Oh, Nuts! and the Irish Dude

December 12, 2010

Month 2, week 1 is going fairly well.  We have noticed Jeff’s hair texture is changing.  He is aware of his injection sites if he bends over or if Giblet climbs across his belly.  The nurses are trying to avoid injecting him in the same spots from day to day and that helps a lot.  Jeff worked each afternoon and crashed in the evenings except f or Tuesday when we saw the specialist at Penn.

In September when he had the colonoscopy, Jeff told the gastroenterologist that he was afraid he was going to be told he could no longer eat one of his favorite snacks – nuts.  The doctor assured him that there was no reason to avoid nuts.  On Wednesday night Jeff was looking for cashews but when I gave him the bag, he left them alone.  Finally, he admitted they held no appeal for him at all!  Weird!  Well, of course, that meant he had to have ice cream instead.  Oh, well.

One of the nurses at the Cancer Center had said there were a couple of other guys being treated for MDS but they were never there when Jeff was there.  On Friday, Ken L. took Jeff for his treatment.  When Jeff was getting Vidazzled a man with a heavy Irish brogue came in and said, “You have what I have!”  Vidaza is a “disease-specific drug” so that if you are receiving Vidaza treatment, then you have MDS.  Jeff was glad to finally meet a compatriot.  Marty was diagnosed after symptoms were more obvious than in Jeff’s case.  Marty was not able to dance all night as was his custom.  His doctor told him to get someone to clean his house and cook because he isn’t supposed to do anything.  He will have his transplant quite soon.  Jeff left the Cancer Center feeling he is better off than poor Marty.  Ken, who is better off than either of them, was a little shocked by Marty’s story. 

Jeff gave away a customer this week because he will not be able to do the job she needs done anytime soon.  He says he has finally admitted that he had better not take on any big jobs right now.  His customers are really great people, though, and most of them are willing to wait for their custom work and may ask him to do simple repairs in the meantime. 

Prayers, please, for a sibling match to Jeff’s bone marrow and, also, please pray for “Maria, the Matchmaker,” the woman who coordinates the matching at Penn.