Hurricane Beryl hit us this morning. We couldn’t see much from the hospital window other than lots of rain blowing sideways. It wasn’t until our boys sent us pics of the back yard that I realized it was a pretty significant storm. Parts of our fence fell on both sides of our backyard and a giant tree from a neighbors yard fell into our pool. I’ll probably just clean it up myself…easy and free firewood.

We waited all day hoping the Hematology/Oncology doctors would stop by but it got to about 630pm and they had not arrived. The nurse said they more than likely won’t come today due to the storm. I left to get Shannon and myself some dinner. That’s when I really saw the destruction from the storm. Lots of trees down, some blocking roads, lots of power loss, blinking traffic lights, business signs tore up, etc etc. It was hard to find a restaurant that was open. I finally found a Jason’s Deli. Shannon loves Jason’s Deli.

I had to wait in a long line and then wait another 20 minutes for the food. Just as I was leaving to head back to the hospital Shannon text me “Diamond is here.” So of course, Dr. Diamond showed up at 8pm right when I’m out getting food. I called and Shannon put me on speaker. Dr. Diamond said that unfortunately due to the storm, the pathology lab wasn’t operating today. He said we’ll know the results tomorrow (Tuesday). He said he’ll want to keep Shannon in the hospital and start the first round of chemo ASAP.

She had an MRI of the brain yesterday just to make sure there wasn’t anything showing up in her brain. He said her brain is clear…so that’s good news. She will also be getting a PICC line in the next few days. It’s a Peripherally Inserted Central Catheter. It’s a central line placed into the upper arm and the tip end in the superior vena cava (a large vessel that returns blood to the right atrium of the heart.) There’s 3 vessels that return blood to the heart. The superior vena cava, the inferior vena cava and the one most people forget about is the coronary sinus. It’s a small vessel that returns blood from the coronary arteries. Anyhow, too much info, the PICC line is good for up to a year. It’s a sturdy long-term line that can be used for all of her medication, including chemo and also used for blood draws. This will save her from being poked all the time.

Shannon’s pain is better today. She can have dilaudid every 4 hours, but she’s only used it once this morning and once this evening. She showered today, walked a bit, and we watched part of Axel F…the new Beverly Hills Cop movie on Netflix. She’s running a fever off and on. It was 100.2 F tonight. Her nurse gave her some Tylenol and her pain meds and she’s asleep now. Hopefully we’ll know more tomorrow.