Yet anther clean CT Scan!

Ruth Ann's latest CT was clean. She had the scan Thursday, got the results today.

Next scan will be in September.

Another Clean CT Scan!!!!!

Ruth Ann's latest CT was clean. She had the scan Friday, got the results today.

Colin

Another Clean Scan!

CT scan yesterday. Her oncologist read the CT, said it looked clean.

Next scan in 4 months.

Another Clean Scan

Third CT scan was clean. Next scan in July.

CT scan was clean!

Good Christmas present. Next scan in 3 months or so....

Colin

Second Followup CT Scan

Ruth Ann had her second followup CT scan today. Will get the results week after next....

Colin

A sticky subject

Surgical tape and adhesives are very irritating to my skin. After my lumpectomy, I had a patch at the edge of the tape that itched and broke out like poison ivy. We discussed this prior to my surgery, and sure enough, my bandage from this surgery was different than that. It was like a plastic coating covering gauze and extending from my sternum around under my arm. I think it might have been Tegaderm by 3M. It comes in an 8x12" size that would accurately describe the extent of the bandage. Well, I broke out again! Several large blisters at the edge of the tape. It turns out that blisters can form from the friction of the tape putting shearing forces on the layers of skin. From the linked study, you can see that this can be more than minor irritation as it was for me.

After two days, I was allowed to remove the Tegaderm and shower, but I needed to put a dressing on at the place where my drains came out. The nurse had given us three kinds of tape, all by 3M: Durapore, kind of a silky tape, Micropore, like a non-woven paper, and Transpore, a clear plastic tape with perforations in about a 1mm gird. In the end, they were about equal in terms of comfort. We used as little as humanly possible. My drains came out on June 25th. I still had to cover the holes with gauze for several more days, so by the 29th I was finished with bandages. I was still scrubbing black tape residue off my skin over the 4th of July weekend. Rubbing alcohol was worthless. My sugar scrub helped some, but in the end, the thing that worked the best was my Mary Kay oil-free eye makeup remover.

2009 Team Sarcoma Walk / Massachusetts - Boston

On Saturday, July 18th, the Jennifer Hunter Yates Foundation and Massachusetts General Hospital held their 4th Team Sarcoma walk.

Hospitals -- no place for the sick! (9-10 June 09)

Well, what can I say, I had to stay in the hospital one night. The OR nurse briefed the hall nurse about where I was at, and the aide came in to re-connect these "boots" that were inflating and deflating every few minutes to, theoretically, keep me from getting any clots in my legs. It took about 4 pillows and a couple folded and rolled blankets to support everything so I would not be in much pain. In addition to the Demerol to stop the shakes, they had also given me Dilaudid for pain. As such, I was pretty out of it for a while. I was surprised to see that the clock said it was after 4 o'clock, where had the time gone? I was aware of a terrible sore throat, a side effect of the intubation for the general anesthetic. Eventually, I felt well enough that I asked for something to drink. The Dilaudid eventually began to wear off, so we performed experiments with the gate theory of pain control. In essence, a gentle stroke on the skin, may override the pain impulses going to the brain. This was pretty effective for me. Poor Colin wore his arm out reaching over the rail, so he moved to the other side so he could support his arm on the bed. The easiest place for him to reach was my leg. It was just as effective as my arm. I had gotten warm and was going to have him take off the blanket, and when I looked down, I said: "Since I am warm anyway, why don't you take the blanket off my leg so no one gets the WRONG idea ;-)." Not long after that, the Doctor came to check on me. I think he was amused (and perhaps surprised that anyone knew about the gate theory).

The worst part of every hospital stay I have had is the bed! They always have just the sheet over the waterproof mattress. This is as comfortable as lying on a plastic bag. When I finally was able to get up, I had Colin take two of the blankets and spread them out on the sheet to help with this. I got up, mainly because they said if I got up and walked, I could get the boots off.

I eventually got something to eat, and felt well enough that Colin got his computer out and we watched the pilot episode of Bones. We have Bones in our Netflix queue. I had gotten hooked, but at least two seasons after it started, so since Colin had never seen it, we decided to see if we could understand some things by going back to the beginning. That was my limit, and it was off to bed. They brought a recliner in for Colin to sleep on, and it was nice to have him there so I wouldn't have to call the nurse for every little drink or trip to the bathroom.

The worst part of the hospital is that they want to wake you up for this and that. I had to have one more dose of IV antibiotic at 4 a.m. When she came back to remove the IV, she said: "Well, I'll be back in an hour to check your drains." Colin said: "No, check them now." She said: "I can come back. Its not a problem." Colin said: "I think you need to check them now, that way, she might get some sleep." Long silence and then "Oh..... ok." They are definitely on THEIR schedule in the hospital, not on a patient centered schedule.* But it goes to show that speaking up helps.

Thankfully, the day nurse bent the rules and left us alone until after we were awake at 0800. We got up, had breakfast, and Ruth Ann got dressed. The Doctor came by to give me a prescription and instructions, and we were on the way home.

* Colin's note: I need to write a posting about this, too. I have a suspicion that too much disturbance is bad for the patient. For example, in RA's case, her vitals had been perfect from the get-go. Why check them so often?

And the three IV doses of prophylactic antibiotic that she was given...did it REALLY have to be given on a precise 8-hr schedule? And did all the doses have to be IV? Post-game Googling finds that a single dose prior to surgery seems to be all that was indicated (reference Postoperative Prophylactic Antibiotics and Surgical Site Infection Rates in Breast Surgery Patients which shows a single preoperative dose is standard, and that postoperative application has no benefit). Ruth Ann could have had the IV out of her hand before bedtime, and would have had more sleep that night. Oh, well, no harm this time that we know of....hopefully there are no Clindamycin resistant bacteria floating around in her system.

Draining Drains

I did not appreciate until the drains were out, how draining they were. After my Monday appointment, the drains became very painful. The kind of drains I had are called Jackson-Pratt drains. Here is a picture of a drain laid out on a table. Note that the bulb is about 3.5" long, so you can get an idea of how long the white strip that is inside you is. Looking in the mirror, I could see that one of the drains had started to slip, so that you could see the tube/drain junction. Any move had the potential to cause a sharp pain: it was like an invisible sadist was tailing me and randomly poking me with a sharp implement. I was still not meeting the drainage guidelines on Wednesday, so we waited until Thursday to call and schedule an appointment for removing the drains.

Fortunately, we got an appointment at 11:30 to get them out. I took two perocet to be prepared for the inevitable pain. We arrived, had a brief discussion and out they came. OUCH! But after they were out, everything was OK. No more invisible sadist following me around. I really felt so much better, it is hard to describe. I was just left with two holes where the drains came out. It either looks like I was bitten by a narrow-jawed, thick-fanged vampire, or that I was shot twice. As soon as they scab over I can take a real bath!

Drains

Colin had joked with the Doctor about doing a spreadsheet with my drainage. When we went to the appointment on Monday where we were told that the drains were staying in for another few days, he gave us a hard time about the messy hand-written sheet we had. The chart is Colin's stab with an excel spreadsheet and a linear fit.

I managed to put all the data points in MATLAB with relative times and also calculated the drainage rate for each interval. I used MATLAB's Polyfit function to fit a second degree polynomial to each set of data, just for grins.

Surprisingly, the Doctor said he has just had another patient diagnosed with angio-sarcoma of the breast. Primary angiosarcoma should be a once-a-career finding for a surgeon, so to have two within two months is definitely an outlier.

Ruth Ann & Colin

Convalescent Activities

I have been doing puzzles, reading, watching TV, and actually working some at my computer. Colin was getting me out routinely for walks around the block, but the last few days have been too rainy and miserable. I cannot do any one thing for any length of time before I have to do something totally different or lie down. I am getting more and more stamina back to allow me to sit at the computer. This means I will eventually be able to sit long enough to really do some productive work.

I am working away on the various Sudoku puzzle books I have. Just when I think I can fly through a puzzle, I get to one that needs a different approach. I like the Kenken puzzles in the globe. I also got a book of Sudoku and Heyawake Puzzles that I took to the hospital (I cannot believe that I thought I would be able to do anything there.....). Heyawake are logic puzzles with a life of their own. I am working my way through the logic, but haven't finished one yet without a mistake. I have figured out that there is at least one unwritten rule.

So far, I have read "The Last Lecture" By Randy Pausch. My sister had sent it at Christmas, so I dug it out to see what it said. I recommend reading it -- now. It is much more to do with how to live than how to die. Of course, he is an engineer, so I enjoyed his very straight forward style. it is a quick, easy read.

I am currently reading:

Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters' First 100 Years

They were two really hot tickets. Born in the 1890's, the book was written when they were about 101 and 103. They lived through a lot of American History, and they have some great insights. This would be a great family night "read aloud" book since it is written in a very conversational style. They are very matter of fact about the difficulties they faced over the years under Jim Crow laws. I hope to be like them when I am 100.

The Island of Lost Maps: A True Story of Cartographic Crime
by Miles Harvey. A tale of a guy who systematically stole maps, books of maps, and other treasures from libraries all over the country. While he is not the only thief to target maps and rare collections, he stole more than anyone else. This is more than just the story of the crime(s), but also a trip through all sorts of things I never knew there was to know about maps. One tidbit: it is thought that Sir Frances Drake actually ended up circumnavigating the globe because he had stolen maps from Portuguese ships along the South American Coast. Since there was a price on his head, he didn't dare go back by the route whence he came. Luckily, some of the charts he stole had enough information to get him across the Pacific.

Big Stone Gap: A Novel (Ballantine Reader's Circle)
by Adriana Trigiani. I am not too far into this yet, but the premise sounds interesting. A single woman finds out she is not who she thought she was.

Why so many books you say? Well, I have gotten into the habit of reading the book I can reach. So I have a book in the living room, one by my bed, one at the dining room table.... Reading at the table is easiest, since I don't have to hold the book.