A Trip to Costco

Chemo #2 Day 17

Tita Belen, Tito Pepe, and Ate Vicky stopped by today, just in time for lunch. They brought dim sum and bangus. We also had pusit, bistig and monggo soup. Ate Vicky commented that Ma ate a lot. They stayed for about 2 hours.

Afterwards we went to the oncologist (Dr. Irwin) for Ma's follow-up appointment. Her triglycerides and uric acid levels are way too high. Pa will give her the appropriate medications. She must be taking about 20 pills a day now. Most of those she was already taking before she got cancer.

I asked Dr. Irwin if I can give Ma acidophilus for her diarrhea/soft stools. He said it was okay, so I got her a bottle of pills today. Acidophilus is the stuff you find in yogurt. It restores the good bacteria in your stomach.

After the appointment, we went to Costco to find a comfortable chair for Ma. We had borrowed Tita Belen's wheelchair. It worked quite well, and Ma found it comfortable. At Costco, Ma didn't like the recliner, but she liked the rocking chair. When Pa tried to pay for it, he discovered he didn't bring his checkbook. They wouldn't take my check. We didn't have enough cash. Neither one of us had a debit card, and they don't take credit cards. Fortunately we ran into a patient of Pa's, Rafael, and he kindly lent us $100. I wrote him a check to cover it. Whew! Pa will borrow a truck from friends and pick up the rocking chair tomorrow morning.

After we paid for our other purchases at Costco, we followed Rafael to his house because he had some peaches he wanted to give us. He has a big house in the hills of El Cerrito. His garden has lots of fruit trees. He also has a pet hen that lays lots of eggs. Yep, it was a free-range chicken. I even got to pet it without getting pecked. We went home with peaches and lemons from Rafael's trees and brown eggs from his chicken.