Chapter 20

Chapter 20

October rolls around and I’ve been driving all over New Jersey but not getting to go to New York City. It has something to do with our lease purchase drivers “needing” to make some money and having bills to pay. Hmmm, no one twisted their arms to sign that lease for a POS used up Freightliner! And they think they have bills to pay? Come over to my house and see what bills really are! Thank god for family and friends who have helped me the past few months! I love them all!

I went in on the 10th for chemo and I come home with another pump strapped to my butt! And this time I don’t do as well as the last time. On day 2 ½ as I’m walking up to the house from the shop I fall to my knees in the back yard and start with the hurling! Man, this is a bad one! My neighbor comes over to check on me and helps me up and I go on into the house knowing that neighbors DO watch each other! But this treatment is really working to put me on my butt! Wish it would hurry up and end.

The next day and a half finds me wearing sweaters to keep warm even though the temps are still in the 80’s but I’m freezing in the sun! I’ve cut the AC back in the house making everyone a little miserable but at least the boys aren’t home most of the day and Barb can go away to the stores leaving me to think its winter in the house and counting the hours for when the nurse will be here to remove this stupid pump from my waist.

The nurse makes it to the house on Tuesday about 30 minutes after the pump signals that it’s run out of chemo and pulls it out of my port and leaves with it in the bag! Whee! Now to call my dispatcher and get a load for tomorrow to head out.

The next day I get a round trip to Granite City, Il and return back here and I head on out. I have to stop twice to take short naps and on the way home I call it a day about 100 miles from home as I’m just plain worn out! I wake and head on in and when I get to the yard I tell, Dave, my dispatcher I need to take another day to recover from that damn chemo! Man it really trashed my ass really bad and I don’t feel safe driving when I’m that low. I do get a pre plan to do another Rogers to New Jersey with several drops for the following week which I’m beginning to really not like, as driving in New Jersey is way worse than Chicago, Atlanta or LA! I do NOT like Jersey! Give me NYC any ole day!

The rest of October goes all right up until the 24th. I have my PET scan and CT but the insurance company goofed and I only got the CT scan done and I get the PET done on the 30th early in the morning so Dr. Km can read it and give me the results when it’s done.

The only problem is the night of the 29th as I’m heading home I call Barb and I also send Jerry a text message asking him if he had given his mother her birthday cards which he sends back, no, and of course I tell him to get them to her so I can hear her open them.

Well it never happens after 30 minutes and I text him again and tell him NOW and, nope, it doesn’t happen again and I get mad he’s not doing what I tell him to do! In my mad state of mind I have him turn off his cell phone and computer and X-Box, TV and stay off of the house phone and I’ll talk to you tomorrow! In the mourning I call Barb and wish her a Happy Birthday and talk for a few minutes and when I ask her if Jerry put his cell on my desk I have to explain to her why, she gets pissed at ME! And I ruin her birthday for her!

GREAT! When I walk in to the house I’m in deep sheep dip and try to hide in the bathroom until time to go get my PET scan.

I go in and get hooked up and have a syringe inserted in my arm with a radioactive isotope for the PET scan and go in for a quick ride in another tube!

I head home for a little while and Barb acts like I’m not there so I spend time in the garage/shop before it’s time to head up to Dr. Kim’s office. When I get there everyone is happy to see me (at least someone is!) after saying hi to all the nurses and shown to a room where my vitals are checked verifying I’m still alive after such a fun summer, Dr. Kim comes in and we have so much fun as he runs his scope down my nose to check out my sinus cavities and throat. When done he pulls out my file which over the summer started out as a 3 ring binder with a few pages in it to a full blown end of the school year binder filled to overflowing with everything done to me over the past 3 months of information!

He’s silent for a minute or so as he reads and I know I was getting a tad bit anxious as I’m edging to the front of my seat waiting for him to tell me the news I’ve been waiting for all summer!

He finally turns to me and tells me “Well it looks like we got it! From the PET and CT scans there were NO live cancer cells found.”

I almost deflate as the breath I’m holding go flowing out and I feel a tightening in my chest as look at him and he points at the pages so I can read along with him the sentences where another doctor has written his findings!

Dr. Kim tells me I’ll need to come back in 3 months for more blood work and tests and that I’ll be doing this for another year just to be sure that cancer doesn’t sneak back and that my type of cancer “could” show up either in my liver or lungs so I’ll be sure to come back. He also tells me that this is the first time in his career that he got to tell 3 of his patients in one day that they were clean of cancer and swears that Tomo radiation is the new big dog on the block and tells me I had a 1 in 5 chance of coming out clean with conventional radiation treatments. We talk for a minute or two and he gives me a hug and I see a tear in his eye as he shakes my hand and heads to another room and patient.

As I leave all the nurses are clapping from the news and it’s all real as they were as involved with me as I was with them and it is hard on them when one of their patients don’t make it through treatments.

I get out to the truck and as I’m trying to send a text message out to everyone I start crying from relief, and it takes almost 10 minutes to type a 160 character message because I can’t see the phone through the tears! After I hit send I call Carol my baby sister and I can’t even talk! She says she got my text and is so happy and asks me if I’m crying and I kind of squeak a “yes” and we both sit there till I can pull myself together and we talk for a few minutes and say good bye and I finally start the truck up and head home.

I get home and Barbara is in the kitchen and I tell her the good news and I guess she’s still thinking I’ve ruined her birthday and hurmphs the news and walks past me to go turn the dryer on and that pretty much sets the tone for the rest of the day. No big thank God it’s over hugs or any of the things a spouse will do when it’s really good news. Well, no big deal and later Jerry and I go out to eat at Lone Star as she isn’t in the mood to go out for her birthday.

The next day I head down to Rogers for another load and that’s the end of October. The one thing I learned this month is I will never try to discipline my son again! Let her handle it like she’s done for the last 14 years. Ah, wait a minute; she’s always put that job off on me to do!