A Richmond Day

(a day late since I was too tired Tuesday night) 

I woke up at 5:45am. Organically. 15 minutes before the alarm. Body said, we've got to pee. and I obeyed, and got up and ready. 

The hotel bed was a little uncomfortable. It was like a futon mattress. My hip already hurts all the time, and I had a rough time getting up and standing for a bit. Do I dress and go down and get coffee first? Do I just shower and then get coffee? Oh my god this is so early. 

I opted to shower, and the hot water never got fully hot. It was kind of disappointing. Water pressure was great, shower itself was super nice, but ... I wanted heat. Hot hot heat. I washed my hair and quickly got out. Note to front desk, please look into this. 

The hotel was quirky cute. It's a Marriott brand, and I booked with points, affordable, and Lord do I have points! After I checked in, I found that I'd parked in a legal spot and didn't need valet parking. The spot was free until 8am. And they told me the ticket people don't usually start rolling around until about 10am. I knew I'd be moving the car before 7, so it was a perfect spot to be in. On street parking in Richmond. Amazing. 

I mentioned I didn't like the room art, at all. Here are some hotel pictures. 

The wall art freaked me out. What is up with those lips? It feels almost softcore porny? And the cigarettes. Gross??!! How is this art? meh!

The toilet is square. 

Okay, so most of the time, chairs may have square seats. I get it. But this was disconcerting. The square toilet freaked me out. Did not like. 

Overall, I have to say I wanted to really like this hotel. I've never stayed anywhere that the staff was as nice as the people here. From the 10pm folks, the bar tender and the other girl working, to the morning check-out experience. Everyone was so delightful. "I got you" was often the response when I said or asked for something. The bar tender asked me why I was in Richmond and I told her "to take my cousin for a cancer radiology meeting in the morning," and she looked at me and comped me a glass of wine. 

And when I took another glass of wine upstairs with me, she added extra, and told me "God's got you in all of this. You get some good sleep and I'll be thinking of you tomorrow morning."

When I checked out, I told the guy behind the counter about the lack of hot water, he comped me some points. 

He comped me the amount of points I spent on the room. I basically just stayed there for free. Crappy wall art aside, I have to say how lovely these people were to me. 

After getting a big coffee, I took my cousin to his appointment. He's a very difficult person. He's stressed out, he's in his own head, he's angry. He's finding all of this frustrating. We had to wait forever once he got put in an exam room. 20 minutes for the nurse, another 20 minutes for the doctor. He was visibly distressed. He thanked me for coming with him, because he could not have handled sitting there alone. I was happy to do it. 

The doctor is a complete riot. I mean. I think I love this guy. He said "I wouldn't sit you here and talk to you if I didn't think we could make a difference with your cancer. I've had patients come here, and I've told them, go get your affairs in order and do one thing you've always wanted to do. But I think we can make a big difference here, if you want to come along with me." 

The plan is 5 straight days of radiation therapy on his hip and the back of his head, followed by a rescan in 6 weeks to see if they've made a difference in the size of the tumors. 

"If we see shrinkage, we're on the right path," the doctor said, "and if we don't, we've got a problem. And we can discuss that later. But until then we do this part. If it works and shows results, we do it again." 

I really loved his kindness and compassion. He's in the right job, this guy.

After the doctors we went back to John's apartment. He hasn't been able to work, so he sold his car to pay his rent. Social work has not gotten him lined up with disability (it's been a month since he landed in the hospital). My husband was SHOCKED to hear this because it is one of the things he used to do when he worked at Boston Medical Center. "He absolutely qualifies for SSDI and I am so surprised the hospital has not kicked into gear because when you're terminal or borderline terminal, there's a next level set of rules and .... wow." 

I told him he should know how this works, but in this new administration, I think they've cut back substantially on staffing. My cousin has called 3 times and he's been told "we'll get to you." He has a couple of months before his money runs out. His rent is paid for a few months. But he's so anxious about being able to even afford food. He has no car, can't drive himself to appointments, has to rely on others. He had a huge fight with a friend who was driving him to things and now that guy won't drive him to anything. 

Medicaid is supposed to give you rides to appointments, but they want 2 weeks notice, they're never on time, they fuck up the requests, and he can't rely on them. I told him to put Uber on his phone and we'll send him Uber gift vouchers (or I'll just venmo him money, in case he'd rather have food).

I'm planning on going back down to be with him for July 21 and 22. I'll work from Richmond after his first appointment. He likes to schedule everything for the earliest possible appointment, so we'll be there for 8am radiation, and I'll probably be able to start working at 9:30am. 

Not sure if I'll stay at that hotel again, or pick something else, but... it's an option. 

I did all his laundry for him. He can't carry anything up to the laundry room, so four giant loads later he's got clean bed sheets and skivvies, and his favorite shorts and t-shirts. 

We sorted through some photos. He gave me a Phish box set called the Joy Box. It's beautiful, and I will never play it, I'll just keep it. I may just hand him 100 bucks for it. But he's been doing the swedish death cleaning thing for a few weeks, giving his things away. There is a lot of stuff. 

Right now, things look promising for him, and I think this doctor buys him some time. Fingers crossed for him for a number of things: success in shrinking these tumors; success in getting SSDI lined up soon; and hopefully some success with healing the relationship with his brother. 

The ride home from Richmond was great until just south of Alexandria. Thankfully C talked to me and kept me on the phone for quite a long time and that prevented me from pulling over on some back road (I missed an exit so the GPS dumped me in an area I didn't know, to cross over the Potomac by the Lincoln Memorial and drive up Rock Creek Park).

Here is a picture of where I pulled over to do some steps, right before the giantest thunderstorm ever. 

Digits below.

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours.  No walk, too hot to do a 10 min. at one of the rest areas. 8100+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

6am: 130
5:15pm: 98
10:45pm: 119

food & meds:
6am: phentermine+jardiance
10:30am: some cheddar cheese; large coffee
2pm: met+glip; 5 Sheetz chicken strips
6:30pm: piece of kielbasa & 7 pierogis
7:30pm: ramekin of mixed nuts
red wine
9:30pm: met+glip