That is tough Connie. I hope the worst does not happen. I will note that there is a lot of research that shows care givers for people with serious illness often become seriously ill themselves from stress, fatigue and self-neglect. So a reaction where you worry about yourself a bit is healthy rather than something to beat yourself up over.

I'm going to postpone my cataract surgery to September. I've got a few months left to me, and by then he'll be done with this. Gods, to be done with it.

If the schedule holds, I'll be on vacation for the second week of his isolation. I asked if he'd mind if I didn't spend vacation with him, and he said, "I'll be in a bubble, all we'd be able to do is stare at each other." But he will get his laptop, so he can liveblog his stay on Facebook. If he could spell, he'd be a terror on the Net.

His hats continue to be the hit of the various cancer departments. Today he wore his Cat in the Hat hat, and he had various paperwork stashed in it. A nurse asked for his drug history, and he pulled it out of the hat. "Oh! You pulled it out of your hat! Wonderful!" He heard staff talking about it throughout the department, and waiting patients were giggling.

Kara is not going to be able to help with transportation through the next few weeks, because she's going to Bali for a month. I have no idea how she's managing this, but I suspect it's a diving vacation. Her in-laws have money. She didn't know just how bad this was. If the cancer comes back, there are no treatments. They're doing all-or-nothing on him. Hell of a year.

The best to you, Connie.

I had a somewhat more eventful doctor's appointment than I'd anticipated. (Nothing bad. At least, I don't think so.) Went to the rheumatologist for my usual six-month, "Yep, still got that genetic disease. Nope, no new symptoms. Yep, I need a refill on my painkillers" appointment. The nurse took my blood pressure, said, "Well, that's high." It was 145/106 -- the highest I can ever remember mine being before is 125/110. So she took my blood pressure again, and frowned, and went to get the doctor. Then he took my blood pressure, said, "Whoa! That's not good! Let me check something," and then had another nurse come in and take my blood pressure. (By this point, my arm was bright red and covered with red dots from broken blood vessels.) So the doctor and nurse talk to each other, and they say that I need to see a primary care doctor, right away. So, they make an appointment for me with a primary care doctor (this is a whole integrated medical practice system thing), and I drive across town to the primary care doctor. The nurse there takes my blood pressure twice, then the doctor takes it. Then the doctor goes through all my medications, and all the ones that could cause high blood pressure are ones that I've been taking with no problem for years. He asks if I've been feeling sweaty or dizzy or nauseous or anything, and I say no, I feel fine and I've been feeling fine. He asks a bunch more questions about my family history, takes my blood pressure again (it's dropped a bit by this point) and says that he doesn't know what's causing it, but it's not high enough to start any kind of new medicines or anything right away. So, he tells me to go home, not take any Sudafed this week (I take it once in a while, but my last dose wasn't recently enough to have caused this), and come back in a week for a nurse to take my blood pressure again, and then come back again a week after that for my regular primary care doctor to see me and discuss whether we need to do anything.

So. No idea what's up with that. Except that my upper arm is going to be one massive bruise tomorrow.

Strength~ma for both of you Connie. Yes, stress can do a real number on your immunity so you have to balance Connie care in there somehow.

I hope to see a quick resolution to that one, Hil. It has been a pretty rough time for you lately and that could make a difference.

I love the story with the hats, Connie.

Postponing the surgery makes sense. Be kind to yourself, too.

I told the doctors that I've been kind of stressed lately, but they said that stress could raise it somewhat, but not that high.

I hope the mystery gets solved soon Hil, and that your BP goes back down.

Oh, and in "I'm glad it's not me" news, one of my grad school friends got to work today to find that someone had taken a shit right outside his office door. His best guess is it's a student who wasn't happy with his or her grade, but he doesn't actually know.

That is full on creepy. I'd contact campus police.