The Reed Report - Phil's Medical Journey

My Dad went downhill quickly after we visited for a couple of days in mid-January. He stopped calling just to check on us. And he was in more and more pain.  I am so glad that we traveled to visit him when we did, even though he tried to talk me out of it. If we had waited three more weeks (which would have been necessary because of my chemo cycle), he would not have been able to visit with us because he was sleeping most of the time. By February 1st, he could not walk. Mom had died 13 years ago on February 4th, so I thought he might pass away on that day. Instead, he died at 9 AM on Monday, February 8th, at the age of 80. Both Mom and Dad died on a Monday morning - and both the day after the Super Bowl. I will never understand that one. Two of my sisters (out of five) are RN's. One of them helped care for Dad during the day.  The other took care of him at night for the last week, so our step-Mom could sleep. We are thankful that Dad did not suffer long - and now he is in God'...

This round of chemo was my best and easiest round. I was only nauseous the day following chemo and felt just a little off the second day. After that I felt better and stronger every day. I did not nap at all (though I had the usual problems sleeping because of the 100 mg of prednisone I took the first 5 days after chemo). And I was thankful that I was feeling so good. The last time I took my blood thinner was Monday evening the 25th.  Once again, on the evening of day 6, Tuesday the 26th, I was fever free. Such a wonderful thing. That means my last hospital stay was Thanksgiving weekend. I will be thankful for my health for a long time to come, that is for sure. The next day, one week following chemo, we went in for labs. As usual, my labs showed no surprises - the things that we expected to be low, like white blood cell count and platelets, were low and other things, like lower hemoglobin, were acceptable. I also had an ultrasound to check for blood clots. None were found (as expe...