Back to work

I'm cleared to go back to work tomorrow! It took several phone calls to get the note in my hands, but I have it and I'm going.
Planning on getting as much work done as possible in these three days before I'm off again.
I got the house cleaned up tonight, there's been Christmas stuff hanging out all week and got the tree up yesterday, so it's time to get everything back in it's place before I have some sort of siezure! :) Even got lights up on the back deck! It will be perfect for the New Years Eve Soiree!

Out! and about...

Got released today! They repeated the ultrasound this morning and found there is still some clotting behind my knee and in my ankle, but there is blood flow in my thigh and calf, just not all connecting to each other. Got a bit of bad news before I left though...more chemo next Friday.
Mom and I went to my house quick and packed my bag to go to my mom's for the weekend. Swelling is down and looking forward to Thanksgiving!

It's been a long week. I'm still scheduled to be released tomorrow. Dr hasn't said much to me the last few mornings during rounds, he seems to be more interested in what's on tv than me! :)
The lack of sleep and constant wake up calls during the night are getting really old and I'm getting a little cranky with the nurses. Last night they woke me up twice to ask me if I had to go potty. Are you kidding me? I said No and they asked me when the last time I went was, I told them around 9 pm before I went to bed. Then when they woke me up the second time I said, I know when I have to go to the bathroom, I don't normally wake up in the middle of the night to go.' But that also doesn't mean that I sleep through the urge and pee the bed either.
I've had a lot of visitors this week. Looking forward to getting out tomorrow. They are going to repeat the ultrasound before I leave to make sure the heparin has been doing its job. If its not, I hope they don't think I'm staying! My brother told me today I'd be sitting here alone on Thanksgiving. My aunt Kathy brought me some Stove Top so I wouldn't have to rush to the store when I got released to get some. I refuse to eat that homemade stuffing- can't do it! Best stuff comes from a box!

Last night Janna and Jolee came to visit me. Janna made me the cutest paintings for my office! It says "A laugh is a smile that bursts!" It's so cute- we were shopping in Michaels on one happening Saturday night and I found a wall hanging that had that phrase on it, I thought it was the cutest thing ever, only to be outdone by these hangings Janna painted!
Marit from work came to see me too. We talked about re-instituting the 5:01 club on Friday nights in bars around town- an old BGH tradition apparently. Yeah, this week's 5:01 club meeting was far from where I wanted it. I'd prefer a bar over a hospital anyday!

So I've moved on to pretending I'm sleeping when I'm not. During the night, I'm woken up about every hour for some reason or another- during the day seems like no one is here at all! I've been dumping my own pee since they are measuring what's going in and what's coming out in some little attachment in the toilet.
OK, since I've been writing this I've had 2 nurses in here checking vitals and asking me questions. Seriously? I haven't seen anyone for hours. My lunch tray sat here for hours...I'm just crabby...
On rounds this morning, my doctor told me I need to be patient because they are really going to take their time on this blood clot to make sure it's dissolved this time. I'm not sure what that means, I hope it doesn't mean, I'll be here longer than a week! Mom and I were watching Hairspray, and I think he was more interested in that! :)
Chris brought the boys up today, they were pretty cute watching the helicopter and eating their M&M's.
Long day...

I'm a little irritable this morning after a long night, and didn't get any sleep after things finally setteled down. I was woken up about every half hour of the 4 hours of sleep I was trying to get. Mom stayed in the recliner in my room, and ended up moving into the family waiting room becuase the chair was so uncomfortable. I was woken up to get vitals and even to take a prilosec pill around 5 am- seriously? Is that necessary? I don't know why I'm even taking them?
I was able to get some work done and "unschedule" some things I had on my calendar. I'm totally stressed about yet another hospital stay, more time off work, holiday coming up- it's all very stressful. I hate being waited on, I'm very independent so this drives me nuts.
After school, Toni came up, followed by Chris and Amy and the boys and, of course Mom. They moved me to another room across the unit that was a much bigger room. The room I was in barely had enough room for my IV pole, which I had to unplug and pull with me to the bathroom- Yes, I was granted bathroom privlidges which is the only reason this is tolerable! The pole was getting caught in the curtains and running over all the cords, it was not cool. So I gave up my seat to the parade on Monday to move into a much larger room- which has a couch and pull out bed for my mom to sleep on. She said it's not bad to sleep on, so that's good.
I've had some very good nurses who have been entertaining me by coming in and just talking. It's very lonely around here.
Counting down the days!

A little bit of history repeating..

So Wednesdasy night I worked a bit late (because I've been feeling good and try to fit in extra time when I can). Came home and Kim and I ordered wings from Townhouse- best wings ever! Just kinda hung out, my foot kept falling asleep so I had elevated it a bit.
That night around 10 I went in to get ready to bed and when I took my socks and pants off, this is what I saw!

It was red, hot and painful to the touch. Crap! I really don't have time for this! I took this picture and sent it to my mom, it took a while for her to write back so I thought maybe I was off the hook. I thought about just going to bed and worrying about it in the morning. But I was supposed to present at a training session in the morning so I didn't really have time to deal with it then either. Mom wrote back and told me to call the On-Call at the cancer center so I did.
The Dr that I had had for my back surgery was on call, I had requested to be treated by Dr Doodlebop instead of that doctor because I just really liked Db. The other doctor apparently is the smartest man in the world, I'm told by just about everyone- but doesn't so much have the bedside manner that I wanted when I was dealing with the big C. So that makes things wierd when he's on call so that's who I have to see. I wonder if he knows I requested the other doctor over him? I hope not! That makes wierdness..
Anyway, when he called me back, I explained that I had a blood clot in this same leg not even 2 months ago and its swollen just like it was then, but it was also now red, hot and painful, which it wasn't before. That's why I never thought my blood clot was anything to worry about before I had been admitted- because when I had my first blood clot in college (2002) it was extremely painful. I was doubled over in pain for days! This one now isn't that bad, but still hurts.
He told me to go to the ER and he would call and have someone ready to do an ultrasound when I got there. I asked if it could wait till tomorrow, and he said it was a bit too concerning to him, to wait overnight. I didn't think it was even possible for me to get another blood clot when I'm on coumadin, but he told me it only provides some protection against forming new clots- WTF? Why even bother then? My blood tests that had been done on Friday-just 5 days ago- were perfect, for the first time since I'd been on coumadin.
I called Mom and she said she was already packing her bag so I told her he wanted me in the ER for an ultrasound. I knew I wasn't coming home....damnit! I jumped in the shower really fast and gave my legs a quick shave since someone was going to be touching them and looking at them. The hairgrowth is quite strange these days, kinda like crop circles. I didn't want to scare anyone.
When we got to the ER- which is the scariest place in the world at 11 pm. I'd never been to an ER ever until this year, now apparently I'm on the frequent patient list since this is now the 3rd time this year! They told me the Doc had actually come in and was going to see me. They put me and mom in a room and he came in shortly after. Then I went for an ultrasound- they pushed my bed down the hall and left me there, said someone would be out shortly to get me. And then out comes my old pal Molly! She lives next to my grandma and we played Barbies everyday till we were like 16 I think. Ok, maybe not that long. At first I thought maybe this was going to be wierd, being nearly naked and all in front of an old friend, but it wasn't at all. We got caught up and she did the ultrasound until the doctor came in, then we shut up. I don't think he wanted to listen to us chat about our families and how creative we were with our Barbies. :)
She told him there was no blood flow past my mid theigh all the way down my leg- nada zip nothing! But there was a little something in my ankle...I couldn't hardly feel her little wand tool at all when she was doing the test.
So, I was admitted back to 7SE, Oncology unit. The only plus about having cancer is that you always get your own room in the hospital! My room over looked the Promenade, where the holiday parade is going to be on Monday night! Best seat in the house since the doctor told me I'd be here for a week getting Heparin. It was 2:30 when they got me admitted and IV's running. I was exhausted, I had already taken my sleepy-time meds before I started getting ready for bed! 6 hours later I wa definitely ready to sleep!

ok So I've caught a little hell for not updating much lately. That's good news, that means I'm feeling better! :) I've been on outings to the bar after work with co-workers and had a great time! It's been a long time since I've had any Party! That was great
Saturday Kim and I cleaned house! Well past due, still didn't get everything done that I wanted done because I spend Sunday on the couch being incredibly lazy with a swollen foot (more on that later).
Saturday night was my pal Becky's Bachellorette party at a mexican resturant in town that I'd never been to. Janna came over and we got ready- it takes me all of 5 minutes to get ready. She brought me over some bronzer that she had that she didn't like once she bought it. I'd been complaining that I'm pasty white and my skin is dry and breaking out. I could use a little TLC on the face. Anyway, as we were getting ready I mentioned to Janna that the worse part of the hairloss is the beaming white scalp that is ever so obvious. So, I mentioned that I should put bronzer on my scalp. After laughing so hard for 20 minutes, we could hardly catch our breath, but I dabbed the bronzer on- I don't think you could tell at all, but we joked that it would sparkle like the sun! Maybe it would draw more attention with the bronzer than without!
The other idea that I had was to spray paint the top of my head, so I would look less like Charlie Brown. I'm pretty much bald on top with like 6 hairs and a gleaming white scalp- So I think a nice layer of brown flat spraypaint would look good! You watch, the next time you see Charlie Browm, you'll think of me....
My leg was pretty swollen up on Sunday so I took the day off from cleaning. I thought I was going to have a heart attack scrubbing anyway, a break was much needed!

good news?

I got to see me Dr Doodlebop for my chemo today. A little good news? Maybe, he told me that my last chemo will be Nov. 20th. What? I said! I thought I had a long way to go yet! I thought I had 6 cycles to go after they changed my drugs, like two cycles ago. He said that I was just having a total of 6 cycles. Seems a bit too good to be true. I had counted that I'd be in treatment till the end of January. I still haven't had a full dose during one treatment since I switched last month. When we were done with the doc, i went back to the waiting room and counted out all the cycles on my calendar, I counted that I'm starting my 5th cycle on the 20th- so I'm not going to make any plans quite yet. Still expecting the phone call where they call and say "oh, sorry, we miscounted. You'll be here for a long, long time yet." So I had my treatment and mom and I went out to Grandma's because my uncle was visiting from Seattle.
I thought that phone call I was expecting had come when I had missed 2 calls from the Cancer Center. When another random cell phone called me, I answered, it was my doc- just telling me to increase some of my pills. Still haven't figured out that this might not be right yet!

I had chemo again on Friday, talk about a damper for Halloween weekend! I'm pretty exhausted and tummy is sensitive. I put out my halloween lights on Friday just in time for Saturday trick-or-treating, which I slept on the couch for. Too tired to hand out candy this year!
I had to see the doctor that I preferred not to on Friday. I had him look at my ear because it's driving me crazy! I can't hear anything out of it and I can hear fluid rolling around in there when I move my head. He said my ear isn't plugged but it doesn't look right so I should go see my family doc who will probably send me to an ENT specialist- or I'll just wait until my cold is gone to see if it goes away.