Last Day, Home Again

Saturday, February 18, 2006

This is Randy again. This morning was bitter cold in Zion. The temperature was -7 F and the wind chill took it down to -25 F. We had breakfast at the hotel and then caught the shuttle to CTCA. It was Saturday morning and the place was very peaceful and quiet. Kathy and I went to the Infusion Center for her treatment. The Infusion Center has some private areas and also a very nice area with reclining chairs and your own personal TV and telephone. The phone is so you can call the cafeteria and order “room service” while you receive the treatment. The Infusion Center has a floor to ceiling window on one side with a great view of the neighboring pond, which of course was frozen solid.

This treatment consisted of taxotere followed by carboplatin. The treatment lasted four hours and then Kathy received a Neulasta shot. The chemo knocks out her white blood cells (which fight off infection) and the Neulasta is given to help restore the white blood cell count.

We managed to catch the limo to the airport and caught our afternoon flight back to Philadelphia. Our flight left a little early and arrived into Philadelphia about 45 minutes ahead of schedule. Fortunately our oldest daughter Mary had checked the flight status and was already at the airport when we arrived. We made it home a little after 8 PM. Kathy felt fine during the entire trip.

Sunday, February 19, 2006
Kathy was feeling fine in the morning and we made it out to our church (Valley Forge Baptist Temple, Collegeville, PA) in the morning. What a blessing it was to see so many of our church family and to hear how they had prayed for us throughout the week. After a restful afternoon, we returned for the evening service and then attended a fellowship at our Pastor’s house for our church’s deaf ministry workers.