The Doctor is In

Today was a visit to the medical oncologist, Dr. Grennan, for Jim's (almost)
three month post-treatment visit. His blood numbers are good, his
spirits are good, his appearance is good. So I guess everything is
good. He is still having considerable swelling in his neck, but my
massage therapist gave me some techniques to try to stir up the lymph
fluid and get it draining. The next stop is radiology for the CT scan on Friday. But Dr. Grennan is very optimistic that (a) Jim is doing so well in his eating and (b) seems to be recovering at a good rate.

Speaking of the eating, his food intake has easily doubled in the last
few days. He is actually eating three meals a day, although
he supplements with the liquid stuff. Things are beginning
to taste better. On Tuesday he had a ham and cheese sandwich
and a beer for lunch! This was his first beer in about five
months, some Belgian stout that was very fizzy and
tickled his throat. So he put it away and let it get a bit
flat, then finished it up for dinner. Tonight he put away pasta
and sauce,about 5 pieces of lettuce that he called salad, and some juice.

Before Jim saw his doc I went to the endocrinology office and
had an "Indwelling Continuous Glucose Sensor" plugged into my
body to do a continuous check on my blood glucose levels. This
little gizmo is about the size of a pager, hooks on my waistband
and has a sensor that is implanted into my hip. It tests my glucose
levels every five minutes for 72 hours. I have been running some
dangerously high sugars lately and I want to get a handle on it
before it gets (even more) out of control. So now I have a pump on
one side and this monitor on the other. I have to wear it for three
days, and keep an exact record of everything I eat or drink and
count the carbs exactly. On Monday I will go back to the hospital
and turn in the meter, they will read the chip, and let me know what's
going on. I am hoping this will give me some clues to why things are so haywire