The Iced Tea Is Off The Hook

Well, I didn't have any iced tea on Thursday, so it must be the chemotherapy that keeps me awake all night on Thursday nights. I had thought it was all of the iced tea I had at Tony Roma's two weeks ago...I guess I was wrong!

Tickled Pink Team logo for the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer

Tickled Pink Car Wash

There will be a car wash this Saturday June 11th at the Raley's parking lot in Pittsburg (on Buchanan Road). The proceeds will be going to my team's Avon Walk For Breast Cancer. Please come out and get your car washed! I have made my $1800.00 minimum but my sister, Arlene, still needs donations.

You can also donate to her walk by clicking here

Hopefully we can reach her minimum so we can walk together. We will be walking in memory of my mother, Angie. My mom was a breast cancer survivor.

About my Pro-Time

My Pro-Time results were a little low, I think. We didn't get a chance to find out the actual INR/PT results, but Kathleen is increasing my dose of Coumadin for the next week and I go back to check it again on Thursday. I need to increase my dose starting tonight from 5 mg to 6 mg.

My CBC

We did have some abnormal results in the CBC. Apparently my White Blood Cell count was 43.(something) and the range should have been 7.0 to 10.(something), so I was waaaay over the top. Don't know why. Too bad we missed the appt with Dr. Sherman....he could have helped explain this. Rats. Also, I got an additional shot today from Mary. Something to increase my red Blood Cells or my Hemoglobin. I forgot the name of the drug.

Chemo #6 - check!

It's all good (so far).

We got screwed up again this week. We normally have our meeting with Dr. Sherman the day before chemotherapy...to go over the results of the CBC (complete blood count). We usually meet with him on Wednesday at 3:30 or 4:00 pm. This week, however, our meeting was for Wednesday at 9:45 am. We didn't realize we missed the appointment until I got up and out of the shower at 10:00 am and checked the calendar. Whoopsie. So I went to Quest anyway and had blood drawn for both the CBC and the Pro-Time test. I just took the results of the CBC home with me and brought them to chemo today. I figured Dr. Sherman would take a look at them if he was there and Kathleen was going to check my Pro-Time results today anyway. All I know is I did not want the missed apointment to put a snag or delay of any kind in my chemotherapy.

So. Chemotherapy started off a little rocky. Mary could not get my port irrigated at first. It took about five minutes before she could get things moving in there, actually. I started to worry a little bit because my shoulder had felt *funny* earlier this week. And frankly, the left side of my body has not been cooperative with the whole cancer thing. Anyway, the chemotherapy was underway and everything was smooth sailing from there on out. It turns out that the needle was a little too deep into the port for use, but Mary is good at what she does so it was just a small hitch.

Mark was not as lucky as I. He had a rough day. Mark works very hard all week. He puts in many many hours...he averages 80 hours a week (at least 12 per day plus working from home on the weekends and whatever middle-of-the-night calls he gets...and he gets them regularly, trust me.) The problem-du-jour, or crisis-of the-moment (as he calls it) is that a test environment was accidentally pointing to real (live) stores and a job was run which sends price updates! 474 stores were affected, about 1000 items per store. He found this out during my chemotherapy and immediately began bargaining with the chemo nurses for drugs ot ar least an IV hookup! That problem is now fixed (good job team!), but now the concern is that there won't be enough time to get the weekend ads down to the stores by Saturday afternoon. Tonight and tomorrow will be interesting. Poor Mark. What gets his mind off cancer and chemo? Really, really bad , million dollar, career busting problems at work. What gets his mind off really, really bad million dollar, career busting problems at work? Cancer and chemo. He can never catch a break. When we got home Mark looked like a different person than the guy who drove me to chemo. He looked like HE was the one who got chemotherapy today. He looked beat up, and I am pretty sure he felt worse than I did. Someone, please take Mark to a baseball game!

I took a nap today after we got home. I feel okay right now. Tomorrow I expect won't be as good. I have meds that control nausea for 24 hours. I am not looking forward to the 25th hour. ;-)

Kathy and everyone else: thank you for the get well cards! Now stop it! Buying all of those Hallmark cards will not cause your profit sharing to increase that significantly! Hahahaha! Seriously, you are all wonderful, but you must be getting sick of writing those things in all of those cards! I am doing the best I can, and I feel the love...thank you thank you thank you! I just don't want you guys to get sick of me. And I am on track and doing everything the doctor told me. Now on the other hand, I could use some help and wishes losing weight! If you can say a few prayers for me in that arena, I would appreciate it! (snicker, snicker...pardon the expression)

Mary, one of my chemotherapy nurses 

Manteca

Auntie Josie and I went to visit my aunt & uncle at my cousin Remedy's house in Manteca. What a great day. I even got in the pool. Funny, when I would come up out of the water I would throw my head back as if to move the hair away from my face! It was so good to swim (can't remember the last time I had...weird for a girl who was a competitive swimmer for 12 years). I am going to work it in to my day whenever I feel well enough. Of course today I feel great (it is the day before chemotherapy).

Auntie Josie, Auntie Remmie, Me, Remedy, Kevin, James, Destiny and Uncle Chuck 

Deirdre (right out of the pool) 

Auntie Remmie with Joe in her face 

Destiny, and my mother's sisters: Auntie Remmie and Auntie Josie

Packages

My left shoulder feels a little weird today...all day. I don't know how to describe the way it feels any better than that. Maybe I slept wrong. Or maybe my shirt sleeve was cutting off the circulation a little. Don't know. I hope it feels better tomorrow. My sciatica has been acting up, too. My back is sore most all day. My favorite chair is not helping things. The chair makes my back hurt even more it seems. These two things: the shoulder and the sciatica, made it pretty difficult to get to sleep last night.

I am noticing that I am being a little bit weird about leaving the house. I feel so safe here. And I definitely don't feel like going anywhere without Mark. I am not sure if it is about leaving the medicine, or what. Could be that I feel in control here and not other places. Dunno. Tomorrow, however, I am going to give myself an exercise....going for a ride with my Auntie Josie. I will bring my meds. We will be fine. Happy thing of the day: Got three packages in the mail today! Two from Hilo Hattie's in Hawaii, and one from Illuminations.

Weekend and Walking

Mark and I went for walks on both Saturday and Sunday. Kathleen didn't tell me it was against the rules, so we went. It was good. I am not used to walking much these days but to go wake up the muscles. I have gained a lot of weight over the last few months...but I am ok. One thing at a time. On Saturday we went just a short walk over in Clayton. On Sunday we went over to Newhall Park. Yes, I felt good this weekend...didn't even take Vicodin today. And only one yesterday. I got tired pretty quickly, but the important thing to remember is that we are just getting moving. This is a not a sprint, it is a marathon.

Watched a few good movies this week: The Aviator, Collateral, and Finding Neverland. Auntie Josie and Uncle Luis came over for barbeque today (my first home-made attempt at pork rib marinade[awesome] and fruit salad[awesome]) and we watched National Treasure. All good movies. I especially liked The Aviator because I was able to prepare by watching a special program about Howard Hughes on the History Channel the very same day. Heehee.

I have been having a hard time remembering to take my Coumadin at exactly the same time everyday so I decided to (duh) set an alarm on my cell phone. Good job, Deirdre.

I only have about seventeen electronic gadgets that could keep between them all about 56 alarms.....

My sister got pretty worried on Friday. She hadn't heard from me. I had turned down the ringer on the phone because it rings incessantly. It is hard to get any rest sometimes because of the telemarketers and whoever the heck that calls and hangs up when I answer it. My legs were bothering me quite a bit last week so I turned the ringer down. Well sorry, Arlene...Yes I am alive. I should not have done that without letting you know. I do appreciate your concern. :)

Ok, time to go to bed. Have a great week!

Eyelashes

My eyelashes and eyebrows are getting pretty thin. I think it's because my eyes are constantly watering, and so I get crusty buildup throughout the day. Then when I wash my face, my eyelashes just come out.

Stinkin' Thinkin'

I got to my lowest emotional point of chemotherapy just this last weekend.

I was feeling fine on Friday afternoon. Then the muscle and bone pain got pretty bad over the weekend. I actually was contemplating whether or not I would continue chemotherapy. Of course I will continue. But this weekend, I did not want to.

When Mark and I went to get my CBC on Thursday, we met a woman who had been diagnosed with breast cancer in 2000. She is on her 4th round of chemo infusions. She is a miracle, I tell you. She is a very nice lady, and very chipper. (It's always great to meet and speak with someone who doesn't make the sad facial expression when you say the word "cancer").

She seemed so strong. After last weekend, I can only hope to have that much "chipper" in me after the next few chemo infusions.

Not to worry. I am in better spirits now. I am going to be fine. We'll deal with whatever comes, whenever it comes. :)

It's DAN JOHNSON

Hello?! If that FSN Announcer calls Dan Johnson "Hatteberg" one more time, I am gonna scream.

Pro-Time update

Ok, so my blood is clotting like a regular person again (18 seconds). So now we need to get back up to between 20 and 30 seconds. I will take 5 milligrams of Coumadin every night and we'll test again next Thursday to see how 5 mg is working out.

Another Bloody Nose

I had another bloody nose today. I think it has to be due to the amount of housework I managed to get done. I always knew housecleaning could kill you.

I noticed another bruise...this one on the back of my left hand. So now both hands match. It's not as purple as the right hand, but it does have quite a bump on it. I will have to show this to Kathleen, too.

I feel some neuropathy in my fingertips...not too bad.

The muscle and bone pain is well controlled thanks to the Vicodin. This is Vicodin left over from my first surgery on February 10th. I am running out now, so we will contact Kathleen for a new prescription soon.

Tomorrow morning I go back to Quest Diagnostics for a Pro-Time check (to make sure I am in the target range for the Coumadin to be therapeutic).

I need to go back to Ultrasound at John Muir Hospital because they did not get any images of the new mass in my left armpit. I think they got all caught up in the fact that they has found the big clot at that time. So, tomorrow I will call and reschedule so they can take pictures of the mass.

Also tomorrow we have an appointment with Dr. MacAbee (my Radiology Oncologist who is set to retire on July 1st!). He will review my records one last time before handing me off to his successor.

Bloody Nose

I kissed Mark goodnight, and ended up with a bloody nose! So then for the next 30 minutes he was stuffing tissue in my nostril like I was a Contender.

Guess that clot time was no joke.

I am going to have to take my brother Mike's advice:

• Sit in lots of pillows

• Play with as many beach balls as I like