Day 178 - Meanwhile, in Winchester City...

When last we left our hero...he was waiting for a tube-replacement date, and unsure about chemo pills, and facing so much uncertainty. Holy anxiety, Batman. The uncertainty and anxiety are still there, but that just comes along with the territory, I suppose. So, where are we now?

On Thursday of last week, I cleaned out my office at the college. It was sad, as I never got a chance to really get in and do what I was hired to do. I never really got a chance to work with the awesome team of Blue Ridge Community and Technical College's PSUT department, to interact with the students, support the adjuncts as the Writing Coordinator, and, of course, teach. A couple of my soon-to-be-former colleagues-now-friends came to help Jess and I box up the stuff from my office (thank you, Heather, Kathy, and Tony!) and then took us out to brunch. We had some good conversation and tasty food. I'll miss the college, my colleagues, and being in the classroom, teaching, but a new chapter begins.

The next day, I had my tube replaced. It wasn't as bad as I had anticipated, but it did not go smoothly. To begin with, they had the hardest time getting an IV in me. The chemo treatments are wrecking my veins (apparently the chemicals are pretty harsh on the veins and it makes it either harder for the needle to penetrate, or it blows the vein out). The nurse had to stick me twice and then, when they were going to do the procedure, the anesthesiologist realized the needle the nurse thought was okay had gone through the other side of the vein. They had to use a deeper vein in my upper arm, requiring ultrasound to guide the needle. Then that one didn't work, and they had to do it again. Fourth time's a charm! Meanwhile, I'm laying on this table with blue plastic covering me completely, except for my exposed stomach. And then, one of the medical personnel doing the procedure tells me "It's going to smart coming out." Who says that!? Mind you, I'd told them already how nervous I was and how much I was counting on the local. And he tells me that? I mean, I appreciate the honesty, but come on dude...read the room. The other thing is that they did not have the low-profile, "button", kind of tube "in stock". So, they put a much shorter tube in until the order came in. Apparently, the new tube is easier to replace, and won't "smart" coming out. The original tube that was put in by the surgeon had a plastic "mushroom" (this post is apparently brought to you by the overuse of quotation marks) that had to be forced out through the hole in my stomach. Hence the "smarting". The new tube has a balloon that is deflated via the end of the tube and then, after being replaced, is inflated.

That replacement is going to happen next week, the day before the next round of chemo treatments. The part is in stock, lol. I'm not worried about this time, as it's the balloon and the procedure should be less anxiety producing. Although I do worry about my veins and the IV. I don't know why they didn't just give me a port from the beginning. At this point, I'm not sure it's worth it. But next week (Wednesday) I'll be back in to have the swap again.

Last night was the end of the chemo pills (I take them for the first 14 days of the 21 day cycle) for this round. I get a week off of swallowing horse pills, which I am happy to say I have become pretty good at doing. So far, the pills have not had serious side effects!

I've established contact with the VA hospital in Philadelphia and have an appointment set up with a primary care physician, so that transition is in the works. Incidentally, my brother is a CNP at that same VA hospital. Pretty cool. The Social Security Administration has officially approved my disability application. As of August 1st, I'll be officially done at the college and on disability.

We're in pretty good shape with packing. We've got most stuff boxed up that can be boxed up. We already don't have a ton of "stuff", but we've tossed, given, sold, and donated a bunch of things, further reducing our footprint. The largest collection of boxes are probably my games, lol. Our landlord has found a new tenant and has graciously worked with us to let

us out of our lease without penalty, so that's a big sigh of relief. We're down to a couple of weeks before the move and juggling last minute "what can we still pack?" questions, utility swaps, change of addresses, organizing, phone calling, etc, etc.... the dust never seems to settle for us. But in a couple of weeks, we'll be back in Frenchtown! We'll miss both Virginia and West Virginia, but Frenchtown is wonderful and so many of our people are there.

Well, that's what I've got for now. It's going to be in the mid 90's all week, so we'll be hunkering down (mostly) in the A/C. We did venture out to explore Harper's Ferry a bit yesterday with our friend Kim, who came down to visit. But these temps are brutal! Today, we're going to go see Oppenheimer. It's nice to get these little breaks in the midst of all of the chaos. Chaos, it seems, is our middle name, lol. Jess Chaos Rinker and Joe Chaos McGee.

As always, thanks for reading and thanks for your love and support! Be well, friends.

-j

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