Cleared for take-off

2014.05.13

Every morning is busy just trying to get the kids up to go to school. Once I got them off to school, I sat down for 15 minutes too long to watch tv and have a cup of coffee in peace and quiet.

Yep, that meant that the traffic on the roads to the hospital were jammed. I had an appointment with my hematologist at 9 a.m. Peter and Eric were going to meet me there and then we were going to check Eric out of the hospital and go home. ...............

Traffic (and my 15 minute coffee break) meant I parked the car in the parking garage at 8:58 and had to run from the children's hospital parking across to Karolinska, check in on the first floor and then up to the Hematology department. Imagine how funny it looked with me trying to run (hobble very quickly) with one foot (and bad toe) in a boot and the other in a sneaker and a cancer cap on my head.........

I got there at 9:06. Pretty impressive, if I do say so myself. I am so pleased with the doctor. He has a great manner and gave me a lot of good news today that is hopeful. My blood work is (as quoted by the doctor) "better than a healthy person."  My toe looks great. (Although they were unable to give me a new bandage I was forced to go to my local nurse in Taby) Chemo #5 is on for tomorrow. I will continue with the antibiotics for my toe for the next two weeks as a preventive measure. My chemo #6 is scheduled. The PET and CT scan are scheduled for June 16th. The follow-up and results appointment is scheduled for June 19th and we have the possibility to take our planned trip to my parent's 50th Wedding Anniversary party on June 22nd.

There is now no margin of error. So I am hopeful. Of course, he couldn't guarantee that we can fly on the 22nd if there is still some cancer left. But hope is the only thing I have now. So, Midsummer in Sweden can be fantastic or f.....ed up depending on the outcome. I am putting my money on fantastic.

After the appointment we took the culvert passage under Karolinska to Astrid Lindgrens children's hospital back up to Eric's ward so he could check out. They were really fantastic there. It felt kind of sad to leave.

Then it was time to stop at the pharmacy for all of my medicine and for Eric's medicine. Of course there were some small glitches with his prescriptions but I made a call up to the Diabetes center and got it worked out. Lucky that all the prescriptions are sent electronically.

Then it was home to drop off all the stuff and then to McDonalds as we had promised Eric.  After we ate, I headed up to the local nurse and got a new bandage put on and then I met Peter and Eric so we could drive home.

Well, part of the preparation for chemo is always the baking of cookies. Today though my list of people to make cookies for got longer. I made a double batch. These people will be happy tomorrow: the chemo nurses, the nurses in ward Q63 where Eric has been staying, intensive care nurses and Sanna, the emergency room nurse who scooped  Eric up in her arms and ran into the hallway yelling after doctors to come quickly. It is the least I can do.

We now have a new reality of counting carbohydrates in the food Eric eats and calculating how much insulin he needs to take. He is hungry all the time and is eating like a pig - makes sense because he really hasn't eaten anything in the last few weeks as his body has burned all his fat and muscle to survive. It is amazing.

Tonight I received fantastic help to go through boxes and get ready for the moving sale this weekend. Annica and Mia are lifesavers in setting everything up and helping me decide what should stay and what should go. Thanks Mia and Annica.

Really tired now but still some good news on many fronts today. 

LOVED. GRATEFUL. KICKING CANCER'S ASS. FAMILY. TRUE FRIENDS.