Megann is home for a visit!

Megann's wonderful roommate Jessica from freshman year at BYU got married this weekend at the Draper Temple. So Megs had to be there, she wouldn't miss it. She came all the way from Nashville after having just moved there on May 27. I picked her up at about 8:30 a.m. on Friday morning at the airport. I dropped her off at home so she could catch up on some sleep.

Right after that, I headed to an appointment with my family doctor, Dr. Levine. This was a followup for high blood pressure, which has risen steadily for the past few months. One day while I was at the Cancer Center for a check of my blood counts, my BP was 177 over 101. The MA wouldn't let me leave without making an appointment with my PCP, which I was able to do, and so I saw Dr. Levine later that same day. We had a good laugh over this--the Cancer Center can pump poison into my veins, but they can't mess with a little high blood pressure. Ha ha! She started me on a prescription of Bystolic, 10mg, and had me take half of that per day. I was to report back to her a month later. But when I tried to get an appointment with her a few weeks later, she was on vacation and then was moving to a new building so she was out of touch for another week after that. Then in the meantime, I saw Dr. Litton at the Cancer Center and asked him about the BP and if the chemo could be causing it. He indicated that the biological drug Avastin, because of the way it works affects the kidneys, which can cause BP to rise. So rather than see Dr. Levine right away, I decided to wait a few weeks longer til I was finished with the last round of chemo and see if my BP dropped.

So anyway I fnally reported to Dr. Levine and sure enough the BP has dropped, 120 over 90. Very good, says my daughter the nurse (she loves it when I say that). I had a great talk with Dr. Levine about the cancer journey, and I took copies of my scans to show her because they are such a big picture on the computer, it takes forever to get them to load. Seriously, it is like having pictures of a new baby, I have to show them to everyone. Dr. Levine says sometimes miracles do happen, she has seen them. She believes in them. So we are together in this battle, she is helping me to achieve maximum health so I can go on to fight the cancer. I am going to do a test overnight for oxygen levels, and determine if I might have sleep apnea, which could cause the elevated BP. We talked about appreciating life and how fragile it can sometimes be. But all in all, she feels really good about my chances and that I will still live a long time. I told her when I was first diagnosed, I thought I only had about 2 months, and here it is already 6 months down the road, so I have already outlived my first expectations. She said that for as advanced as my cancer was, she never thought I looked like I was sick. She said she was really thrown off by that.

Today is Sunday, and I brought Megann back home to get her stuff all packed up to fly back home. We will be taking her out to the airport. She didn't bring any checked baggage with her, but she is taking back her piano bench, which they accidentally left here. Allen took the legs off the bench and boxed it all up for her so she will have to check it and pay for it, but it is cheaper than sending it through the mail.