WEEK 18: Chemo #3 & Moving Kids Part I

May 23rd was the date we had set months ago for a week-long trip to New York City! Well, a cancer diagnosis certainly shot that trip down the tubes. Instead, on May 27th I was back to Rexburg for Chemo #3. Same 'ol routine.

I visited with the doctor first, and Dr. Dickson advised me to be proactive, and take the nausea pills or Ibuprofin at the first hint of nausea or pain, rather than wait until they had fully kicked in. I plan to take that advice. Then off to the "Fun Room" where the nurses (Dr. Dickson has a great group of nurses) insert the needle into my port to first draw some blood through it. Then they go into the lab and test the blood before they start the Chemo. If there were to be any blood count issues, they may choose to not give the Chemo. If blood counts look good, then they inject me with steroids ( I guess that helps the chemo work better), then they give an anti-nausea injection, and finally, they hang the first Chemo bag and let it drip.

Three different Chemo drugs are given (Herceptin, Taxotere, & Carboplatin) and each of those take about an hour. When all of that is done, and the needle is removed from the port, I get one last injection in the arm, Neulasta (I decided I didn't like in the belly, even though it probably stings more in the arm), which gets the bone marrow producing white blood cells. The whole process usually takes 4 to 5 hours.

This trip, I sat next to a pretty cool lady named Kathy who I met last Chemo. She was on round #5, so she was nearly at the end! She previously taught me some fun ways to tie scarves. She is a Physical Therapist, and she showed me some exercises to do to try to get back the range of motion in my right arm.

I'm still having issues with a nerve that was cut during surgery that sends pain down my whole arm & into the hand. It has limited my motion. Kathy thinks I should probably go to a Physical Therapist a few times, because it really helped her. I'll try the exercises first.

As we were getting ready to leave, Jamie's cute sister, Kelsey, paid a visit, and brought cookies! It was so fun to see her. Thanks Kelsey! We ate every one of the cookies in the car. Had to get them all in before the Chemo ruined my taste buds again!

Instead of going home, we were off the Utah to help Collin and Tiffany move into their new home they bought in West Jordan. Since we were going to be in Utah, I made another doctor's appointment with hopes of getting the stitches taken out this time. So finally, after 25 days of pokey fishing line tails sticking out of my chest, I finally got the stitches removed! My incision has finally healed - I have cleared the first hurdle! Hallelujah!

Since it usually takes a day or two for Chemo effects to kick in, I decided to really get busy and do as much as I could to help Tiffany get the house ready to move everything into before I started feeling yucky. Unfortunately the previous owners didn't do much cleaning when they moved out - I guess since it all happened pretty fast - so the house needed lots of cleaning.

There was mucky brown goo left behind where the fridge was, nail holes in all the walls someone did a lousy job of over-piling spackling into, etc. I worked on scrubbing floors, wiping down walls, re-spackling nail holes, touching up paint and such.

We were there for several days between cleaning, loading & moving in all of their stuff. I kept expecting the Chemo effects to kick in. I took my pills if I thought I felt anything signs of nausea, like Dr. Dickson advised. Weird thing - the big effects never happened. I don't know if it's from being more proactive, or if I just need to scrub floors & walls, and expose myself to paint fumes right after chemo, but it was definitely a pleasant surprise to be able to keep going, and not feel nausea or pain. (Okay, I was totally pooped, but that's to be expected.)

Feeling pretty good continued on for me, cause the next week I was able to go to Rexburg for my cute little niece, Sarah's wedding, where I stayed for a few days hanging with my family. My parents were there, and of my 6 siblings, everyone was there except Barb, who wasn't feeling well. It was a lot of fun to hang with my family.

So - wow - chemo #3 ended up being a pleasant surprise!

WEEK 17 : Stitches Still Not Gone!

After the fun week of having Tasha and Collin's families home to visit, I rode with Collin and Tiffany back to Utah for another doctor's visit. It was officially two weeks since my Plastic Surgeon, Dr. Agarwal, had stitched up the hole in my incision. As previously mentioned, I did get "lucky," and it healed without any infection or further complications.

So on May 17th I went in for the 2 week check-up, and hoped to get my stitches out. I was scheduled to fly out of Salt Lake later that afternoon to Bozeman, where Rich was working. Considering it is about an hour drive from Provo to Salt Lake, I was trying to figure out various scenarios of how to get far enough north to ride the TRAX to the Huntsman Hospital, then maybe catch the bus to the airport from there. But my sweet daughter-in-law, Tiffany, was very insistent that she drive me. For her that meant getting the baby out of bed in the morning, and driving me to Salt Lake for the appointment, waiting for me, then killing time with a baby in tow until she could drop me off at the airport, then, of course, the hour drive back.
So Tiffany ended up taking me to my early appointment, which I appreciated so much! We made it to my appointment on time, but unfortunately, Dr. Agarwal didn't want the stiches to come out yet. I was rather disappointed about that. But they did go ahead and put some saline back into my expander, because they took some out when they stitched me up. By now, most women would have been "expanded" several times; I, on the other hand, was just getting back to where I started the day of the Mastectomy and insertion of the expander with a little saline in it. How's that for progress?

Then Tiff and I spent a little bit of time walking around The Gateway, a really neat shopping area in downtown Salt Lake City. Landon is such a good baby - he rode around in the stroller without a complaint, and napped when we were in the car. We ate at a really nice Italian restaurant, then headed off to the airport where Tiff dropped me off right at the door. Thanks a ton, Tiffany!

My journey home was rather interesting. It would have cost over $1,000 for a direct flight from SLC to Bozeman, while it only cost around $400 to fly to Denver, sit in the airport for a few hours, then fly from Denver to Bozeman. Crazy! So, of course, that's what I did.

When I got on the plane there was an African-American flight attendant with what sounded like a West African accent. I was wearing one of my scarves that I wrap a certain way that another Chemo patient named Kathy showed me. When the flight attendant saw me she exclaimed, "Oh, I love your scarf! It reminds me of home!" I got a kick out of that. Actually, I wish I had one of those colorful scarves, and could tie it like I have seen women from Ghana wear. They are so amazing. Then maybe wearing scarves would be more fun (I'm kind of sick of them already).

I finally made it to Bozeman, where Rich picked me up at the airport. We went back to the LaQuinta Inn there, where he is doing the electrical work. I wandered around the motel for a while, checking out the progress, while Rich and Ryan finished up. Then back home to Dillon. A crazy few days! Not getting the stitches out made the whirlwind trip seem a bit of a waste, but having a fun day with Tiffany and Landon definitely made it worthwhile.