Not much happened yesterday, so I thought I’d share at little about the experience of hanging out in the Hospital all day yesterday.
I arrived just in time for lunch. There are “room service” menus that you can order off. Dad’s meals are free and Mom and I’s are $5. I ordered a pizza, which left a little bit to be desired, but Mom had a quesadilla that was good. Dad had a hamburger.
The rest of the afternoon was pretty lazy. Dad has a TV in his room, which he tends to watch a lot of golf and news (boring!). They were transfusing Dad with two things of blood so while he couldn’t go anywhere, he was pretty alert. People pop into the room about every hour or so to check his vitals. Sometimes we get “special visitors” that introduce themselves to us. Yesterday we had a Case Manager, a Endocrine Doctor, and a volunteer who was giving out toiletries.
Dad is hooked up to a monitor which drips the chemo into him. We refer to this as “Waltzing Matilda,” Matilda for short. (I’ve got not idea what it’s really called.) Matilda has a battery life of about 3 hours and so she can go with Dad on walks and such. Sometimes the lines get air in them and one of Matilda’s monitors start to beep. This is really annoying because we have to wait for a nurse to turn it off. Apparently it’s the Etoposide that’s the pesky one. Speaking of nurses, I really liked the one we had. She was really funny and we joked around a lot.
When the blood was done, we ordered dinner off of the menu and then we went for a walk (with Matilda of course). We explored the observatory on the 24th floor and the “Park” on the 2nd floor (it’s really like an indoor courtyard with shops).
We asked the nurses to try to limit their monitoring Dad’s vitals from 11 – until the labs came in the morning so he could sleep. They said they would try.
That’s about it! There was no big news or anything. Dad’s been doing really good and the only set back we had was that his wedding ring is MIA 
Other News
I signed up to run in the Multiple Myeloma 5K next month in Boston. And I’m running it, not walking it. (I’ve not run in a 5 K since I was 14 and they made us in cross country. YIKES!) I’m pretty nervous, but I figured it would be a good goal for me. I’ve been talking about doing this for months, but finally officially signed up. It’s real now. To help me reach my goal, please DONATE to my online page.
All donations go to Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation. Since its inception in 2001, the MMRF Race for Research program has raised more than $17 million to support the urgent mission of the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation (MMRF). The work of the MMRF contributed to the FDA approval of four drugs for multiple myeloma in just four years – a track record unparalleled in oncology. These same drugs are now being explored as potential treatments for more than 30 other cancers. An outstanding 90% of the MMRF’s total budget goes directly to research and related programming.
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