As I write this I’m sitting in the wee ‘cafeteria’ of our clinic in Mexico where they have high-speed wireless Internet! We also have WiFi at our littleapartment. So I’ll be able to use my laptop in good shape.
Char has been in treatment since about 8:30 AM this morning (Wednesday). I went into the room with her for today’s hyperthermia treatment (this is just one of the many treatments and IV-drip therapies she gets each day). For the hyperthermia therapy she gets into a foil lined bed that zips up leaving only her head outside; a computerized heat machine regulates serious heat lamps inside the foil tent to get the patient’s body temperature up to 101 degrees for 30minutes. The philosophy is to simulate the body’s own ‘purging’ mechanism somewhat like a fever wherein toxins, etc., are ‘purged’ out of the system. Cancer cells are normal cells but on ‘meth’, that is, they are suped-up, replicating cells out of control. They like warmth–so they super-accelerate themselves up to 100 degrees body temp; after that, cancer cells implode, revving themselves into melt-down. That’s the theory. So, everyday Char goes into the’rotisserie’ and broils! She’s doing great. I stand near-by to give her cooling sips of water through a straw and today I turned on a small fan to blow lightly on her face. She’s a real trooper taking whatever they throw at her– but the whole idea of ‘Red Lobster’ will never be the same again!
She woke up this morning telling me of thinking about details and actual mental problem-solving (= what we need to do … lists, etc., etc.). This is the first time she’s done her ‘director’ self for a week or more! Something is working!
I’m seeing more lucidity, more return of mental acuity in Charlotte than I’ve seen for over a week prior to coming to Mexico, and I see improvement already after only two days (instance her waking up today aware of problem-solving/thinking and being able to talk to me about it!). She is still very weak and must frequently rest/sleep, but before time she was frequently incoherent when she woke and spoke.
This will be the oddest Christmas she and I have ever spent. The clinic is closed XMas Day, but we’ll go back again on Saturday for treatment. I walked to the near-by ‘mall’ yesterday afternoon and bought me a coat and a few items of clothing for Char. We scrambled out of Albuquerque so quickly last Sunday to make our flight so we could be in San Diego and get to the Mexico clinic Monday morning I forgot my coat and hat! We came with two small carry-on bags, but we don’t need much here. We can hire the maid at our Dali Suites to do laundry for us.
I walk to the near-by grocery each afternoon. I’m preparing simple, fresh salads for us to eat for our suppers (we have a small kitchenette). The problem is, when a spoiled, male chauvanist pig husband does the grocery shopping it’s worse than sending a small child. Add the complication of products wearing foreign labels and store clerks “no habla englese” and you have the picture of a man-child shuffling up and down each aisle pushing a cart looking for pictures. Now I wish I’d cultivated comic book reading long ago since I’m now reduced to pictures for information.
Walking is good for me, although my back has spasmed on me, I think from pushing Char’s wheelchair (her chair is a left-over Flintstones movie prop, I think: semi-square litho-wheels … pardon my sick joke!).
Char isn’t supposed to have any alcohol but I’m buying us a bottle of Zinfandel from Santa for our Christmas!
Joseph Harvill, publisher Great Scots Magazine
Dear Joseph,
How amazing is Charlotte’s new treatment! Your word picture of grocery shopping in Mexico is the humor we all, and you and Charlotte, need. Find humor and laughs in the worst of times and it will make you both fly above the bumps.
My prescription is that you find a copy of Dickens’ Christmas Carol to read to Charlotte. It is only about 100 pages. We took our Lubbock grandsons to the new Jim Carey version of The Christmas Carol yesterday, and I came home and started reading it. Going back to a simpler time with Dickens’ own word pictures of life in London in the 1840s and the unchangeable mandates to humans to be better and help each other would surely add some more good medicine to that which Charlotte is receiving in Tiajuana.
A Merry Christmas for you is waiting to be found in simple pleasures in Mexico. Enjoy your sips of Christmas cheer.
Carole Owen
So good to hear your clear, strong voice, and your ability to find humor in “bumping along” best you can in the Tijuana grocery stores. Charlotte’s treatments are clearly helping her if you are hearing her “director” return: BRAVA! A Christmas-day break for both of you to relax and recoup will likely be welcome after your fast flight from Tome and being catapulted clear into another country: coatless in Mexico! Amazing, isn’t it, how little we really need to be content: a loved one by our side able to have enjoy lucid moments with us after a long descent into illness–a priceless gift! Blessings upon both of you for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Our prayers and love surround you.
It is so good to hear the progress report we’ve been writing about Charlotte & the experiences you’ve had in Mexico. It keeps us from feeling so cut off from progress being made. It sounds great that Charlotte is lucid now and you can communicate with each other. It’s very difficult to lose communication with your loved one. Keep the faith and stay strong and remember we’re all pulling for you.
Sheryl Kay & Bill McDaniel