Skip to main content

Mathew's Journal Ritalin Helps Him Be Productive

Mathew’s Journal
5-7-14

I almost fall every time I’m in the shower. Thank God Bob Larkin installed a handrail for free. It’s my lifeline with my newfound shower privileges.
 - on days I’m too weak I still give myself a sponge bath in fear I’ll hit my head.
 - Finally now with running water and Dial soap the black bandage lines are rolling up and washing down the drain.
 - I have stretch marks on my legs from the edema. They look like red streaks of lightning on my inner thigh, leading up to my groin.

Ritalin Ritalin - it’s what fills the pages - it’s a miracle for the last 2 weeks all I could do was sleep.
   - doze off while reading, watching TV, or playing video games.

  - go see the doctor and she says I can take more Ritalin again, (one of the doctors had significantly lowered my dose).
But now I have that fire again, but I’m nervous too - as my veins are going to be filled with that wrathful chemo.

A lot of times I’m cold but I’m sweating. I fall asleep sitting up wrapped in sheets and I wake up wet and sweating.


 - sometimes, when I awake I stare down at my feet and watch them twitch.


Pictures on the TV show scenes of the underwater - seahorse - octopi - gentle sharks. 
All meant to soothe the patients. I'm waiting in the supportive care waiting room. I have a therapy appointment, my first one before I go upstairs for the vein fire.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

About this Blog, A Journey Through Sarcoma

Confections for Cats, A Journey through Sarcoma is a chronicle of my son's journey through Desmoplastic Small Round Cell Sarcoma. It is intended to educate and inspire by using Mathew’s thoughts and feelings, dreams and fears through a variety of mediums; art, music, and writing. Through factual experience, what we learned and what we wish we had known. Mathew’s desire was to give meaning to his journey and in the process help anyone else on a similar path. The last possible explanation in my mind for my son’s health problems was cancer. Even the words “the scan shows a large mass” didn’t lead me to conclude cancer and when the cancer diagnosis was confirmed, I still wasn’t prepared. My Mother is a breast cancer survivor and my sister Elizabeth passed away three years after her breast cancer diagnosis. I thought I knew what cancer treatment and living with cancer looked like, but none of us could imagine or be prepared for how all semblance of routine and normalcy had alre...

When a Cancer Patient Has a Medical Emergency

3 Days in the DRC, Part 1 If you haven’t read my first post about the DRC at Moffitt and how it works, since Moffitt does not have an ER, you can read about it here.  https://confectionsforcats.blogspot.com/2018/04/neutropenic-fever-after-ie-chemo-and.html In summary, the DRC is where an existing Moffitt patient is directed to go if they have a medical emergency.  Usually, we would be there a few hours or overnight (since we arrived at midnight or shortly afterward) until they had a room for Mathew on the ward. This particular visit Mathew stayed in the DRC three days. As mentioned in my other post, the DRC has maybe two rooms with a bathroom; otherwise, one bathroom for about a dozen patients. In Mathew’s case, a patient with a lowered immune system.  This time Mathew was in the room furthest from the bathroom.  When inpatient, we had a routine for getting him to the bathroom. First, he needed the IV unplugged (often quickly) and most times, I ...

The Chemo Bell at Moffitt Cancer Center

Bells ring.  Bells, chime, toll, peal, resonate and resound. Bells foretell, warn and celebrate. The Chemo Bell The Survivor Bell Cancer Centers have one or several large bells, each with a large clapper. They are mounted on the wall and when a patient receives their last chemotherapy or radiation treatment for cancer they ring that bell. Mathew and I heard the Chemo Bell in the Infusion Center at Moffitt ring one time. Early on our journey. Everyone clapped and cheered. Mat and I stopped and looked at the bell that day and I thought at that time, it was a possibility for Mathew. Bells have a vibration. When a chemo bell rings, when a person survives cancer (even if it’s for a short time) they resound for the rest of us. Their survival reverberates and gives the rest of us hope.  I found another chemo bell on the 5th floor at Moffitt, in the hallway, past the patient rooms.  Next to the chemo bell was a copy of a photo of a patient surrounded ...