Wiped Out

We hung out yesterday around the house. Quiet day. I cooked a turkey so we had the Thanksgiving Dinner I'd missed when in hospital w/surgery. Then I slept horribly last night waking up every half hour or so.... I thought Turkey was supposed to make you more tired. Pretty bad when you want to take a nap first thing in the AM. So no surprise that I'm working from home today. We'll see how much I can get accomplished.

Wig and Weekend Update

Quick shot of the wig from Friday Wig Day, hat and no hat. I love it with the hat (gift from sister Sue.) James said I look like a French Revolutionary. I'm ok with that!

Doing ok today, no nausea, eyes not so weepy, starting to get a bit tired. I had to run Sander to the Dr's this AM for a strep test. Not strep. We stopped on the way home for choc malted shakes at Friendlies and extra icecream to make shakes at home. Yum. All set for a weekend recovery with cool things on the throat.

Now Phoebe wants to go buy red henna. Cousin Sarah cut her hair last night, cute, all layered. I think she wants maximum impact for school on Monday. We'll see if I can maintain for a second drive to Worcester.

Official Wear your Wig Day

Did you all know that today is the official "Wear your Wig to Work Day" as seen at the website http://www.manodamno.com/. Very cool! Thanks for letting me know Gabrielle by comment in the Wig or No Wig posting. Sounds like a fun event and I'll have to keep it on my calendar yearly even when I have hair again.... although.... thinking what fun it would be to stay with the crew cut and keep a couple wigs around for when I feel like hair, forever. And too bad I hadn't heard about the Official Wig to Work Day a couple days ago. I could have posted earlier and you all could have worn wigs for the day. I'll try to take a pic today although not a true glam shot with puffy unpainted eyes, hmmm. I'll come up with something.

Last AC

Just back from my last Adriamycin + Cytoxan treatment. This means I'm half way through, hurrah! I found out that the watery, swollen eye thing is a side effect of Cytoxan and shouldn't be an issue when I switch to Taxol. But this means that it might last the next couple weeks. Kind of a pain. Hard to feel girly with no hair AND no eye make-up. The onc doc also agreed that the chest tension/pain is related to ongoing healing from the chest surgery. No answer on why the port is feeling different.

James kept me company today and it went fairly quickly. We were done at the onc clinic by noon. Fabulous! The port didn't present any problems. My blood work was fine. Weight has stayed the same, no loss, no gain. All good. I was hungry when we got to the clinic so James went on a mission to the cafeteria. Then, I was hungry again leaving the clinic so called in a pizza to pick up on the way home. Hawaiian. Delicious. I ate 2 pieces then took a long hot shower. Not a bad afternoon.

I'm feeling like the exhaustion is going to hit hard this time as I'm feeling wiped already. I don't think there's anything on our plate for the weekend beyond a hair appointment for Phoebe tomorrow afternoon. The kids wanted a dinner out and I tentatively said tomorrow night but we'll have to see how things progress. Might be fun to be out and about. Friday is wig day after all.

Last of First Set

Tomorrow I go in for the 4th AC treatment so will officially be half way through. I've been struggling for the past few days with stressed, watery, and sore eyes. Always something. I've been using eye drops without much success. Hopefully when I see the onc doc tomorrow she'll have something better. Longer update soon, thanks for checking in.

Wig or No Wig

Last Friday I declared it "Wig Day" and wore my wig to work. It was actually fun. My new best friend at work, Bob (hi Bob) said I looked like a cross between Katie Holmes and Angelina Jolie. Can't be all that bad. So today will be the second official "Wear Your Wig to Work Day". I was planning on wearing it tonight as well when we take the girl scout troop to the movies. It is easy to blend into a crowd when you have simulated hair.

Yesterday I was extremely beat. I've been noticing a tight feeling in my chest and dull pain with extremely deep breathing over the past few days. I've also noticed that I feel the portacath more when I'm sleeping at night. Moving around, rolling over, feels like it's shifted. All this with the fact that they had issues accessing it last week were sitting heavily on my brain. I emailed my primary care physician, she called me back, and after chatting for a bit we decided to run some tests to make sure I didn't have any blood clot issues. She managed to get me an urgent care appointment and paperwork for a chest x-ray and blood test which if positive shows possibility of clots so more tests would be needed. The blood test came back negative (phew) and the chest x-ray showed no difference than previous. No shift in portacath placement and lungs look good. They can see scarring and light fluid in base of left lung but consistent with previous. The doctor suggested that it can be continuing pressure/pain related to healing muscle, bone, etc from chest tubes and thoradectomy.

I came home thankful that it was nothing. I told James that I feel like I'm becoming a hypochondriac. With every little ache, pain, and twinge I'm thinking fluid in lungs, internal bleeding, and now blood clots. Not so much the cancer surprisingly. James' opinion is that the medical system has made me a hypochondriac. I wasn't like this before. So thanks again to the surgeon for adding this new dimension to my life (ha, ha) and honestly thanks to my primary care for listening and taking my concerns so seriously.

Weekend Update

The weekend went fairly well. I was tired but nausea was well controlled with meds, phew. Saturday I took down the Christmas tree and picked up the house a bit then ran out of steam. Sunday I was pretty worn out but managed to make a batch of bread. Monday was a big snow day. I think we must have gotten at least a foot of snow. I was still pretty tired and also came down with an intestinal bug that the kids had brought home from school. What fun. I'm still dealing with that today so am working out of house. The kids are back in school after missing a couple days each last week. Hopefully they won't bring any new bugs home.

Side effect update. I learned from the nurse practitioner at chemo on Thurs that my poor eyesight caused by watery eyes and runny nose that I've been blaming on a cold could be side effects. My body over compensating for being dried out by the chemo meds. She recommended saline eye drops and a nasal mist. The eye drops feel good, nose still running but hopefully that'll stop soon. It's a funny runny nose. I'd read that this could happen with nose hair loss. Very spontaneous. Leaning over to give James a kiss last night and dripped onto him... no warning.... too much information for some I'm sure. Also have some soreness in the back of my throat so I'm using the miracle mouth wash to try an block it from getting worse. This on top of the intestinal bug is making me very whiny. I'm hoping with another fairly restful day today that by tomorrow I'll be back on track.

Chemo Brain

Andy leaving work yesterday.... "I guess I won't see you tomorrow"
Me.... "Why, what's up? Are you off"
Andy.... "Chemo?!?"

So, chemo today went well today. Mom drove me in and kept me company. Small issue with accessing port (didn't want to give up any blood) so was juiced up with Heparin to break up any potential clots and I was good to go. This delayed things a bit so even though we were in at 8:30 AM we didn't get out of there until 2 PM. We stopped at Starbucks on the way home for a Chai-Latte to compensate. Yum.

Phoebe made it to school today after being home 2 days with a light fever. So Sander decided to be sick. He's come down with a stomach bug. I figure I'm on so many different anti-nausea drugs that I'm safe.

Monday Bloody Monday

Blew my nose on the way into work today and got a nose bleed. What's up with that? Luckily I had a full box of tissues in the car so was blotting and pinching to stop bleed while driving. Not terribly safe and probably should have pulled over. New side-effect or dry heat from wood stove?

No skiing on Sunday either. The temp never got out of the 30s and I wanted it to be in the 50s like predicted. Plus my energy level hadn't stayed up. We'll get there sooner or later. I did go to the movies with the kids to see National Treasure 2. I liked it even better than the first one. Was a little twitchy sitting for the 2+ hrs but did well. Mom came along with us but went to see P.S. I Love You, then we ran some errands together. Nice day.

Today I'm at work and fading fast. I'm planning a visit to the pharmacy on the way home to try and straighten out my many scripts. I need to make sure I'm all set before chemo #3 on Thursday. I'm actually excited. With each one I get closer to the end.

Hair

Showering today the hair started washing away, into my eyes, down my back. I tried to rub it all off but when I got out I'd only lost it in patches. Looked pretty bad. So, James spent the next hour or so shaving my head. Hmmmm, this is a new look. Very pale and shiny and small. Different. I definately liked the buzz better. It'll take some getting used to. I almost bought a henna tattoo kit at the Living Earth today but I think it would take way more than one kit to do an all over scalp tattoo. Hate to talk someone into doing it for me to run out half way. For now I'll brush on some of the mineral tint dust (too lazy to go check the actual name) that my sister Sue gave me to get rid of the glowing whiteness of it all.

They were all out of red henna so no hair treatment for Phoebe this weekend. Bummer. And, it being 5:30ish in the PM and me being fairly exhausted I'm wondering if I will be up for skiing tomorrow at 4ish. We'll see what the new day brings after, crossing fingers, a good nights sleep. I've promised the kiddos "National Treasure" in the AM at the very least. I don't think it'll be too tiring to sit in a theater for a couple hrs of mindless entertainment.

Setting Records

I've actually worked 2 full days in a row! It's a miracle. And I'm still feeling pretty good. Now it's the weekend so I can rest, rejuvenate, see a movie, henna Phoebe's hair, maybe even take a couple runs at the mountain... I told my primary care physician that I'd bought myself a bronze century pass so I can ski any day after 4 PM. She said, "I'm sure they'd give you your money back!" with a slightly shocked look on her face. But we chatted more about if I'm feeling well enough, why not? Good for me to be in the clean fresh air. She did recommend avoiding a ski lodge filled with stale air, colds, flus, etc. So, if it warms up a bit (in the forecast) and my energy level is high I may give it a shot. See you on the slopes!

And good news, my insurance company sent a letter saying they'd cover the full script of the anti-nausea drug that worked. But wait, bad news, the pharmacy is still bouncing it. What is up with this health care system? Ugh. I'm sure it'll all work out but hopefully before chemo on Thursday next week.

Back to Work

I'm sitting at my workstation at Tufts Vet School and feeling pretty OK. Tired still (the last few days were lost to the couch) but the exhaustion seems manageable today. I have an appointment with my primary care physician midday to check my overall health. I was going to cancel but have a cough I can't kick so would like her to listen to my lungs. My med oncologist called on Monday to ask me to start taking iron again as it looked low. Maybe that'll bring my energy level up a bit. The nausea was controllable over the weekend with the help of the extra "as needed" drugs. I'm still going to push for a full script of the new drug for next time. I'm hoping if I can take that the full weekend after chemo that nausea won't be an issue at all.

My internet service went down day before yesterday and I couldn't figure it out. Finally realized that I couldn't remember the last time I'd paid any bills.... pre-surgery?.... hmmm.... could that have something to do with it? I called in a payment to Verizon last night and hey, the internet service was functioning again this morning. Probably should check to see what other bills are kicking around the house. Amazing what slips through the cracks when you've got other things on your mind.