[Magdalen] Status update

[Marion Thompson]

Good luck to you with this, Jim.  Glad to hear you sounding so 'up'.

Marion, a pilgrim
On 11/15/2014 5:45 PM, Jim Guthrie wrote:
> The medi-port is really helpful. MSK attaches a bottle to it with 5400 mf
> Fluorouracil (226 ml) which pretty much empties by Sunday morning -- 
> and Albert
> plays nurse and removes the bottle, shoots in a dose of saline and 
> another
> syringe of Heparin to keep it clear and removes the needle from the 
> Mediport.
> (He also injects me with the Lovenox every day).
>
> OTOH, the crew at Scranton Regional Hospital seemed to make a mess of 
> the Mediport -- the area was all bruised after I was discharged, and 
> the oncology treatment nurse asked who had been mangling it.
>
> I really think a key to all this is to stay positive and optimistic. 
> When in the
> waiting area at MSK, there are lots of gloomy gusses and sad sacks, 
> while the
> staff is absolutely cheery and friendly and optimistic at all times -- 
> more
> cheerful than a crew at Disneyland (and you didn’t think that was 
> possible!
> <g>). And I realize that some have been through a lot, and many have a 
> negative
> prognosis, but I think one needs to guard against negativity.
>
> I can appreciate the laying in of a well-stocked Kindle, though I remain
> something of a Luddite -- bringing a stack of reading material 
> (including the
> newspapers and book reviews and NY Times magazines I haven’t gotten 
> to), plus a
> book -- so I keep busy in the waiting room, during chemo and on the 2 
> hour 45
> minute bus trip back and forth to NYC. We usually have breakfast with 
> friends or
> former co-workers; last night we went to a Railway and Locomotive 
> Historical
> Society meeting after treatment for an interesting program on new 
> post-Sandy
> pump trains built for the NYC Subway system. We left Scranton on the 
> 7:20 AM
> bus, and were home by Midnight. The trip home goes much faster if I'm 
> tired
> enough to fall asleep once the road smoothes out  around the Oranges.
>
> Best of luck with the chemo, Eleanor.
>
> Cheers,
> Jim Guthrie
>
>
>
> .
> .
>