Surprise - Day 4 in Hospital

Surprise Adventure - Day 4

Not feeling so "sleep deprived" today, got a new bed yesterday after putting up with a "special whammy bammy" air actuated undulating Binford 6000 bed for special people. The thing sounded like a Boeing 747 each time you moved a fraction of an inch then cranked up it's turbine powered air compressor to undulate to compensate for your new position….. now I have an old fashioned bed. You know, the kind that costs about half as much but is twice as comfortable. AHHHH! But isn't technology wonderful.

Below is the text of a letter I wrote to my sister Kathy, she is the one who has consented to take a short ride as a perfect match donor with me on this BMT adventure, she lives in Upstate New York where I was born about 7 years before she was, have not seen her in over 40 years, my younger sister Mary says she believes our deceased Mom has engineered this whole thing to get our family back together again….she may be right!

Letter to Kathy….
Good to hear from you...... thanks for writing..... am not feeling any ill effects from the chemo ( I think) , they keep telling me I am doing great. Two units of blood last night and two units of platelets this morning, they are trying to stay ahead of cell loss. I am researching the option of having BMT at OHSU (a local well known cancer hospital) and using Medicare instead of VA as a funding source. Medicare requires a 20% copay, but there are groups that assist with that, so am gathering that info. Medicare was not an option while I had MDS but will pay for a BMT if you have AML, red tape is crazy. It would allow us to stay at home, instead of shutting down everything to spend 6 months in Seattle, also options for you meet and become part of your extended family.

Sharon comes when she can, when doctor told us we had to be hospital Monday morning, we had 36 pups ready to go to their forever home, about 20 deliver already. The kids pitched in, Matt learning website/accounting/database procedures, Jen backing him up while supplying food and co-ordination. I and patched into home computer through my laptop tethered to a Blackberry, that works OK to check on Matt and continue administrate our business from here.

Took pics of the presentation of breakfast this morning and the early "Christmas tree" full of chemo bags which I will try to include in a daily update to our blog. Hope to be out of here by Thanksgiving. Say Hi to everybody, especially Mary..... tell Shan I would have plenty of time to build the visual Twist Family Tree if she could find some time to gather/scan the pics we talked about earlier this year.

Presentation of Breakfast:

Now those of you who know my wife Sharon, know she is a good cook, one of the favorite breakfasts she makes is a poached egg on English muffin….. I think that's what this is supposed to be. Sharon's is warm and soft, melts in your mouth, even if you don't have teeth….this one is cold and hard, requires good choppers and the egg can easily serve as a rubber Frisbee. I was hungry, so man of little will power I had, I caved, about a half hour later, I had my breakfast and a new case of sore gums……sure hope to have teeth by Thanksgiving! Presentation of lunch was not much different, some kind of pelletized meat sitting underneath a scoop of mashed potatoes that strongly resembled a Frisbee….. do you see a pattern developing here? There were some boiled zucchini slices which I promptly devoured and a cup of half melted rainbow sherbet which shortly follow…. Remembering a vague promise from Sharon for a visit that included food, and the reminder of damaged gums, I digressed from the remainder of the food in hope of that visit. About a half hour before dinner was served, my wonderful wife entered bearing a gift of spaghetti and meatballs in a bean pot, still warm….. probably based on the supposition that she makes that drive in 45 minutes while it takes me an hour. The smell of which soon filled my luxury suite at the VA, I am sure prompting the nurse to deliver the evening offering, sure enough, same thing that was served for lunch with a different color gravy on top of the Frisbee potatoes and a side dish of creamed corn instead of boiled zucchini, such imagination was hard to refuse but was already near foundered by the spaghetti, the addition of a piece of cake which Sharon ate and a cup of pears which I ate was all we could manage so the nurse graciously offered to remove the remainder it to a waiting receptacle, I assume to be recycled at the nearest hog/chicken farm into the basis of next month's presentations.

The last thing I would like to share is an early 'Christmas Tree" that stands beside my bed and is decorated with various pumps and brightly colored bags of chemo. Currently I have 5 bags draining into me and have has up to 7 today draining at one time today.

Well I tried to get the blog to co-operate but it wont....so click this link below if you want see this post with pics pics:
http://www.homewego.com/blog_surprise_hospital_day4.htm
True to my wacky little analogy section -- "What would Bre'r Rabbit Do"? -- Remember Brer Rabbit is me, Brer Fox and Brer Bear are the bad guys……just tryin to do me in..…..
Now Brer Rabbit, he feeling pretty good about outfoxing (excuse the pun) Brer Fox, he almost laughed hisself to death in his Laughin Place, had a good nights sleep and now was thinking about how to get back at that wascally fox. Hummm he say, bout this time of day old Brer Bear is always takin a nap in his cave, so Rabbit, he sneaketi sneck to the cave and he hears Bear snoring up a storm on the couch, peeks throgh the door and sees all is clear, chuckling under his breath he slow crawls up to the couch and begins to whisper in Brer Bears ear…."Honey Tree", Honey Tree"…over and over again. Pretty soon old Brer Bear gets to lickin his chops and drooling all over hisself, Rabbit was having so much fun with Bear that he never saw Old Brer Fox walk through the front door and Fox sees rabbit whispering in Bears ear, sneaks up behind him and whack, grabs him about the ears and Rabbit lets out a whoop that could be heard all the way to Remus Holler…… of course Bear wakes up lickity split and sees what is going on….. but then remembers "Honey Tree"……Fox says we got him….lets have dinner! Rabbit he says NOPE! If you eat me for dinner, you won't know where that big fat, delicious honey tree is that I found. Bear stopped mid step while pulling out the dinner plates and said "did you say Honey tree"? Yup says Rabbit, I said "honey tree"….. now Fox sees right away whets going on and he turned to run with Brer Rabbit but Bear grabbed him by the tale, turned him around and said "Fox..we..is..going..to..the..Honey Tree….. DO YOU AGREE? Fox knowing when he is beat says yup we is going to the honey tree. They throwed a rope around Rabbits neck and said "March". Fox following Rabbit holding the rope and Bear following Fox with a big club in his hand. About a mile down the road, Rabbit points into the woods and say "we gots to go there…..listen….sure nuff, they hear the buzzing of the bees and Bear he is getting real excited……but he ain't no fools…..he been here before and them bee stings hurt….. Fox he say " give me ur coat", "what for says Fox?" Bear says cause I gotta cover my head and nose from all the stinging, and gimme that rope to tie it down". But Bear Fox says "that no count Rabbit will run away" Bear says "No he won't, just sit on him". So Fox gives bear his coat and his rope, sits on Rabbit and Bear wraps the coat roun his head and nose and ties it roun his neck. Can't see real well, but heads for the buzzing and jumps in right where the buzzing is loudest…..Fox hearst a terible comotion and Brer Bear comes running out with Brer Bull swing his horns awful close to his backside……you see Brer Bull was taking a snooze in those buses and Bear jumped right on his head a grabbin at his nose, which Bull did not take too kindly too. Now Fox sees troble coming straight at him and afore he could move Bear plows right into him followed by Bull all in heap just a kicking and a bitin and a bellowin and raisin all kinds of dust…..naturly Rabbit jumped out of that that free for all real quick and took offa running to his Laughin Place, where he laughed so hard he cried. Now where is your Laughin Place, have you been there lately? By the way the take away from this story is don't mess with the Rabbit when he knows where the Bull takes his nap.