It's Monday.
An absolutely beautiful day here in Seattle and I think I might have the best room in this hospital. I started out in a room down the hall, a double room that was originally designed to be a single, how do you say...small, tight, cramped, no privacy! And, to make it worse (maybe?) I had the bed by the door, so no window at all. However, I was closer to the bathroom, a big bonus for me under any circumstances.

I am going to completely spare you any details about my roommate except for the fact that she really wanted to get the hell out of here and have a cigarette and she didn't use the bathroom so she didn't have to drag herself past me to get there. I don't want to talk about what she did have to do, ok? Thanks!There are many more facts that my visitors know about her...but like I said, I'll spare you.

She and I spent 2 nights as roommates. We chatted very briefly just a couple of times. She had a lovely son and a few other visitors so I didn't have to share my family! I politely mentioned to nurses and the good doctor that I would just really love a private room (as would every other patient in a double room) but could see for myself on my walk abouts that the hospital was very, very busy. No room in the inn. Suck it up, time. Luckily I spent most of the time I was in there with headphones in my ears during the day and earplugs at night. I also found the family room down the hall was usually empty with a beautiful sunshiny view of downtown and the harbor. I spent a good deal of time in there.

On Saturday morning I went on a good long walk, looping round and round in a figure eight around the west wing and the east wing of this floor. I noticed, especially in the other wing a number of empty rooms. When I saw my nurse in the hall I went up to her and politely mentioned how I could smell stale cigarettes in the room and saw some empty rooms and if it is possible, pretty please, could I....next thing I know we are moving down the hall to the corner room! Wow! It is stil a single room because it has some funky angled walls the would not allow 2 beds in here. It has a sweeping view from east of Mt. Rainier all the way south and west to the middle of downtown! Absolutely gorgeous! I can see Beacon Hill and the old Rainier Brewery, a peek-a-boo of Seahawks stadium, the harbor, the West Seattle bridge and Mt. Rainier in all it's glory! It is such a blessing to have this room, big enough for all of us to gather yesterday for the game and this glorious view that I swear makes me feel a little better every time I look out the window!

Bright and early, well actually dark and early, as he is known to do, Dr. Kaplan came knocking on my door. This is his protocol; his patients know he is going to arrive early and you need to be ready. I sat up, threw on my glasses, grabbed my notebook, started taking notes and asking the questions that we had collected over the weekend, just for him.

The good news, in spite of the blood that I passed last night, is that my blood count was stable. There are 2 more bags of blood for me in back up downstairs, just in case, but I don't need them at this point in time! Dr. Kaplan was ready to let me go home based on that, until he heard about the blood passed last night. It was enough that he declared one more night, at least, for sure. It is actually helpful to know that right up front in the morning, you just set your mind for that and make it be OK. Clear liquids only, too. Ok, I would rather have only clear liquids and heal my duodenum than have food and cause more damage...right...a no brainier! Off he went to work all day to see more cancer patients than any other doctor in their group because that is what he does. But, he'll be back tonight, before he heads home to the Isle of Mercer, as he likes to call it!

Later in the morning 2 women from GI came to visit. One was the first woman I met from that department my first day here, Dr. Anderson, the other was a nurse practitioner. What I know is that there are a number of doctors electronically talking about this situation. What they were able to tell me is that the radiologist who placed the coils has now chimed in on the conversation. Dr. Anderson assured me that the radiologist is giving this thorough and thoughtful attention and has included some more specifics into the electronic conversation. He named the arteries where the coils were placed. And, when they say coil, it may mean 1-3 coils as needed to "fill up" the space and block the blood flow. It can also mean coils and some kind of gel which was used in one of the arteries. He is also floating the idea that if the coil (or coils) work their way into the duodenum and out through my system they would be moving so gradually as to allow time for scar tissue to seal up the "hole" as they go and therefore not leave a big gaping hole in my gut. That's good to know, we were wondering about that! And, the good news is that they moved me to a full liquid diet. Now I can have ice cream and yogurt and soup and smoothies without lumps, pudding and custard, etc. I started with yogurt as I wanted to save my ice cream for some good stuff that Mike is picking up, right now on his way here. Betty is headed home from work to make butternut squash soup, I can't wait for that! So that is progress my friends!

For the record, I write this blog, I babble on in my wordy way because it is very cathartic. I have this need to record this information for myself. Today I spent some time reading back over my posts from the time I was going through the Y90 treatment. It was helpful to refresh my memory and recall some of the details from the procedures.
So this process is very cathartic and is a place for me to store some facts and some thoughts. I know, sometimes it is a lot of words. Like I said to Betty today, I'm not sure I would have time to read my blog!! So thank you for that!

Tonight Dr. Kaplan came back around. It is abundantly clear that NOONE wants to go in there after this tiny piece of titanium. We are absolutely, at this point in time, going to let it be. Because of that blood I passed last night they want to look at my ilium tomorrow. That is part of the lower intestine that you cannot see with either a colonoscopy or an endoscopy. It also happens to be the part of my body that was so damaged by the xeloda and put me in the hospital for nearly a month 2 years ago! So after midnight tonight I can have nothing by mouth and tomorrow they will use some kind of dye and I'll have an x-Ray of my lower intestines. If they see no problems, I get to go home. If they see something, well we'll cross that bridge if we have to.

Time for bed! Good night, I'm off to dream sweet dreams of scar tissue!
Love to you all,
Janet

PS Did you notice, I figured out how to post pictures using my iPad, no easy task...this thing is over 4 years old...that's old for an iPad! What I couldn't do is copy, cut and paste to move some stuff around...oh well, maybe next time!