11:17:  The nurse gives me a handout with the side effects of the Bleomycin.  The worst thing that can happen is long term lung problems hence causing breathing problems.  I should tell him if any of the following side effects happen while I am laying in the bed or my doctor if any of the side effects happen later.  Those side effects are if I am feeling dizzy, not thinking clearly, have fever, chills, or wheezing.

11:20:  Just sitting here waiting for my 30 minutes to be up, and for more drugs…

11:40:  My alarm goes off on my SignsSpectrum IV Dripper/Regulartor Device.  The nurse comes in ad ask if I have a rash anywhere, if I have any problems breathing, chills, wheezing, etc.  I say I am fine.  He says good.  So I ask him whats the next step.  He says its time for him to order my round of drugs and get my antinausea medicine, and other pretreatment drugs to feed into my line.

Pre Meds

11:50:  The Premeds – Zofran and another drug that I will find out.

12:35:  Emend – Anti nausea Medicine, this will last for 30 mins.

1:12:  The premeds are done flowing, now just back to the saline drip.

ABVD Time

ABVD is a chemotherapy regimen used in the first-line treatment of Hodgkin lymphoma, supplanting the older MOPP protocol. It consists of concurrent treatment with the chemotherapy drugs:

• Adriamycin (doxorubicin/Hydroxydaunorubicin, the H in CHOP)
• bleomycin
• vinblastine
• dacarbazine (similar to Procarbazine, the P in MOPP)

1:17: First up Bleomycin.  10 minutes – 23 units, same dosage as the one test dosage, just more units.

1:24: I am just sitting here, not feeling anything special with this infusion just yet.

1:28: The alarm starts going off for my Bleomycin being done, a nurse comes in and sets the device to push more because there is still left hanging in the IV bag.

1:30:  My wife goes and gets me a chicken salad sandwich from the fridge in the infusion center.  I open up the tray, take a taste, and it tastes weird.  Also my Gatorade tastes weird too.  My wife says it taste like chicken salad, but that’s probably the chemo drugs taking over the taste side effects.

1:40: The alarm starts going off, the nurse comes in and checks it.  Bleomycin is done…

Next up is Adriamycin, the red stuff.

1:50:  The changing of the guards, I get a new nurse to start the Adriamycin.  The nurse comes in needing to pull some blood from the port to ensure that the catheter is in the vein before pushing the Adriamycin.  The Adriamycin can cause burning to surrounding tissue and skin if not delivered directly into a vein, therefore it must be verified that the catheter from my port it is in the vein before pushing the drug.

2:10: The nurse tried flushing the port with 2 more syringes of saline, even trying the pumping effect that the nurse achieved to get blood flow back on Friday, but she can still not pull back any blood.

2:45: The nurse came back and put some Cathflo into my line and port.

2:50: My mom gets here just doing of her job of being a mom, and worrying and making sure she is there for everything.  It’s her mom job that never stops.

2:55: Debbie Schmitz gets there and distracts my mom for a little bit giving her a full tour of the infusion room and kitchen area.

3:15: The Cathflo flushed out the port and the nurse was able to draw back blood, therefore everything is good to go and ready to start the Adriamycin.

3:23:  The Adriamycin is hooked up and started.  I should take the entire bag into me in 10 minutes.  Just pumping into me with no problems…  That is crazy look at how red this stuff flowing into me is.  Bright red.  It will make me sweat red, cry red, and even, yep, you right, pee red.

Crazy stuff, but cool stuff, Ill post another pic!

3:40: Adriamycin is all done, they pushed it at 774mL/hr.  They they push the the saline to clear the line out for 5 minutes at 774mL/hr.  Plenty of cold fluid.

3:51: The vinblastine is now being pushed into to me.  Its in a syringe, hooked up to the IV line and pushed in by the nurse.  She takes 2 minutes to push in this syringe of drugs.

4:03: Here comes the Dacarbazine!  YAY!  Last one!  30 minutes of this stuff, and then its time for me to go home.

4:13:  My dad gets here, yay, now its its a party!

4:17:  My wife shows my dad and my mom the video room for them to watch the chemo intro video.

4:30:  They still pumping me with the Decarbazine.  Not a problem here.  Just keep pushing these drugs into me, make me get better.  We’ll see how bad/good the rest of the week is, but me just sitting here right now, is no problem whatsoever for me 🙂  Kill The Cancer 😛

4:33: The Decarbazine is done with.  Now flushing me with saline again at 500 mL/hr.

Bad side affect today?  None so far.  I have been hot.  I had night sweats all last night, and some warmness, almost sweating the whole time I am here today, nothing drastic or sweating here during treatment but definitely a warm feeling, but I check in with my temp at 98.7.

4:44: The alarm goes off for my saline flush, and another nurse comes and turns the pump back on.

4:50:  The pump alarm sounds again, and the nurse that just turned it on for 5 minutes comes back in and changes my saline drip to 100 mL/hr.

4:58:  The same nurse comes back in with the cart.  She asks me a few questions about the next time I am doing blood work and the next time that I am coming in for Chemo.  I told her that the doctor told me that I would have blood work done the Thursday before my next chemo.

5:07:  The port is flushed with a syringe of saline to flush out any of the remaining fluid/chemicals in the port/catheter.  Then a 1/3 of a syringe of heparin is pushed in to prevent the port and catheter from clotting, the type of clotting that we saw today where they were unable to pull any blood back and had to use the cathflo to break up the clot that was preventing the back flow of blood. The silicone covering on top of the port prevents anything from leaking out of the port and seals back after the needle is removed.  This is the purpose of only using a non coring needle.  A coring needle would take out a portion of the silicone dome which would not allow the silicone dome to seal properly upon needle removal, therefore the type of needle to used to access the port is known as a huber needle. The huber needle is bent in a way that the opening of the needle does not slice out a section of the silicone hub.  It goes in on such an angle that the silicone is sliced with a very small pinhead then stretched around the rest of the needle, only coming in parallel contact with the needle hole therefore never destroying the way the silicone hub is made to close back up around the needle when removed.  However, great care must be taken that the needle is not moved back and forth while in the port as this could stretch/tear the silicone hub.  Also it is important not to spin the huber needle at any time.  The reasons for this is that if the wrong part of the needle is in silicone section, then it could stretch/tear on the bend, or it could core out a section of silicone if needle opening is even with the silicone section at the time of spinning.  Therefore it is strict regulation to just push the needle in and remove the needle out and not to move the needle in any other direction and to secure the needle with a clear adhesive circular patch to hold the huber needle in place.   Ok, Ok, enough about the huber needle and the port and it’s silicone hub, I just thought one may like a brief educational update.  My line is taken out and I am discharged from the Yenni Treatment Center.  I am heading home.

5:20:  I am headed out of the Yenni Treatment Center. Catch you when I get home.

5:45: We arrive home. My dad drove me home because he has the larger SUV.  My wife gets home right after us.

6:15: My mom gets home with some Kentucky Grilled Chicken. Time to eat! Yummy…

6:50: We are done eating, I go to the bathroom where I can close the door and take off the bandage in peace and in front of a big mirror.  This bandage is located on top of my port to prevent the skin from bleeding after they removed the needle.  I also need to be careful taking off the bandage because the nurse taped the tape on top of the sterri strips, and I don’t feel like ripping those off today.

7:30:  I am in my bed, and quickly fall asleep.

I wake up sweating, but turn over and go back to sleep.

10:30:  I wake up again in a sweat, I get out of bed and take another trip to the bathroom after all those fluids all day and drinking water and Gatorade all day.

10:55: My dad leaves for his weekly 11PM – Midnight Monday night adoration at church.

I then watch some TV with my sister, Sarah.  I want some different flavored Gatorade, so I ask my sister while she is up in the kitchen to see if there are any other flavors.  She says there is none, but asks which ones I usually like.  I tell her orange, yellow, and red.  She says she will go off to CVS and return with some.  I tell her not to worry about it, I will just continue to drink the blue that we have for now, she says its ok, and runs out to get some.  She returns with 6, 3.78 gallon bottles of Gatorade. 2 Orange, 2 Red, and 1 Yellow.  I have her mix half water and half orange to get me the electrolytes and other benefits of Gatorade with the extra water I need to drink to flush the chemo from my system and to keep my mouth moist and to prevent it from drying up.

Overall today went smooth!  I know the anti anxiety medicine helped me out greatly.  Usually I would not be able to watch the nurse insert needle into my skin, watching them pump the saline flush in and out, and try to aspirate blood from my port with no luck without feeling sick, first time at Dr. Veith’s office.  I felt a little sick before my bone marrow biopsy when that nurse was pumping the saline flush in and out trying to get no luck, then taking a break and trying once again with a little more force, and then was able to start pumping with some blood flow then flushing harder for better blood flow by aspiration.  I noticed it odd, but after taking the anti anxiety medicine I was able to just sit back and watch the chemo chemicals be pumped into to me.  I was able to watch 2 nurses try the pumping effect to flush the line so they could get blood pulling back by aspiration.  They were able to push and flush fluids, but they could not pull/aspirate blood from the line.  After the Cathflo, she was able to aspirate a half a needle of blood.  Funny enough I can’t watch them pull blood from me, nevertheless when I am giving blood for blood tests, or if they are pulling it back through an IV for blood work.  I can’t see my blood in any form with a needle in me without me feeling bad and woozy and just slipping to the floor.  I have found out that smelling salts do not work on me after seeing a bloody cyst removed from my back right after graduating high school. So yes, i want to say the anti anxiety medicine sure did help me today, and I am planning on using it for every upcoming treatment to put me at ease and help me through the situation.  I am sure it helped me accept the fact and have no worrying issue about the chemo chemicals/drugs they were putting into me today either.

07/22/2012:

12:05:  I am still watching TV, and finishing up one last client’s update.

12:50: I have a temp of 100.1.

1:00:  I am done working on computer work for tonight.  Time to lay back, relax, and rest a little bit.

7:50:  My dad wakes me up by turning on the TV in the den where the Lazy-Boy is for the implosion of the Grand Palace Hotel implosion. My dad and my mom used to live in that building right after they were married. My mom was in nursing school at the time and she could walk to school.

8:00:  The building implodes: Grand Palace Hotel Implosion

8:30:  I doze back off.

10:00: I wake back up, and my wife is up getting ready for work.  Just thinking about tomorrow making sure I have everything ready to go in my “Little Black Back Pack” LOL  I got some snacks, hard candy, my rubik’s cube, and that’s about it.  I’ll do some more research online today to see if there is anything else I should add.

10:35: My wife leaves for work.

11:00:  I help my dad move the BBQ pit that I had put together for Father’s Day that was inside waiting until we scheduled the plumbers to run a gas line from the attic to outside, but then the news of my issue came about, and we just never had time to call back and schedule a plumber to run the gas line.  Hopefully once my chemo gets started and we are on routine again, we’ll get that done soon as we can’t use a natural gas BBQ pit without the natural gas…

11:15:  I am back inside, it is hot outside.  I didn’t do much but help my dad move the BBQ pit, and I am coughing from the tumor pressing on my trachea.   So I just sit back in the lazy-boy and watch some TV, while I continue to cough for a few more minutes.

11:40:  Food is served, beef stew, yummy.  I can’t eat my usual whole big bowl, but I have a nice helping.

12:30: My dad and I left the house headed to the office.

12:45: We arrive at the office.  I gather my soft bristled tooth brush for home and my rubik’s cube for my Chemo Bag.  My dad opens up the front door to the office to check the mail, while I checked out an issue across the hall, but they had resolved the issue themselves.  I will completely resolve this issue later when I can, but for now the work around is what I would have done.

1:10: We then lock up, head back down stairs, and off to a client’s office Uptown.   We passed the building that was imploded on the opposite side the interstate, and then exited the interstate turned around, and got back on the interstate in the other direction, the side closer to the imploded building.  I took plenty of pics with my phone.  We then continued on to the client’s office.

1:25:  We got to my client’s office.  When I got there, I moved a power strip supplying one server from one UPS to another UPS because the batteries in the first UPS were failing, and need to be replaced.  I took the failing batteries out of the failing UPS and had my dad carry them back to the car.

1:40:  We left the client’s office and headed to Walmart.

1:50: We got to Walmart, and then searched for some full button down relaxed fitting shirts for Chemo Treatment Days.  And some lime green pants.   Lime green because I found out that that is the color given to supporting my cancer.  We got what we needed fairly quickly, and checked out.

2:15:  We are back to the car, it is way to hot outside for me to being doing leisure activities, lol.  I need to go home and just rest a little more, I can feel myself pushing myself just a little.  We are on our way back home, but we are going to pass the implosion site one more time.  We pass on the ground level this time the first pass, then back onto the interstate for the second pass heading back home.

2:35;  We arrive back home and my Mom and Sister are cleaning the house, trying to make everything as clean as possible for tomorrow since tomorrow will be my first Treatment Day.  I just sit in the lazy boy, I update my blog, and I am about to post pics from the implosion site, so those are coming soon!

3:00: Done posting the pics to the blog, also emailed my dad all the pics that I took because I only posted 7 out of 34 that I had taken.  I then told my dad how to log into his gmail account and how to forward and email to a coworker of his, as he usually does not use gmail for his emails.

4:30:  I go outside and put the garden hose, that was moved to the grass so that my dad could cut the grass, back into the garbage can and start the siphon process by submerging half the hose into the can and then pulling it out fairly quickly but leaving the end of the hose still in the bottom of the can. We use this garbage can strictly to collect the rain water off of the patio to add fresh water to the pond.  This also skims the dirt off the top of the pond by the overflow since the pond is at the brim from  all the rain water we have had in the past few days. I also grab some of the pine needle’s that are floating and other larger debris. I also throw the ball 3 times to buster, and then finally come inside, that’s enough for today.

5:30: I am back inside back on the lazy-boy watching them finish cleaning the house.  I am going to attempt to take a nap, maybe, I hope…

7:15: I wake up from my nap, my wife is home and she has brought home some food. I sit at the table, but have to wait to they are done doing the last little bit of cleaning.

7:45: Supper is served. Country Fried Steak and mashed potatoes, Yummy!

8:30: Time for a bath… I first have to remove the bandage from my bone marrow biopsy. Not too much fun, but I am not letting anyone take the bandage off my back either, I will take care of that myself.

10:00: I am out the bathroom and into my room and into my bed for once, so nice… My mom comes and talks to me and I ask her as many questions as possible on the drugs I need to take tomorrow before my chemo, as I have a handful new drugs from Dr Veith for pain, nausea, and even anxiety, I figured it wouldn’t hurt to ask after getting weak when he was trying to access my port. All those medicines were thrown into a ziplock bag and I will put them into my chemo bag tomorrow… Goodnight

07/21/2012:

12:45: Transporter 3, talking with my dad, and just laying in the lazy-boy.

9:00:  I woke up and just laid in the lazy-boy for a while, as I didn’t feel like moving around yet.  When I finally did get up, I could feel the pain in my back from where the procedure was done yesterday. OUCH!  I walk around a little bit then back into the lazy-boy.

10:15: I wake up my wife as she has work for 11:00.

10:40: I get up and eat 2 sunny side up eggs that my mom had cooked for me.  YUMMY!

11:15: I turn on the TV and start watching the coverage from the Movie Massacre in Aurora, Colorado.

So where have I been all day, not updating the blog?  Well let me catch you up!

12:00: I grab my computer and start checking emails.  I review work that has to be done, along with some admin work.  I pay the cable bill for our internet and phone service.  I then make a payment on our company credit card.

1:00:  I take a break from the computer and watch some TV.

2:00:  I am back on the computer overlooking some website updates I need to do for a client.  I then update the website for the client and let them know of the changes.

3:00:  My parents leave for mass, just me at home.

3:15: OK, I am just exhausted, time for me to lay back and catch some ZzZzZzZzZ’s.

6:00: My parents come home and bring my wife and I some dinner.

6:15: I have my temp taken by my mom and have a 100.4 temp.

6:30: I take my last Percocet pill for my hip pain and my temp.  I also find Indiana Jones – The Raiders of the Lost Arc.

7:15: My wife comes home and we eat what my parents had brought home.

7:30: My parents go off to Walmart to pick up some hard candy for me to suck on during treatment to a mask some of the metal taste that some of the chemo drugs can produce when receiving it.

8:00:  Indiana Jones – The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

8:41: A friend from my gamin clan who goes by MattBaker calls me up and we talk for a little bit about how I am doing, the upcoming events, my business, and how everything is going.  He has been thinking about me and been praying for me.  I thank him for everything, once again, can never use too many prayers.  He has to go catch another call, but he tells me to keep up the good work and the fight, and he will be looking forward to reading my blog and keeping up with my daily events and progress.

9:30:  My parent’s come home.  They purchased some jolly ranchers, butter scotch, and 3 different bags of life savers.  Just something to give me a variety for the chemo.

10:15: I start working on catching up some billing and client work.

10:30:  I have a temp of 99.5 taken by my wife.

11:00: The Devil’s Advocate comes on TV next.

07/20/2010:

1:30: I have a temp of 101.5.  So I have had someone ask me about getting my temperature every hour on the blog.  Well I was told that if my temperature goes above 102, to call the doctor’s office who put the port in.  I am under his caer until tomorrow evening after a full week from when the port was put in.  Therefore since I have been running a fever on and off, I need to constantly check it.  Also remember, I am using this as a journal for myself, so if I want to recall what my last temperature was and at what time, I am going to come check the blog for that info.  So why some of it may seem repetative to you, it is informative to me for journal and reference sake.

1:54:  My wife calls me letting me know she is on her way home from her normal nightly outing.

2:00:  I have a temp of 101.7.  Remember I am not able to eat or drink anything after midnight.  Usually the Percocet/Tylenol was keeping my temp down, but the last time I took any tylenol was 4:30 PM.

9:30: I woke up to a client phone call that wasn’t anything of an emergency, so I will take care of that this weekend.

9:35: I took my temp, even though I feel warm, I don’t have a fever, 98.6

9:40: I answer 2 texts from another client, I am waiting for a part to come in for one issue, and the other issue I can take care of this weekend.

10:30: I am here at my computer setting up my Outlook to handle all the email addresses I am handling at work, so when I am working from home, everything is setup the same as the office.

10:45: I call back the doctor’s office who tells me that I have a surgery set for Monday at 9:30 if the port doesn’t work today for the Bone Marrow Biopsy.

10:55: I get a call from the surgery center which I return, they go over all the basic instructions for Monday morning, no eating after midnight, wash the area thoroughly with antibacterial soap, the normal.  I get a voicemail from a vendor for a client of mine, while I am on the phone with the surgery center.

11:03: I return the phone call from the vendor, and have to remote into my client’s server and check on another server that is having issues from the workstation point of view.  There is no issue, but the cause was the repetitive loss of power over night and today which has completely drained the battery in the UPS.

11:15:  I get ready to leave for EJGH.  There is a thunderstorm rolling through.  A flash flood warning is effective for our area.  Let’s see if we can make it to the hospital without drowning or getting stuck :P.

11:35:  My wife is driving me now to EJGH.

12:00: We checkin at outpatient.

12:15: I checkin at endoscopy. They give me some more paper work to fill out.

12:25: The nurse comes to check on me and my paperwork, as my room is ready.

12:30: I am in the room and in another lovely fashionable gown.

12:35: Anesthesia interviews me.

12:40: The IV team shows up to access my port.

12:45: The port is accessed. However they have problems drawing blood from it or pushing saline in to flush it. After some pulling and pushing, the nurse is able to get some blood flow, but not enough to easily fill the tubes. She takes another tube of saline and pushes really hard and fast and flushs out the line/catheter between the port and my vein. She then pulls blood again for the tubes and this time it is flowing nice and quick. She then flushs it again. The nurse then hooks up my IV line that is connected to my port to the bag of saline hanging behind my bed.  My wife has to go to a meeting at work, so she heads out, my mom will be driving me home again today.

1:00: The pathologist, Dr. Sartin arrives and talks with me real quick about the procedure. He wants to go over everything real quick, and just checking, we are doing this on your left hip.  I say “right”.  He says Actually left, lol.  Had to be there…  They then have me lay on my right hand side since they will be doing the biopsy of my left hip.  He says he is going to examine me before putting me to sleep.  He promises he won’t start anything until I am well asleep.  I feel him probing for my hip and and then I feel what feels like a needle which I flinch, and he then tells me its just a pen that he is marking on my back.  Whew, I thought he was starting already, jump started me.

1:10: They start feeding me the propofol.  I don’t know if it is because it is in my port they are giving it to me, but I am out quick, I don’t even remember feeling the tiredness.

1:40:  Next thing I know I am waking up.  A little pain in the left back hip, but that’s usual, and its not unbearable.

2:00: I am up out the bed getting dressed.

2:10:  I am being wheeled out in a wheelchair.

2:15: We get to the parking garage, the outpatient area, third level, and my mom is there waiting.  I get into the car, and we head on out.

2:25: We are at Jimmy John’s, ordering lunch/supper.  I get a #11 – Country Club, and The J.J. Gargantuan.

2:45: We get home and it’s pouring down rain, we decide to wait in the car till it slacks up a little, but it doesn’t, so we finally just get out.  My wife arrives home shortly after we do and also waits for the weather to slack up a little bit.

3:00: We are back in the house.The Country Club is great, and I eat half of The J.J. Gargantuan and save the other half for my dad.

3:15: I get a call from Dr. Veith’s office letting me know that my first Chemo appointment is Monday for 9:00 at the Yenni Treatment Center.  OH WOW, now its starting to sync in, time for the CHEMO to START.  TIME to start prepping my Chemo Bag.  My rubic’s cube, my hard candy for the affect of certain drugs giving me the metallic taste in my mouth.  Plenty of drink, some reading material, and always my laptop.  I am planning on giving live updates of what each drug does to me and how I feel and whatever the nurse has to tell me about the drugs.  Time to get the party started!  OH BOY!

3:30: I took my Percocet for the pain in my butt, lol.

3:45:  It is now it is time to sit down in the nice comfortable lazy-boy.

4:00: I help my wife with a few things on the computer.

4:37:  My dad gets home from work.  Long day in the rain, with flooded streets, and stuck out on his route because of the streets.

5:00:  I am watching the news about the Batman Returns shooting in Aurora, Colorado, also working on a few things other things on the computer.

5:30: My sister, Sarah, is trying to use her phone and a curling iron at the same time. Let’s just say she is distracted and grabs the heated part of the curling iron giving her 1st or 2nd Degree burns to her fingers. My dad teases her saying that she is tired if me having all the attention lately with all my appointments, procedures, and tests. She is just desperate for some attention herself. LOL, we are just giving her a hard time.

7:00: I flip through the channels and find Batman Begins on FX.  I have seen it before, but since I am not in the mood to do much else, I will watch it again.

10:15: Next on is Mission Impossible III.

11:30: I have a temp of 101.5. Also my hip/butt is starting to hurt bad again. So I take another Percocet. I can see in the bathroom mirror that the blood spot on the bandage has grown. I get back in the lazy boy with a pillow under my left hip to keep addition pressure on the incision site.

07/19/2012:

12:30:  I take my temperature myself, it is 100.8

2:12: My wife takes my temperature, it is 99.8

And back off to sleep I go.

8:30: I wake up to my phone ringing.  It is the client’s who’s computer I had to rebuild.  They need a few files before leaving the office in about 30 minutes.  I connect to the computer and look for them, but cannot find them at first.  It then that I realized that the virus had hidden some files before I had reformatted the machine.  I marked the whole folder as hidden, and then marked whole folder as unhidden which then revealed all the files that he was looking for.

9:00: I am still laying in the lazy-boy, just browsing the internet reading up on the ABVD drugs once more, and all their possible side effects.  Just another hour of research.

9:30:  EJGH calls me about the Pre-Op checkin.  They check all my data over the phone and will get an authorization from the insurance company today for tomorrow’s procedure.  She cannot give me the time, as she doesn’t know, but to call my Doctor for that information.

9:45: My doctor calls me and tells me that the Bone Marrow Biopsy Check-In will be for noon tomorrow.  Of course, the same run down, no eating or drinking anything after midnight, etc, the normal pre-op run down.

10:00: I wake up my wife because she has work for 11, we thought about having her dropping me off at work, but I forgot that the interstate is all messed up because of the construction being done between the Clearview and Veterans exits.  They are expanding the interstate from 3 to 4 lanes in each direction and extending the bridge.  So she wouldn’t be able to make the stop at my office and then continue to her job for 11.  I asked my sister, Sarah, what her schedule was like today, she said she was just traveling up to Prarieville to see my other sister Katie.  I asked her if she would mind bringing me to my office, she said she wouldn’t.  I then asked her if she would mind doing me one more favor and bringing me to Whitney Bank first so that I can close my account with them.  Whitney Bank was fine as Whitney, ever since Hancock took them over I have had nothing but issues with my personal and business accounts.  I have already closed all my personal accounts, just had to wait for a number of checks to clear on my business account, but whatever, I could go into a long rant of what Whitney has become, but this is not the place or time to do so.  Anyways, she said she would bring me there too.  Great, so I have that all covered.

10:28:  I have a temp of 99.1, checked by my wife on her way out the door.  I feel fine, but all the factors around me say otherwise.  The only big negative is my coughing is coming back.  After getting off the Prednisone, the breathing issues are slowly starting to return, this morning I am noticing a lot more coughing.  Oh well, we’ll see what happens as the day goes on.

10:50:  My sister is ready to leave and bring me, so I must go!  I’ll catch ya’ll at the office…

11:00:  My sister gets to Whitney and waits out in the car with Buster.  I go inside, meet with one of the Financial Services Associates.  I close out the business account and get the money in cash.  I head back outside where my sister says Buster went crazy the moment I got out the car to I came back.  So off to Iberia Bank.

11:15: We get to Iberia Bank.  I go inside fill out the deposit slip, add everything up in my head, then pull out my phone to double check the 4 checks and the cash I was putting in.  What do you know, I can still add, LOL.  I see the teller, then I am out of the Bank and back to my Sister’s car.  This time Buster has jumped into the front seat.  I tell him to get back in the back, which he does, and then I sit in the front, and my sister brings me 2 blocks over to my office.

11:20: Buster and I head up to the office.  He gets on the chair and stays there while I take care of a few admin things.  First I go through all my medical paperwork from the past 2 weeks, scan it into the computer system to upload to Google Docs, and then hole punch it to add it to a binder I have.   After I got all that situated, time to do some admin work because I got Sales Taxes Due tomorrow, and Payroll Taxes due at the end of the month.  I should just do them all now so they are out of the way, so I take care of all that admin foolishness along with sending out some invoices and catching up on some office work.

1:00:  A nice bowl of Chicken Ramon Noodles for Lunch!  5 minutes in the microwave and its good to go.

4:45: I start working on a client’s computer remotely, having software here at here at the office that I need on his computer, I zip it up, put it in a folder that makes it downloadable from our website, and then remote into the client’s computer and start downloading the software.

4:54:  My client calls me and asks if I am already working on his computer, I say I sure am, just waiting for the download to complete, about 3 mins so that I can install it.  Once the download is complete, I install the software which fixes the document issue we were having.

5:20: I am off the phone, another client had called, so I follow up with a return phone call.  Her problem is that there was a lightning storm the other night, and ever since the storm she has been unable to user her computer or even power it on.  I still cannot lift any weight or drive, so I told her that possibly my wife can come pick it up tonight and bring it in for me to look at.  She says that will probably work best, and she will be available after 9:30 tonight for my wife to go over there, so I will let them two schedule getting together to get the computer.

6:00:  I am exhausted just sitting here at the office.  I call my wife, and she is just getting off of work and heading over to pick me up.

6:15: My wife calls me asking the best way to get to the office because its raining hard and some streets are starting to to flood.  She know the street my office is on floods many times during heavy downpours, she asks if my dad can use the CRV instead to come pick me up, just in case the street is flooded by the time she gets there.

6:30:  My dad arrives to pick me and buster up, no street flooding yet 😛

6:45: We get home and my wife opens the door.  I didn’t tell anyone else that I was bringing Buster to work, so she jokingly remarked about not letting anyone know I was taking the dog, they were looking for him when they got home.

7:00:  Almost dinner time, my wife and my dad are cooking.  The pork chops go into the oven, and I make some mac and cheese, the pastas has just been strained and put back in the pot, I add the cheese and milk and stir it up.  Once its ready, I take a nice helping.

7:30:  The pork chops my wife and dad flavored come out the oven, and I eat just2 of them, as I already and plenty of mac and cheese.

8:00:  I lay on the lazy-boy, and before you know it I am out.

11:45:  I wake up, drink some pink lemonade before the midnight time limit, and then attempt to go back to sleep, but not to easily done.  My temp is 98.6, so I am good for now.

07/18/2012:

12:30: After relaxing and almost falling asleep a few times, I get out.  I get dressed.  My wife then called me asking me to unlock the front door because it is pouring down rain along with much lightning.  I unlock the front door, sort my dirty clothes, and then put the Thunder Blanket on Buster since he is shivering again because of the lightning and thunder.  My wife comes home just as I am almost done putting on Buster’s Thunder Blanket.  He is trying to run towards her while I am trying to hold him down so I can get the last 2 connections of velcro to secure it around him.  I then wonder back to the bathroom to cleanse my face and head, and brush my teeth.

1:30:  After talking to my wife for a little bit while she got her bath, I came into the Den, sat back in the Lazy-Boy and continue the final steps of the computer that I was working on earlier today.  I just need to install Office and their CRM program, and then i can go to sleep!  New temp: 99.8 checked by my wife.

3:00:  I complete my work and fall straight asleep with no problems.  I gotta be up for my Doctor’s appointment.

7:30: I wake up to Buster pawing at my right shoulder from the ground.  Worst shoulder for him to be pawing at.  I wake my wife up for her to let him outside because him pawing at me, means one thing in the morning, he’s gotta go.  I grab my laptop check a few things on the computer from the previous night then doze back off.

9:00:  I wake up again check a few things on the computer I was working on remotely and doze back off.

9:30:  This time I am awake for good, I know I got my appointment in an hour.  I remote into the client’s computer.  Check a few final things, and run the final updates.

9:50:  Time for me to get ready and dressed and outta here.

10:10: My wife and I leave the house headed for EJGH for my doctor’s appointment.

10:25: We get out the car in the parking garage.

10:27: I check in at the front desk.

10:30: I am given a stack of new patient paperwork to complete.

10:32: My mother and sister arrive at the office to accompany us to my appointment.

10:50: I finish up the paperwork and pay my $50 copay. I am waiting in the front waiting room now for to be seen.

11:00: Just sitting here thinking. Wondering how this second opinion and different doc/patient experience will play out. Nothing to do right now but sit here and think and wait and type messages for my fan base.

11:10: Still sitting here…

11:15: I am brought back to the patient room.

11:20: I am done normal temp, pulse, oxygen level stuff. Waiting on the doc…

11:25: The doc comes in and talks to us. He goes over everything. The 6 rounds which is 12 infusions of chemo. The chemo regimen will be ABVD. So it will be 6 months of treatment, a treatment every other week.  Doesn’t look like I’ll have any rounds of radiation treatment.  I will have another bone marrow biopsy to confirm that the other side of my body is negative as well.

11:50: Our basic Questions and Answer and Informative session is over.  He is going to do a quick physical.

12:00: My physical is over, time for them to draw some blood.

12:05: The nurse arrives to draw my blood.  The first stick is my left anti-cubical, the second stick is my right anti-cubical, the third stick is my right hand just by the knuckles.  As soon as she said let’s try you hand for the next stick, I wanted to run out the room.  I hate needles stuck on top my hand, they hurt the worst!!!  They are no fun either.  OUCH!!! That last one hurt as she stuck it in.  Worse yet after all that pain she didn’t even hit it right!  Then she started digging for the pain, ouch, ouch, I just wanted the pain to stop, screw the blood test.  I’ll get it later, just stop the pain for now.  I wasn’t looking at it or I would have been sure to pass out, but it sounds like they were blowing the vein because it looks like a marble was blasting up under my skin my wife said.  OUCH! 🙁 I HATE NEEDLES.

12:15: So the doc comes to check on me, and see’s the problems the nurse is having and says, let’s access the port and use the port instead of keep sticking me.  Great, I am all for this.  She then pulls out the needles and wraps my hand. 🙁  At this point I am not feeling good.  I am weak, a little nauseous and just want to sit still until it passes.  I ask the nurse if she has something to drink.  She says that they do have an orange juice, I told her I would take that, at this point I will take any liquid with sugar in it to help me feel a little better.  Don’t know how, but this always works.  So now I am thinking OK, the port should be alot simpler.  But wait the port has been in only for about 5 full days.  It is still painful for me to touch much-less someone else to touch and use force.  So the doc goes and gets the needles needed to access the port and the tubing etc.

12:20:  The doc comes back, The doc tries to access my port just by removing one hand from my shirt after finding the sterri strips are still on my skin over the port.  I take off my shirt so he can access the sterri strips to peel off the port area.  Now the fun begins.  If you are a bit squeamish, I would suggest you skip down to the next time frame.  He start pushing on the skin around the port to take off the sterri strips.  OUCH.  NOT very painful but on a scale of 10, it is a 3.  The most fearful part is him taking off the sterri strips, worrying that he will open the wound up, and then I will have to worry about getting the wound patched up too.  Yeah at this time I am probably worrying too much, but all this enters your mind while you are sitting there.  After he is done getting the sterri strips off that he wants, he then uses some tubes of sterilization solution and rubs it in circles on the area.  He then opens up his needles and prepares them.  They they use some ethyl chloride which makes the skin very cold and numb.  He then takes the needle and sticks it into the skin where the port is and pushes it down pretty good to he hears it click in the port.  He then attempts to use the larger syringe tube to pull the flush that is in my port to my vein out so he can get to the blood to pull for the blood work.  However as he pulls, he doesn’t have any luck moving the plunger backwards out of the syringe at all.  He then figures ok, if i can’t pull anything out, let’s try flushing the port.  However after he hooks up the saline syringe, he tries pushing the saline into the port with a pretty good amount of force, but that didn’t work either, ok, this is not good, now this is where my mind is starting to rush, and yes, I guess you can say I am getting a little anxious.  He pulls back on the needle a little and pushes it back into the port to make sure that he is in the port completely, and i feel it pull out the port then I feel it click back in, so he is back in, and then he tries again with some additional force, and I can see his hands shaking a little from the amount of force he is trying to apply.  Ok, this is enough for me, I am really starting to feel week and queasy now.  I slip back on my chair a little.  he asks if I am ok.  I tell him, I am really starting to feel weak now.  He decides it is best at this time to stop.  I ask if I can lay down on the table, and he tells me that I can, and that I can take all the time I need to feel better before getting back up.  I make it to the table lay back and still feeling queasy but at least I am laying back and have nothing to worry about because I can’t fall over or slip out of the chair or anything.  I stay laying there for about 10 minutes while my wife just looks over me wishing she could do something to make me feel better.  At this point, nothing could really make me feel better.  After about 15 minutes I am able to sit up.

12:50  The doctor’s assistant comes in and asks how I am doing.  She goes over a few additional things with us.  She tells us the prescriptions will be sent to my CVS Pharmacy.  She explains that there are nausea prescriptions, a prescription for me to take the first 5 days because the onset of the treatment can cause a high amount of acid in my system leading to gout, so this will prevent that.  She also gives me a prescription for lidocaine/prilocaine cream for me to put on before my chemo treatments to minimize the pain of the needle being inserted through my skin into the port.  After she gives me the run down of all this, she will call me with my Bone Marrow Biopsy appointment for Friday to check my other side.  With that final bit of information, and me feeling better, we are free to go.

1:00: With a slow walk back to the car, we are on our way.  We have decided that we will be going to Chilli’s for lunch, even though I am not that hungry.

1:15: We get to chilli’s, and are seated.

1:20:  Our server comes to our table and starts to take our drink order.

1:25: She comes back to our table and I give her my 2 for $20 order.

1:35:  She comes back to the table again and everyone else is ready.  My wife gets the half ribs.

1:40:  Our appetizer is delivered.  The Cheese Texas Fries were good.

1:55: Our food arrives, well there’s does at least, mine is in it’s final stages of cooking.

1:57:  My order arrives.  The chicken fajitas are awesome!  But then again to me, almost all food is awesome.  I have 3 fajita’s and all three are delicious and now I am stuffed.

2:20:  We leave the restaurant and set out to my client’s office to finish up some work.

2:35:  We arrive at the client’s office and I try to make the microphone work, but for some reason the microphone’s special buttons won’t work.  The device is about 10 years old and the third series is out with no way to download drivers for the outdated model.

3:15:  I call it quits and call the client and asks if he has any extra mics.  He says that he has one in his other office that he can bring to the office soon, and we can try it at a later time.  I then walk into another office where another one of my client’s is and change some setting on their fax machine because they are having issues sending faxes.  We’ll see if these changes fix things.

3:40:  By this time it is too late to go to the bank on the way back to the office, so we just head to the office.  I answer some emails and follow up on some admin work.

5:56:  I call a client who has been trying to get me to do some remote support for him, for the past week.  I remote into his computer.   Setup his new wireless router, edit the security settings for the wireless on two laptops.  I configure a wireless printer, then I configure the printer on a desktop and two laptops.  I also configure the desktop to be able to receive scans of pictures and PDF documents.  He also tells me if there is anything I need to let him know.  Rides to and from work, anything!

8:00:  We get off the phone, I go into the other room and wake up my wife who is sleeping in the other room, it’s time to go home, and I am starting to get cold which has been happening more lately at night.

8:30:  We get into my wife’s car to go home.

8:40:  We arrive home.  It is lightning like crazy outside and about to storm.  Buster greets us at the door with his thunder blanket on, which wasn’t on completely correct, and my wife had to redo the way it was on him.  My wife finds me a flannel jacket out of our closet, because I am still cold.  My wife and I eat some Chinese food.  By this time it is getting really bad outside.  Lightning and thundering like crazy, the lights flickering, and the sounds of huge concrete dominoes falling in sequence quickly down the street, or the sound of a train wreck with all the cars quickly running into each other.  I then walk around and the house with Buster to try to calm him down.

10:00:  I wasn’t feeling to good and was tired so I decided it best to just flop down in the lazy-boy.  I updated my blog from earlier today.

10:25:  My dad gets me some pomegranate drinks mixed with some blue berries.

10:35:  My wife takes my temperature, it is 100.8.

10:40:  Around my port is hurting when I move certain ways, probably because of it being accessed today and disturbing the healing tissue around it.

I am still finishing up the details of the blog for today.

11:15:  Ok, I think I have updated you enough for today.  I think I am going to take being tired as a sign to go to sleep early tonight.  Just put the computer down and doze off in the couch.  If I wake up for anything, I will as always let you know 🙂  My temperature is now 99.5 says my wife.

12:10: My dad comes back home from adoration.

12:30: I have a temperature of 99.1 taken by my dad.

1:50: I have a temperature of 99.3 taken by my wife.

2:00: Goodnight….

8:30: I wake up, take Buster outside and then go by my computer, however, I am feeling a little weak and tired, so I better go sit back on the lazy-boy.

9:15: I have a temp of 99.1 taken by me. I also take a pain pill because I am almost 5 hours overdue and I can feel a dull throb starting up in my right shoulder/chest. I set my phone alarm for 10:00 and doze back off to sleep.

9:50:  I receive an email from a client which wakes me up.  I take care of the client’s email issue remotely on their server.

10:12: I get a call from my client who I was working on yesterday.  I gave them a few options of what we could do, and they would like for me to rebuild the computer.  So I will be headed over there after my doctor’s appointment.

10:15:  I am quickly updating this blog, then I am up to get dressed as I have a Dr. Appointment with my Internist, Dr. Yager at 11:00.

10:40: We leave the house, my wife is driving me to my appointment.

10:50: We park in the parking garage.

10:52: I sign in at the window and have a seat in the waiting room.

11:05: I am brought back to the patient room where my weight is taken. I am 243lbs.

11:20:  He comes back and sees me.  He wants to know when am I starting treatment, I told him I have an appointment with Dr. Veith tomorrow at 10:30.  He does his normal physical routine.  110/80 is my blood pressure.  He can hear some obstruction in the breathing, but better than what I was before, and he doesn’t want to do any additional steroids with me being so close to Chemo Treatment.  He wants me started as soon as possible because if I wait too long I will need to have a breathing tube put down my throat because of the tumor closing my trachea, and he would prefer not to do that, but to have the chemo started to shrink the tumor.

11:30: We move to his office, and I get my wife from the waiting room for the normal follow up in his office while he puts the info and notes into the computer and also makes the time frame for the next appointment. He also tells me that he does not want to see me less than 7-10 days after any chemo treatments.  So Its best to go a day or two before the next chemo treatment to meet with him.

11:40: We are out of the office.  I have my wife drive me over to Yenni Center.

11:50:  We get over to the Yenni Center, I try calling Debbie Schmitz, but she is out of the office, probably to lunch.  I take a walk around the 2nd floor of the Yenni Treatment Center to get familiar with the place.

12:15:  My wife and I get back into her car, and go over to my office.  I have a client with an issue across the hall from me that I need to take care of, and I also have to pick up a package of toner and a drum that I have to deliver to another client.

12:30: We arrive at the office.  I get the package from across the hall.  I then remote into the server and find that the file transfer program is not working as it should, so I restart it and then the issue of copying received faxes over to the proper folder is resolved.

12:45: I update my blog and answer a few emails that have come on.

1:15: I prepare to leave the office.

1:30:  We leave the office on the way to drop off the toner and then on to yesterday’s client.

2:00: We drop off the RMA package I have at Kinko’s

2:30: We drop the 2 toner cartridges and drum at a client’s location.

2:45: I arrive at the client’s location that I need to rebuild the machine.  There is one final piece of information that I need off of the computer, but the computer is infected with something else because the client tried using it this morning with no virus protection enabled and it in a basic mode so that I could copy the files I needed from it to the linux machine.

3:15:  I am finally able to restart the format process.  I am also working on my laptop following up with other client emails and starting some billing.  I also find a printer for a client and email them the info.

3:30:  My wife comes back to the client location to bring me my pain medication.  Being in a shirt is no fun with it rubbing against the port site.

5:00:  My mom and dad are coming back from the city where they are dropping off a fluffy bed top like seen in the hotels at the only dry cleaners in the city that does this large of fabric.  The top fills an entire 55 gallon garbage liner and you can barely close it.  Its just bulky and needs to be dry cleaned by the same company that does similar hotel laundry.  Since my white blood cell count will be lower once I start chemo, we are basically sanitizing anything and everything that will be in my room.

The real reason my mom is calling is because she knows that I haven’t eaten anything all day and she wants to bring us a smoothie while we are at the client’s office.  I get a muscle punch plus this time around.

I install all outstanding updates which takes about 1.5 hours.  Mean while I am still catching up on billing and admin work on my laptop, so not like I am fully devoting all my time to a reformat.

My goal was to be done for 8:00, however I knew it was going to take a little longer than that.  I just need to get one program to work while I am here before I leave, because it also requires using a usb mic/speaker to record dictations.

9:45:  No luck on getting it to work, I will have to find the original installation CD.  Hopefully it is just a bad copy of the installation CD to the server…  My wife and I head on home.

10:00: I get home.  My mom gets home not to much longer after us.  My wife is off to visit a friend, and I enjoy the left over food that my mom had from going out with a friend of hers for their usual Tuesday night outing.

10:30:  After eating I get ready to relax a little in the tub.  Almost able to get shower’s again.  Just gotta wait for the sterri strips to fall off before I really want to get the area wet.  Then I’ll be thankful for my 5 – 10 minutes showers and very quick 5 minute full head and face shave.  Oops, forgot, soon, i won’t be able to use a regular razor anymore, we’ll see how the battery operated ones hold up and how quick I can get a shave done.  I couldn’t remember if I took a pain pill for my minimal throbbing shoulder, I called my wife she didn’t remember giving me one, and I don’t remember taking one.  So I am 99% sure I haven’t taken one.  Oh well. time to take one.

11:00: I have a temperature of 101.1, time to get this temp down.  This is before even getting into the tub.  Guess it will be another cool bath night, can’t raise my temperature.

07/16/2012:

12:30: I have a temperature of 99.1 taken by my wife when she arrived home.

6:00: I have a temperature of 98.3 taken by my mom on her way to work.

9:00: I woke up and got out the Lazy-Boy and moved over to my desktop computer in the house.

9:30: I called up Dr. Yager’s office to see if they had gotten the test results that I called Dr. Brinz’s office on Friday to fax over to Yager.  These papers still have not been faxed over yet.  I want a second opinion from another oncologist because I just don’t like a few things about Dr. Brinz’s office and the way certain things or handled.  Dr. Yager is concerned about the time I am taking to see another oncologist when I should be starting treatment as soon as possible.  However because of the way certain things are being handled by the first office I really prefer to get that second opinion.   The next oncologist I want to meet with is Dr. Robert Veith.

9:35: I get a call from a client.  It appears that I am going to have to go over there and fix the problem first hand.

9:45: I called up Dr. Veith’s office and give them all my information, they said that they would make an appointment with me once they receive all my test results and the Doctor’s has had a chance to review them.

10:30: I get a call from Dr. Yager’s office, Arleen is working on everything for me.  Arleen has been nothing but helpful in taking care of getting test results and paperwork from doctors and the EJGH Medical Records and faxed over to other doctor’s to keep the process moving.

10:55: I am going to get ready to head over to my client’s office.

11:00: I am heading over to my client’s office, my sister is driving me.

11:15: I arrive at the client’s office.  I find the same issue that I saw remotely, but could not disable remotely. A false FBI ransomware message saying to go the store, buy a greendot card and put the greendot card info into the textbox provided, one the greendot card is verified it will unlock the computer.  This is a false malware issue and not from the FBI at all, if they wanted to come after you for doing something illegal, they would be knocking at your door.  I try a number of things then i am finally able to stop it from running on boot by the task manager.  I found the appropriate process which was a weird name process and stopped it.  I then tried a system restore which of course failed, and tried a few other tricks that failed.  I also tried my final scan program which I always used as a last resort and that failed as well.  I downloaded XPSP1 from my office and burned it on a CD, but that would blue screen upon every reboot.

3:10: I called my wife who said she would come pick me up from the client’s office and bring me over to my office to pick up the XPSP3 CD along with the keys to the office where I was working.  I received a call back shortly saying that my mom had arrived home just as she was walking out the house, so both of them were coming to pick me up.

3:25:  We rolled through Wendy’s drive through for a bite to eat and went around the corner to my office.

3:30:  I went upstairs, sorted the mail, and grabbed the keys to the client’s office and the XPSP3 cd.

3:35: I was back in the car, and I ate my combo meal of the Spicy Chicken Sandwich on the way back to my client’s office.

3:50:  We were back at my client’s office where they dropped me off. I put the XPSP3 CD that I had picked up back into the computer and started the repair install of the computer.

4:30:  My new oncologist’s office, the office of Dr. Veith called me to schedule my appointment.  They got all the test results and the other information they needed for Dr. Veith to see me.  I will see him on Wednesday.

4:45: The repair install of the computer was complete.  I was able to log back in as the user with no problems.  I then installed the company antivirus back onto the computer and restarted the computer again.

5:00:  No luck after a repair install, the only thing to do now is to copy the files to a quarantined location, scan them externally with a linux machine, and reformat the computer completely and reinstall Windows XP professional.  However it is going to take about 6 hours to copy everything off of the computer, so I am going to start the copy process and head home.

8:30:  I phone home for a ride home, time to pack up, lock up, and get out of here…

8:40: My mom and dad pick me up from the client’s location and we head over to smoothie king for my supper.

8:55:  We arrive at smoothie king, they close at 9:00.

9:10: We leave smoothie king.  I got a a Hearty Apple with extra banana and immune builder, my dad gets the same thing without the immune builder.  My wife gets her normal Chocolate Shredder.

9:25: We arrive home.

9:30:  I take my pain pill.  Actually a shirt today was aggravating and not completely painful, but a numb pain when my shirt would rub the area where the port was implanted.

9:50:  I have a temperature of 100.0 taken by my wife

10:00: I have a temperature of 100.7 taken by myself.

10:50: I take a luke warm bath and then shave my face and head.

07/15/2012:

12:05: I have a temp of 100.4 taken by my wife.

12:15: I have a temp of 100.7 taken by my wife.

12:30: I have a temp of 100.4 taken by my wife.

1:00:  I wake up sweating a little under my sheets and take my temp.  I have a temp of 99.8 taken by my wife.

1:15: Blah I am going to sleep I’ll check my temp again whenever I wake up…

4:00: I ask my dad for the thermometer because I see he is up and in the other room.  My temperature is 98.5.  I then return to sleep.

6:30: My wife goes to work.

9:00: I wake up and my neck is stiff from sleeping in this lazy boy and I have to loosen it up a little first which is painful.  My mom takes my temperature and I am back at 99.8.

9:45: I am not in the mood to eat anything really, my dad fixes me some scrambled eggs, and I at them while I am reading over my patient packet for my smart port.  I also fill out the smart port cards that I should keep in my wallet.  I read through all the documentation from the surgery and find that I cannot drive for a week following the surgery, I guess to make sure that I don’t disturb the port placement or the vein that the catheter was placed into and to allow the initial healing to take affect.

10:00: I am back in the lazy-boy with Buster up by my side.  I find ghost rider to watch.

12:45: My mom took my temperature, 98.6 was the reading this time around.

1:15: My mom has fixed some Turkey Steak in place of Salisbury Steak along with some gravy, pasta, and some broccoli.

1:35: I take Buster outside in the back yard and walk around for a little bit and then come back in and sit in the lazy-boy chair.

1:50: My wife calls me and let’s me know that she is on her way home.

2:10:  My wife arrives home 🙂

3:00: It starts thundering outside and Buster doesn’t like it.  I am just laying in the lazy-boy.  My wife puts the thunder blanket on him, and then he jumps up in the lazy-boy by me.

3:30: My wife takes a few pics, here is one of the pics she took 😛

4:00: I dozed off for a little and was awoken by the thunderstorm coming through and Buster shaking like crazy.  Buster jumped down, and I had my wife put on his thunder blanket which does a good job on calming him down during thunderstorms.

5:00: I watched a number of NCIS episodes back to back while doing some research.

6:15:  I decided I would take a lukewarm bath as I couldn’t get my port placement incision wet.  I didn’t want to take a hot bath because I didn’t want to raise my temperature.  I rested a little bit, scrubbing to get the orange iodine from the procedure off of my body on the opposite shoulder, as they had already cleaned up all of this when they were cleaning up the blood following the surgery.

9:00: I started to look at a client’s machine that I was working on Friday night.  I had lost connection with it, and since this computer is a slower computer I thought it would come back up sometime Saturday.  Since I didn’t have the keys to the office on me, and I would have to have someone drive me over to my office, and then drive me over to the client’s office to work on the computer, I emailed the client earlier during the day and they called me and emailed me saying that they had taken care of the computer so I should have access to it again.  I started working on it again and started the scan again, we’ll see if it comes back up this time around.  While doing all this I turn on Everybody Loves Raymond.

11:00: Here we go again!  I have a temp of 100.6 taken by my mom.  Oh boy, another few hours of checking temps to make sure I don’t go above 102 and then have to call the Doctor’s office…  My mom also got me some additional drink aka Sierra Mist, and my next pain pill which I read can control the pain and the bring down any fever.  I am just going to go to fall asleep now in the chair, I am tired, blah…