Her daddy's text just awhile ago said she had a very restless night but was much calmer today. She was able to sit in her grandparents laps and seemed pretty happy. As he said I guess that's all we can ask right now.
Update on Camille. All except one of the IVs will be removed today which should improve her mobility. She should like that. There is no further update on the blood pressure issue with her. All prayers and well wishes continue to be appreciated.
Camille has now passed 5 out of 6 of the "no chemotherapy" tests. Only the pathology report remains. Thanks for all the prayers and well wishes. It means a great deal to me and Camille's parents to know there are people all across the country pulling for her. I went to the doctor again today because of my persistent extreme coughing and the almost complete loss of my voice. She had a chest x-ray done and said I have bronchitis. They gave me a a steroid shot (I assume to reduce lung inflammation) and prescribed some powerful cough syrup with hydrocodone in it. Unfortunately the pharmacy had very little. I've got only enough for two and a half doses. I'll take it just prior to bedtime the next three nights. We're leaving to spend Christmas with Annalee. She's on call Tuesday and Thursday (neuro surgical technician-board certified) so its difficult for her to get away overnight.
Still waiting for the final pathology report on Camille. I'm optimistic. Our Christmas at Annalee's apartment on Christmas Day was great even though Annalee was called in that afternoon to assist with an aneurysm operation. She was annoyed but of course went in. It took about three hours on a 40 year old man. She said she didn't know if he would survive or not or require follow up surgery. Our gift exchange went well. Amy enjoyed her Pioneer Woman cookbook that I got her and the special Pioneer Woman cooking set that Annalee got her. Amy got me a new Bible carrier for the Bible she got me two Christmas's ago which I had really wanted and Annalee got me another original series Enterprise model. My existing one suffered severe damage to its engineering hulls last year. Don't remember how. I hope to take a lot more care assembling this new one. We got Annalee a brand new crockpot. She had been wanting one for some time. Annalee's boyfriend Brandon drove down late Christmas evening and stayed a few hours. Murphy just adores him and almost jumped into his arms when he came in the door. She pretty much stayed in his arms the whole time he was there. Don't know why Murphy loves him so much. She didn't grow up around him really. Of course Amy and I each got the other a "trip" gift as well. It was my idea. Her gift for me was us going to watch Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker on 12/21/19 which I liked much better than I had expected. Amy isn't that big into Star Wars but I hate going to movies without someone. My gift to her was taking her to Magnolia (Saturday evening) to a place noted for their outstanding (and expensive) barbecue. It was everything Amy hoped for. I was going to get some chicken strips but they were out so I had a barbecued sausage sandwich which wasn't bad. Amy's parents visited last Friday and took use to eat at the only restaurant in Norphlet. I had chicken strips there which were the best I've had in some time. We don't normally eat there as the food is rather expensive by our standards. Looking forward to Wednesday as we're going to my oldest sisters house in Texarkana (same place we went to on Thanksgiving) to celebrate the Kitchens Christmas. Annalee is coming down for that as well. Again really looking forward to it. Depressed over the pro football results. Can't believe New England lost to Miami of all people. Can't believe Dallas had such a huge victory over Washington but they won't even make the playoffs. A disappointing season at best. Oh well. All for the moment.
Still waiting for the final pathology report for Camille. Don't know why it's taking so long. After more than two weeks of my voice being near destroyed by the coughing problem (itself caused by bronchitis) my voice is finally coming back. On Dec. 31st, I donated a double unit of blood which means they won't bother me for blood again unit April. It took awhile to get going as initially my iron was too low and my pulse too fast and given that I had had the steroid injection 8 days previously they had to call a doctor and get him to approve my donation. Our Jan. 1st Christmas at my sister Debra's went well. Almost everyone was there. Annalee and her boyfriend came. Only Donna's daughter Christy, her husband and three daughters were not there. I was not happy with most of the football games this last weekend. I especially hating seeing New England lose. I would be fine with the Patriots winning the Super Bowl every year. Or at least three in a row hopefully. Something no NFL team has ever done. I guess from this point forward I'll hope for a Kansas City/Green Bay Super Bowl. That would be something. A rematch of Super Bowl 1 in the 100th season of the NFL!. All for the moment.
For some reason, they still haven't gotten back the final pathology report on Camille's tumor. I haven't heard any explanation as to why it is taking so long. The only thing I can figure is that they found something they are not sure of and have had to retest it. Not a good possibility. We went to visit Amy's family last Friday through Sunday and saw Camille at her grandparents house. She seemed all good. Happy and all that. On our way there we ran into the line of thunderstorms that had been predicted. We were heading west directly into the teeth of it and with the wind slamming rain into us I had to drop to around 20 mph for quite a while before it let up. Then on Saturday against all expectations it turned a lot colder than I expected. I had left my warmest jacket back home so it was quite cold to me. I guess I'll still pull for Kansas City in the AFC title game tomorrow. I think they are likely to win but who knows. No one I've been for lately has won. I'll pull for Green Bay as well but I have serious doubts they can beat San Francisco. Just hope Tom Brady agrees to stay in New England. I hate the thought of him playing elsewhere. Amy and I haven't been able to watch Days of Our Lives the last couple of weeks as DISH is in some kid of dispute with the local NBC station. That's annoying. Us watching DOOL together on the DVR in the evenings after she gets off from work has been a tradition for us for years. Oh well. Still nothing new on the job front. This is the longest I've been without a job of any kind in my life. Given the economy is so good I don't understand why I can't find one. One of my sister thinks its my age. That not many want to hire a 52 year old man. Especially one that hasn't worked in anything but education in more than 15 years. I suppose I'll just have to keep trying for another teaching job. On the upside Amy got a substantial raise the other day at the library. This upper her spirits considerably. I finally found a website to post my Star Trek fan fiction. I used to have My Diary, fan fiction, and everything else at another site. Very convenient. I wish I could post my fiction here but there seems no obvious place for it. It isn't just Star Trek though I use that as a framing device. There is also some political/military fiction thrown in there as well. All for the moment.
While up at daddy's house with Amy and her parents (her parents are removing the cabinet doors to sand and repaint them) I found a binder with copies of My Diary entries from June 1st, 2008 to February 4th, 2010 printed out. Nice to know that at least 20 months of My Diary entries have not been lost. I think there was another binder of printed out My Diary entries. I hope to find it as well. Nice to know my personal history hasn't been lost completely. All for the moment.
I forgot mention that last Sunday I found out my former high school football coach who coached me for six years has pancreatic cancer. Apparently it is early enough that some hope of treatment as he is going to go stay with his oldest son near Dallas while he undergoes chemotherapy. This has bothered me a great deal as I always held him in very high regard. He was also a great Civics teacher. I enjoyed his class a great deal. Something weird happened the other day while I was walking Murphy one street over from here. Our usual route. Murphy is about 40lbs. three year old black and brown mix. She has fought other dogs twice and come out on the short end of things. The last time she was in heat a large male dog that stays a lot in a backyard on 12th street came over and of course tried to breed her but she fended him off pretty effectively. Finally he lost interest. At the same house there is a smaller (about 50 lb.) dog that is very menacing. Normally it is confined to a fenced in backyard. But its menacing enough that I carry a dowel rod when we walk because once when it was loose it laid its ears back, growled and charged at Murphy. Well this time when we walked, Murphy's "friend" was out there....but so was the menacing dog. The menacing dog charged Murphy twice and I swung frantically in its direction with my dowel rod. But even more surprising the other dog, Murphy's friend appeared to deliberately intercept the menacing dog both times and blocked it from attacking Murphy! I had no idea that dogs would do that. All for the moment.
Just got word that Camille is going to have to have chemotherapy. No other details available. Today is her 1st birthday.
Found out when Amy got back from her three day trip yesterday. Camille is going to have her "port" for her chemotherapy put in on Tuesday and Wednesday. After that she is going to have one chemotherapy treatment a week for a total of 14-18 (which I assume means it will go on for 14-18 weeks). That is all I know at this point. All for the moment.
This will be an anxious time. 4 1/2 months worth of infusions is a trial for a little kid and her family.
My aunt Faye died yesterday. He was 88 like daddy was when he died three years ago. I haven't seen her in awhile as I had heard her mind was deteriorating and she didn't know almost any of her family anymore. Her funeral is Saturday at 2:00 and I'll go. Saturday is one of Amy's Saturdays to work at the main library so she won't be able to go with me. Afterwards I'm driving up to daddy's house and clean up the den some. I'm going to pack away a bunch of my books and magazines. Put them in storage in my sisters old room. https://www.wilkersonfuneralhomes.com/index.php/obituaries Amy and I were both upset finding out some of the details about Camille's chemotherapy. Her first treatment was Tuesday. Her white count is going to be suppressed so great pains are going to have to be taken for her not to get any kind of illness. If she gets sick any she has to stay in the hospital at least a week. Needless to say Amy and I won't be going to visit them until her chemotherapy is finished which of course is probably in May. I've been applying for various coaching and teaching jobs around the state. Amy and her family would like me to get a job out of the education profession but after months of frustration applying for non education jobs last year without even getting an interview in what is supposed to be a great job market, I realized that is not possible. I realized that any place I apply is going to look at my resume and see that I haven't had a job outside of education in more than 15 years so they aren't going to seriously consider me. So I'll have to stick it out, pray that I can get another teaching or teaching and coaching job. Annalee got a dog from the shelter yesterday. She named it Bo. It looks remarkably like Murphy (our dog which was supposed to be Annalee's when she still lived at home). I'm hoping she can get it trained not to tear up stuff in her apartment while she it at work (surgery). Of course Annalee having a dog there will complicate things when we stay overnight with her since we have to take Murphy along as well and Murphy is notorious for not wanting to share attentions with other dogs. Oh well. All for the moment.
Can you Skype Camille when she is having her chemo? Four months is a long time to not see grandma and granddad.
Her grandparents (Amy's sister and brother in law) will no doubt have a major role in taking care of her. As will her great grandparents (Amy's parents). And of course her grandparents on her mother (Katies) side. Fortunately all six of those live pretty close and are in good health themselves so the family has about as much support as they can possibly use. Katies dad is a recently retired doctor. The big problem I think will be making sure that her five year old sister Elliot is careful around her. The sisters have always been very close with Camille loving to wrestle with Elliot. Before her surgery Elliot would lay on the floor and let Camille crawl over to her. Camille would then crawl up on Elliot and push her down on the floor. Since her surgery her parents and grandparents haven't let her do that anymore.
Ah, got it. She won’t be totally isolated. Hard for little kids who are a bit delicate and for siblings who have to dial back the vigorous play.
Camille has made it through her first three chemotherapy treatments as well as possible I suppose. The second treatment last week made her sick but they gave her something for her stomach before she left the hospital and it was cleared up pretty quick. That's as well as can be expected I supposed. Today is Annalee's 20th birthday. Hard to believe. Both Amy and I texted her with birthday greetings this morning. Amy's parents were going by today and taking her out to eat. Amy, Murphy (dog) and I are going up this next Sunday and taking her out to eat as well. Annalee called both Amy and I last Friday in tears. She said she was feeling stressed out and wanted us to come stay with her. We were reluctant but we ended up going on Saturday and staying most of the day. I think she was just overworked. She had already worked 50 hours that week and they called her in for operations on Saturday and Sunday as well. When I first heard her on the phone I was worried something had happened to Bo (her dog that she just got). Fortunately Bo was just fine. He is a pretty friendly dog though he still has many puppy characteristics like wanting to bite your nose and hands. Still Annalee is doing a good job training him. It will be interesting to see how he and Murphy get along when we go up there on Sunday. Bo certainly seems happy despite Annalee keeping him in a cage in her apartment while she isn't there. Though that isn't permanent. It is only while he is being trained. I guess he thinks that is an improvement over the pound. I got to stop and Barnes & Noble. I actually found "The Year in 2020" special issue of The Economist that I had been looking for some time. Plus I got the newest issue of The Hoover Digest (Winter 2020). Though it only comes out from the Hoover Institute four times a year, it is one of the greatest public policy magazines of all time in my opinion. If the Hoover Institute says something, I listen, closely. Plus I found the last two issues of National Review. Since I no longer have a subscription getting a couple of newsstand issues of it is nice. I would've liked to have gotten copies of Military History Quarterly, Warships: International Fleet Review and Combat Aircraft but I couldn't stretch my money that far with a good conscience. Friday before Annalee called (I was en route home then) I went to the courthouse in Nashville and paid the back due property taxes on daddy's home and the land I own around it. Though I know they wouldn't take the land until it was delinquent more than three years I certainly did not want to fall too far behind. Then I drove up to dad's put out some poison I hoped would keep the squirrels out of the "attic" and worked on putting books and magazines in plastic boxes to store in my youngest sisters old bedroom. While the job in restoring daddy's home still looks staggering, we are making progress. There is a lot of old furniture that we're going to have to throw away eventually. Some of it is older than me (52). I miss my dad a lot. February 24th it will be three years since he died. I did stumble across another binder with old My Diary entries from all the way back into 2002. And another binder with things like my Star Trek fan fiction that I had written and posted back during that era. Nice to know that I haven't lost everything I ever posted. All for the moment.
Camille had nausea at her third chemotherapy treatment as well but she is continuing to get medication for it. Her hair (what little a one year old has) is coming out as well but overall her parents and everyone else seems to think the side effects are small and manageable. She is staying with Katie's parents recently given her 5 year old sister Elliot has a bad case of flu. Amy and I went to The Flying Burger last night. I had my burger with tomato, pickles and onion last night. The first time I had ever eaten pickles and onion. With pickles and onion added to my list of vegetables I eat I'm up to seven different ones in total. Pinto beans, potatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots, tomatoes, pickles and onions. As my middle sister (still 7 years older than me) would say "You're approaching normalcy". I would like to think my mom who died in 2001 would be kind of proud of me. All for the moment.
You should try an Australian burger” with the lot”. Beef patty, lettuce, tomato, fried egg, cheese, tomato sauce, beetroot and perhaps a slice of pineapple. Mm, mm. A meal fit for a king.
