-
Just another Saturday
Last night was the first night I had a tough time sleeping. The stress of everything has triggered my TMJ (grinding and clenching). Cancer hasn’t worked its way into my dreams yet, so that’s the plus. My parents came up for the afternoon. The kids were damn excited, as usual. We spent a lot of the day outside – it was unbelievably nice with the cool breeze. Great night for a bonfire with all the wood my dad dropped off. ? It’s nice to be distracted by normal things. Well, and spend the day outside with few bugs and a cool breeze. There’s a lot to think about, a lot…
-
Help a Girl Out!
Well, hello everyone! Laura has made me, Lindsay, an admin on her blog site as well, so sometimes you’ll also be getting to hear from me too – this is a dangerous proposition, but if y’all get tired of me, I’m sure she’ll take that power away. Some of you may not know me, and for those that don’t, I’m the New Jersey bestie, Auntie Lindsay to the kids, and also known as Laura’s “twinsie” to many of our legal marketing colleagues. Laura will be keeping you all up to date on the medical side and how she’s feeling, and I’m helping with managing her care and what the family…
-
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…
-
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…
-
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…
-
The Waiting Game
I know Laura will write her own post about this, but since most of you will be in the same boat that I am – being on the waiting side – I thought I’d share my own experience from today. We’re here in Rochester at Mayo, which as Laura has said before is like its own city within the city. It’s pretty cool, but also overwhelming. It does help to have another person with you to navigate, especially if you’re anxious about what you’re doing here (which, if you’re here, you likely are). We arrived last night to be ready for all of today’s appointments. First up, the breast ultrasound.…
-
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…
-
Port of Entry
The &TLDR version is that the port is in, and Laura is recovering well! For those of you who enjoy reading the story version, we were up before six am (after being up way too late laughing at Zillow Goes Wild postings) to head over to Mercy Hospital for Laura’s port surgery. She learned on Wednesday that she wouldn’t be going under for surgery, just getting a local anesthesia, or conscious sedation. If you want to know all of the medical details, head over to the American Cancer Society, and check out the section on implanted ports. We left for the hospital at about 6:15, arriving before our scheduled 6:45…
-
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…
-
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…
