Tossing another "chemo grenade"...

Another shirt received from a fan.

"One size fits all" - it's a little big,

but that leaves room to hide his latest "chemo grenade" - 

whoa: stealth! ✌

Yesterday's infusions and the attachment of the new pump went very well. Biff even enjoyed the lunch they provided! And so far, he's feeling good. His mouth is dry, but, of course, that is an ongoing issue we do battle with constantly. Just keep it more "front and center" during treatments. Helps to prevent the dreaded mucositis from developing.

In case I never mentioned it before, Biff needs to keep the pump ("stealth chemo grenade") out from under blankets when he sleeps. They don't want his body heat to warm it up too much. Which can get a little tricky, keeping it outside the blankets when it's attached to your chest, you know? Well, he got creative last night. Check this out:

The little "fanny pack" he uses as a crossbody bag to carry it when he's up and about is that black thing on the table. Left of that, Biff took an old box, cut a hole, placed a little glass sauce cup in the hole, allowing him to rest the pump there when he is sleeping (or resting, as he is here) in his recliner. Which is where he sleeps most of the time. When he does sleep in the bed, he has to manage it differently.

Pretty clever, eh?

Otherwise, in order to not leave Bopper home alone (yesterday's session was 8am to 1pm), he came along for the ride to drop Biff off and again when I picked him up. Bopper does enjoy a car ride. Especially yesterday, when I couldn't get him out for his morning walk because we had to get things together and be on the road by 7am to get Biff there on time (rush hourS of traffic that early), so the car rides help make up for missing the walk.

Just cause, here's a picture of the little guy I took the other day. He's SO CUTE!!

But he looks so lonely and sad to me...

Anyway, back to yesterday. Of course, he hadn't had a chance to take care of his "business," so after we'd dropped Biff off, I drove around the facility and parked near the Radiation building where we used to go every day back in January and February. There's an accessible bit of grassy area near there. Bopper enjoyed that little adventure, and he took care of what he needed to take care of, if you catch my drift. I managed not to take any pictures of him, but I couldn't resist taking this picture of the bark of a tree at that spot:

Such a pretty natural phenomenon.

Otherwise, Biff is doing well. Still dealing with fatigue but mostly recovered from the relatively minor side effects from the last cycle. He's using a cane most of the time when he's out and about these days, quite steady on his feet.

That said, the last week had it's ups and downs. If you feel like reading more about that, click on the "Read more" below. Otherwise, the pump will be removed on Friday, so I'll definitely update after that - if I haven't already dropped other updates in the meantime. Most likely though, I won't be updating unless something dramatic comes up until late Friday (or maybe Saturday - when we might have some good news to share - more on that in the "Read more" - yep, a bit of a lure, a tease... tee hee).

Hope everyone is well and safe. It's a crazy world out there.

Okay, so here's a quick catch up since the last post.

Met Biff's new Primary Care Physician finally on Friday, August 4th. She seems great. She is checking into a few things we asked about, and she ordered an xray of his right shoulder (which he was able to do before we left the facility after the appointment), although she predicts it will show some arthritis. We haven't heard anything, so it shouldn't be anything serious. He's scheduled for another appointment with her in early November.

That night, dear old pals, Uncle Gibby and the Weaze, came for dinner and a swim. Still couldn't talk Biff into getting into the pool, but I'll keep trying as he continues to gain strength. I did get this nice picture of all "the boys" (including Bopper) while I was in the pool:

Raw.

Cropped and enhanced...

Another, raw.

I went ahead and put all three of those in so I could point out the HUGE cactus on the left. That monster grew from three little leaves or pads (I don't know what they are officially called) that we planted shortly after we moved in back in 1996 (a housewarming gift). Although we like how it looks, enjoy it's blooms, and marvel at the insane transformation, it also sheds tiny little stickers that are a nasty pain in our lives. We have to always wear footwear on the pool deck, brush or blow all seating before sitting, etc. Countless hours have been spent trying various methods to get them out of our hands and feet. And, believe me, it has been trimmed back A LOT over the years.

In my quest to make our backyard areas more welcoming, we have decided, finally, to have the monster removed. Which will be happening this coming Saturday, August 19th. I honestly can't wait. The two palm trees will remain, and we'll have to figure out something else to plant there for aesthetics, but I'm excited to say good-bye to the "little pricks" after all these years! 😏

Things were relatively quiet last week, as it turned out. We made some trips to local animal rescue shelters, but we had no luck finding a new furry pal for Bopper to join our family. Which is horribly depressing. So hard to see so many dogs "in jail" there, knowing we can't handle most of them, looking for a specific fit (younger, small, low-maintenance in terms of grooming, no health issues - at this point in our lives, we are very conscious of what we can manage, so we make ourselves say no to so many sweet faces - hate it).

But, the hardest news over the last couple of weeks was regarding Biff's father. In Assisted Living back in Michigan, he had two bad falls, ending up in the hospital twice. And then the hardest news. On Friday, August 11th, he passed away. Biff was somewhat estranged from his father, who was losing a battle with dementia, and he was 97 years old, so it wasn't - especially after the most recent nasty fall - entirely unexpected. But it is still hard. Especially on the surviving family, in particular Biff's beloved sister who lived close enough to be the one who had to handle everything, visiting, etc. 

No matter what, a death in the family is rough. Biff's mother passed during the pandemic, and we were not able to go back to see her before she passed or attend the funeral. And now his father is gone, too, and because of Biff's treatment schedule, we won't be able to get back there for that funeral either.

Here's a picture I took of Biff with his parents the last time we were able to see them on a visit to Michigan back in 2014 for their 70th wedding anniversary!

All of us, especially those three, had tears in our eyes.

Before we'd learned the news that day, Biff did the morning walk with me and Bopper. I got some good pictures.

There he is, coming from behind...

And there he goes, taking the lead (and moving out to the street to avoid unruly sidewalk.)

We have a bunch of these trees in full pink-bloom in the neighborhood right now.

Although he's done the walk without taking a rest break a couple of times, that day he did stop for a quick break - and I happened to get some fun shots there:

Finding a random flower blooming out of that hedge set him up, amiright? Here's a close up of the flower:

Biff had to get some pre-chemo blood tests done that day, too, so we ran some errands, got ourselves out of the house for a bit. We ended up having lunch at IHOP - Biff had a hankering for pancakes. Although I did not take pictures of our food (I almost never think to do that LOL), they had some pretty flowers blooming outside the restaurant that I couldn't resist. I think I just needed to focus on beautiful things that day.

The next day Biff had another physical therapy session. We'd requested more when he met with his new PCP the week before, but apparently only one more session was approved!?! Seriously strange what will be approved and what won't sometimes.

So, otherwise, the week goes on. Biff has a podiatry appointment this afternoon, a regular thing. And he'll be joining his regular Tuesday night poker game online - and I'm introducing my neighbor to Singing in the Rain finally. Oh, forgot to mention that I had to postpone that last week. I got the second dose of my Shingles vaccine that day, and it knocked me down for that night and the next day. The nausea only lasted that evening, but the aching body continued through the next day, too. But I'm happy to finally get to it tonight!

Tomorrow we're having a bunch of junk removed from the backyard (hooray!), and Thursday we're having some work done on lighting in the house that needs fixing. Biff's pump removal on Friday. And the cactus removal on Saturday... 

Also on Saturday, we are driving an hour to meet a small dog I found on the PetFinder app. She checks all our boxes and is super cute, so we are hopeful she'll be coming home with us! Bopper will be coming with us so we can see how they get along. I don't want to get my hopes up too much (she seems "too good to be true"), but I am anxious to meet her. I kept going back to check her in the app, although I expected we'd find a dog at a shelter closer to home - and avoid having to fill out a 4-page application and drive so far (and pay a little more), but after the recent, unsuccessful, treks to two shelters last Sunday, I went ahead and filled out the application and submitted it. They got back to me yesterday, but we couldn't schedule a meeting until Saturday. It already feels like a long week - all the anticipation!

Wow, by this coming Sunday, we could have fixed lights in our kitchen and TV room, all the junk removed from our backyard, the monster cactus gone, and a new member of our family/pack... 

Life just keeps moving. So fast sometimes. So slow other times. But it keeps on moving...

Onward and onward!