If I didn’t adore Dr. Vasireddy so much I would think he was an awful person for making us get to the Cancer Center by 7:00 am but…as we know, I adore him. So I blearily got up early (for me) and we sat in the dark by the Christmas tree for a bit until we hauled ourselves off to Carle. Grumpy valet guy was grumpy but everyone else was lovely AND we got Pod Four, which is the quietest and most secluded pod. Long live Pod Four!
For some reason the holiday decorations at the cancer center are always a marker for me. Back in late December 2019/early 2020, when this latest round of cancer really took off, I remember staring at the Christmas decorations. It seemed so hard to make sense of the decorations and our life. Of course that was right before Olney died and the world went to hell. We all should have known that something bad was coming when Olney died.
We talked to Vasireddy about the bladder cancer and the treatment. He’s switching Ernie to getting his Keytruda every six weeks instead of three, but is doubling the dosage so it’s more or less the same. Hopefully the insurance company won’t quibble about continuing Keytruda past two years. It’s funny, I’m delighted we don’t have to go every three weeks but it makes be feel a bit untethered.
We go back to Barnes in January for an appointment to discuss the prostate cancer.
We’ve got to sit down and call the hospitals and insurance company. Last time I got a bill from Barnes it said we owed $46,000. Part of me gets hysterical and part of me just shrugs and says, “Come and get it, baby. Just TRY and get it.” It shows his total treatment expenses as over a million for the year.
Oh, and Hattie has a weird lump on her neck. I told her she’s gonna have to pay for her own vet visit. We both sighed.
In more cheerful news, the tree gets decorated tonight!
Ernie outdid himself last night. Bacon kale pasta.
We had a bag of cut up kale. He took several handfuls and blanched it for a minute. Then he diced up some bacon and cooked it, did our standard addition of red pepper flakes and anchovy paste, then tossed it with the gluten free spaghetti and a bit of the pasta water. The man has really come into his own with cooking.
Then we had dessert!!! This is most unlike us but we’re still trying to conquer the recipe for gluten free apple pie bars. We’re getting there, we’re getting there.
Lastly, a very happy birthday to my father. He would have turned 17 on that day of infamy, when Pearl Harbor was attacked in 1941. Before long he was in the Navy.
Happy birthday, Dad. Love and miss you.
Onward.
Note: Man, I’m having a hard bringing myself to add the paywall. Sigh. I’m just not good at this stuff.