Didn't Even Skip A Beat



Thank you Tina, Kevin & Bri!

So I have one more antibiotic to complete. Turned in my little spreadsheet for my tempurature log.  Good little patient am I... Frankly I just can't keep all that in my head.  Ha Ha!  I'll go grab my yogurt to make sure things stay well balanced.  I had another ECHO and EKG today.  A good way to end the week.  Unless the tech is telling me to take a little breath and hold it, I can catch a few ZZZ's there.  In my head I say fatigue fatigue go away.  Then the ECHO is over and off I go.  Heart beating like a 20 yr old they tell me.  Oh yeah, a snooze, and a good report!

Happy Last Chemo Day To Me!

Pre chemo Synergy & Rogan's breakfast

Well it was a lively day from the start.  We went to the gym and then off to Rogan's for Breakfast. Bill wants a disclaimer that this is a post workout early morning hat head look. I have crazy hair so I don't care.   Without my port for the last infusion the initiation was different.  I got my blood drawn from the area down closer to my wrist.  That way they could use my upper forearm for the IV.  I got woozy after blood draw.  Hadn't felt like that since the time I got my ears pierced.  Oy!  Got a rest in the phelbotomy chair then back out to the puzzle table.  (They got a new Ann Geddes one!  I've done all the others...)  I was on the schedule for Lisa and Sarah today.  Sarah was my original nurse from the beginning Oncology meeting.  Lisa is the other half of the wonderful team of she and Dr. Hammond.  Everything went well.  I can't really explain what a year of this has been like.  Leaving today I feel good.  Bill and I were a little emotional once we were by ourselves.  I think it was both the release of the completion of this phase, and I think for both of us it was some residual saddness of this year.  We both still are steadfast in our committment to moving ahead.  Now that chemo is past us new phases to complete.  I move on to an MRI in October and then if all is well, reconstruction is the next piece.  I'd like to have it done as an early Christmas present.  We'll see.  I hold all of you close to me and I know you'll all be with me as I enter the next big phase.  My amazing medical team has kept me going with good drugs, the best of plans, and the most wonderful treatment delivered by the most wonderful people.  At the end of the day - today - I remain fortunate to have my family, my friends and my medical team to keep me going.  

Nurse Practitioner Lisa Sweatt

Nurse Sarah

Last Chemo Eve

Tonight is better than Christmas Eve or New Year's Eve!  Thursday September 29, 2011 is my last chemo.  It has been an actual year of chemo.  Hard to still take in some days.  No looking back because it just doesn't matter.  So tonight I came home by way of the North Hampton beach.  Just a BEA-U-TI-FUL night!  If you look really hard you can see the Isles of Shoals smack in the middle of the picture.  You don't have to look hard for me walking down the path of great health!  Keep an eye out, I'm the one smiling.

Screw Cancer!

A childhood friend gave me this tee-shirt.  Thanks Joyce!  We haven't been able to actually talk but we keep up through our loved ones.  xo.  My keeping up saddens me as I was told Joyce is being evaluated for Lymphoma.  This tee-shirt message goes beyond me, and all my positive vibes include her.  Being pissed off can be quite healing.  It can give you more energy to fight the fight some days.  Kicking ass and taking names - or killing cancer cells - is the game.  Good health rules!

Get Your Fruit Here

I'm still following a good healthy diet.  No, really.  Pineapple and pineapple juice are very good for me.  Even though I had to suspend my activities at the gym for a bit, Bill was good at hosting the juice bar at Papoose Pond.  Rum punch has pineapple juice.  Dr. Hammond would not approve and so just a small taster for me over the holiday weekend.  I wasn't able to go last year on the annual camping trip.  This year we made the trek on Labor Day weekend.  We stayed just two nights and not three but the weather was wonderful and my body didn't reject the outdoors.  No hiking, but a little bit of bike riding.  It felt wonderful to get back up there with many of the vacation croo. 

Starboard, No Port!

A little sailor humor for Bill.  I've been silent again due to another infection and just days and days of low grade temps.  I've  had super fatigue and my joints have been so sore I felt like my legs had Elephantitis.  They didn't of course.  So I was being monitored, and after two doses of antibiotics, things clear up and then lingering temps.  So Bill and I head to another follow-up appointment on September 19th with Dr. Hammond.  It's a 7:30 appointment and we are dressed to head to work right after.  We took separate cars.  Trying to stay positive!  Anyhoo, 8 vials of blood, 2 more drawn for sterile cultures from my arm, and 2 more drawn for sterile cultures from my port and don't forget urine.  We meet with Dr. Hammond and he tells us that 1 in 20 people develop bacteria with a port.  I am lucky because I have had it long time - over a year.  Some people reject them and sometimes a of high dose antibiotic can't clear them up.  So again, very fortunate am I.  We got back to the room and as he is explaining the scoop he tells us he'd like the port out.  I only have ONE chemo left - September 29, 2011 (YAHOO) and I can still get via and IV.  Bill asks when was he thinking of arranging this, and Dr. Hammond looks at his watch.  Bill says "today?!"  I didn't need Dr. Hammond to answer to know what he meant.  He calls my surgeon Dr. McKee while we are in the room and tells them what I need.  We know the routine enough that we also know it's surgical day for Dr. McKee so Dr. Hammond wants to be fit between cases possibly or at the latest by the next day.  I get my orders for a chest x-ray and off to imaging we go.  We are on call to return to the surgeon's office when they holler.  We both make arrangements for our work schedules and then got to run home, change into something more comfortable, and then go back.  I wasn't real excited to be awake for the removal.  UGH!  So a full ativan later we return.  Dr. McKee and his nurse Linda are wonderful.  Bill had the camera at the ready and Dr. McKee had his stories and good humor at the ready!  It was creepy and not as quick as I hoped.  Bill said "it was kind of like popping a zit."  Um I don't think so.  It's been challenging this past month, but I still remain thankful for my better health.  My amazing, wonderful medical team keeps me going and pretty soon it will just be for check-ups!