An Apology to All Husbands (and Update)

Of course you love your wife. Of course you want to help her if she's in need. NO, YOU DO NOT NEED TO DO A BLOG TO PROVE YOU CARE. Please make sure your wife sees this before I get into more trouble with Husbands of the World. I like writing (unless I'm getting paid for it and then it's torture), I like taking photographs, and yes, I love my wife. I also like all our friends and family members who just want to know what's going on. Hence, the blog. Anyways...

This is the first week since early June where Rosina has not had a single doctor appointment, although treatment continues. [ed. note: Wrong! She has an appointment on Friday.] Last week, she had three consecutive days at City of Hope. Monday, she met with the pulmonary doctor and with the infectious disease doctor. She also spoke with a social worker who wanted to make sure that Rosina had a circle of support - I think so. Tuesday, we both took a class in taking care of the Hickman catheter that is going to be placed in her chest. It's a tube that goes into a major artery near your heart that gets used for IVs, medication, drawing blood, etc. Unlike the PICC line she currently has, it requires more maintenance. The whole process sort of reminded me of when I helped my father bleed the brakes on his '52 MG TD. You just don't have to get on a car creeper to do it. We also had a visit with Dr. Forman who decided to postpone Rosina's bone marrow biopsy until she was closer to being admitted for the transplant. That was kind of a relief. Rosina appreciated it as she'd already taken the ativan and vicodin on the way there. The donor has committed and will do his part on November 7th. Rosina will get the transplant on November 8th. On Wednesday she had to go in for an outpatient Broncoscopy because of some spotty things that showed up on her lungs in both her CT scan and an X-Ray. That was a four hour visit with general anesthesia. They think that it might be a fungal infection, but so far the tests haven't shown anything. When your white blood counts are low, it's easy to get stuff like that. So far, no alarm. She is, however, taking a medication for it that messes with your vision temporarily. BTW - please check out Steve Martin's essay on side effects. If you've ever taken medication, and I know that you have, you'll enjoy it.

The next big visit is on October 16, another day of assorted poking and prodding. It'll be the same thing the following week and then getting ready to be admitted for about six weeks. So, a little free time here, probably not much blog activity, and the opportunity to relax and even go out to a restaurant while the counts are up. Rosina is feeling okay, taking it easy, and appearing here and there. People ask if I need anything, all I can say is "red wine".

While Rosina is out there with her fuzzy little head, I haven't gotten my hair cut since last Thanksgiving, when the kids buzzed it off on camera while we were making a movie in Lake Arrowhead - an annual tradition with our friends the McDonalds. So I offer this picture of my wife's beautiful noggin, and my scary one.


xo
ph