Tuesday, July 12, 2005

CHEMO, WORK, AND.....

I really wanted to get to my blog last night to put something down about my wife's first chemo treatment and my first day back to work. I was so tired last night that every time I tried to type the fingers wouldn't do what the brain wanted them to do. Haven't done any factory work for five and half years. I'll share on that later. Right now my wife's chemo is more important.

First off, from now on I'll be refering to her as Hunny.That way I can get away from the impersonal "my wife". Well I'm gnooa try real hard anyway, I may forget off and on 'cause I can be like that at times...forgetful.

Yesterday, Monday, was Day One for Chemotherapy. I couldn't go with Hunny 'cause I was starting that new job. So her duaghter went with her instead. Sometimes it's a good thing for moms and daughters to spend time together....they've always been close which really helps.

Hunny's appointment was at 1:00. She has a port on the right side of her chest that the surgeon put in because her veins aren't strong enough to handle all the chemo treatments. Part of that is because she can't have anything put into her left arm anymore, or blood pressure taken, because of the lymph nodes she had removed. Anyway, Hunny said that the port worked GREAT. She said all she felt when the nurse was putting the needle in was a little bit of pressure.

Shortly after the chemo treatment, Hunny noticed that light was bothering her eyes. This is something we were told before hand, so we were kind of prepared for this, except we didn't get her sunglasses out of the van before I went to work Monday. Hunny's eyes are bothering her even more now. She had to turn the brightness way down on her monitor, curtains are closed and most all of the lights in the house are off.

Today has been quit a bit rougher on her. She got up about a half an hour after I left for work this morning with a splitting migrain headach. Hunny called the chemo nurses to find out what she could do....she wasn't expecting this. Because of the treatments they told her not to take ibueprophen, Tylenol, or aspirin. She told them that she had some percocet left from her last surgery....they said "Great, take that as needed".

Everything Hunny eats taste like "crap". I wish I could help her out with that, but there's not much I can do. She did find out that yogurt still tastes pretty good. She can't even stand the taste of Pepsi which is the only thing other that water she likes to drink. So, for now it looks like a steady diet of yogurt and water. At least the migrain seems to have disipated.

O.K. Here's the later part.
As I said, this new job is the first factory work I've done in five and a half years. During that time I've done several other things for employment. For about a year I worked as a bartender, then some construction....siding, soffit, facia....after that fell through, boss sold buisness, I worked in a convenience store. I did the construction for a year, the store for a year, and then went back to bartending.This, too, fell through and as of last October I was unemployed. Hunny and I tried to start our own computer buisness but then she got diagnosed with breast cancer. That threw a wrench into that idea 'cause she's the Tech and I'm the gopher.

So for the last three months I've been looking for work. Put apps. in all over the place but no responses. Last week I decided to go to a new employment agency in one of the towns near us.
That was Wednesday. On Thursday morning I had a job interview and got hired that same day. So I started the new job Monday. It's a place where they make fuel tanks for school buses, semi tractors, motorhomes, and refers....refrigerated containers. The tanks are anywhere from 80 gallons up to 200 gallons. I'm one of the guys who tack welds the ends onto the tanks.

It may not sound like much but these are big steel tanks that we have to flip around to tack weld them. Having been away from any kind of factory work for awhile, by the end of the day the back hurt, the feet hurt, and I was totally worn out. Getting up at 3:30 in the morning is a switch. Hell, I'm used to staying up 'til then. So by the time I got home, took a shower, got something to eat, I was pretty burned out....but it felt good to be working again. Like I said earlier, I tried writing last night but just couldn't do it. I was so tired that I went to bed at about 8:30. The last time I went to bed that early I was sick as a dog.

I expect to be back on track here shortly so I'll get back to doing my normal bitchin', rantn' and ravin' about all those fuckin' moronic idiot bastards in the Dumbya administation, along with those neo-con fascists and anybody else who tries to take away our freedoms or pisses me off in general.

Instead of taking off on a tangent, I think I'm gonna close for now, go check on Hunny, and then get ready for bed 'cause I'm starting to have a hard time hittin' the right keys. Hell, it took me three tries just to write this last little bit.

Thanks to all those out there pullin' for Hunny.
We love you all.
Take care.

P.S. If you could, send my Hunny a note of encouragement, her blog is listed in my Links it's "Ramblings...Musings...and Breast Cancer. I'm sure she'd apreciate it. Thanks again folks.


BRING THE TROOPS HOME NOW
SO NO MORE MAMAS
WILL BE MISSIN' THEIR BABIES!!!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

My name is Monica Stone and i would like to show you my personal experience with Percocet.

I am 35 years old. Have been on Percocet for 7 days now. It did help the pain but the side effects weren't worth it. I'd rather have the pain.

I have experienced some of these side effects-
nausea, very itchy, racing heart, anxiety, flashing lights(almost hallucinogenic?), weird dreams, tiredness

I hope this information will be useful to others,
Monica Stone