Tag Archives: UCD

Simple Sunday

Posted in California, cancer, cooking, home stuff by

Well, another Sunday, and B is going to Sacramento Clinic to have a platelet transfusion. Overall, he is doing much better but his platelets are still decreasing. We see his doctor Wednesday so that will give us time to ask some questions. It’s only one bag. So last time it was just one bag it barely brought his numbers up so we’re a little miffed at the doctor for not ordering 2. Then he ended up having to go BACK to get 2 more bags. It seems UCD would want to be proactive here but obviously not.

I went to the gym and did some weights. After that, I went to Target for hand soap.

I plan on tidying things up and doing a quick house reset. I also need to water my plants and dust.

Last night we had breaded tilapia (from Costco) and potatoes. It was very good. tonight I plan on doing a turkey breast as a warm-up to Thanksgiving. I’m also going to bake some of the delicata squashes with butter and brown sugar. I will go pick some romaine from the garden for a salad too. for B I’ll make some tofu.

Here are some pretty fall colors from Meadow Vista.

Well, I better get to doing my chores.

Simple Sunday

Posted in bread, California, cancer, cooking, Halloween, peritoneal mesothelomia, Walking by

We got home yesterday around 2:30. Everything went well and now we just have to see what his hemoglobin is with tomorrow’s labs. Especially if he has the chemo on Wednesday, his hemo has to be up. What we discovered though is the infusion is open on Sunday. No one has told us this and it would have saved us from going to the ER.:(

Yesterday I walked over 3 miles at the UCD campus so I was pretty achy this morning so I only walked a little over a mile. Also, I’m not going to the gym as I need to do my morning house reset. I’m also planning on going to the Roseville gym tomorrow so it’ll cover doing weights.

So far, I’ve got the sourdough in the oven, swished the bathroom, and checked what I need to wrap the few presents I have for Christmas. Next is dusting and then steam mop. I’ve slowly finished the garden shed except for that box of extra jars which I’ll go out and do today.

This is one of our resident bucks. quite handsome!!!

a few Halloween things. I don’t put out all my vintage Halloween anymore, just a few pieces.

This jack-o-lantern is probably 1950s.

Frugal Friday

Posted in books, bread, budgeting, budgets, California, cancer, cash envelopes, Credit cards, frugalism, husband, reading by

It’s been a frugal week for the most part. All the birthday gifts, cake, and food were budgeted in my envelopes, so that was good. I did go to Costco for the burgers, rolls, etc but that too I had in my Costco envelope as well.

We are stretched really thin with money this month due to a few extra things. I’ve done really well with my envelope cash system but bigger bills are still catching up with us and we still have a cc balance from two car registrations, and some other bills from June. I hate having to carry a balance so I’m putting anything extra towards that and thus a very stretched thin budget. We’ll get there but not as soon as I’d like.

We had a nice date lunch of pizza(cash from my dining-out envelope) and it’s always nice to get out of one’s box. This month is our 54th wedding anniversary and although we usually don’t do gifts or anything extravagant we will do a lunch out. At this point we’re planning a drive up to Tahoe to see the lake and get coffee at our favorite Tahoe House. With everything still up in the air with B it’s hard to feel very cheerful. He is and always will be the great love of my life.

I didn’t feel great this morning so decided not to go to either the pool or the gym. I’m not sure if it’s stress or just feeling low energy. So I made a loaf of bread and did a few random chores.

B did get an appointment( we just found out) for next Friday for a second biopsy. It’ll be done at UCD hospital again so I can wait in the cafeteria. That will be a Dex day but I can wait and take Dex when I get home so it should be fine. He also sent a very detailed message to the doctor about some of the PET scan results and about the CUP diagnosis( that we are theorizing will be the case.) That’s called cancer undiagnosed primary. We’ll see what her response is.

My daughter and I went to the Pet bookstore yesterday and I hit the jackpot with Craig Johnson books. There were 5 on the shelf. For some reason, even on eBay these go for a minimum of $5 a piece. And most are more. I also picked up 2 more in the Baldacci series I’m reading. It’s the Atlee Pine series. She’s a great character. I also picked up Cooking for Two from the Cooks Test Kitchen. I saw a recipe for manicotti which used lasagna noodles rolled up so I may make that tonight instead of pizza.

The weather is cooling off and that’s a relief but there are lots of fires going on. One over where blogger I read lives. Hope you’re safe Donna and Dale!

Well, that’s it from this blogger. Anyone on a limited budget and how do you plan things, like big expenses. Do you ever carry a CC balance even if you don’t want to because you have to.? I’m hoping by this time next year we will have our envelopes fully funded for the big expenses but it does take time. I’m also concerned about our house insurance going up because of the California Fair Plan. A lot of people have been posting on Next door neighbor about some serious increases.

Decisions…..

Posted in Blood test, Bone marrow transplant, cancer, husband, Uncategorized by

So yesterday was insanely busy.

We had to be out the door at 7:15am to get to the local oncologists’ appt. That went well. Then B had to go get his labs.

Then we decided to go get bagels at our local organic bakery because we were going to head to Sacramento to check out the Kiwanis house and we wanted to AVOID the 8 am traffic. So we relaxed and enjoyed our coffee and bagels.

We had no stops with traffic and got down to UCD med center in 45 minutes. First, we went and toured the Kiwanis housing and as expected the rooms are quite small and the shared kitchen just didn’t do anything for us. BUT, we toured the RV parking and LOVED it.  So there is a possibility of using a friends RV or if we moved quickly buy a used small one that we were planning on doing in the fall anyway.

We asked the social worker to put in the request so at least we have that in place. There’s no guarantee but hopefully, that would be a possibility.

Then while we were there the social worker called and said there may be a problem with B’s brother’s blood something that has an antibody in it so B needed to get a blood test for that ASAP. Fortunately, we were right there so we did that.

Next, we checked out the Marriot and that was crazy expensive even though very nice. There were two nights that the cost increased to $279 a night.  We ruled that out quickly.

Then we headed to the Cannabis place and B got some chocolates since smoking is not allowed with the transplant.

After that, we went to the Sacramento Co-op and joined as I plan to shop there while we’re down there and then even later go once a month. It is a beautiful store and I found a few items like cranberry beans I’ve wanted. ( they’re like pinto beans). Plus they have an olive bar!!

Finally, we headed up Hwy 50 to check out the Extended stay hotel and surprisingly we both thought it was okay even if it was the furthest away. ( 10 minutes or so without stop and go traffic). Not ideal but doable so we’re going to get the referral to the Cancer Society and put that in as a backup plan.

By this time it was close to one and we were pretty wiped out. I came home and took a nap.

We’re hoping there isn’t a problem with the antibody as that would mean back to square one with the National Donor Bank. We should know in a day or two and we see the transplant doctor next week so…

I’m heading out to the koffee klatch to see everyone for the last time probably till the end of summer so that’ll be nice. I think everyone is planning on being there.

Dinner is salad and chicken kabobs( marinated in yogurt). Maybe some grilled tofu too.

 

 

 

A busy week.

Posted in Blood test, Bone marrow transplant, cancer, MDS, Uncategorized by

Barclay finished his last chemo yesterday and had to have a blood transfusion so it was a long day for him. This was round 5.

We saw the social worker and the Nurse Practioner on Tuesday. The traffic was insane and it took us almost twice as long as it normally would since we hit the 8 am traffic. I won’t be doing that again any time soon.

So the social worker thing was just a repeat of the last one and the NP was informative. The most exciting news was his blasts have gone to 1% from 9 and that is GREAT news.

We are now in the final month before he goes in. The brother is set up with the national bone marrow registry and has the dates set for  Neupogen shots and then the harvest on the apheresis machine. So Barclay will go in 5 days before for chemo and get a Hickman catheter put in.  So we are ready to go!!!

We still are trying to figure out the details on lodging and the best so far is the Kiwanis house which is on the UCD campus. There are individual rooms and bathrooms but the kitchen is shared. Not really my style but it’s a walk away and is only $50 a night. the other option is an Extended stay but it’s about 10 miles away.  So we’ll just have to see. I’m checking Airbnb but they are more like a $100 a night or higher. So I might check out a few and message the owners about a 2-3 week stay.

My oncology appt today was canceled as the doctor was not going to be in. So that was good because I didn’t really feel like driving back down to Sacramento. So I’ll see him in May although  I left him a message that the appt maybe when B is going in so I’d just have to see.

I went to town to get my new glasses but they didn’t fit right so they need to be sent to the lab to have the bridge redone.

Oh well, the prescription is the same so my glasses are fine for now.

Dinner is something my daughter is making so I don’t have to cook!!

 

 

Change of plans…

Posted in cancer, Uncategorized by

So I talked with the bone marrow transplant coordinator for UHC this week to find out the actual numbers of our co-pay. She didn’t really know that but said that since Sutter was out of network, there could be unexpected bills that will show up.  So I asked if we switch to in-network that won’t happen and she said yes.  So I went hmmm….

So then I called UHC line and spoke to an agent and she was very helpful. As of right now till June 1st Barclay has met the $6,000 deductible so transplant is 100% covered. With that information, I came home and we discussed that it would be just easier and best for us to go in- network which will be UCD in Sacramento. Stanford or UcSF is just too far. Because we are less than 50 miles away( we are 40) no lodging or gas will be given. But that’s what we did the GoFundMe for.

So I called the nurse coordinator for Dr. Kiwan and told them we decided we needed to go with in-network. She spoke with Kiwan later and we canceled the appt for today.  Then Barclay called his local oncologist and she is the one to send the referral to UCD. I think it’ll set us back a bit but the testing is done for his brother and he is a match.  For some reason, they were going to mail us the results of the genetic breakdown to take to UCD. Not sure why they wouldn’t just send it with all his other test results. Anyway, we’ll need to meet with a transplant team all over but that’s ok.

I am 100% sure this is the right course of action. Even if we go past June 1st, we can make payments on the $6000. We will be sure they are aware of the deadline for this calendar year.

Hopefully, we will hear tomorrow or early next week.

But at least we know exactly where we stand.