Day 354 – No Longer a Part of Our Vocabulary

We met Jeff and Marie R. at Peddlers Village on Saturday.  We enjoyed a nice stroll, a little shopping, good conversation and then we headed to Stockton to have dinner at Meil’s.  Over dinner, the conversation naturally turned to the two Jeffs’ hospital experiences.  One of us mentioned the bacteria that they each picked up in the hospital, the nasty one that caused diarrhea.  None of us could remember the name of it!  We marveled that a year ago, it was very much a part of our vocabulary and now we had trouble coming up with its name!

We ate awhile, talked some more, then someone said, “It starts with a D, I think.”  We ate some more and talked a bit and then came back to it again.  I said, “I think it might start with a C.”  That prompted Jeff R. to come up with it, “C Diff!”  It starts with a C and a D.  It is amazing that the bane of the hospital experience, the reason for delays in returning home, was so easily forgotten – at least its name was, not its symptoms and not its smell.

Tonight we attended a networking group meeting at Gilda’s Club.  The conversation turned to ports and Jeff described his Hickman catheter and the care that was required in keeping it clean and free of clogs.  He was trying to think of the name of the port that goes in the underarm area.  None of us could think of it until Connie, a survivor in the group, mentioned her PICC line.  That’s it!  Jeff had a couple of bad experiences with PICC lines at Aria and yet we could not come up with the term.  He blamed the brain lapse on the phenomenon known as “Chemo Brain.”  I think it might be a sign that enough time has passed for his treatments and transplant to become distant memories.

Also in attendance at Gilda’s Club was an MDS patient and his wife.  Both have lovely Manchester accents.  They seemed as happy as we were to have found another MDS patient.  He has a teleconference scheduled for tomorrow with his oncologist at Sloan Kettering during which he hopes to learn how close he is to his transplant.  Jeff felt like the ol’ pro, able to offer useful information about what to expect.  After the meeting we exchanged phone numbers.  Please pray for this man and his wife as they await the next phase of treatment as well as for the medical professionals who see to his care.

Jeff’s dream of owning a hot tub has come to fruition.  He beautifully engineered the hot tub move from Kerry and Theresa’s house in Langhorne to its new home in our backyard.  Jeff told me it wouldn’t be difficult to move but I thought it was worth paying $800 to hire pros.  He built a crate around the bottom half (as it stood on its side) which enabled our crew – Jeff, Kerry, Keith and friends Gerry and Pete – to grab hold of it.  Silly me!  I’ve got a pro in residence!  Pete’s wife, Annie, took pictures of the process.  It isn’t hooked up yet.  Mark says that having a hot tub that isn’t hooked up is worse than having no hot tub at all!  Maybe by this weekend we’ll be chillin’ in the tub!