A Day at The Cancer Center

Sheila sweeping the patio at the WE CARE house

(note her new chemo backpack)

Today we got back to the daily grind of the Arlington Cancer Center. First we went to the lab to get the tubes for Sheila's blood work. We will not let the lab draw her blood because she has a CVC line and I don't want them sticking needles into her when they can just draw it out of the CVC. Well the lab is not certified to draw blood from the CVC so we just pick up the empty tubes for the blood samples and take them to the Infusion Center next door. The Infusion Center can draw the blood samples but then we have to takes the now filled tubes of blood back to the lab for the testing. I think it is a small price to pay for avoiding all those needles! Remember that just one needle stuck in her arm back in New York cause a massive infection and alot of grief for both of us! Next we went upstairs to see Dr. DiStefano after waiting more than an hour for the blood work results to get over to him. He said all Sheila's counts are great and chemo would start back up today. As I type this we are back at Infusion getting her premeds infused so they can hook up the chemo pack and send us home. Mikey and Greg are here today also and he is in alot of pain since they temporarily took him off chemo so he could build himself back up. His legs and feet had swelled up so much that he could not even put shoes on and had to use a walker just to get from the house to the truck. He is one tough guy and like me has a major problem letting other people help him for ANY reason. I guess it's just a guy thing! Mikey and him finally just had a weekend with no treatments and wouldn't you know it, he started to have alot of pain. They start chemo again tomorrow and maybe that and some pain meds will help him. At least his swollen legs and feet have gone down somewhat. Sheila and I have been very lucky in that she has not had any of the serious side effects or radical treatments many of the people here have been through. We have been VERY lucky, compared to most of the people we see here at the Cancer Center, Sheila comes and goes pretty much like a healthy person and except for the bald heads (hers AND mine) you wouldn't even know there was anything wrong.

Picture Today: "A top notch looking couple" an elderly lady called us as we resupplied during a town stop on our AT thru-hike. Here we are in Damascus, Virginia during the three day celebration called TRAIL DAZE. Twenty thousand AT hikers from past and present attend the festival and the whole town comes out to throw water balloons and spray garden hoses at all the "smelly" hikers in the Annual Hiker Parade!