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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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Surgery!
TLDR; probably January 28th. Woke up at 7 am and figured I might as well get ready for the 9:30 appointment, which was a really good idea considering I got lost somehow and made it right at 9:30 to the check-in desk. And then there’s waiting. Because this is a study, a nurse coordinator picks you up and ushers you into a room with four different ultrasound machines. It took them a bit to find whatever they were looking for – I know they were looking at the clip placed during the breast biopsy because you could see it on screen. Compared to the last time they did this (pre-treatment),…
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Chemo Infusion #4
Today was fun! I made another chemo buddy. 🙂 This is why I don’t mind the infusion part – it gives me time to get to know folks. This infusion was about an hour shorter than normal. One of the drugs they gave me in half-time, maybe two of them. But first, I got there at 8:30 for a blood draw. I was meeting with the oncologist nurse at 9, so the bloodwork got done early (sometimes you have to wait for it to come in). I’ll give you the “bad” news first: my platelets are low, and there’s nothing really we can do for that other than give it…
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Post-Chemo #4 – Day 2
TLDR; I’m doing pretty well today! But first, a… Mom Update The current place where she’s at is pretty crappy, it sounds like. It can take 20 minutes to an hour for a nurse to show up in her room after she’s pressed the call button. The nurses aren’t following care directions either, so sounds like Mom is pretty frustrated. She’s supposed to be moving to a different facility for Medicare reasons, but she also has another lung infection. The “care coordinator” doesn’t know what’s causing it, so she can’t really go anywhere until they solve that. The halo is staying on for at least 12 weeks, as the trach…
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Rehab
My palliative care doc (yes, I have one!) referred me to a local rehab center, Courage Kenney (it’s a well-known name around here). I hadn’t thought about rehab of any kind, to be honest. Didn’t know I would need it! But, taking that much tissue from my chest results in a tightening of the skin that can impact arm function. And this is beyond the lymphedema that you can get from the removal of lymph nodes. I learned a lot of great things during the appointment and actually feel better prepared for surgery AND radiation. The rehab doc said that I had been originally referred to rehab because I still…
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Pre-Surgery Day 1
Lindsay arrived Saturday night. The girls were SO excited. We grabbed some dinner that night on the way home from the airport. We woke up late Sunday morning. I spent time packing everything for surgery while the kids drew photos for Auntie Lindsay, and we watched a movie together before heading down to Rochester. I ended up getting lost several times so we took a detour to where an old murder happened! (Linds and I are true crime junkies.) We ordered in delicious Italian food upon arriving to the hotel and ate way too much. We were up kinda early for the study ultrasounds. They have four ultrasound machines they…
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Surgery
Linds and I were up early for. 7:30 check-in time. I was probably the most nervous this morning. Things were getting real. We arrived at an admissions desk and checked in. Mayo has a slick intake system – they sent us up to the fifth floor and I already had a room assigned. We arrived in the room, which split with another patient, but we didn’t see them (they had it timed where our surgeries were opposite). The nurse asked about medications and all that good stuff. At this point, things are a little blurry. They put me in a purple gown (my favorite color!) and I got my IV…
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Post-Surgery Update
I think I’m recovering pretty nicely. The worst part about surgery is the damn ITCHING. Itching around the drain area. Itching from the corset/binder I have to wear. Itching from the dry skin you get during Minnesota winters made worse from chemo. Taking oxycodone probably doesn’t help but I’m taking it less often than I thought. The lidocaine injections they gave me in my chest have helped dull the pain significantly. The weird part is now those lidocaine injections are becoming less numb and more tingly and that makes for more itching, of course. Still, not a ton of pain. Mostly discomfort from being bound and limited arm range of…
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Surgery Post-Op & Radiation
Mayo Appointments Linds and I traveled to Rochester on Thursday night for three Friday appointments. We took the long way down, headed east towards and into Wisconsin. Stopped in Red Wing for the cool pottery and antique shop. For those who aren’t familiar with Minnesota, this is where the Mississippi carved our river valley (the closest thing we have to mountains). It’s a really pretty drive. Then we stopped at a local restaurant in Rochester to grab dinner. I knocked off a couple of bucket-list/post-chemo list items: eating steak tartare and oysters. First appointment of the day was survivor’s clinic. Normally in these appointments you determine the next steps in…
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Elasticity
Poor Me I know it’s terrible of me to make this joke, but I keep telling people that cancer is the best thing I have going for me right now. Out of all the things to go well, I’m glad it’s that. But the rest of the world either doesn’t know or doesn’t care that I’m still going through cancer; it still manages to slap me across the face. Not that I enjoy vague-writing, but it’s important to me that I’m honest about what I’m going through. And life doesn’t stop with a cancer diagnosis. I’ll admit to breaking down a few times this month. I can feel my nerves…
