Cancer Story

Recently, I made a social media post about my husband having kidney cancer. I did promise I'd share the "how we found out" portion of it.  To share his story in a way feels a bit like a mission...so here goes.

For some time now my husband's PSA numbers were climbing about a half point a year.  They were climbing to a level that was about 5 years ahead of where they should be for a man of 61.  Middle of May he had routine blood work and a week later he had his follow up with our nurse practioner.  They discussed his numbers and Nick(np) told my husband that insurance wouldn't cover anything just yet but, probably by late fall his numbers would support what would come next.   That was at least good news for right then.  A week later on Tuesday, Hugh went to the bathroom and it looked like it was nothing but blood.  He didn't mention it to me until the next morning and I told him he had to see Nick that day that he likely it was another UTI.  Notice how I said "another."  Several years ago, I think right before covid he had his first UTI this was a sign we just didn't know it.  That time he just went to our local urgent care, gave him antibiotics and all was well.  Until now.  When he saw our NP he did indeed have a UTI.  Hugh mentioned to him that he had one a few years before.  Now our NP could send him for a CT scan, as a man with elevated PSA and UTI that would be fine with an insurance company.  Hugh couldn't get schedule until the next week for the scan so that brings us to the last week of May.  Should you recall, we moved John to Valdosta that very week and I had already gone to assist in the final packing and cleaning.  Two hours after Hugh had the CT scan Nick calls and tells him that he has a 5cm mass in his left kidney.  He calls me immediately and I have to say I was stunned...in shock if you will.  It was a hard weekend with all the driving and cleaning and moving and now what was going on in his kidney!  That Friday evening even though neither of us had an appetite we went to an Applebee's.  We sat right there and he told me all the financial things I should know, what I should do with this and that and since that night we haven't had any other talk about that kind of stuff.  

Late the next week he had another CT scan with contrast.   This report used words like malignant mass.  The next step was to see a urologist which took another week, no one had any sense of urgency.  We saw the urologist and he scheduled a cytoscopy/biopsy for the 25th of June.  

Recovering from the biopsy was tough.  My husband is incredibly active...goes to the gym every day, gets on that eliptical and stays for 45 mins +, he kayaks almost every weekend spring and summer and does wildlife photography which is physical believe it or not.  He had never had anything health wise wrong so, he had never had any procedure that was like this.  As I drove him home he grimaced the whole way, he was in pain.  He also had a stent that would stay in until Saturday and that isn't pleasant.  The next morning he gets up and heads to work. To my suprise he doesn't come home until about 3.  Still miserable.  Thursday he goes into work but comes home even earlier.  Friday is finally here and I am trying to get stuff in the car to leave on vacation.  Hugh comes in the door at 9am and I promptly call the dr and say he needs to be seen.  At this point, I send Andrew and Anna on ahead of me to St. Simons.  The gal that answered the phone at the dr office tells me that they close at noon and he needs to come right now and that I should come with him.  To be honest, the nurse practioner we saw that day didn't do much.  He suggested he could be constipated....all the pain meds do this.  Back home I get him settled into bed and I leave for the beach.  Now at this point ya'll are thinking why did I leave him and why didn't he just go with me then.  He was in no shape to really travel, he was most comfortable when he was laying flat  in the bed and he assured me he was ok for me to leave.   Next day he gets up and heads to the beach which frankly,  I thought he'd never make it and we'd have to go get him.  When he finally got there, we put him in the elevator up to the condo and we unloaded everything he needed.  That was Saturday and he didn't try to leave the condo until Monday and that absolutely wore him out.  At least he had pretty scenery to look at.

I will say this vacation was the most relaxing in terms of not rushing here and there to do all the things.  We sat and enjoyed each other right in this spot.  Most of our meals were right there at that little table. 

 

 

The next week we met with the urologist again and he tells us that the cancer is low grade, noninvasive and it was in the upper renal pelvis of the kidney.  Ya'll I know more technical terms in regards to the kidney than I'd have ever imagined.  There is so much more to the kidney that I'd ever thought.  To make this understandable for normal folks like me...his cancer is in the upper part of the kidney in what I'd call a chamber (actually it is called the caylex or renal pelvis).  The urolgoist presented 2 options...remove the kidney or perform an ablation and then do chemo.  Most of this time we assumed the kidney would have to go.  While at the beach I met a lady in the needlepoint store there and her father had the same exact thing Hugh has.  I'll tell ya'll about that another time!  She had real knowledge of what kidney removal would be like!

Hugh had read alot on the internet about having an ablation and right then and there he agreed to do that!  He is the first person that fit the right circumstances at our local hosital to have this done there.

Another week later we are finally at the hospital to have this procedure done.   We were met by one of the pastors from our church along with the hospital chaplain that was ask to be there by another one of our pastors and a very sweet lady from the sewing ministry at the church.  After they hooked Hugh up to all these things they then tell us that an emergency had come up and he was being bumped for 2 hours.  They also told us that they would not be putting the nephrostomy tube in that day.  This is what the chemo will be administered through.  Here is a bit about the type chemo he is having:  it goes through the nephrostomy tube directly into the kidney in the form of a gel.   The actual brand of the chemo is called Jelmyto.  The gel goes into the kidney and stays there in gel form for some 4-6 hours and then he simply will pee it out.  

Hugh did remarkablely well from this procedure, way better than the biopsy!  He had that on a Thursday and went back to work on Tuesday.  During the ablation the kidney was so full of debris that the dr told me he got to a point where he couldn't see well.  He also mentioned that the mass is much like a carpet in that chamber of the kidney.  

Hugh had another ablation yesterday along with the nephrostomy tube put into his back to the kidney.  He will have chemo for 6 weeks.  He slept well last night and seems to be doing better than we expected.

So here is the long story short, we found out all of this from a simple UTI which is not common for men to have.  Should your husband or a man in your life ever have this, knowing what I know now I'd insist on a CT scan!.  Oh his prostate was fine...nothing wrong with it!

Here is a quick time line to show how things went:

May 21 blood in urine

May 22 app with nurse practioner

May 30 ct scan without contrast

June 7 ct scan with contrast

June 17 saw urologist

June 25 biopsy

July 25 1st ablation

August 15 2nd ablation/nephrostomy tube

To everyone that has sent messages, texts, calls, cards and most importantly have prayed for Hugh we have absolutely felt them!  Many thanks to our church family at Trinity Church in Opelika for all the love yall have shown!

 

 

Living Room Curtains

On my wish list for several years were new curtains for the living room.  Having not loved what I had in there for 8 years it was time to replace!  As I began my search, a few details that I was definate on were that they be a solid curtain and possibly made of linen. 

Etsy was the first place I decided to search, to my delight I found some almost immediately.  You all know that making a snap decision isn't me, I mulled it over from January to March then I ordered!  It took about 6 weeks for them to be made.  The curtains arrived a few weeks ago and I waited through countless weather days to get the curtains photographed so that they looked just right.  After giving up on the right lighting and Lightroom to edit I've decided to just post them and explain that this part of the house is difficult at best to photograph.

The etsy shop offered many lengths and widths along with blackout lining and regular drapery lining.  These do not have bump or weights, I think that is okay as they hang perfectly. The dimensions are 32x96 and have the regular drapery lining.  The Etsy shop is called Indulgence Fabric and it based out of northern New York.  

The color is called buttercream and the fabric is linen.  They really are quite lovely hanging, I couldn't be more pleased.  If you saw my instagram story a week or so ago you will know that they are very wrinkled as most all linen is.  The longer they have hung that seems to be better...better but not great.  I might need to consider a steamer at this point!

National Jelly Bean Day

Tomorrow, April 22 is National Jelly Bean Day!  Often times I wonder who comes up with a day of tribute for any particular item but, a day to celebrate the Jelly Bean is okay by me!  I've always loved a jelly bean as does my family.  It seemed appropriate to create a menagerie of this delightful confection.

After a bit of research on the history of jelly beans, I discovered that the origins of the bean is unknown. It is believed to be a descendant of a mid eastern confection known as Turkish Delight that dates back to preBiblial times.  

Jelly Beans were often sold in pretty glass jars in general stores back in the 1800s.  To pay tribute to those days, I gathered a few pretty glass jars of my own to create a display. 

This particular jar was one of my maternal grandmother. As a child, I well recall this holding orange slices that both my Grandparents always enjoyed.  I regret not asking her where she got it and when. Since I am  55 I can on only guess that it is at least as old. Grandmother would be delighted to know that I'd taken a picture of something that was hers for all to see!

Weve had a few gloomy days this week, these bright and cheery colors sure do brighten the kitchen.

Happy National Jelly Bean Day!

 

The Starting Point: Master Bath Remodel

Many times you've heard the phrase "everything was fine and then..." it wasn't.  Back in March when we were in lockdown, there were 5 of us living in our house.  Everyone had their own bathroom but, somehow everyone including the kids would migrate to our bathroom for whatever purpose. The bathroom began to have an odor, not a normal bathroom odor.  At first I just thought it was because we were all going in and out.   To no avail I'd spray with an assortment of sprays both air freshner and cleaners around the shower.  Months went on and by May, Honey decided it was time to have a handyman come by.  He looked at the shower and then said, let's go under your house(we are on a crawlspace). As soon as he opened the door under the house he said immediately your shower drain has a leak!  He takes my phone and starts snapping pics of water marks all over boards under the house, along with the drain pipe from the shower that was covered in calcium deposits.  We both knew this was over his head and it was time to call professionals.

Having contractors come over took the better part of June.   I must admit, we were in sticker shock...along with our insurance agent!  We had such a variety of estimates ranging from $6000-$9450.  All the estimates were without the price of the tile!  Along with the financial side of this came the time to complete this project.  Most said it would take up to 4 weeks to complete. With that information  I knew I wanted to wait until John had gone back to college for the fall and Andrew's fiance had left for University of Minnesota phd program.  

For a bit I want to talk about the odor that was present.  I've already mentioned it wasn't an odor that would be typical for a bathroom.  A contractor told me it was the smell that bacteria from rotting wood give off... his word was "bacteria fart."  I'm glad we followed mine and Melissa's nose as this was the ideal time to find this type of damage for insurance concerns as well as our safety(think falling thru the floor).  When the insurance adjustor came out he told us had the decay gotten worse the insurance wouldn't have paid.  I'm telling you all this because if you have stuff going on in your home that isn't typical, like a smell or something you need to seek out the cause...this has saved us big $$$!

One thing most bloggers don't do is share what things like remodels or home repairs cost. Most site the difference in areas for what things cost and simply don't share that info.  I do believe locations do cause prices to be different.  From the very beginning I've said I will tell you everything!  As I sit here typing I'm waiting for my tile guy to finish and give me the final invoice.  As we finish the details of the bathroom I will absolutely share all of the costs and the varied expenses we have incurred, along with what the insurance company paid.

Before all of this happened I had not even entertained the idea of having to change anything in our master bath other than the chandy that was above the tub.  I had never looked at tile or even master bath ideas on any site.  Once it happened my first thought was...well it is just a shower, surely $5000 will cover it.  Stay tuned to see just how wrong I was!

Tailgate Time

The excitement in Auburn this week is almost palpable.  For the past few months most have wondered what football would look like this fall or if there would be football at all.  Thank goodness the SEC made sure that our football would go on.  That said, as a resident of Auburn I'm relieved that they are limiting of seating inside Jordan Hare stadium so maybe there won't be an enormous flux of folks in our little town.  In addition to limited seating, they've said there will be no tailgating with tables, tents and such...all due to the corona virus.   Since there will be no tailgating I've opted to created our own version right here at home!

Anytime before I have any sort of a gathering with food I plan out what I'm going to have and what dishes I will use. Also I'll determine which dish/bowl/platter will get which food.  This pretty much tells ya'll I'm not a fly by the seat of my pants kinda gal!

Most of these platters and serving trays I've had for many years.  You'll notice I've kept buckets we get popcorn in from the stadium, they hold chips great!

The orange and blue megaphones were a cute find at online craft store.  I simply google orange and blue megaphone and up they popped!  Found a couple other cute pieces there as well!

Those tallish blue and gold canisters are also new, those are from Montgomery Antiques.  As soon as I saw them I knew they would hold our cutlery for tailgates!  You might not know what the W and the E are for....as Auburn fans we say War Eagle!  

I always save shakers form all the games and they came in pretty handy under this vegetable tray!

I've debated food for the tailgate.  I'll pick up bbq from Country's Barbeque along with their baked beans cause ya'll they are the best EVER! You have to have wings if there is a football game so I'll grab those at Publix!   I'll have chips, crackers, vegetables and a dip or 2 of some sort.  

Gosh typing that out made me hungry and tired!  

Ya'll have a great weekend

& WAR EAGLE