I had lost a week and missed my first scheduled infusion of this second chemotherapy treatment group as a result of the SVC Syndrome and time in the hospital. Now that I was out, I was ready to get back to it. Even though I had just been discharged the day prior, I had to meet with my oncologist to be cleared for treatment. They gave me an appointment for very early that next morning, before his normal appointment times start. No rest for the weary since we all know you don’t actually get to rest in the hospital!
Sometimes It Is The Little Things
February 20, 2015 Leave a Comment
This could also be called, Sometimes It Is The Really Superficial Unimportant Things. Potato, Potahtoh. Either way, a few things that have been making me feel a little more like myself lately are worth noting. [Read more…]
Sidestepping Side Effects – Mouth Sores
February 2, 2015 Leave a Comment
One of the most common side effects for both courses of chemotherapy drugs I have been given is mouth sores. Now, if you are like me, you are asking, what is that? I did not know and each time I went into the oncologist they would ask me if I had sores and I was like, “not that I know of.” “Oh, you’ll know,” was the response. So when they happened, all I can say is, “Yup, no mistaking that!”
De-Porting
January 30, 2015 Leave a Comment
Don’t worry, we are nearing the end of the story of my SVC syndrome from blood clots and the related hospital stay! If you will, come back to early fall when I was in the hospital trying desperately to get home to my girls again (you can see the previous posts here under Detour – SVC Syndrome).
We are now at the seventh day of my stay and I awoke anxious, ready to have my port taken out. During the morning, the doctors came around and I found out that if I had the procedure done that day, I could go home the next day (spoiler, doctors are not always right). If Interventional Radiology couldn’t get it done that day, I would be scheduled for the next day and go home the following. This had me concerned since we were headed into a weekend and it seems pretty obvious that much of the hospital would be operating on a limited type staffing through a weekend and, rightfully so, working on emergency patients first. With how quickly they had been able to get my care started when I arrived the week prior on a weekend, I don’t have a problem with that. Once the port was removed, they would need to get my Heparin (short term blood thinner I had through IV) numbers back to level, then switch me over to Lovenox (more long term blood thinner injected). My activity was to be limited once I was home. The original plan was to take it easy for 10 days with lots of rest and only going to doctor appointments. I was not to be left alone with my girls or drive anyone anywhere for the same time, until I was seen.
So Many Questions
January 22, 2015 1 Comment
This middle part of the week, as I continued to deflate, there were still a lot of questions. I was still stuck in bed. I was dizzy on and off. The left side of my face felt weird, including my eye, which is nerve wracking of course. No one had come to a consensus of whether I should be moving my legs around while I was in bed to prevent clots or if that would dislodge the clots I had.
Finally I’m That Girl
January 15, 2015 7 Comments
I’m going to tell you a bit about what is going on right now, in present time, before I continue to recap my story. Even with this news, I am going to continue to tell the story chronologically as it happened. I’m currently about four months behind. If you need a refresher on where we are, please reference the Starting Line page. I hope that in sharing my story in full it will help someone someday.
As you may have seen, I had surgery over the holidays. It took a little while, but just a little over a week later, I received a phone call from the surgeon with the pathology results. And nearly a week later, I had a follow up appointment with her to check my healing and go over the results in detail. I needed to hear it from her in person before I really shared it in this way, which sounds crazy I am sure.
Long story short, I am now considered “cancer free”!
Bookshelf – Radical Remission So Far
January 12, 2015 4 Comments
One of the book’s I’ve been trying to get through is Radical Remission: Surviving Cancer Against All Odds by Dr. Kelly Turner. While I would like to think the odds are, well, “ever in my favor” to borrow from another good read, I have really enjoyed looking beyond the chemotherapy and radiation to survivor’s stories of radical remission. Dr. Turner sort of defines a Radical Remission as when someone heals cancer against all odds.
This has been another read that I certainly have to be in the right frame of mind to read through. I purchased the book electronically using a gift card I was gifted by a friend, so I am able to read it occasionally when I have a few minutes on my phone or the iPad depending where and when that may happen. I’m still getting into accepting the electronic book thing! Dr. Turner provides 9 key factors that she found common among nearly all the Radical Remission survivors she studied.
All Puffed Up
January 5, 2015 3 Comments
So here we are, day two in the hospital, after a sleepless night and quite a day that led us here. That Guy was with me, my dad still hadn’t seen me so he came up at some point that morning. The doctors came around doing rounds. When I awoke, my arms and hands were even puffier than before! It seemed like this day brought even more questions than answers, which was very frustrating.
I was still very out of it. Some might say I always am, so just imagine how I was even worse. I was not allowed to eat solid food we found out and was not allowed to eat anything until after my IR check that day. Someone had allowed me to have dinner the night before, whoops! And that kind of sums up how everything went that day.
2014 in review
December 30, 2014 Leave a Comment
The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2014 annual report for this blog.
Here’s an excerpt:
The concert hall at the Sydney Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 9,700 times in 2014. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 4 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.
Error In My Favor
December 29, 2014 7 Comments
Once I was back in a little private triage room, which in reality was a hallway where there was a little staff room if I remember correctly, I remember feeling really puffy. I started taking off my rings. Then my necklace. Then my bracelet. And then my wig. The gentleman who had gotten me the wheelchair was seriously the most calm person ever considering the circumstances. He got my mom a little bag to put everything in for me (Catch up with my trip to the ER starting here).
All About My Girls 