I did it!!

The road to success is dotted with many tempting parking places.  ~Author Unknown

IT’S OVER!!  I had the last chemo drip today!!  So excited!  I was so worried that something would go awry, and I wouldn’t be able to get it.  But I should know better than to put those negative thoughts in my head. 

So, that’s two “phases” down (surgery and chemo) and one to go (radiation).  Or maybe it’s two down and two to go because I’ll have to take an aromatase inhibitor (i.e., Arimidex) for 5 years.  Ugh!  Dreading the cost (don’t know what it will be yet) and dreading being on a long-term drug.  But I guess I gotta still go with the flow…..

I met with Katie, the nurse practitioner, today.  She’s always so pleasant, just like Dr. Sprawls.  Dr. Sprawls was on vacation.  The phlebotomist (she did a great job – one stick) told me that once or twice a year Dr. Sprawls goes down to Haiti on “vacation” and does mission work – building houses or whatever needs to be done.  Pretty admirable.  Anyway, Katie said I should definitely have a full-body PET scan after the radiation to make sure there are no “hot spots.”  She said it is usually done about 4 weeks after the completion of radiation; if you do it before that, there might be residual radiation in the body that would show up “hot” and give a false reading.  The bad news to that is that it will be next year – new $5200 deductible, but I guess I’ll end up paying the deductible eventually anyway.  She also said to wait to have the port removed until after the PET scan.  Dr. Sprawls was against the PET scan and also said I could have the port removed anytime after the chemo is finished.  As much as I don’t want to be a pessimist, I think I agree with Katie in having the PET scan – peace of mind, etc. – and removing the port after that.  I have an appointment with Dr. Sprawls in December, and I’ll verify everything with him cuz he’s “the boss.” 

Yesterday was the best I had felt in about 2 weeks – just in time to get another blast of poison.  I just had some underlying nausea and feeling of “yuckiness” for a couple of weeks.  It was really nice to feel almost “normal” yesterday – for a day.  I’m sure now that the chemo is over, there are better days to come – I’m really looking forward to more days of almost “normal”…….or maybe even NORMAL.  Woo hoo!  Things to look forward to!  I’ve been warned that there’s lots of fatigue with the radiation, so that might be kinda tough on a daily basis.  But there’s a light at the end of the tunnel, and I think I’ve been through the worst of it.  I’m hoping radiation is “a breeze,” except for all the travel time involved, and the fact that it will be daily.

We’re getting very excited about our trip.  It will be so nice to have a month free of doctor’s appointments, etc.  Still hoping to leave Friday morning.  Not sure how early we’ll get out of town because we still seem to have quite a bit to do before we leave.  Maybe we can get it all done tomorrow.  Hope so. 

This is a short-and-sweet entry today (relatively).  Just wanted to report the good news that chemo is over.  I’m very tired and ready for bed.  Been up since 3:00 (I’ll be very happy to be off the steroids – last day tomorrow).

One last note – several people reported problems with leaving comments on the blog lately.  I left some test messages myself and had problems some of the time but not every time.  I don’t know what’s up with that, and I apologize.  I know how frustrating it is to write something and lose it all.  My only suggestion is to write it in Word or some word processor program first and then copy and paste it to the blog.  If it gets lost in cyberspace, you still have it in Word.  Just a thought.  I also noticed that if I left a comment as “anonymous” first and then as me, it would go through.  I have no explanation. 

But I DO want to tell you, as I’ve said before, that I LOVE your blog comments and I read every one of them and take them all to heart.  They mean so much to me, as do your emails, cards, calls, gifts, love, support, friendship, understanding…..the list goes on and on.  I love you all!  And thank you for reading my blog and taking this journey with me.

You know you’re a cancer patient when….. you own more hats than pairs of shoes!

ONE MORE TO GO!!!!

Yesterday is but today’s memory, and tomorrow is today’s dream.  – Khalil Gibran

ONE MORE TO GO!!  Man, it feels good to utter those words!  I was feeling a little worried about my appointment today because we’ve started making plans for our RV trip; i.e., we have actually made some campground reservations and bought tickets to the Grand Ole Opry (featuring Carrie Underwood, Randy Travis, and Josh Turner…..among others)!  So I really don’t want anything to get in the way of our trip now.  The plan….the big plan…..is for me to have MY LAST CHEMO DRIP on 9/28, MY LAST NEUPOGEN INJECTION on 9/29, and HIT THE ROAD as early as we can get away on 9/30.  Our tickets for the Opry are for 10/4, so that gives us a few days to get up there but not much time to spare.  So please keep your fingers crossed, knock on wood, pray, whatever……that everything goes smoothly next week.

This week went smoothly.  It was one of my “no wait” days today, which was really nice.  I even called them up this morning to see if I could come in an hour early.  That was because I had gotten up at 0300 (damn steroids) and finished all my transcription by 0930.  So they got me in early, the blood draw went smoothly (white count was 5.51), and “the drip” went off without a hitch.  In fact, I got there at 1030 and was out of there by 1230 – set a new record today, I think. 

The week has been relatively uneventful.  Ken’s ankle is doing much better overall, although he has some occasional “bad days” if he overexerts himself or is on his feet too long.  But it seems to be healing pretty quickly.  Of course, he takes pretty good care of it – wraps it, wears hiking boots, ices it, elevates it, etc.  He does all the right things.

I’ve had pretty minimal side effects this week – mild nausea here and there, fatigue late in the day, and extremely sore fingernails.  It’s hard to button buttons and is somewhat challenging to type.  Still not sure if I’m going to lose them or not (Dr. Sprawls warned me I might); I hope I just have to deal with the pain, and I hope that subsides after the chemo is over.  The watery eyes still prevail, too, which is also a challenge – everything is a big blur.  I have a lifetime supply of eye drops (thanks to a thoughtful sister-in-law), and they do help, but they don’t completely resolve the problem.  The other thing that is very annoying is taste disturbance – totally screwed-up taste buds.  Anyway, these are all minimal things that I can deal with, especially if I know they will resolve with time…..and I think they will…..so my doc says. 

The weekend was pretty quiet.  On Saturday, we had to take the dogs for their shots – never a fun thing, especially paying for it, but they were pretty good about it.  Then we came back to the RV and took our lunch down by the river – it was a beautiful day.   Pretty much took it easy the rest of the day.  On Sunday, we drove down to Wickham Park, a campground in Melbourne, to check out the sites there.  We had stayed there many years ago, but it was before they had a bad forest fire that burned down almost all of the trees in the park.  Anyway, we found a site we liked and made a reservation for the month of November.  It will be much closer to Viera, which is where I’ll have to go for my daily radiation treatments.  On the way home from Wickham Park, we stopped at Grill’s Riverside, a nice restaurant on the Indian River.  Sat outside, had a bite to eat, a margarita (please don’t yell at me; it tasted so good – one of the few things that still tastes good!  And I had 2 huge glasses of ice water with it), and listened to our favorite local musician, Johnny Danger.  He was really pumped up and put on a great show.

On Monday, I made sure the 2010 taxes were all in order and we met with our accountant.  We were dreading the visit, although he’s a great guy and always has good stories.  But we always owe money, and I just wasn’t in the mood to write out yet another check to the IRS.  Who is EVER in the mood for that??!!  ANYWAY, for the first time in a billion years, we’re getting a refund!  Oh, that was such music to our ears.  We even celebrated by stopping at our favorite Vietnamese/Thai restaurant for some chicken soup on the way home.    

And now we’re in trip-planning mode.  I worked on it a bit in the chemo suite and then spent all afternoon on it while Ken worked on getting the RV ready for the big trip.  We’re getting pretty excited about “getting out of dodge.”  I wish I could take the month off from work but no can do.  The office would miss me too much (just kidding), and I would miss the money too much.  I do have 2 great girls working for me right now, and I can manage the rest even when we’re on the road. 

Well, that about wraps things up for today.  More next week……

You know you’re a cancer patient when…….....you get excited about having to shave your legs!!!

Only 2 more to go!!

Consider the postage stamp:  its usefulness consists in the ability to stick to one thing until it gets there.  ~Josh Billings

It feels so good to be able to say ONLY 2 MORE CHEMO SESSIONS AND I’M DONE!!  Yippee ki yay!!  Or however you spell that!  Yup, I had Taxotere #10 today – preceded by a not-so-great blood draw and a nice visit with Dr. Sprawls.  There was a lot of waiting involved, so it was a long day.  Took ‘em half an hour to call me back for the vitals and blood draw and then it took 2 phlebotomists and 3 sticks, finally resorting to the back of the hand, to get some blood.  But they finally got enough for a CBC.  Then it was another hour and 20 minute wait to see Dr. Sprawls.  And then a 20-minute wait up in the chemo suite before they got the drip started.  So, I left the RV at 1030 and arrived back home at 1550.  My initial plan was to come home and finish the transcription I didn’t finish this morning, even though I got up at 0445 and started working.  However, I was too wiped out by 1600 to even think about working.  I take that back.  The office called me with a STAT (a report they needed right away), so I did that one for them and got it right back to them.  And that was the end of my energy.

My white count was 8.29 today, which was VERY exciting!  Highest I’ve seen it in a LONG time! 

I had a plethora of questions for Dr. Sprawls today because it was my last scheduled appointment with him for awhile (I don’t have to see a provider next week, I see the nurse practitioner the following week, and then I’m done with chemo, take a vacation, and come back to radiation).  I asked him if we could leave on our RV trip immediately following my Neupogen injection on September 30^th.  Sure thing.  (Actually, I ended up changing the Neupogen injection to 9/29 so we can get an earlier start on 9/30……not that we ever get an early start).  I had quite a few radiation questions since that is next on the agenda.  He answered some of them but deferred most of them to the radiation department.  I also asked him what happens after radiation.  What’s next?  Do I have PET scans or anything to see if all this “crap” did anything?!  He’s not a believer in all the testing and scanning, etc., which I was actually happy to hear.  He told me about various studies that have shown the scans didn’t add anything to the survival rate.  He said when I come back in and see him in 10 years he’ll let me know how things are going.  I liked that!  I could envision the 10-year appointment, which was a very positive feeling.  (There will actually be quite a few appointments between now and then – something like every 3 months for a year, then every 6 months for 2 years…..blah, blah, blah……).  But I just wanted to focus on being alive and well in 10 years……and beyond!  He also told me that 3 things will greatly enhance my survival rate and reduce the chances of recurrence – alcohol reduction, exercise…….and, for the life of me, I cannot remember what the 3^rd thing was!!  Can you believe it??  I’m drawing a complete blank.  But I WILL find out because it’s very important to incorporate the 3 things into my life.  And he’s talking lifestyle changes…..as in forever…..not just while I’m undergoing treatment.  I asked him “reduce alcohol to what?”  He said “half a glass of wine a day.”  I balked and said he told me one glass of wine a day last time we discussed it.  He went into another study of some sort and finally conceded to ½ to 1 glass of wine a day.  There are many days that I don’t drink at all.  I didn’t think to ask him if I went 7 days without drinking, could I have 7 glasses of wine at the end of the week??  Just kidding.  I got his drift.  Alcohol is bad.  Exercise is good.  And the 3^rd thing…..well, I’ll just have to get back to you on that one. 

I’ll also be doing hormone therapy after the radiation – pills for 5 years, I think.  Not excited about that, but since I’m already sucked into this vortex, I might as well “go with the flow” and finish the plan. 

As for our trip, Dr. Sprawls implied that we could have 3 weeks because the radiation was really supposed to be started within 6 months of the surgery (we’re already beyond that).  However, in talking to the radiation nurse, she said they like to wait 4-6 weeks after the completion of chemo before starting radiation – to give the body ample time to heal/recover.  I LIKED that!  That meant we could take the full month for our trip.  I do have to be back October 31^st to be “tattooed and molded,” and then I will start rads a week later on November 7^th.  The tattoos are to mark the areas that need to be specifically targeted.  The mold is specifically made for my body so that I will be in the same position each time I go for radiation.  Perhaps I’ve already talked about all this on another post……can’t remember.  Anyway, the bottom line is that I’m so excited we will get a full month away from this place and everything associated with it.  Well, that doesn’t sound right.  We will miss our friends dearly.  And this campground has been great.  But life has kind of sucked since February, generally speaking, and it will just be so nice to go someplace different and get away from doctor’s appointments, blood draws, chemo drips, etc. etc……to take a road trip, see new places, experience different things, enjoy some cooler weather…..   SOOOOO looking forward to it……..

Been feeling good for the most part.  Another weekend without abdominal pain.  Had a lot of mental pain because I spent the entire weekend (and then some) working on our 2010 taxes – what a nightmare!  I have never been so disorganized in my life.  Trying to recreate things from early 2010 was just awful (this included selling some stock certificates and having to come up with the cost basis of stock purchased in the 80s).  I would have been pulling my hair out…..if I had any….   But I think I finally got it all together.  We’ll find out on Monday when we meet with the accountant.  Good thing he filed an extension for us.

After spending all weekend working on the dreaded taxes, it was so nice to meet our friends, Barbara and Brian, at Rusty’s Seafood in Port Canaveral for dinner Sunday night.  Rusty’s had just opened their new waterfront deck, which was really nice, so we sat out there and listened to some good live music, watched one of the Disney ships depart on a cruise, had a nice dinner, and a great visit with good friends.  Totally relaxing.

On Monday, I went down to the AAA office in Melbourne to get maps and tour books for our trip.  On the way home I decided to stop at Beall’s, one of my favorite stores, for some retail therapy!  I hadn’t been shopping in ages, and I just needed that retail therapy fix.  As usual, they were having some great sales, so I found a couple of new outfits – 2 skirts and 5 tops!  And it really cheered me up!  Now, usually when I do that, I’m temporarily cheered up.  Then I go home and try everything on again, come to my senses, and return it all!!  But this time I tried everything on again, and I still liked them…..and so did Kenny (or so he said…..).  So I think they’re keepers.  At least the ones I’ve already taken the tags off and worn.  (see photo below for one new outfit, except the hat and shoes).  Felt a little like I had stepped back into my “hippie days.” 

Once again, I think I’ve forgotten some of the things I wanted to write about.  And, once again, I’ve rambled on and on.  The cool thing is that if you get bored with the rambling……stop reading.   I guess you’ve all figured that out by now.  Until next time………

You know you’re a cancer patient……when you search the whole house frantically looking for your purse because you are running late, and the entire time it's been hanging off your shoulder.
Or looking for your "lost" phone…..while TALKING on the phone. 

Or “lost” glasses and they’re on your head!

Is this just a cancer patient thing (chemotardedness), or does it happen to other people??!!  

After some retail therapy......

Three quarters done with Taxotere!

Life’s royal crown jewels: health and peace of mind. Treat them royally.  -- author unknown

It was smooth sailing for Taxotere #9 today.  So I’m now 3/4 done with Taxotere.  Isn’t that amazing that with just one more drip, I went from 2/3 completion to 3/4 completion?  It sounds like such a big jump from 2/3 to 3/4.  Gotta love math!  Oh, and I do!! 

Anyway, today was another one of my lucky “no wait” days because I didn’t have to see a provider – I just had to have blood work and chemo.  The only tiny fly in the ointment was that the blood draw didn’t go so well.  I told the girl that I usually warn everybody that I’m a tough draw, but lately they’ve all been getting it on the first stick, so I told her I wouldn’t warn her (which of course I already did).  And that was all it took.  My veins wouldn’t cooperate.  Finally, after 3 different phlebotomists – one stick each – we got blood.  Yay!  And the numbers were all good – most importantly, the white count was 5.02.  So, bring on the chemo!  And they did.  And now I only have THREE more drips to go!  I am SOOO excited.  And SOOO looking forward to the break between chemo and radiation with NO appointments to go to – at least that is how I am envisioning things at the moment.  Hopefully Dr. Sprawls won’t ruin that vision next week when I see him.  He did say “plan away,” but I’m not sure he knew we wanted to leave immediately after my Neupogen injection on September 30^th and not return until I have to start radiation.

I had a good weekend.  It was the second weekend in a row with no severe abdominal pain, which was wonderful.  No real side effects from the Neupogen injection either.  Some mild fatigue, but that was about it.  We never did go to the zoo on Friday.  We had plans to go out to dinner, and I was afraid that 2 “big events” in one day would wear me out.  Just don’t have the stamina that I used to have.  On Friday night, we went out for Mexican dinner with our friends, Debbie and Bill, and then played a game of pool (billiards) afterwards.  That used to be our standard Friday night event – Mexican dinner followed by pool.  But we haven’t done the pool thing for months due to my lack of stamina/energy and also the fact that Debbie had surgery awhile back that prevented her from playing.  Anyway, we were up to it Friday night, and what fun we had.  As luck would have it, a “pool shark” just happened to be walking by the game room as we were playing.  He stood outside the door and watched us (and laughed at us) for a little while – we are pretty hilarious pool players!  We will only play in a hotel game room, never in a pool hall or bar!  Couldn’t stand the pressure…..or having an audience.  We can make one game last for hours!  Anyway, Dave, the shark, gave us free lessons!  And we learned some new rules and got some good pointers.  I wonder if we’ll remember them next time! 

On Saturday, we stopped by Kars Park on Merritt Island and visited our friends, Barbara and Brian, and Sandy and Don – they were camping there for the weekend.  That was fun.  Got to meet Sandy and Don’s new puppy, who is absolutely adorable, and saw their new-to-them motorhome, which was very nice.

Then we went down to the marina where our boat is now located.  Ken and a friend did some work on the engine and then we took it out for a test run for a couple of hours, which was a nice treat.  It ran very well – nice solid, smooth boat.  It still has some engine issues (wah!), but nothing too major hopefully. 

On Sunday afternoon, we went to the beach for a couple of hours and had great fun watching the surfers.  It actually was too rough for us to even go in the water – looked scary – but we had a good time anyway.  And then, of course, we stopped at Crackerjack’s for a margarita and some live music.

On Monday, I did some transcription and cleaned out some cabinets in the RV that have been annoying me forever – too much junk – and then started planning our RV trip for October.  We’re thinking Nashville as a destination.  We’ve never been there before.  Even though we’re not really city people or country music fans, we think it might be fun and different.  And there is a Corps of Engineers campground on a huge lake right outside of Nashville.  So the tentative plan is to get up there in 4 days, spend a bunch of time in and around Nashville, and then take our time coming home on some scenic route – haven’t gotten that far in the planning yet.  If anybody has been to the Nashville area and has any tips or pointers to share with us, we’d love to hear them!

Ken went to work on the boat on Monday and also planned to haul it out of the water.  He had to clear away some brush on the boat ramp and fell into a hole, taking a bad roll onto the ground, and severely spraining his ankle – on his right foot, which already had a really sore heel from missing a step in the boat a couple of weeks ago.  He said just after he bought this boat that it will either kill him or make him younger!  I hope all these things – engine problems and injuries – are making him feel younger!  His PCP told him yesterday that he has a 2^nd degree sprain and sent him for an x-ray.  He said he would call if there was anything on the x-ray to worry about – we haven’t heard from him, so we’re assuming no news is good news, although the sprain is not exactly good news and is quite painful and debilitating.  He has been very good about icing it, keeping it elevated, staying off of it as much as possible (I miss my helper!), and using a walking stick to get around.  Hopefully it will heal quickly.  Despite the serious sprain, he still managed to get the boat hauled out.  A friend with a big truck was able to pull it.  So now it’s on the trailer, and the storage price just went from $290/month to $40/month, which makes us very happy!  Of course, what good is a boat on land??  Well, it needs some work done that can’t be done in the water.  Eventually it will get to the stage we want it…..we hope…..and we’ll have a nice little cruiser.

It seems I had some other things to write about, but I guess I’ve rambled on long enough.  The main thing I wanted to tell you was that I’ve been feeling really good for the most part, and that I only have 3 more chemo sessions to go!!  I guess I could have said that in one sentence, not a billion paragraphs!  Hope all is well with you all in your various corners of the country!  As always, thank you so much for your blog comments, emails, cards, letters, gifts, positive thoughts, never-ending support, and LOVE! 

You know you’re a cancer patient when…… you look at an infant’s head of hair and compare it to yours!  (In some cases, I’m winning – my hair is slowly coming back; it’s more than just fuzz now!)

 Hair!  Real hair!  9/7/11

Hair (fuzz?) and glasses indentation!  9/7/11

Two thirds done with Taxotere!!

Perseverance is not a long race; it is many short races one after another.  ~Walter Elliott, The Spiritual Life

I think I’m going to try putting my “inspirational quote” at the top and the “You know you’re a cancer patient when…..” at the bottom.  We’ll see how that goes.  I didn’t really like them both together. 

Yesterday I had Taxotere drip #8!  Yay!  Only 4 more to go!!  The drip was preceded by an appointment with Dr. Sprawls (he was running an hour and 20 minutes behind – thank God for my antianxiety pill and Sudoku puzzles, which I now have as an app on my Iphone – the Sudoku, not the antianxiety pill – now there’s an idea for an app!).  Anyway, it was an “uneventful” visit – my labs looked good.  White count rose to 6.4 after the Neupogen injection, and the other numbers looked good, too.  I asked him if Ken and I could plan a road trip in the RV for the month between chemo and radiation, and he said, “Plan away!”  So now we have something to look forward to after this rather yucky summer.  That trip will be for the month of October, which should be a nice time to take a trip – should be cooler and not too crowded with all the kids back in school. 

Dr. Sprawls did say he wanted me to continue getting the Neupogen injection each week after chemo to keep the white count up.  Not excited about that, but I don’t want to end up in the hospital again either, so I’ll just bite the bullet and do it.  It kind of wiped me out last weekend – severe fatigue and mild nausea all weekend.  Hoping for better results this weekend (Neupogen #2 tomorrow at 0800). 

In fact, we’re hoping to go to the Brevard Zoo tomorrow, which is a pretty nice zoo as far as zoos go.  We actually thought about going to Disney’s Animal Kingdom because we’ve never been there, but I think it might wear me out – just the drive to and from Orlando is a lot, and then all the walking, all the crowds, all the hustle and bustle, etc……not to mention all the germs!  So I think we’ll keep it low key and stick to our local zoo, which will be much less crowded, not nearly as far, and I should be able to handle the excitement.  I would love to try the new Treetop Trek with tightropes, jungle bridges, and ziplines, but I don’t think I have quite the stamina for that yet.  In the future, though……

Last night we went to Rusty’s Seafood in Port Canaveral for an early-bird dinner – to celebrate the 2/3 Taxotere point and to check out their new waterfront deck/dock.  Maybe we’ll even go there by boat someday.  Of course, I was pretty tired by the time we got home – long day at the chemo center and then going out to dinner did me in, I guess.  I was in my PJs by 1815, in bed by 1915, and lights out at 2000! 

Today I’m feeling really good so far.  And I’m once again on one of my “forced” vacations (without pay, of course).  Jill, one of the nurse practitioners, is off for almost 2 weeks.  When she’s off, I’m off.  Well, I still have a little bit of work from the doctor (2 half-days per week).  My “girls” do the other nurse practitioner’s stuff.  Anyway, it will be kind of nice to have the break, although it’s a little frustrating not to be able to go anywhere (trapped by chemo and Neupogen appointments) and to not have the paycheck.  Ken is doing some work on the boat engine; maybe we can take that on a day trip or 2 when it’s back together.  And we’ll just have to look forward to the big road trip in October.  Just gotta figure out where to go now. 

You know you’re a cancer patient when……all you want is liquor and dessert…..    (Dr. Sprawls asked me yesterday if my taste buds were back yet.  I said, “No.  Everything tastes like crap…..except margaritas…..and ice cream!!”   I try really hard to stay away from both, but it ain’t easy……  The joys of chemo cravings!) 

Celebrating the 2/3 point of Taxotere -- at Rusty's Seafood -- Ken with 2-4-1 Cabernet, me with bottomless ice water!