Hey everyone! I am so sorry that it's been a while since I have updated this blog...up until recently, there wasn't much to give an update on, at least not medical information. Please understand that this lack of posting is in no way reflective of how appreciative I am to all of your for your prayers and support. I seriously can't thank any of you enough, and I thank God all of the time for blessing me with such a wonderful support system. You are all truly amazing...thank you.
My 4th round of chemo went about as smoothly as the 3rd, although I was able to really enjoy Thanksgiving with my family. Somehow, by the grace of God, I was able to smell and eat and savor Thanksgiving dinner, which was only 2 days after my treatment......go figure?! I was also able to get out in nature and do some hunting, of which it paid off nicely!
This hunting season has been one of my best so far. When I feel decent (which is still over 50% of the time), Dad and I have been able to take off and get in touch with our primitive selves! Okay, okay...so a Browning X-Bolt 25-06 isn't exactly primitive, but it definitely gets the job done! About a week after I got this bad boy (10-point), I killed a nice doe at around 315 yards...even at that distance, she only ran 20 yards, tops, and then fell.
But enough about killing............actually, NO! We still have death to discuss...death of the Cancer!! Mwahaha! (please forgive me if I sound a little crazy...I am slightly medicated at the present moment, but I'll get to that in a minute). Anyways, I had another PET Scan on Friday, December 3, which was the same scan as one I had done before any chemo started. The first scan showed my chest area to be lit up like a Christmas tree--there were infected nodes EVERYWHERE! This scan (drum roll please) showed absolutely NO nodes lit up, thank you very much! :) :) :) While this is excellent news and God should be praised for His mighty work, it doesn't necessarily mean any changes. As of now, I still have to complete all of my treatments (12 total), and my doc is still holding out his decision for radiation. That being said, however, this is great news in that the chemotherapy is working!! Wahoo!!!
Speaking of the chemo working, I'm sure many of you are wondering about my hair situation. Well, I still have it...hair, I mean. Don't get me wrong--it has been falling out for some time now. However, I just had such thick hair to begin with, that it is only just now looking thin. Nothing a cute hat can't cover up! Honestly, though, the shave party may happen soon, if for nothing but sheer frustration at all of this shedding! You know how annoying a single hair can be when it gets in-between your shirt and your skin and tickles you to no end?!? Well, try having a constant tickling force all over you!! It's just hair...it will grow back (and mine will grow back fast!). Plus, if I don't shave my head, then who is going to get to enjoy all of these fabulous wigs???! I promise to keep you posted on the hair situation. For those that like a little more information, I do still have to shave my legs, I still have as much hair on my arms as I ever had, and my eyebrows and eyelashes are still bushy and beautiful! lol (I would be so ecstatic if I somehow managed to keep my eyebrows and eyelashes through this whole ordeal...).
Now then, where was I? Oh yes...Chemo #5. Well, I rolled in to Cancer Care two days ago (Tuesday, December 7) with new tricks up my sleeve. I took nausea meds as soon as I saw the building, and I then proceeded to lather my nose up with a nice coating of Vic's (technically, it was the off-brand). My new tricks worked!!! I was ready to go, with as little of anticipatory-nausea (they have technical terms in the medical field) as to be expected. I went back to the treatment room to get all set up for the day; they have to take lab work to make sure I can have chemo, and they go ahead and access my port then so I only have to get stuck once (yay for that!). The port needle is fairly thick, but I don't need any numbing medicine for one quick poke...or so I thought. One of my favorite nurses was all set up to do my "stick". I took a deep breath, and she poked me, but I could immediately tell that something was wrong, both from the feeling of the port and the look on her face. She had another one of my favorite nurses come over (let's face it, I love all of my nurses!), for some assistance. Needless to say, before it was all over, I had about 6 nurses around me, poking and prodding at my port. They ended up trying to stick me 3 times (I had finally asked for some numbing medicine), only to decide that I had somehow managed to flip my port.
They sent me from the treatment room to see my doctor. Dr. Keller took a look at the port, but he couldn't tell much from outside the skin, so he sent me back to radiology. After I had 2 chest x-rays done, I went back to see the doc, who confirmed that he though I had flipped my port. So, my dad has to play gopher and run the x-rays over to Dr. Meese's office (he is the doctor that did my port surgery), pick up some medicine for me, and get me lunch, of which only one thing sounded remotely appetizing--Mexi Dips & Chips from Taco Bueno.
Sooooo....back I went to the treatment center to get my chemo through an IV. They had to give the meds to me really slowly this way, because some of the meds in my treatment are damaging to the skin if any happened to leak out of the vein. Luckily, this didn't happen...I told you all that I loved all of my nurses! :)
While I was getting treated, my dad was calling and scheduling appointments for me to have my port inspected by Dr. Meese. This appointment, as luck would have it, was scheduled for the very next day, Wednesday, December 8. So, I went home once Chemo #5 was finished, licking my wounds and waiting for the next day.
Mom, Dad, and I arrived at the 3 golden towers in Tulsa (I'm sure they have a technical name, but golden towers is what I'm going with tonight) a little before 10 yesterday morning. We immediately began paperwork for pre-op (????? At this moment, I wasn't aware I was having surgery), and then we went upstairs to the operation waiting room (????? I wanted to talk to Dr. Meese before anyone came near me with any sharp objects!). Dr. Meese did, in fact, come out to see my family and me, and then he took me back to examine my port. He numbed the site, and then used a small needle to poke around and make sure that the port was, indeed, flipped. What did he find? The port was, indeed, flipped.
Back to the waiting room I went, where I waited for a long time (they were trying to find a place to squeeze me in, as this surgery wasn't exactly planned). Needless to say, on December 7, 2010, Dr. Meese split me back open, turned over my port, and stitched it down with a few more stitches than he had the last time (apparently, I had ripped out the two he had originally put in there). After my surgery, they gave me as much pain medicine as they could, but I still had to go back to Cancer Care to get my Neulasta shot. Back on with a generous coating of the off-brand Vic's and a big stick later, and I was back in the car headed back to Stillwater.
I'm sure many of you are wondering how on earth I managed to flip my port over in the first place. The best I can tell, it happened over the Thanksgiving holiday. One evening, I wasn't feeling very well, and so I climbed up to sit on my Dad's lap, as he was comfortably reclining in big and fluffy rocking chair. I was curled up with most of my weight on his upper left leg. When I was ready to get up, I realized that I was going to have to slide right off onto his bad left knee, which had been really hurting him. So, I reached over to the right arm-rest with my left hand, and pushed my weight up so that I could get up without hurting my dad. Needless to say, I doubled over in pain, but I though I had just pulled the muscle. I guess when I lifted most of my weight up with my left arm, the muscle that my port sits on strained just enough to allow that sucker to pop right over.
So, I am back on the couch with Chemo #5 freshly through me, pretty sore and sickly feeling from the Neulasta shot, and mostly immobile and almost 100% reliable on outside help from being sliced open again. I guess the good news is that there are no new scars, as Dr. Meese could just go back through the old one! I am also now on strict orders to not use my left arm so extensively. Dr. Meese said that I shouldn't have been able to flip the port, even if I had tried. I guess it's just one of those fluke things that happens sometimes...either that, or he isn't used to a fairly muscly woman who can lift most of her body weight with one arm...no girly push-ups for me!!!
