INSOMNIACS place to talk in the wee hours

Sas a meet and greet party sounds like fun, my daughter is getting married this summer. We have known his family for a few years and they are lovely people. My husbands and my family live in another province . My daughter will be very disappointed if they don't come to her wedding.

My father passed in the fall, but my father-in-law is 93 and in a seniors home and is still in pretty good form. My husband is flying next week to see him, as he has been a little down.

Loveroflife- yes dogs do have a way of communicating with different barks. My dog has lost most of his hearing , but understands hand gestures.

Sas Iwill have to learn how to post pictures .

Ladies! Can't keep up….

Who fell? GINGER? I have so many vestibular disorders that DH says I have learned to fall like a Hollywood stuntwoman. After breaking several limbs, I finally learned to curl up like a sowbug when I go down. Of course, that didn't help when I hit my head, but that's another story. Many places offer "Balance and Fall Prevention" classes. My FIL just took one, and stubborn as he is, said that it really helped him.

Hey, Miss SASSYPANTS…. How is your shoulder? I remember when I fell on my hands and knees, and had rotator cuff tears in both shoulders. They felt like gunshot wounds (or how I imagine gunshot wounds would feel) and I finally agreed to a repair on the left one. Turns out they had to do almost a complete reconstruction there was so much damage… but the good part was that they did it arthroscopically. The right side just sort of got better on its own.

CHEVY – I still have that mental image of you on the stripper pole (the one you posted)… you're lookin' great, Sistah!

HOLEINONE – only 45 minutes on hold? You hit the jackpot! I usually get in a quite a few games of Candy Crush when I'm on hold!

SUSAN – so sorry to hear about your hubby – hopefully he is better now… DH and I completely understand about the ER Germ Pit. The staff at Kaiser Hospital wouldn't recognize us without our surgical masks.

PATTY! Waving hi and sending extra gentle hugs your way.

Sorry – this is kind of boring and technical, so maybe only the nurses will be interested…

We are DONE with the Rituxan infusions! DH had his last one (once a week for four weeks) yesterday. He checks in to the Chemo Infusion Room, gets his assigned chair, gets his vitals, two Benadryl and two Tylenol, then a sack of SoluMedrol. That's just the pre-medication. After 30 minutes they start the Rituxan drip, and those nurses watch him like hawk for the slightest reaction (tickle in the throat, etc.) as the first SE is anaphylactic shock. They start at 50 mg at first, and if he has no reaction, they increase the drip every 30 minutes by 50 mg. Well, thank God he had no reactions, so the subsequent times they started him at 100 mg and cranked up the drip by 100 mg every half hour. That really sped up the process.

His only complaint was a tired butt, as the first day it took six hours in the chair, then it went to four hours in the chair. He finally learned how to shut out the busy-ness of the Chemo Infusion Room by putting in his headphones and listening to his Westerns on tape. On Friday, he slept through the whole treatment. (He's a Benadryl weenie.) But he is completely exhausted for a few days afterwards.

Rituxan is a Chimeric Monoclonal Antibody, which by now has killed off all the "B" cells that could be contributing to his kidney disease (FSGS). The Nephrologist is also tapering him off Cyclosporin, an anti-transplant rejection med, which helped him into remission five years ago but has now become toxic to the kidneys. He has no immune system to speak of, which is why our house is as sanitized as a hospital, and we are as OCD about germs as Howard Hughes. (No, he hasn't had a kidney transplant, and hopefully with this drug, he never will need one…)

This drug was first developed for lymphoma and leukemia, then they found good results with autoimmune diseases: MS, Graves Disease, Lupus, Rheumatoid Arthritis, etc. I'm not sure who decided to try it on patients with his disease, but the theory is that autoimmune disease causes scarring in the body, and his issue is scarring in his kidney tissues.

His B cells will start to regenerate right away, and it will take six months to a year for them to get back to normal levels. In the meantime, the Rituxan will stay in his system for six months, so the cells that DO regenerate will not be affected by the chemical compounds that react to autoimmune attacks.

He's had one set of labs (after two infusions) that showed his protein leakage down slightly, but his kidney function had gone from 30% to 40%. He'll get another set of labwork done next week.

There's the scientific timeline, and there's God's timeline. Our prayer is that the drug will put him into remission, so he will not need dialysis or a transplant down the road.

So now we wait.

Awwww. Good job, Forward.

There you are Blessing. Yay!! Now, it's up to his body and of course God. You are a retired counselor? Okay, I am lining up for therapy Good to hear that he is done with the infusions. So, does this mean that he won't need another cycle until after six months?

Jazzyjune

Yes that is my dog. He is posing with my husband , but refuses to go for a walk with him. He'll only go if I go.

blessings. Agreeing in prayer with you that he won't need dialysis in the future

Sas. Darn how did I miss the dinner party talk. Bummer. Well the meet and greet sounds like fun. Ouch! Sorry about your shoulder. Central line is in place according to X-ray. It is still a battle of occlusion every our or more. Hoping to go home tomorrow ( sunday ) so really really don't want to lose this one and have to get another.

Loverly glad dog is fitting right in.

It's nearly 2am and no sleep boo

Patty and Susan both, so sorry you are not well I really hope that you will both feel better soon. So many meds for controlling nausea and diarrhea, really hope and pray that they can find the ones that are right for each of you. XXX

https://m.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL3R1sIQwcvVdQ...

Markeys Jin Shin videos.

It's not exercise even though the directions sound like twister. Watch a video. It's light touch. I guess the closest mainstream concept would be like acupuncture but no needles.

I really believe it's given me quality of life. I even do it on my kids. I did a hold on my mom after her stroke. She's about 90% recovered. I know the surgeon did a fantastic job and she got the meds in the window but I still think it helped it was categorized as a castrophic with buckshot like clots in the brain. She can eat, talk, move, laugh, smile. She maybe has to hunt for words more often but we all know what that's like and little to no sleep in the hospital. She's been in rehab a week so it's only been two weeks from the stroke.

Sas I didn't see your pain thread.

Hootie hoo Patty. Hope you get sprung today. Waving to everyone else.

JunieB have you read those books or seen the play? They are hysterical.

How much wood could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?

Blessings : thanks for the update. Glad that DH is due with the Rituxan infusions. Hoping his labs continue to improve.

Cute pic, Lookforward!

Hello to all.

Bet is was interesting. One year I drove a small load of hearing impaired kids. Their hands would be flashing, they were cracking up, and I had no clue.