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An appointment on my “day off”
Good thing I write these at the end of the day because I’ve been through ALL of the emotions. ? There were no planned appointments today, which I was feeling pretty excited about. Lindsay reminded me that I should schedule my dental appointment before chemo. Having a cleaning during chemo can lead to infections. Of course, I had an upcoming appointment…on the same morning as the port installation. So I called to reschedule and told the receptionist I know it’s a huge ask, but wondering if there’s any way they could fit me in before I start chemo in the next few weeks. She paused for a second, asked where…
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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…
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A Normal Saturday
As I write this, we are still furiously cleaning the house for Auntie Windsay’s arrival (that’s how Mae says it). (I’m sure you all understand this!) It’s been nice to have something to be excited about! Makes you feel like maybe things can be normal. The kids have been chattering all day about where Linds gets to sleep (Mae said she’d move over so Linds could have room). They argue about Evelyn getting to fly on a plane to see Auntie Lindsay, and Mae keeps talking about the time we made gingerbread houses over video chat. The neighbor who lives on one side of us stopped to chat after Mae…
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Holiday Weekend
It’s been a good weekend! The kids got to stay up late to pick up Auntie Lindsay from the airport. We’ve been doing fun things with the kids so far. We trekked down to Rochester on Sunday morning for my pre-surgery COVID test – it was negative. Cuz we were super worried about that. I was actually nervous about the swab. It was not as bad as I imagined. The swab was tinier (here I was picturing a Q-tip). Instead of staying over in Rochester for part of the week, everyone came and we tried to find cool places to take the kids…butttttttttttttttt everything is closed. We stopped at French…
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Biopsies Galore
It’s been a loooooong day, unexpected but good. We were up early for a study ultrasound. They used not one but FOUR machines to do ultrasounds on my right breast. Pretty easy. But then they had me go right away to the lung biopsy. Now, this is where things got crazy. Took them a long time to call me in the prep room because a new appointment showed up on my Mayo calendar at 11 (this procedure started at 10). They also ended up calling the folks who were doing my axilla biopsy. Turns out that if I was under sedation for the lung biopsy procedure, they’d have to reschedule…
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Positive Lymph Nodes
Linds and I drove back home this afternoon from Mayo. The drive wasn’t too bad but I’m already annoyed with it. A stupid thing to complain about when I’ve got Mayo within driving distance. I spent most of my youth up and down that highway, and it reminds me too much of my childhood. Even college years (it was one of two ways to get to Winona). But, small price to pay. The internist at Mayo called me to say they’d gotten the results of the lymph nodes, which are positive, as they suspected. Nothing shocking here. Those will come into play during surgery. Still no results on the skin…
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The Port
It’s been a rough few days of recovery. The nurse even told me I have a high pain tolerance and yet I was knocked on my ass for two days. I’m surprised they don’t give you pain meds. They tell you to take Tylenol…sorta works. Turns out there were TWO incisions for this port placement – one up by my collarbone, kinda makes hard to turn my neck. The other incision, lower, is a bit bigger. And then I’ve had to wait 48 hours to shower, so I’ve been feeling pretty greasy and gross. Had to maneuver around in the shower to make sure I didn’t get any water into…
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Pain
For some reason, when I think of “pain,” I sing Bowe. But pain sucks a lot more than Bowie. These incisions are ITCHY, and it feels like I’m ripping them open when I move. After a whole weekend of this, it kinda got to me. Any stressor increases my jaw pain (TMJ), and then the headaches start. Usually, I have a mild muscle relaxer on hand for the jaw pain, but I’m out. So then it was call after call to the nurse navigator, GP’s office, oncologist. Even the hospital (someone else directed me there). And even after all that, they didn’t give me actual pain meds, just my muscle…
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Treatment Plan #2
Lots of information today & made one of the many decisions. We made it to Rochester by 9, I was asleep not long after. First appointment was at 8 with the Mayo oncologist, a lovely Irish woman! We joked that I will definitely need to go there after treatment (uh, duh). The oncologist confirmed the TCHP cocktail was a great option. She went over several other different ways to go about this and how they differ. She’s waiting to see what the skin biopsy says, which may make me a good candidate to get chemo with one less drug (a clinical trial). She also went over possible treatments after surgery…
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Tacos, Titties & Therapy
I’m no stranger to depression and anxiety; it’s been a battle the majority of my life. I’ve written about it quite a bit in the past. It’s funny to now be in a position where I am desperate to live rather than the opposite. And even more hilarious is that all those years of fighting have prepared me to battle cancer. You’re taking this really well… Besides “you’re young” and “you have a long life ahead of you,” I get “you’re taking this really well” most often. Yes, I am, I think. A lot of that is because I’ve been pretty good at hiding/suppressing those types of emotions. It’s not…
