A fundraiser created by the British community of Santa Monica, California to help ex-pat, ex-rocker, Paul Hornby, fight stage 4 colorectal cancer.
Monday, February 27, 2012
scanaxiety continues
I'm impatient. I am woman enough to admit that. I waited until late afternoon to email the oncologist to see if he has received the scan reports. Nothing yet. No biggie. I'll just bug him again on Wednesday since that will be more than enough time to get the reports in. Meanwhile, cue the nail biting.
Saturday, February 25, 2012
who knew cancer could be lucky
My best friend had an extra ticket to a comedy show in Vegas this weekend. Her original guest, her boyfriend, couldn't make it at the last minute so she asked me if I would take his place, which I've done often in the past back in my pre-cancer life. With only a week's notice, I made arrangements for one of our friends to spend the night with Paul since it would be yet another 23 hour trip away for me and as he is in the middle of this round of chemo, there was no way that I was just going to leave him alone for the night. Yes, I'm neurotic but honestly, after having to witness so many of his pain episodes, there is NO way I am just leaving him alone for the night.
So with arrangements made, we trekked across the desert with her dog, Rocky, in tow. We took a bit of a side trip to Pahrump to drop off Rocky at her parents and headed over to Sin City for a night of great food, laughs and a bit of gambling for me. Since it was so last minute, I grabbed a cheap hotel courtesy of Priceline. It so happened to be at Hooters which is conveniently located near the airport where I had a flight home at the crack of dawn.
My best friend is cursed by the number 27. It appears everywhere for her and once she tells the story, you, too notice the number everywhere. So after dropping all my bags off in the room, I debate whether to go downstairs to the casino and gamble a bit. I check to see how much cash I have in my wallet and lo and behold, I had $27. Certainly a sign for me to test my luck. I hit a roullette table which has one empty chair next to all of these young kids who all just turned 21. So I put a chip on 23 and 9 (the last two numbers from Paul's CEA test) and try my luck. Nothing. I try again. Still nothing. I figure third time is the charm and voila - my $5 chip miraculously paid out $175. The guys at the table all assumed that I was playing my "boyfriend's birthday" or some such date and I informed that it was my husband's latest cancer marker test and they all yelled out "Dammmmmnnnnnn." I took my winnings and went back upstairs and tried to get a few hours sleep.
The next morning I dragged my exhausted self to the airport where I learned the flight was delayed for 2 hours. So I wandered around and decided to play the slots with the change left over from my coffee and another $40 was won. I decided it was time to just get on the plane and head home to my patient.
See cancer can be lucky sometimes.
So with arrangements made, we trekked across the desert with her dog, Rocky, in tow. We took a bit of a side trip to Pahrump to drop off Rocky at her parents and headed over to Sin City for a night of great food, laughs and a bit of gambling for me. Since it was so last minute, I grabbed a cheap hotel courtesy of Priceline. It so happened to be at Hooters which is conveniently located near the airport where I had a flight home at the crack of dawn.
My best friend is cursed by the number 27. It appears everywhere for her and once she tells the story, you, too notice the number everywhere. So after dropping all my bags off in the room, I debate whether to go downstairs to the casino and gamble a bit. I check to see how much cash I have in my wallet and lo and behold, I had $27. Certainly a sign for me to test my luck. I hit a roullette table which has one empty chair next to all of these young kids who all just turned 21. So I put a chip on 23 and 9 (the last two numbers from Paul's CEA test) and try my luck. Nothing. I try again. Still nothing. I figure third time is the charm and voila - my $5 chip miraculously paid out $175. The guys at the table all assumed that I was playing my "boyfriend's birthday" or some such date and I informed that it was my husband's latest cancer marker test and they all yelled out "Dammmmmnnnnnn." I took my winnings and went back upstairs and tried to get a few hours sleep.
The next morning I dragged my exhausted self to the airport where I learned the flight was delayed for 2 hours. So I wandered around and decided to play the slots with the change left over from my coffee and another $40 was won. I decided it was time to just get on the plane and head home to my patient.
See cancer can be lucky sometimes.
Friday, February 24, 2012
scanxiety again
Thanks to all of the nightmares with our health insurance and the Continuity of Care and an inept medical office, Paul is finally undergoing his second PET CT scan to see what's going on in that body of his. This was supposed to be done just after the holidays, but the oncologist's office dropped the ball and never put in the order, then add the Continuity of Care debacle and of course, the COBRA debacle, it's been a tedious time of waiting for the day when we can finally get a prognosis report of what is actually going on. Sure, the continuing drop in CEA levels is a good indicator but they are by no means definitive. And since he has chemo in two weeks, it's perfect timing so that if the scan shows anything untoward, we can have his chemo adjusted.
Instead of going to our usual Santa Monica UCLA scanning clinic, we are sent to Tower Saint John Imaging Center. It's a much posher imaging center. The waiting room is bright and airy despite no wifi. Paul said the room he was put in to drink his contrast was like being in a spa. So all good.
He finishes up. We check to see if the local pub is open so we can have a quick English breakfast but it's not. So I take him home and head back to work. We should have the comparison reports with any luck on Monday if not some time next week. The waiting is the worst part of it all but it is what is and you just try to forget that you are awaiting some major answers. Here's to hopefully another report that shows some more major shrinkage.
Instead of going to our usual Santa Monica UCLA scanning clinic, we are sent to Tower Saint John Imaging Center. It's a much posher imaging center. The waiting room is bright and airy despite no wifi. Paul said the room he was put in to drink his contrast was like being in a spa. So all good.
He finishes up. We check to see if the local pub is open so we can have a quick English breakfast but it's not. So I take him home and head back to work. We should have the comparison reports with any luck on Monday if not some time next week. The waiting is the worst part of it all but it is what is and you just try to forget that you are awaiting some major answers. Here's to hopefully another report that shows some more major shrinkage.
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