Echo (echo echo)

It’s finally Friday. Today’s appointment was at the hospital up here for an echocardiogram. It’s an ultrasound of the heart. The technician kept apologizing for how cold everything was (it IS cold!) but we joked that it’s the last thing I worry about! ?

It was cool to watch my heart beat on the monitor. I asked a few questions about what she was looking at. She told me it was the best heart she’d seen all day. ? Got the “results” back – everything is normal! Good news headed into chemo.

Mayo Appointments and Final Biopsies

I’ve finally got the biopsies scheduled! And a special guest with be accompanying me…LINDSAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY.

Flying out from the East Coast isn’t as easy as hopping on the plane–there are others who are helping out and I CANNOT thank you enough. There aren’t words. She’ll be coming with me to my first few minor surgeries (lung biopsy and port placement). I don’t like feeling sick or weak in front of….well, anyone, really. Who does? I’ve avoided it most of my life. I’m going to try hard to embrace the help rather than push it away. Like this blog, I think it’ll be cathartic to not keep it inside.

She’ll be here for a week, so she’ll get a chance to hang with the kids. And we can fit in some fun things. 🙂

We’ll head to Rochester for my COVID test on Sunday. Biopsies are both on Tuesday. I also opted into a study – there are a TON of opportunities at Mayo. This one tracks how well breast cancer responds to chemo (something like that), so they’ll do an ultrasound while I’m there, another halfway through treatment (where I’d see them again anyway), and then before surgery. I opted in because I’m interested in actually seeing if there are results from the chemotherapy.

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Last night, I told E (the older kid) that I was going to miss her first day of school. And that pretty soon, I might not be feeling well…that sort of thing. She looked at me with teary eyes and said, “but I’m really sad about leaving [daycare]!” ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?

This kid. Thursday was her last day at daycare, and she was pretty upset and missing her teacher. But damn! ?

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More Thanks

Still in awe of you amazing folks. A friend of mine noted that I hate having the spotlight on me–painfully true. I don’t know what I did to deserve all this. But then, this is all YOU. Your generous hearts and empathetic natures. I know the feeling of not being able to do anything – at least cure cancer and shit – but you are really lifting my spirits.

I especially appreciate some of the humor you’ve been sending my way. I could NOT stop cackling over the gift notes someone sent with lotion (this person might hate being namedropped more than I do!):

It puts the lotion in the basket or it gets the hose again

How did we figure out that goat milk is good for skincare? Hmmm? Weird things happen on farms.

E read it and couldn’t understand why I was laughing so hard.

What’s also really funny…

Lindsay has had the wrong house number for me this whole time. ?

They’ve been ending up on my neighbors who didn’t know our last name. So the neighbor did some internet researched and realized it was me. I can’t imagine this neighbor’s reaction opening up bottles of lotion ?????

I’ll have to send something over there to thank them. Gave me a good laugh, though. 😉