Connie (Mrs. WebSlave)

Hi ,

How is Connie?

How are you?

Connie has been feeling pretty good lately. The surgery seems to be pretty much healed up, but she still treats herself like she is made of eggshells. And I hover over her making sure she doesn't over exert herself. She can get up from a sitting position pretty well, but still can't manage the recliner by herself. She walks around, but with the yellow flies hovering outside waiting for blood, she can't really do any real walking, just circles around the inside of the house. She has a stationary bike in another building that she will spend a little bit of time on every now and again. But she tires easily, and part of that is surely that she just hasn't been able to do any real exercise for the path month or so. Even with just having that nagging cough she had, it knocked the stuffings out of her and she was real short of breath. So I am sure her muscle tone has suffered accordingly.

She is trying to bulk up with protein drinks and anything she can think of with lots of protein. She has even eaten a couple of steak sandwiches and she is DEFINITELY not a meat eater. I need to run down to the seafood market soon to get some more shrimp and fish. I am hoping she maintains this healthy appetite she has. She is down to 110 lbs from around 120 prior. Heck I dropped down from 160 to 152 lbs myself. But Connie has been doing more cooking, so that probably won't last too long. Unless chemo makes all food seem disgusting to her, then I'll be making my own sandwiches for dinners.

She is trying to sleep in the front room on the sofa in there tonight so see how that works out. It is actually a sofa bed, but the bed part is not at all comfortable. They put bars and supports in these things in the worst possible places. So she prefers sleeping on it as a sofa rather than as the bed configuration. I think sleeping in the recliner all these nights is affecting her back, so hopefully that will work out. She is deathly afraid of every time she coughs being a sign that her right lung is getting fluid in it again. Getting a needle jabbed into your back is not exactly a fun thing to have to go through, and I think twice is quite enough for her. And it seemed that laying down would make her cough more, so she has been trying to avoid that as much as possible. Personally I think she wants to do this so she doesn't have to wake me up every couple of hours to get her out of the recliner so she can go pee. Again, just like her. Looking out for me when she should be looking out for what is best for her.

Ah, I'm doing OK. I guess. Denial is a warm blanket, and seeing her walking around nearly as normal and smiling makes it easy to wrap myself in that cocoon. I still treat her like the precious gem that she is, and don't allow my mind to drift into the dark "maybes" swirling around me. I have had to drive by myself a few times to run some errands, and when I am alone with my thoughts, I can feel the darkness at the edges of my mind. As long as I can see and touch her, I am OK. Of course, I don't know if that will change if the chemo really does a number on her. I guess I am rather terrified of that myself because of the potentials it will bring to mind that are now pretty easy to ignore somewhat.

Haven't had a valium in quite a while, and neither has Connie needed one. Her heart beat is still a bit fast, but that is apparently a side effect of chemo, if I remember correctly. Possibly the blood thinner too. I think she is under as tight of self control as I am. Again, probably for my sake.

At least she doesn't have that leg and feet swelling she had a little while ago. She seemed terrified of edema. She is scared to take her blood pressure, and I sure don't want to try to force her to.

She had blood work done today, and from the glances that I had of the results, her red and while blood cell counts are down a little bit. But the nurse taking the blood and handing her the results didn't make anything significant of it. I am thinking of it as a good sign in that if the blood cells are being affected by the chemo, then quite likely so are the free floating cancer cells in her as well. At least it is worth hoping that is true.

Connie gets her second chemo treatment in another week, and gets the full three chemicals this time. I am expecting Connie might have a rough time, and not as easy as that first session was with only the single drug administered. But hopefully the drugs they administer prior to the chemo and the drugs she has prescriptions for to take afterwards will work some miracles and it won't be too bad. Fingers crossed, anyway.

I sent a message to the facility today requesting that I be allowed to be with her in the infusion room (citing what happened during the first session), but I haven't gotten a response yet. Would I make things hard on Connie if I told them to go to Hell and get out of my way, I am going in anyway? I have a friend on standby in case I need to get bailed out of jail. But I guess that would be pretty hard on Connie too.

Anyway, thanks for asking. I keep on going back and editing and adding things here and there to this message, so I guess I had just better stop now.

Hi ,

I am sooo happy, you two are doing well.

I have been thinking about you and Connie , hoping that y'all are doing well, and hoping that Connie's chemo treatment tomorrow goes well.

I just don't feel comfortable turning this thread about Connie into one about me, so I moved all the posts about my heart attack here ->https://www.faunaclassifieds.com/for...d.php?t=787889

Sorry if this just makes it more confusing, but I think Connie deserves her own thread.

Connie is having a tough time tonight with a nagging cough. I have a slight one too, but I am writing this off as being an after effect of the acid reflux episode I had Wednesday evening. That doesn't explain hers.

She saw a cardiologist on Wednesday just prior to my being discharged from the ICU, and she ordered some x-rays to be taken of her chest to see if she was getting fluid buildup in her right lung again. Connie says it doesn't feel the same, but doesn't really know what is causing it. Eating or drinking seems to make better VERY temporarily, so that sounds like the problem isn't in the windpipe. For all I know about it, anyway. She is using some cough drops that help a little bit. Liquid cough medicine doesn't seem to do anything to help.

I think at this point she would rather jump off a bridge than to go back to the emergency room again, I think this is going to be a real rough night.

She mentioned that maybe her being at the hospital with me wasn't a real good idea. Sick people hang out in hospitals, and the air is likely filled with all sorts of pathogens looking for a home. Of course, I had no choice in the matter myself, so I could have been exposed myself to something. Hopefully not COVID, but who the heck knows? I was looking at COVID home test kits, but they are saying something ridiculous like "Positive results are accurate, but negative results are not." Oh really?

Jeezus, I want to help her, but I think she is getting aggravated at my hovering over her. Every fiber of my being just wants to FIX her. And I can't....

I think it is valium time. Probably not a good idea to have my heart going haywire.

Connie's cough seems to be getting worse, and she has an off again/on again fever. If that no contact thermometer can be trusted.

She contacted Urgent Care and they suggested a COVID test. So I checked Walgreen's and they had a couple of home kits. Luckily they delivered locally, so I just had them sent to the house.

Read over the instruction so I understood them thoroughly, than got Connie set up to be the first guinea pig. Pretty easy to understand process (BinaxNow), so I ran her through the procedure and then waited out the 15 minutes needed to determine infection. Negative.

So my turn. Also negative. I am actually surprised. With the way things have been going lately, having one or both of us infected with Covid would have just been par for the course.

So we are going to run out to Urgent Care. The nurse Connie talked to said that they are seeing an uptick in cold and flu cases, so perhaps Connie picked up some bug. She has been spending an extraordinary amount of time around sick people in doctor's offices and hospital settings. And yeah, I spent three days in an intensive care unit as well as coming into the hospital through the emergency room, then operated on.f ffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffff ffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffff ffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffff ffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffff ffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffff ffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffff ffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffff ffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffff ffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffff ffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffff ffff Damn, fell asleep at the keyboard.

Guess I need to get us ready to roll. Probably find out that Connie has a cold or flu bug, or that fluid is building up around her lung again. Or both.

So yesterday was one day just snatched out of our lives.

We went to Urgent Care and they checked out Connie's cough. Took x-rays and found that her right lung had the sack around it 50% filled with fluid. They also did another COVID test, but I sure do wish that they had done a flu test as well. Connie says this cough just feels different. Anyway, they can't do the procedure there at Urgent Care (Thoracentesis). Connie contacted her oncologist and she suggested Connie could either go to the ER and have it done right away there, or she could wait until Monday and she could be admitted into the hospital. I sure didn't want Connie to have to go through Saturday and Sunday night with that cough, so we headed to the emergency room.

Which turned out to be a waste of time. Long story shortened is that we were there until around 10:30 pm. The doctor there finally informed us that there must have been some wires crossed, because the only time they do that sort of procedure in the ER is when it is a matter of life or death IMMEDIATELY. And in Connie's case, she wasn't in that sort of danger. So what was going to have to happen was that Connie would be admitted into the hospital (whenever they could get a bed open) and then be there till Monday when the procedure would be performed. The doctor asked why we weren't just doing this as an outpatient procedure. We told her we thought we were. So year, wires crossed, it seems. Anyway, Connie now has an appointment on Monday to get the fluid drained as an outpatient. In the meantime, I brought her back home. I think she was relieved at that anyway, as she was afraid they would be taking blood from her all through the day and nights while in the hospital. They tend to do that there.

The doctor asked us about the x-rays that were taken on 06-01 as they were identical to the ones Connie had taken on 06-04. We told the doc that no one has gotten back to us about those x-rays, which is why we went to Urgent Care, and then to the ER. So someone dropped the ball. Had they not dropped the ball, certainly by Friday Connie could have gotten the lung drained at least by Friday.

I swear it seems like the medical field is just chock full of people who specialize at dropped balls, or just not really giving a crap about patients. But then you run into a true angel that shines far and above the rest of them. I guess anyone in our situation would pray they were all angels.

She seemed to have a pretty good night sleeping so I guess this turned out to be the best we could hope for, under the circumstances. Still pains me to hear her coughing like that, but I can't think of a damned thing I can do about it.

I am so sorry about Connie not feeling good. I am ECSTATIC she is doing "well" now.

Originally Posted by WebSlave

I was looking at COVID home test kits, but they are saying something ridiculous like "Positive results are accurate, but negative results are not." Oh really?

here you can get them for free, I got the 4 first initial ones, used 2 after going to a concert and just ordered more. might as well, it's 100% free:
https://special.usps.com/testkits