chemotherapy

Just catching up

I’ve had a rough time finding time to blog lately. I apologize! I have just been so busy being busy. When I’m not busy, I’m exhausted. I feel that I should just do a quick update of this past week. Hopefully I can find time to blog about something more interesting this week too!

Last week I was dealing with severe dizziness and brain zaps. I still am this week, although the brain zaps aren’t as bad. On Friday I went in for vestibular testing, which was four hours of hearing type tests. The worst was when they put hot air into my ear and recorded my eyes reacting to the severe dizziness it caused. Then they did this with cold air, on each ear. It was horrible. On Monday I went to the doctor to get the results. He said that my hearing is find. Everything came back normal. This means the dizziness, headaches, and such are not caused by my ears. The next step is an MRI on Thursday, and following up with a Neurologist. In the mean time, I’m dealing with a UTI, which of course has them concerned since I just had an infusion, and it can cause Kidney’s to fail. I am going in tomorrow to make sure it’s just a run of the mill UTI, like I think it is, vs some dramatic issue they think it could be. I know it’s better to be safe than sorry, I just get tired of going to the doctor!

One thing I’d like to celebrate is that I didn’t get whatever it was Kenna had on Tuesday of last week. She was so sick. I was terrified I’d get it on Friday or Saturday and I had made commitments I couldn’t back out on. Luckily, I still haven’t gotten sick! Yep, knocking on wood.

Friday after my appointment, Kenna went to the fair with a friend. Travis and I took the time to drive around Forest Grove and look at the house we put an offer in on.

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Travis, Kenna, & I at the wedding.

Saturday we went to a wedding. It was a beautiful, fun, country wedding. I took the photos for them. It was so much fun! It was hot, but honestly, I was distracted with taking all the pictures, that the head didn’t bug me a bit. I took pictures from noonish until 9pm. I was hurting, but it was totally worth it. I really enjoy taking pictures. I had a few moments that were rough, but mostly because my camera decided to stop focusing, so I had to auto focus each picture! I did fairly well, and took 988 photos! What a fun time!!!!

Sunday we decided to go to the beach and meet our dear friends who were there for a dance competition. It was kind of cold so we didn’t stay long. It was fun though. We ate at Mo’s in Cannon Beach, then sat on the beach for about an hour. We stopped for ice cream on the way home. It was fun and low-key.

Today everything has caught up to me. However, I didn’t have a moment to rest. Well, I did sleep in a bit, but I got ready and Kenna and I ran errands. This blog is super boring I know. I promise it’ll get better. I just needed to get this all out and decompress from my busy week.

Oh, and before I forget, let me update you on my cousin. She is doing much better. She’s had 7 surgery’s this past week. They finally were able to pack and suture her leg. I stopped in and saw her yesterday while I was there to get my hearing test results. I loved getting to see her looking so much better! I’d stopped in on Friday before my testing, and she was in surgery. Thank you all for your continued prayers. Please if you can, go to her gofundme.com site: http://www.gofundme.com/8z6ena2x6e and donate.

Chemo Infusion Day

Today is chemo day. Such fun, okay maybe not. The nurses are great. Although I don’t understand why a nurse that starts IVs all day long, everyday would have to poke me three times? In fact, both nurses have poked everyone multiple times today. Luckily, they are super cool, so it’s no biggy. I just can’t put my head around it! 

It was a busy Fourth of July weekend. We drove to Seaside, Oregon on Friday and Saturday to play on the beach. We had Travis’ son here for the weekend, so we made sure to stay busy. The kids had a blast skim boarding and boogie boarding with Travis. I got so sunburned on my shoulders, knees, and shins! We bought a half tent like enclosure at Costco Friday night, so I hung out in it most of Saturday. The beach was packed with people. It was around 100 degrees in the city, so everyone flocked to the coast. Apparently, so many flocked there that the substation caught on fire and knocked power out from Cannon Beach clear up to Astoria. We weren’t aware of it until we went into town to eat. Every place was closed down or selling what was on hand for cash. It was a madhouse. A quick Shoutout to the Seaside Police Dept for doing all they could to make things pleasant.  We decided to drive back home, go to dinner, and then watch the fireworks in North Plains.  It was perfect. Not to busy, and very community oriented. Plus, we were just minutes from home after the show! On Sunday we took Jakob over the mountain to meet up with his mom.  I hope we get to see him again soon. It’d been since Christmas break since we’ve seen him. I’m hoping that changes, as Travis misses him so very much. We love having him here. 

I like to write my blog Mondays through Fridays, but after such a busy weekend, I was spent. I rested most all of Monday. Then on Tuesday I had a million things to catch up on, yes, a million! Adding in the stress factor of having chemo today made last night extremely tense. I don’t know why I stress out so much? OHSU is a great place. Their doctors and nurses rock.  The chemo I’m on can cause a reaction, and of course, I’m one who gets the reaction every time. It starts with pain in my lower back, and then my throat feels funny. I posted my tracheal pics on twitter and Facebook last night, so any if you that saw that know how small my airway is to begin with. Having a reaction sucks. The only thing to do us give me solumedrol (benedryl via IV) and slow the drip down. This infusion will take me anywhere from 6-8 hours. Again, this sucks. However, to quote my doctors “The benefits outweigh the reaction.”

The infusion room is pretty quiet, aside from the sounds of the IVs pumping. There are a total of six infusion chairs in here. So far, no one I s a talker, which is good. However, the wifi isn’t working, and it’s getting boring rather quickly. I may need to start a :::gulp::: conversation. It it bums me out mostly because I was looking forward to catching up on my shows via Hulu and Netflix. I guess that was not meant to be? 

Last night I laid in bed going over the list in my head of what to bring today. I always feel like I’m moving in when I have an infusion.  I brought water, snacks (they only have crackers and applesauce, so I brought better food: blueberries, blackberries, a banana, a plum, grapes, and some grilled chicken left over from last night). It totally cracks me up that I’ve been watching everything I eat, trying to eat clean as possible, but here I am pumping my body full of poisonous chemo! Oh well, “The benefits outweigh the side effects.” Haha

I don’t know that this blog post will resonate with anyone else, but it’s nice to get all this off my chest.  Blogging…the new therapy. I also like bringing awareness to Wegener’s, since it’s such a rare disease. I’m going to post my tracheal pic at the end, because I just know how you all want to see it. Gross! I just think it pits things in perspective for those who don’t understand that this is a very real, very terrible illness.