Tuesday March 1

Great weekend spending quality time with Emma and Jim as well as our North Andover friends Jack and Judy plus long time friend Kirsten and her daughter Jane (best bud to Emma).  The weekends are kind of a maintenance mindset at the hospital so not much going on.  The company not only filled the weekend but helped it go by quickly.  My cousins Jane and Margien were here Monday and it was great to have their support as people came in and out of my room pulling together a plan for next steps.

Medical Update:   The fever that brought me into the hospital last Thursday was brought on by a staph infection (a bacterial infection in my bloodstream).  These can be extraordinarily nasty and I am very grateful the type of staph was categorized quickly and I've been on a targeted antibiotic since Friday.  Next up is getting my port (a small disk that sits under my skin and is used for blood draws and infusions) removed - apparently this particular staph infection is 'sticky' and happily finds a home around the catheter that leads from the disk to the vein.  Since the port is also how I was to get chemo, we have to identify the best way for me to get those infusions - all decisions in the works right now but will delay the start of chemo by another day at least.  So once again we have a situation where my treatment is delayed but not derailed - BIG difference.  In the end this adds time to my hospital stay but does not change my treatment plan.  Also I am once again spared any life threatening complications things like a staph infection can introduce because we caught it and treated it early (and before my counts are knocked out with the chemo).  So no fever, continuing to have decent stamina, getting decent rest - looks like I'll be bringing my best self to this next phase.

As soon as I know details on when I will get the port removed, when I will start chemo, how long I'll be in the hospital, etc. I will let you know.  The how long will I be in the hospital question probably won't be answered until I start to recover from the chemo.  Anyway not anything I can control so trying to ask good questions, know what can be known and keep it in the day.

Thanks for checking in

Love Maureen