Steak and baked potato tonight?

Uneventful day so far..forgot to mention earlier Denise received another unit of blood in the middle of the night. Additionally, she received another unit a while ago. This is because she is low on blood and her bone marrow is in the process of shutting down due to the chemo.

Also, we figured out what kind of production number was required in order for Denise to take a shower. Besides dragging the pump that pumps the various fluids (saline and blood so far) into the bathroom, we had to carefully cover up the Hickman catheter to keep it from getting wet. I MIGHT have pressed down on the sticky tape in the wrong place a little too hard, because an expletive immediately could be heard. Sorry honey, I did not mean to do that!

Hightlight of the day is Denise finally got a menu so she can choose her meals, such that hospital food can be called. Actually, I have eaten a lot of hers that happened to come within a four hour window that she was not allowed to eat, and it isn't bad.

She was looking forward to having steak and baked potato tonight, but after she ordered it, we found out she will have another 4 hour window that she won't be able to eat, so it looks like steak and potato for Sam tonight!

The 4 hour window is caused by the need to determine exactly how much of the chemo drug her system is absorbing. Since food affects the rate of absorbtion, they have a window of 2 hours before the chemo is given where blood samples are taken, and 2 hours after for more blood samples. I should also add the chemo is taken in pill form, and they way they alter the dosage is kind of neat. Imagine 6 little tiny pills inside a regular pill capsule. If they need to increase the dosage, they just add another tiny pill to the capsule; to reduce the dosage, they take one out. This minimizes the number pills that need to be taken and gives the doctors a lot of flexibility with changing dosages. I think each of the little pills are 2mg. I think a Moutrin is 200mg, if that comparison helps.

Finally, another factoid: Did you know that until 1957, the BBC did not broadcast anything between 6-7PM? This was to assist parents in getting their children to bed. You can read about it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toddlers'_Truce