Busy Week

It’s been a busy week!

Last Thursday afternoon, Nancy and I took the boys over to the University of Mississippi campus, where they were holding a CARE (Cancer Awareness, Research, and Eradication) fundraising walk. The boys wore their pink ribbon onesies and Nancy and I had on our pink tee-shirts, and it was a lovely day. There were tons of people walking and it seems as if most of them thought the boys were the cutest things ever (is anyone surprised?).

Unfortunately, it was quite a long walk, and I just wasn’t up to it. I think we made it about half a mile (out of a two-mile walk, I believe) before we gave up and took a shortcut to the finish line. I was pretty disappointed that I couldn’t do the walk, but it made me realize that–while I’m done with my cancer treatments–I don’t have my strength back, and it’s going to take a while to get back. This means I probably won’t be able to do the Memphis (or Tupelo) Race for the Cures in October as I’d hoped to. Grrrr!

Monday afternoon, I met with my plastic surgeon in Jackson to officially move things into the Reconstruction Phase. It looks as if the final surgery will be pretty easy, but because they’ll be removing my port at the same time, I will probably have one overnight in the hospital. I’m waiting to hear back about a surgery date; hopefully it’ll be in October, but because of the difficulties of scheduling two surgeons (the plastic surgeon and the surgeon who did the bilateral, to remove the port), it could be early November. I should know by the end of this week.

Finally, next Monday will be the first time since last April that I’ll be taking care of the boys on my own. We’re so very sad to see Nancy and Rebecca go, but it’s not as if they’re moving across the country, so we will still see them! Just not every day. It’s been wonderful having them, and we are so grateful that we were able to have their help.

Round 6, Day 7

Oncologist update. My WBC count dropped a bit, but nothing near as low as it’s been in the past. Because of the swelling I had following the Leukine (3-day series) shots last round, we only did one Leukine shot. He cleared me to resume exercise and said there’s no need for my port anymore, so if the plastic surgeon wants, he can remove it during my reconstruction. And, best of all, I don’t have to go back there for TWO WEEKS! And then I’ll have a CT/CAT scan (oh lord, that contrast again) and that’ll be it until CHRISTMAS!! Wheeeeeeee!! (can you tell I am excited?)

By the way, I didn’t post yesterday because, well, I really didn’t have anything to report. I think I might be going to stop updating here every day, and just update weekly–or whenever I’ve got something to report.

Good and Bad

Good: A butterfly landed on my arm this afternoon. Is that a good sign or positive omen or anything? It should be. It was cool.

Bad: Someone burglarized the oncologist’s office over the weekend and stole credit card slips, including two of mine (the credit card people have been notified).

34 years old

Happy Birthday to me!

I heard somewhere last week that Lance Armstrong not only has my same birthday, but also my same birth year. So clearly we are twins. I mentioned this to the oncologist last week, and said that I plan to be like Lance…in that I’ll beat cancer like he did and I’ll go and win the Tour de France seven times.

He said he thinks I can do one of those things, but it’s probably not the Tour de France one.

Anyway, it was a very nice birthday; many thanks to everyone who called to wish me a happy 34th. 

Round 6, Day 3

Post-chemo day 3 was not bad! Typically, I feel pretty awful and spend the day sleeping and trying to lie as still as possible in order to keep the queasies at bay. But today, while I did sleep rawther late, I didn’t have any queasies, was only a little shaky, and even ate lunch AND dinner!

I do have the unfortunate chemo side effect of having a super-sensitive nose, though. I say unfortunate because I can tell before even going in the nursery–just by standing outside a closed door–that the boys’ diapers need changing.

Round 6, Day 2

Feeling poorly today (I feel like a character in a book saying that, but it fits how I feel). Not migraine-y, not queasy, but just awfully run-down and tired and achy. The stupid Neulasta shot really makes my bones ache, but I suppose that’s good in a way because if my bones weren’t aching, they wouldn’t be working double-time to produce new white blood cells, now would they? (I’m sure that’s flawed science/logic, but go along with me, it makes me feel a little better to think this way)

The Memphis Race for the Cure registration has opened. I’m bitterly disappointed to find out that baby strollers are not allowed on the course. I so wanted to take the boys with me. I might call the Race people next week and see if strollers are allowed on the “Family Fun Run” — they might like to go on that. The host of their favorite local childrens’ TV show — “Mr. Chuck” — is the chair or whatever of the Family Fun Run.

Round 6

Six months. I realized this afternoon that it is six months to the day from my diagnosis of cancer. And this phase is, essentially, done!

Final chemo is done! It took forever (we only got home a little before 5) and was very quiet at the office. I am glad I put new songs on the iPod because for once it was so not-busy that I didn’t feel guilty putting on earphones to listen to music (people are VERY chatty in there normally and there’s tons of conversations going on).

Oncologist says–other than my neulasta shots tomorrow and procrit next week (or whatever the order is–I never can remember)–that I won’t see him again for three months. That will begin the Surveillance Phase, which hopefully will last for, oh, 50 or so years!

Initially, I’ll have CT/CAT scans every three months and then meet with the oncologist, but at some point (I’m a little hazy on when), we’ll transition to visits every six months and then every year. But he was sure to point out “you never stop seeing your oncologist!”

I didn’t feel great for much of chemo. I was very restless. I went through my whole Chemo bag for entertainment–Tetris kept me going for half an hour, the new issue of Redbook another 45 minutes, an impossible-to-understand (for chemo brains) logic puzzle only made it about 20 minutes, the iPod was about an hour or so, and I slept the rest of the time.

Tom took this photo of me at the end of the day, just after I woke up.
Now we’re home and I feel…okay. No energy at all, though, and mildly queasy. Nonetheless, I’m hoping for a halfway decent (birthday) weekend.

Trip to Memphis

The MRI was a riot. By that I mean that I had the MRI to find the cause of my headaches, and yet the MRI was the most insanely noisy thing EVER so it caused a headache! It was like sitting inside a giant engine, with foghorns blaring, and a bass guitar thrumming. And it went on for ages! 15 minutes and then they injected contrast and then another 10 minutes. I almost got a case of the giggles because it was so ridiculously noisy.

Anyhow, the doctor came in and said “The MRI looks good,” which I took to mean no tumor or scary things. Anyhow, we’re going to try Imitrex for the migraines.

But the doctor is so funny…unintentionally. He is like a scatterbrained Mr. Magoo. He is a low-talker who starts talking while opening the door to the examination room, he interrupts himself, drops papers everywhere, and to top it off, I got out to the car and happened to look at the prescription and he’d forgotten to sign it. I’m very glad I looked at it before taking it all the way home from Memphis to my pharmacy to fill it!

I also got the boys some crayons, so we colored a little when I got home. That was nice.

Need I say what happens tomorrow or has everyone seen all the full-page ads I’ve taken out in every newspaper in America proclaiming “Tomorrow is My Last Chemo!”?

Quietish Day

The big excitement around these parts today is that the boys wore shoes for the first time since sometime in April. They weren’t too happy about them at first, but got used to them after a while.

Tomorrow I’m off to Memphis for another visit to the migraine specialist.

On Hair

Hope I’m not jinxing myself here, but with just a few days to go before my Final Round of Chemo (love saying that), I am happy to report that I still have eyebrows and eyelashes. I do not have a whole *lot* of them, but they’re still around. And there’s still bits of fuzz on my head, too.

Still, I’m glad we shaved off the hair when it started falling out. It would’ve just continued to fall out and be thin all summer long (plus, don’t forget, my scalp was actually hurting when the hair was falling out). And then I can’t help but think that when it all starts growing back ( ) that now everything will grow in evenly.

Anyhow, I hadn’t updated on The Hair Situation in a while, so there that is.

Off to have some couscous. For some reason, lately all I want to eat, all I like to eat are carbohydrates. Rice! Pasta! Potatoes! Bagels! I love it all.