My Battle with Merkel Cell Cancer

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the IV. When I would stick her with the needle, you would hear "oy-oy-oy-oy-GEVALT-
GEVALT-GEVALT! Because of this, I invented the decoy IV, some tubing taped to the
arm above the real IV. When she pulled this off, the nurse could replace it.
One day I was called to see her because she was in a coma. I checked the IV fluids and
there was an error in pharmacy. Too much insulin had been added to the IV. I gave her
an injection of Glucose, and a few seconds after I gave the injection, I heard "oy-oy-oyoy-oy".
I knew she was back to normal. (for her).
Posted by David Shuster at 05:23PM (-08:00)
Hurray! I don't have a Doctor's Appointment for
Today
Wednesday, December 07, 2011
It's a Wednesday, and I don't have to see Dr. Flam today. In fact, I don't have to see him
for another 6 weeks. I will need my port flushed 2 weeks from today.
I am feeling somewhat better. Although I am still short of breath, I can take a deeper
breath without coughing. The cough syrup helps. It does contain a narcotic, so I try to
take it only in the morning.
My neuropathy has changed a little. Occasionally, I do have some pain in my feet. This is
new. However, there appears to be less numbness above the ankles than there was
previously. My hands show little change. My mouth is still quite dry, and it makes many
foods unappetizing. This includes bread, cake, and cookies. However my sense of taste
has substantially improved, and is close to normal.
On Friday, we will drive to Los Angeles and stay over at the Holiday Inn in Long Beach.
On Saturday, we will embark on our family cruise to the Mexican Riviera. (These days,
the Mexican Riviera includes only Ensenada and Cabo San Lucas.) There are no other
stops. Whether this is because Princess Cruises is trying to save money, or because of
unrest in Mexico, is uncertain. This is a vacation we've been planning for some time. It is
a real family cruise. It will include our 3 sons, 2 daughters-in-law, and 5 grandchildren.
When we planned this, I was hoping I could go, but I was not very confident that I would
be in good enough health to enjoy it. It seems to have worked out well.
We have now booked another cruise, this time, to Hawaii, at the end of February. I am
very optimistic about this one.
I have been working about 3 mornings a week at Kaiser Permanente, and plan to work 4
full days at Sierra Imaging at the end of December.
In other news, the IRS has disallowed the deduction I took for the Ponzi scheme that I
was a victim of. My file was sent to Atlanta, but the agent who reviewed my tax return did
not have the entire tax return but only the numbers to review. They didn't bother to give
him the supporting documentation. Of course, he disallowed what was classified as a
miscellaneous deduction. The IRS then stalled the case until the deadline for me to go to
Tax Court was so close, that the case would not be reviewed in time. I think that the
agent who receive the case in Atlanta did not want to have anything to do with it, and so
just delayed to force me to go to Tax Court. This is an annoying bump in the road, and I
would be much more upset, I'm sure, if I did not have the experience of having to fight a
malignant neoplasm. That helped put these minor annoyances into their proper
perspectives.
I will conclude this post, and hopefully future posts, with an anecdote from the past.
One day I was doing a carotid angiogram. These examinations are done with the patient
awake, although sedated. We were most interested in the region of the origin of the
internal carotid artery in the neck, but had some interest in the branches at the base of
My Battle with Merkel Cell Cancer