Damaris and I were dropped off at a McElderry House Lodgingtownhouse ("short- and long-term housing for Johns Hopkins patient families") a couple of blocks from Johns Hopkins by our friend Flor de Lis yesterday afternoon. This morning we started off with a 15-minute chemotherapy patient training video in the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center Medical Oncology Treatment area, after which an IV needle was placed into the septum of the mediport placed surgically last Thursday under the skin of my right pec, and connected to a catheter for infusion of my three cancer drugs. The infusion started with two anti-nausea drugs and then Benadryl, to limit nausea from the toxic effects of the cancer drugs. Then taxotere was infused, followed by cisplatin. A portable infusion pump was connected to begin infusing 5-FU (fluoroucil) at the rate of 2.5 ml/hr over 96 hours. The pump is hanging on my belt and will be my constant companion while eating, sleeping, showering, etc. until Saturday just before noon. The slow infusion causes less damage to the vein in which it's injected, with less abrupt an effect on my system overall and greater effect killing cancer cells. The large vein into which the catheter from the mediport empties goes quickly to my heart and is dispersed more rapidly throughout my body. Unfortunately all three drugs target rapidly dividing cells in my body, which also includes non-cancerous cells such as white and red blood cells produced by my bone marrow as well as hair follicles. Next Tuesday at Johns Hopkins I'll have my blood cell count tested along with kidney function, and I'll receive a shot of another drug that will boost white blood cell production to restore my resistence to disease, which will have been compromised by reduced white blood cell production as a cancer drug side effect.
There were no rooms available in Hope Lodge or Johns Hopkins' Hackerman-Patz Patient and Family Pavilion. Both facilities always have a waiting list, so new patients get a room only if they're at the top of the list and another patient vacates. We will move out of McElderry House lodging to be guests of my sister-in-law's brother Daniel Tracy and his wife Veronica in their house on the Baltimore Waterfront. Raquel will pick us up on Saturday and drive us back to enjoy the God-sent hospitality of Leroy and Flor de Lis Snyder in Calvert County in the intervening weeks when I won't be receiving chemotherapy. I hope that we can get into Hope Lodge for my seven weeks or combined radiation/chemotherapy starting October 9.
My last post mentioned an earthquake with epicenter not far away in Virginia. You're all aware that this past weekend Hurricane Irene stormed slowly by Chesapeake Bay on its way north. Thank God none of us was injured at all by the storm. And thank God that neither the Snyder's house, nor the house trailer of friends Lorenzo, Juanita and their two sons, was damaged. Leroy lost some trees, which Lorenzo cut up with his chainsaw, along with trees blocking the driveways of two of Leroy's and Flor de Lis' single women neighbors. Leroy and I helped pull the cut-up tree branches and trunks into the woods. I only handled the light stuff because of stitches where my mediport was placed on Thursday. We lost power at 6 pm on Saturday, when the storm's eye was still south at about the NC/VA line, and power wasn't restored before we left yesterday for Baltimore. It finally got restored at 11 pm last night, according to Leroy. Because the Snyder's house gets its water from a well, no power meant no water. We got by with bottled water and other beverages and flushed the toilets once in a while with water that Flor de Lis had filled bathtubs before we lost power ("if it's yellow, let it mellow; if it's brown, flush it down").
So we've now experienced two disasters in short order. Some have said that my cancer diagnosis is a third for me, so I don't need to worry that disasters tend to come in groups of three. But the diagnosis is actually a Godsend, because it's leading to highly qualified treatment. Without dwelling on what a third disaster might be, the hurricane brings to mind a Bob Dylan song about listening to the Great Creator's plan for us to live in Peace and Justice among men and with Nature, in words that compliment Martin Luther King Jr.'s iconic "I Have a Dream"speech as part of the March on Washington. It's particularly significant because this past Sunday was the 48th anniversary of Dr. King's speech. Unfortunately, the ceremony to inaugurate/consecrate the MLK, Jr. Memorial on the National Mall along the Tidal Basin was postponed because of the hurricane. Seeing footage of 200-year-old Vermont covered bridges collapsing under historical floods captures our stewardship responsibilities for God's Creation which provides our biophysical sustenance. Bob Dylan's middle verse is especially pertinent to my thinking right now:
"How many years can a mountain exist
Before it's washed to the sea?
Yes, 'n how many years can some people exist
Before they're allowed to be free?
Yes, 'n how many times can a man turn his head,
Pretending he just doesn't see?
The answer my friend is blowin' in the wind
The answer is blowin' in the wind."
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