Quiet week (somewhat)

The weekend and week so far have been quiet. Well at least for the Cancer! Our son Andrew and daughter-in-law Andrea visited over the weekend. We laughed and ate well. Saturday was a lovely day outside. We spent it as much as we could in the back yard with the corn hole game and chairs alternating between the sun and the shade.

It really was a simple day. Reminded me of our days around the house growing up. Someone was going to cook. Someone was coming over. That was the expectation.

Sunday we were invited to hang out with friends on the northside of town. Good friends (Wes and his wife Diane), Wes is also going through brain cancer treatment, gathered with us for the afternoon at the Domingues house. They heated the pool for us, and we had food from Rudy’s barbecue for lunch and fried shrimp for dinner.

I had received one of the DriFit arm covers for Michele which protects the PICC Line from water. She still hesitated to put the arm in the water… but she was in the water! A primary concern for us is to keep the dressing dry and sterile. This Sunday was a dry run for our trip scheduled in June.

Michele is disciplined

Any of you that know Michele knows that she has tremendous discipline. She was and has always been prepared not to venture into the water. I just didn’t want that to be the only option. There are freedoms we lose in illness and age, and I am not ready to deal with her not being able to sit in the pool and visit.

There will be this odd tan line. 😎 I know the reality will be more tempered in that she will be in the shade a lot or even in the room during the peak time of the day. Having the option to get in the water just means the world to me.

Shopping

Michele loves shopping and loves great deals! We have a wonderful high-end resale shop for women’s clothing in our area and she is on the ready to drop in any time. She is planning her wardrobe for our upcoming trip. She has found some suits that are long sleeve to cover our “contraption”. We also have a nice stretch cover that hides the gauze and white netting she has daily for her PICC line.

She can have anything she wants right now. Except high heel shoes… We need nice solid flats for a while.

The schedule for the week

Tomorrow: Thursday, we will begin cycle 5N. This is the second part of the clinical trial, and it will be outpatient. We start tomorrow a little after noon:

The modern system (MyChart) is an extremely complete system for patient management, test results, EVERYTHING relating to the patient. All tests are posted, and we can see the results typically before the Doctors talk to us. It is amazing to me the complete picture they are able maintain. Even during our inpatient treatments are managed with the system. I continue to be amazed.

The treatments are Daily through Monday afternoon.

Self-driving cars?

I am writing this tonight and thinking how cool it would be to have self-driving cars. This trek back and forth to the Medical Center is 45 minutes to an hour each way. Then there is parking and navigating the entrances on weekends. I drive, so Michele is experiencing self-driving to some extent 8-). Our story over the last 14 years in Insurance has been… I drive while she talks to clients. We squeeze in time to talk about other things as well, but frankly, her talking to clients is soothing to hear.

What else did we do this week?

Yesterday was an ALL day at the office day. From 1:00 to 5:00 we hosted a nationwide training where we have agents locally with us and speakers on zoom from across the county. Michele spoke on how the team has been there for us in these challenging times and why our business really is a perfect business for our challenges. Especially post pandemic!

I was stressed out as we had technical issues with some of the audio equipment. We made do and Michele was incredible with her topic. I honestly have never seen her so polished in teaching and telling stories. We both have gotten better in making sure to be “fully prepared”. We have found some teleprompter apps that work great with recording. Yesterday? It was scotch tape and paper taped to the monitor. It was funny to watch her tear the page off to go the next page.

We got home and the lights were out by 8:00pm.

Today?

8:00am arrival to the office. Our remote staff come into the office where we handwrite Thank you cards, cleanup bad addresses, print and address letters to our clients turning 65 in the next few months.

I am an IT minded person. Recently, we were pitched on a “Keep in Touch” system where they can use those Cursive fonts to make it look handwritten. Something about an actual handwritten note (with good handwriting) comes off differently. Michele likes to wrap her own presents and likes to handwrite these letters.

Our staff are phenomenal. It is nice to know that our staff understands who our clients are and are versed in the mom’s and Dad’s that pay for their kids’ policies. That brings me joy. Great staff are the world to us.

Tonight?

We are wrapping up for the evening and hopefully having a little relaxing time before sleep.

Mike is doing better

There are days I feel so overwhelmed and then there are weeks where we are “Normal”. There was more of that this week than the weeks before. We are planning to blast through this cycle and move on to the next. This blog has been a lot of therapy for me. Believe me when I tell you that the blog is the beginning and there is more to the story to be told. I started working on a large manuscript that fills in a lot more detail in the leadup to the Cancer and some emotions and stories that are not best for the blog format.

It may be just therapy that stays on a computer hard drive somewhere. As I am reading about others’ journeys with their own cancers, I believe the story we have is a gift to be shared. Everyone have a momentous week and we will let you know how this 5N Cycle is as we tackle it.

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