karenulijohn

In addition to the infusion on Monday, Harvey had two other doctor appointments scheduled.  The first was to visit Harvey’s wonderful surgeon, Dr. Owens. It was quite early on Wednesday morning when we arrived at the office.  Dr. Owen took one look at his handiwork and pronounced it “sweeeet!”  He then proceeded to examine Harvey’s neck and cheeks,  looking for possible swelling.  He has a portable ultrasound machine which he brought in and thoroughly examined the same areas, measuring one or two lymph nodes.  He seemed satisfied with what he saw and told us that he is the “follow-up” guy.  Every three months, Dr. Owens will examine Harvey and discuss his treatment.  On Friday morning, Harvey had his final appointment with the radiologist, Dr. Jones.  I sent him off on his own with the admonition that he must remember to tell me everything.  It turns out there was not much to tell other than Dr. Jones was very satisfied with Harvey’s progress and that he would not need to see Harvey again.

In the meantime, I decided that I must not neglect my health, so I had Harvey drop me off at the blood lab near my doctor’s office before he headed to his appointment with Dr. Jones.  There were five people ahead of me having blood draws, so I was there for quite some time.  Of course, I had been fasting, so when I finally left the lab, I walked to Starbucks and had a hot chocolate and a croissant.  I then carried on with my usual walk, and was heading up the driveway when I felt a little twinge in the vein in my arm where the needle had been inserted.  I pressed the bandage with my finger, and lo and behold, the garage door went up.  I was startled and surprised, and when I looked around, Harvey was driving down the road toward the house.  Of course, he had pressed the garage door clicker, but he said the look that crossed my face when the door went up was priceless.

I was prepared to say that Harvey has had no reaction so far to the Yervoy, but this evening he said he was feeling very tired and wasn’t hungry at all.  I went over to feel his head and it was clear that he had a fever.  After taking his temperature, the thermometer registered 101 degrees.  According to the instructions given to us on Monday, he was to call and report a fever and loss of appetite.  He called the number given and the person on the other end of the line kept asking him why he was calling this number, and insisted she knew nothing about the Yervoy study.  She finally agreed to contact the Dr. on call and said that someone would return Harvey’s call.  About 20 minutes later, the phone rang and the doctor identified himself and said “take two tylenol.”  He was a man of very few words.  I am happy to report that two hours later, the fever is gone and Harvey is having a wonderfully nutritious meal of saltines and peanut butter. All is well.