Howard's Surgery, Andrine's Car

Howard is getting cataract surgery today on the second eye. He had cataract surgery on the first eye a few months ago and could immediately see distant objects with no glasses. However, he has been in the process of training that eye to read. The discrepancy between the eye that had the operation and the remaining eye was 10 diopters, which is huge. Such a discrepancy may have contributed to his breaking his foot when he ran off stage in September. The eye surgeon, however, seems to think this is elective surgery and thus we will have to pay for it instead of him submitting it to insurance. I’m afraid I don’t understand. Howard, peeved at the idea of being half blind, has elected to do the surgery anyway. I think he has made a good choice. But I don’t think he’ll be reading for a while.

Now that I have a few white blood cells to throw at the problem, my hemorrhoid is healing. The pain level is down to a 1 out of 10 which is a vast improvement. It makes me glad I don’t have such problems under normal circumstances.

It turns out that chemo isn’t good for one’s health. This is the unhealthiest thing I’ve ever done to myself. Despite the neulasta, the last chemo wiped out my immune system. I had no neutrophils, which are the first line of defense against infection, and my white count was .4, and normal is 10. In other words, chemo took out 96% of my immune system. That’s pretty extreme. Dr. V. proposes cutting the dose of the next one to 80%. I did my pendulum swinging (so very scientific) and got that I should ask for it to be cut to 65%, but that I could settle for 70%. In that range, I could get the benefits of chemo, but avoid destroying my immune system. I’m not looking forward to another hospitalization.

My appetite is affected. I’m really not very interested in food, especially the things I normally like. I usually like hummus but it looks awful to me now. I had some toast for lunch. I try to avoid bread usually, but it was the only thing that looked at all palatable. Bland is good at this point.

Tomorrow is my hat and earring party. I’m already receiving hats in the mail. Deborah sent me a lovely hat, pictured at the top here.

I just got word that Howard’s surgery went well, although it turned out to be more painful than he expected. The doctor wasn’t so surprised since it was the eye that had the detached retina repair. It’s amazing that Howard has any vision at all in that eye.

Andrine bought a Zap last weekend, a three wheeled car that runs exclusively on electricity, and it is due to be delivered at four today, so that should cause great excitement. It goes 40 miles and hour, tops, and goes 40 miles per charge. It’s officially registered as a motorcycle, although one doesn’t need a special motorcycle license to drive it. She bought a zebra striped model. It looks like a lot of fun. She says it doesn’t have much of a suspension system so going over pot holes can be exciting.