Special Delivery!

Yesterday, Saturday Mom, Keith and I were watching TV about 5 is and there was a knock at the door. Keith answered and the person on the other side of the door says " Special Delivery!" I immediately recognized the voice. It was my sister from Utah Lisa and her daughter Lauria. Needless to say I was so surprised and it made me cry. Lauria is on spring break this week from college and today is her 21st birthday. She wanted to come for visit for spring break and her birthday.  What a wonderful surprise! I love having family around....sorry they couldn't all come, but it is wonderful to have Lisa and Lauria here.

This Past Week

So I have finally decided to go out on disability. I emailed my Dr the necessary paper work a week ago Friday. I worked Monday and Tuesday. It was getting harder and harder to get up in the morning and to eat dinner at night. I had a Dr appointment on Wed morning and the paper work was ready for me. I went into work in the afternoon because I had a few things to clean up before going out on disability. It is amazing how the weight of the world is off my shoulders.

Thursday I had a treatment. Before they start the treatment they take your blood pressure and temperature. Apparently I had a slight temperature. The nurse didn't want to start the treatment with out consulting the Dr. She was with a patient so it took awhile. The Dr gave the ok to start the treatment. All went well.

The last two nights I've been awake till about 3 am.  I a little tired today but doing ok. Right now I have a good appetite which is a good thing since I've lost about 10lbs since January.  Looking forward to dinner tonight. Macaroni and Cheese...the kind mom makes via Keith.

Survived Work

So after being off work for 4 days and a weekend. I went to work today. Surprisingly enough I am not as pooped as I usually am on Monday. I still don't have a lot of energy but at least I survived today.

A Very Interesting Week

I went to the lab at Kaiser on my way home from work on Tuesday evening to have a blood draw to see what would happen on Thursday. After I went to bed, before 7:00 a Dr called to let me know that my blood counts were very low. He asked if I had any bleeding if I did then I need to go right to emergency. He wanted me to have more blood drawn Wed morning. I got up and got ready for work. On my way to Kaiser my nose was bothering me so I was cleaning it out and there was some fresh blood, it wasn't a bloody nose but I wasn't sure if that is what was meant by bleeding. I decided to go ahead and check into emergency. They drew blood and did other tests. My Dr tried to call me a let me know that I didn't need more blood work. That we would not have chemo this week and I would have a transfusion. I was already in emergency. They gave me a blood transfusion and during that I got severe chills. They suspected I had an infection. So more blood tests. I was in emergency from 7:30 am till 11:00 pm, they then move me to the Cardiac floor. Thursday evening around 7:30 I was move to the Oncology floor and was there till Friday evening when I went home. I had 5 blood transfusions (the rest I handled ok), 3 platelet transfusions. On Friday morning my potasiam and magnisium were really low so I was given that. Also through out my stay I received antibiotics. Two student nurses came by my room asked me if they help me with a sponge bath or wash my hair. They washed my hair with a shampoo cap. It was very interesting. These nurses have only been in the program 4 weeks. I was their first sponge bath. It wasn't a full and complete one but enough of one so I hope they feel like they did something. So tomorrow is a blood test so we will see what comes next.

Yesterday!

So I did blood work on Tuesday in preparation for my treatment on Thursday. I received an email from my Dr telling me that my counts looked good except I was anemic  so I would need to have a blood transfusion. They called and scheduled it for 9:15. Traffic was terrible it took us a good 20 min to get onto 85 from Branham. We got on to 17 after the metering lights and 17 looked pretty heavy. We took San Tomas and traffic was not bad. We were about 25 minutes late. I finally got to my chair and the nurse tried to access the port. Could get fluid in but could not draw blood. They like to make sure it is flowing both ways. Not sure how many cc's of saline was pushed but it would not work. She decided to start an IV in my arm because the transfusion takes about 3 hours per unit and I need 2 units. The nurse checked the port a couple of more times. I don't remember what they called it but they were going to use some medication to get the blockage to breakup the clot but they did  not have to do that. So they did the chemo through the port. The chemo was only to take 30 mins or so.

I wanted to take something to the nurses who take care of me since it was Valentines Day yesterday. A friend who works a Pepperidge Farms offered to give me some of there Signature cookies to give to them. They are seasonal so they are no longer available right now. They were very well received (thanks Pat). One of Dr Jeske's patients was have a hard time yesterday very close to were I was sitting so she stopped by. She told me she thought she had seen everything that Pepperidge Farms sold and was thrilled to get the cookies. We talked a little about how I was doing and was thrilled that I was handling the treatment well. One of the things I have noticed that this past week my appetite has been better this week. Also usually I'm really tired on Monday, I think a lot of that has to do with change in schedule over the weekend. This week I was not as tired on Monday but as the week progressed I was getting more tired. I was not awake as late last night.

I want to wish you all a belated Happy Valentines Day!

Long Night!

So far so good no reactions except Thursday night (actually Friday morning) I was awake till 5:00 am...the brain would not stop.

I went today to visit my good friends the Corcoran's this afternoon. They usually come over Sunday afternoons to visit but haven't been here for 2 weeks. I believe the kids have grown a foot each. They were very sneaky and washed me car it has needed it for several weeks. The kids were lobbying for Round Table pizza, I have been craving pizza. I was invited to stay for dinner. Some how in the conversation I was asked what my favorite fruit. I told them I had two, strawberries and cantaloupe. One of the kids said that they thought they had a cantaloupe. I thought no wrong time of year. Well they did have cantaloupe and it was good the pizza was good...It was a good meal, good company.

Yeah!!! No Reaction

So today was a treatment with the new chemo drug. My appointment was 2:00 this afternoon. The chemo was scheduled to take a 1/2 hour. The nurse set it up to take 45 min.  Apparently I now have a reputation. Several nurses checked on me. Not that this is the way I want people to be concerned about me but is nice. Ok Ok I'm sure you are waiting....so far so good. I DID NOT HAVE A REACTION TODAY!!!!!!!!  The nurse sent me home with some pre meds to help with the nause. It seems to take an hour to get the chemo started, she said the sooner the better to start the drug. So now we wait to see what side effects will occur.