Vacationing...whatever

BOX SCORE
Element	Current	Std. Range	Trend
Hemoglobin	11.4	13-17	^
Platelets	110	140-375	^
ANC	2010	1800-8300	^

Did you ever plan a vacation and have it, well, not turn out the way you planned it at all? I think of a time we were going camping, when we owned a motor home. The plan was to take my mom along as far as the RV park on Hood Canal where we had reservations, and then hand her off to my brother, whose family was staying in a vacation home a few miles farther on. About 20 miles before we reached the RV park, I stepped on the brake pedal, and it went almost to the floor. Yikes. We pulled over into a conveniently located RV dealership to see if we could get some help. They didn't have a  mechanic, but they said we were welcome to park on their lot until we could get a tow to a mechanic's shop. I called my brother and made a different arrangement to get Mom to his place. 

The next day, we got a tow to a mechanic in Shelton, WA. He went out of his way to accommodate us. He even gave us a place to park on his property behind a locked gate and gave us his only key so we could stay in the motor home and come and go at our leisure. Abbreviating the story a bit, I will tell you that it took three days to repair the brakes, during which we stayed two days at the mechanic's place and then moved to a motel, so we could bathe. When we finally got back on the road, the RV park was kind enough not to charge us for the days we had missed of our reservation, and we finished out the week parked on the waterfront. Not exactly how we planned it, but we had a good time and no harm done.

It has been two weeks since my last post. Where does the time go? I wish I knew. We have had a good deal of activity around the old homestead. I last posted on the last day of my last round of chemotherapy. It always feels like I have just gone on vacation, when that week ends. To be completely accurate, what  I call chemo week is the week during which I receive injectable chemotherapy for five consecutive days. During that time I begin taking oral chemotherapy on the first day and continue for ten days. So, chemotherapy "week" actually lasts then days. After that it takes about forty eight hours for the chemotherapeutic agents to clear from my system. 

That 12th day of the cycle is the day when I really begin to feel like I am on vacation. Typically there is little involvement with medical stuff for the following thirty days, with the exception of a weekly blood draw to check the status of the blood elements that are noted in the Box Score above. On the other hand, sometimes there are other things that pop up. 

During this current "vacation," we sold our travel trailer, which I grant you is not a medical thing, but it did wonders for our emotional health. In my boating days, we used to say that the second happiest day of your life is the day you take possession of your new boat. What's the happiest day? Why the day you sell it, of course. The same pretty much applies with RVs, too. I have written before about that business. We have no regrets about the end of our RVing days. In fact, there is a certain freedom in divesting oneself of possessions. And the bigger (more expensive?) the possession, the more freedom I tend to feel. It kind of makes one wonder why we buy all this stuff. Jill always says that disposing of our chattels that we are no longer using provides the same satisfaction as losing weight. I quite agree.

I had an appointment with Dr. O, my favorite ophthalmologist, for the treatment of styes on my eyelids. If you've ever had a stye, you probably would agree that they are, shall we say, less than pleasant. Since I have been on chemotherapy, my skin has taken a beating, including my eyelids, which seem to be afflicted with styes that come in batches of 6-10 at a time. Dr. O sees me regularly to take care of them. 

The day following my visit with Dr. O, I had an appointment with podiatry because my ingrown toenail that was surgically treated in July wasn't healing correctly. Consequently, I had to have the surgery redone. I am happy to report that it is healing just fine now. In fact, as near as I can tell, the surgical site is healed. Now I just have to wait a year or so until the side of my toenail grows back. 

With those annoyances taken care of, we were ready to get on with vacationing. I decided that the muscle tightness and joint pain in my neck and shoulders needed to be addressed. So, I made an appointment with a massage therapist, to see if some manipulation of the tissues would help. So far, I have had three massages, and I believe they are helping some. I'm glad my insurance is covering some of the expense. If I had to pay full price, I don't think I would continue. So far the massages have not been a panacea for my shoulder discomfort, but every little bit helps. 

Last week, I felt a bump on my neck and asked Jill to take a picture of it so I could see what was going on. Well wouldn't you know, I had a humdinger of a boil on the very back of my neck. Jill did a little research, and suggested I start treating it with warm, moist compresses. A day later the boil opened and drained. Aha! Progress!

A couple of days after that, though, the skin over the boil kind of sloughed off, so there was an area of raw skin about a centimeter in diameter. We both got concerned, and on Sunday this week, we went to urgent care. The nurse practitioner said it looked "really good." She expressed some pus from the center and then dressed it with antibiotic ointment and a bandage. It was incredible how fast it started healing. Two days later, it looked amazing...almost gone. 

I told Jill these last couple of weeks kind of remind me of playing Whack-a Mole at the arcade. So, I guess that fits with the whole vacation theme...kinda...maybe? Never let anyone tell you our life is boring! And so,  the moral of the story is: When you go on vacation, be prepared to have fun, no matter what happens. Remember: 

This is the day that the Lord has made;
    let us rejoice and be glad in it. (Psalm 118:24)