Month: November 2017

Yes, I still have The Cure stuck in my head!  Despite a good friend adding links to my FaceBook Timeline with other songs and comedy routines to help keep my spirits up.   Maybe I just need to whip out my iPod and listen to The Cure to get this ear bug done with already!

Seems the lyrics are perfectly timed with what has happened this week though.  Monday was “blue” and the cloudy weather did bring a bit of rain Tuesday and Wednesday.  Thursday I really didn’t care for, either.

Thursday started out looking like it was going be the “Hang the Bio-Hazard Placard” day, woke about 4:30 AM with that now familiar cramping in my gut signalling “chemo-gut” was gearing up to let loose.  Oh the joys.  Just the day before Dr. Sikaria emphasized that Imodium is my friend.

As the morning wore on, the cramping in my colon didn’t wane and I just felt off.  I started feeling achy across my upper back, and then I was cold.  I took myself off for a nap about 2:30 PM, and slept until after 4 PM.  I was freezing.  Why I didn’t think I had a fever I don’t know.  I assumed this was the “bone pain” we had been warned about from the Neulasta.

When I finally took my temperature, it was 100.7 f!  Oh, OK, this was not bone pain from the Neulasta, I am actually fighting an infection.  I went and took the antibiotics previously provided by Dr. Sikaria, and called her office as we had been directed in Chemo School.  Dr. Sikaria called me back and confirmed all would be OK, take the Cipro, fever may last through the night, but if it continues to remain through the morning we needed to call back to get another antibiotic.

I told Hubby what was going on as he had been out feeding the cat while I went through all this, and then I proceeded to fall asleep all bundled up on the chaise.  I did tell Hubby that if in the future I ever complain I am cold he is to make sure we take my temperature.  I could have started knocking this thing out much earlier yesterday if I had connected the dots sooner.  Lesson learned!  See – Thursday, I don’t care about you!  I swear The Cure is totally dialed into my week right now!

But that has now changed our plans for Friday.  We were going to head back to Disneyland on Friday to pick up some larger items we had seen that we decided needed to be added to our Disneyana Collection, and to spend some time in the park as we just love being there.  It’s a wonderful place to walk and people watch. We discussed possibly going back Sunday as that is our wedding anniversary, but if the middle child and girlfriend are coming over for dinner I don’t want to stop them from coming over.  I want all the family time I can get!

I did make a date next week with the daughter, she is going to come pick me up and we’re going out.  Looking forward to some of that one on one time with her.

So that is my news for now.   Infection is under control, fever broke during the night in a mass of sweaty robe, PJ’s, wooly socks, layers of blankets and chemo hat.  Back on the road to recovery, and looking forward to an Egg Nog Latte since they should be back out now at Starbucks.  I deserve an Egg Nog Latte!

Life is overcoming the hurdles.

 

 

My daughter surprised me last night with an action in support of my coming months of baldness.  Despite me assuring everyone I am perfectly fine with being bald, including my eyebrows, this has become a theme among those who love me that I am going to suffer from this loss.  (I’m still ticked I will lose my eyelashes!)

She FaceTimed me last night to show me her newly shaved head.  It’s beautiful.  I’ve never seen her head with that little hair. She was born with a wonderful head of soft curls, and cowlicks galore!

When she sent me a picture of her nearly bald head last night outlining her cowlicks, that I apologized to her for, as she was being born, as that was the first thing I saw, I realized my love for her has been written in her hair.  (The white hair patch we figure came from the fetal monitor that had been placed on her scalp prior to being born as I couldn’t take the fetal monitoring around my belly.)

All I ask is if you decide to shave your heads in support of my battle, please make it worth something.

My darling baby girl is donating her locks to Pantene Beautiful Lengths campaign.  They take mail in donations. You can find information about their program here.

There are so many options out there to make your sacrifice in my honor worth something.  Do a St. Baldrick’s Head Shave or set up your own fundraiser through their program to raise monies for Children’s Cancers Charities – find out about it here.

There is Cuts Against Cancer here

Wigs for Kids here

Or Angel Hair for Kids (a division of A Child’s Voice Foundation) here

I have not researched any of these organizations except St. Baldricks, as that was always my go to choice.

If you want to show support in other ways, make a donation to any of the charities I have listed links on the side of this website.  These are all charities I support, and you can do this in my honor.

I am not asking ANYONE to do this, just saying if you feel the need, please put your hair or your monies to good use.  Make it count.  Make it mean something.

Life is about helping each other.

First – best costume we had show up last night, three pre-teens/teens dressed up as Lock, Shock and Barrel from The Nightmare Before Christmas, sharing a giant black trash bag as their candy bag was the BEST!  I wish I would have thought to ask to take a picture.

Today was my two week check up with Dr. Sikaria, and she agreed, Blink is slightly smaller and a whole lot softer.  She was having a hard time being able to define the edges so she could measure.  She also said Blink doesn’t feel as “tall” as it was before.  I agreed.  She said this is good, and this is what we want to be seeing.  I still have to go back every two weeks for check ups…

We talked about the fact that I stop peeing after each chemo treatment, and Dr. Sikaria was concerned that I was still taking the Lasix.  That was a slight miss-understanding.  She thought I was taking it daily, once we confirmed I’ve only been taking it on the day of chemo to try and get the peeing to start instead of edema; she was a little better with it.  She still doesn’t want me to take the Lasix if we can avoid it as it is hard on the kidneys and add that with the chemo, we could be doing some damage.

She said she thought the culprit could be the Zofran I am getting intravenously prior to chemo treatments as part of my anti-nausea prophylactics prior to my infusions.  I am getting a quadruple dose through the IV as a standard prophylactic, she thinks we can cut that back to 1 x 8 mg oral tablet about an hour prior to infusion and this will stop the Edema and still control nausea.  So that is our plan for the next treatment.  If I have problems with nausea creeping up, I can add 1/2 tablets to the dose of 1 tablet every 8 hours to get back on top of the nausea.  Other than the Edema creating the nausea because I stop processing the chemo drugs out, I have been good with nausea control.

So, that is our new plan.  I’m still going to keep the Lasix ready just in case.

I did mention to Dr. Sikaria that this past day one of cycle 2 I was experiencing some Liver pain.  It wasn’t a sharp pain, more a of a shooting ache while I was going through the worst of the Edema last Friday night.  She palpated my liver and didn’t feel anything.  She said as long as the pain doesn’t stay, we should be good.

I forgot to ask her about the new gene variants that were recently announced that brings the total gene variants that indicate a higher risk for breast cancer to nearly 180.   Read about it here.

I guess I should try reaching out to the Genetic Testing group that did my gene testing and ask them about this.  I am not sure what these new results in identifying these new variants could mean to me and my family.

I do have to admit, as positive as I try to remain, this new tidbit of news occasionally creeps up on me with the slight gray insidious tendril of fear that weaves up through my core to remind me that someone always draws the short straw.  TCST, TCST, TCST.

I miss going to Renaissance Fair.  First weekend was this past weekend, and knowing so many friends were there and playing was just a little torment.  I would love to be able to go, just for a few hours, but I know I don’t have the stamina to drive myself down to Escondido, play for a few hours and then drive back.  So I have to try and console myself with pictures that everyone takes and pretend I am there.  It’s amazing how much we take something like this for granted until we cannot partake in the fun for some reason or another.  I miss that fun…  next year!

I am still having problems with peripheral neuropathy in my fingers, feet and lips, and the chemo mouth was a slow build up this time.  First cycle, I had chemo mouth almost immediately and it slowly dissipated.  This time it has slowly built up and I now have the constant metal taste in my mouth and food is losing its flavor.

All in all, not too much for me to complain about, life is good, I have many uplifting me in prayer and good thoughts, and I am still alive with a lot of hope ahead of me.

Life is all about the hope.

 

 

Took it very easy today since I knew we would have Trick-or-Treaters coming to the door for hours tonight.  And the 6th game of the World Series to watch.  Hubby gave up his playing of Nightmare Before Christmas for the World Series as everyone kept asking if we knew the score.  It’s been an exciting game so far.

Made another chemo cap today, this one Angora, so soft!  I have a couple skeins of Cashmere left to make a challenging cap with, will see how I do.  It’s from a post I found from a Japanese woman who put up a basic knitting chart that is difficult to understand.  I took it to a local knitting shop today and consulted with the resident knitting expert there to get some of her input on the chart and was I reading it correctly.  We’ll find out over the coming days….

Seems kind of strange this year as the “Little Man” is not coming over this Halloween to see us or to Trick-Or-Treat here like he has done every year in the past (that is 4 whole years we’ve had with him coming here).

Tomorrow is our next check up with Dr. Sikaria for a check on Blink.  Blink has shrunk quite a bit in the past two weeks.  And Blink has become very soft.  Not the rubbery feel Blink originally had when I first discovered Blink lurking in the shadows of my right breast.

Still losing hair so my Chemo Pattern Baldness continues to grow.  But I still have eyelashes!!!!!  (YES!)

Life is all about the candy today.