What a Whirlwind of a Week!

As you know, I was released from the hospital on July 6th. So this week has been a whirlwind of doctor appts and meetings with good friends.

On Tuesday July 11th I met in the morning with my primary care physician and the pharmacist who works for her office. We went through a meds check and eliminated some and added some. Primarily concerned about blood sugar levels and the impact the high level of prednisone may have on them. We adjusted my insulin and added an additional oral med for dinner time. My blood sugars have been all over the place--high and low. We don't want to repeat the diabetic coma I had a few years ago so we are keeping a close eye on it. Eliminated a high blood pressure med that causes dry cough which complicated the pneumonitis observations. However, now I have to routinely check my blood pressure and have a new med to take if it gets high to prevent strokes. Just another thing to have to worry about. LOL!

Tuesday afternoon I met with the oncology team and had blood work done and a lengthy discussion with the nurse practitioner. The high levels of prednisone will prevent the continued infusions of iummunotherapy drugs. I have to go through a planned taper period to get down to 20 mg of prednisone a day before we can resume the treatments. The end looks to be near towards  the end of August to be able to restart. Blood tests show that I could be moving in the direction of hypothyroidism which is a complication that generally at some point flips to hyperthyroidism. They assure me they have drugs to manage that complication. In the meantime, I just keep taking the steroids and antibiotics to keep the my lungs clear. They scheduled a rapid CT scan for Friday and sent me on my way. They reminded me that we are still set for surgery on Friday the 21st for the TACE procedure where they will flood my liver with chemotherapy drugs.

I have an appointment on Wednesday with my regular ophthalmologist who is treating the bleeding in my left eye as a result of the radiation treatments 12 years ago. I go to see her and she examines my eye and gives me a clean bill of health. Everything looks good and she says come back in 6 months. I discuss with her the metastatic melanoma and she tells me she did her post doctoral research for the NIH on Ocular Melanoma and is completely up to speed on the protocols for protecting my eyes from the immunotherapy. I pass that info on to the UM Oncology team and they are glad to have her on board with the treatment and observations.

Thursday night we had a wonderful dinner at Joe Muers on the River in downtown Detroit with some old and very good friends--Mark and Ann Houska. It was a wonderful meal with excellent company. One of the things I am finding that has been most helpful in these times is to connect with good friends! They also surprised us with four tickets and a parking pass to the Tigers game on Sunday afternoon from their season passes as they headed out of town for the week. We were speechless and grateful for their generosity.

I got up Friday and went to Chris' house to help receive a new dryer for him and reinstall the gas line for it. I took a break to go get the CT scan and was back in an hour to complete the job at his house. When I was finishing up around 2:00 pm I bent over to pick up some tools . When I stood up the inside of my left eye again looked like an atomic bomb had gone off inside. Another internal bleed was occurring. I called my ophthalmologist and she got me in at 3:10 in her office in Ann Arbor. There was so much blood in my eye, they could not tell exactly where the bleed was so they planned to do a dye injection and photographic analysis to pinpoint the bleed. However, after talking to them about my earlier CT scan they did not want to tax my kidneys with more dye. Particularly since I have lost a portion of the right kidney. So we are scheduled to have that test done this Wednesday morning. In the meantime, I have a patch over my eye and look like a pirate. There is so much blood in my eye that I am virtually blind in it and the patch keeps the light from coming through and causing me to get nauseous from the floating black strands of blood. So much for a clean bill of health!!!!! They tell me that these kinds of bleeds occur but are generally very rare after the radiation treatments. One more thing that I hit on in the rare category. Mary is beginning to think I am just a genetic wimp and susceptible to almost anything that can go wrong. I suspect she is right.....lol.

Saturday night we had our good friends Andy and Lori Malm over for late night cheese, crackers and a glass of wine (water for me!) We truly enjoyed catching up with them and all that is happening with their family.

Sunday was a blast in that four of us went to the Tigers game only to see them win in the 12th inning with bases loaded and a full count. They walked Miguel Cabrera and we won the game on that walk. That one pitch is as good as a baseball game can get and we were there to see it. Mary and I went to dinner with Gary and Debbie Ley and  thoroughly enjoyed the evening with them and their daughters Marissa and Erica. The girls have grown up so much and  are so delightful. Gary has retired and it sounds like he is keeping himself busy with a wide variety of activities. Debbie continues with her realtor job and as usually has wonderful stories to tell.

So after all that, another scan and surgery this week along with my brothers and sisters coming in to spend some time with us, it looks like another busy week to come.

God is good all the time.........feel free to stop by anytime. My schedule is so crazy that it is easier if you just call and see if we area around to stop for a while. Changes come so quickly it is hard to set firm times to meet. I love seeing you all even if it is through the one eye only!!!!!!