Saturday, July 27, 2013
Update # 158
6 years, 7 months
Greetings,
Yesterday was Ken’s birthday – must be some hospital time for Jeff! Fortunately, it was just a doctor’s appointment with no stay necessary.
At his June appointment, Jeff was told to call with any changes in the gvhd skin rash. The spots on his chest slowly increased. Saturday the 13th, Meridith noticed the rash had spread to the upper part of Jeff’s back.
A phone call to StL the next week, found that Dr. DiPersio and most of the team were out of town. Emily, one of the nurse managers, told Jeff to immediately quadruple his daily 10 mg Prednisone. She also called in a script for a much stronger cream to use twice daily on the spots. Emily said Jeff would then be called with an appointment time to be seen in StL.
Jeff said within 2 days, the rash showed improvement.
The phone call said Jeff would see Stephanie, the nurse practitioner, Friday, July 26th. Labs were set for 1:15 with Steph’s time at 2:00.
Jeff does not drive the 6-hour distance by himself anymore due to his eyes. Besides normal work, Meridith is involved in the 4-H Fair this week. I drove up to Waterloo on Wednesday. Jeff and I returned to Hillsboro on Thursday. I drove Jeff back to Iowa on Friday and came home early this afternoon. A total of 1,364.8 miles but Jeff’s health is worth it.
Friday morning, in 2 cars, the 3 of us went to StL. Ken picked one of his favorite places for breakfast. We hit 2 stores before returning to Barnes.
Labs were on time with a quick in and out. Counts were fine. Then we sat and waited to see Stephanie. There had been a problem with a patient so it was almost 3:30 before Jeff got in. Stephanie was pleased to hear the upped Prednisone dosage and new cream worked so well. Jeff is to stop using the cream – unless, of course, the spots become active again. Jeff has a few more days before he begins to taper off the Prednisone. He should be back to his normal dose by the end of August. And most definitely, it the rash appears during this tapering off period, Jeff is to call StL immediately. All in all, good news.
Our Thursday and Friday drives were quite interesting for Jeff and me. Typical summer construction caused some delays but heading south through Cedar Rapids brought a scare on Thursday. The rough road of construction knocked something off the truck in front of us. It bounced several times before hitting the underneath part of my car. We pulled off an interstate exit and stopped to look for any damage. Finding none, we continued home safely. Last night, about 2 hours from Waterloo, my right front tire went flat. I would not be able to travel the distance to Jeff’s place on the donut spare tire. Ken was trying to get me a room for the night in Iowa City but a convention was in town so there were “no rooms in any inns”! He finally located one on the southern edge of Cedar Rapids. Meridith drove the hour down to pick up Jeff and they returned home. I stayed the night and went to a tire store first thing this morning to purchase a new tire. Apparently, when this flying object hit under my car, it put a hole on the inside of that right tire. I was amazed I drove as far as I did. Fortunately, this new set of tires (only 3,000 miles on them) has road hazard insurance so when I return this ruined tire, my tire place will reimburse me for my cost today. I was so thankful Jeff and I had no real damages or anything that caused injuries.
Ken and I just finished packing. Tomorrow after church, we’re leaving for Traverse City, MI, where Ken is taking a week long continuing ed class. I told him a while ago – I’m not driving tomorrow – just sitting and reading my Kindle!
We hope some of you are experiencing the gorgeous weather we currently have here. These cool temps are not what we usually see in July so we have a great appreciation of them.
And we definitely appreciate all the prayers and concerns each of you give for Jeff. We keep you in our hearts and prayers. As always, if anything changes with Jeff, I’ll let you know.
love,
Marcia