Monday December 10 2007

Bondurant, McKinley's Cabin

Just wanted to put something on the blog to let you know that today went pretty well. Minus 10 degrees this morning. Met Charm about 8:30 at Boulder and we took my car. The roads were snowy then slick out our way, then the highway was pretty much clear until we got to the Rim where it got pretty slick and continued that way to Alpine Junction. We went in the Auto 4WD. Was kind of foggy, small snowflakes. snow on the pines, the whole trip looking like a Christmas card. Absolutely beautiful, especially along the river again. There wasn't as much ice in the river this week as last.

Got to the hospital about 10:30. It was much quieter this week than last. Saw Dr. Meno again. Went through the same procedure, put in IV, take blood draw, which results were pretty good, biliruben down low, except for showing the tumor markers pretty high, drip in the chemo. Carol gave me another big wad of information about what is going on, and probably why I experienced the pain after last week - It may be a good thing it turns out. Charm took notes for me this time.

"My" nurses are very wonderful people, I just can't find the words to say how I feel, I love them all and Dr. Meno too. Charm thought he is a doll! They are going to call me tomorrow to maybe change the appt. to Tuesday and have the port put in my chest they are talking about doing. There was a young man with a staph infection in his foot, I think the whole thing started with some bad splinters that went in and then surgery for that and later got infected. He is taking 24 hour antibiotics that are in a fanny pack, through the "pic line in his arm"..... the other option they might do on me.....I like the idea of the port better, because you have to flush the pic line with saline every day and most people have help with that. And I tend to procrastinate things I don't want to really do. Anyway he was very kind and helpful to show me exactly how the pic line in his arm looked and how it was to use it.

So after we got out of there we went over to the National Wildlife Museum to return the book I had bought which was a duplicate of one I already had. We ate lunch in their Sagebrush Grill, soup and salads. We could see the elk on the National Elk Refuge through the big picture windows, many 100's, maybe 1000's. A big bunch of bulls with antlers looking like a thicket of bare shrubs were separate from the big herds and laying together in a bunch closer to the highway, so we got a good look at them. There were wagons and teams taking people out on the tours to see the elk up close - wagons instead of sleds because there is almost no snow there yet. The mountains fading away into the distance through the fog and mist above the refuge were so beautiful.

We made two other stops, and Charm found some poinsettias at Smith's and got one for us too. They are all glorious - she got pink, white and red and I chose the red one. The temp was below freezing so you really have to protect them between the car and the house. Then we repeated the trip home, stopped at the drug store to fill my prescriptions, and Charm filled the car with gas while I was waiting at the drug store.

As we came into the Green River Valley and got the first and continuing looks at the Wind Rivers, we could see they had gotten a new dumping of snow and were absolutely glorious in the setting sun with the storm clouds lifting. Got home just about the same time tonight as last week. It was about 0 when I got here. Joe had reheated the pork roast for dinner. It was a long day and I'm about ready to lay down for the night.