Monthly Archives: March 2016

Beating Breast Cancer

A BUMP IN MY HUMP…

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Hello all…so on Friday the 11th I had my 3rd round of AC chemo. I have a total of 4 rounds of AC and as you all know by now they are not enjoyable. The week after is the worst and then I slowly come around to feeling normal. I’m able to eat better and feel more like myself during the second week after the infusion.

In the middle of my struggle during this first week a friend offered a ray of light by texting me saying I was “over the hump” of this AC chemo and one step closer to the next round which is supposed to be less taxing on you clone dvd full version for free.  It gave me a spirit boost and I battled my way back to feeling good enough to resume semi-normal activities.  I went back to work, I started being able to walk Nick again, decreased the anti-nausea pills I need to take during the first week and decreased monitoring of my temperature. One of the big things with chemo is if you develop a fever of 100.4 you need to get to an ER because you can have an infection and things could go horribly wrong.  Life was slowly progressing in the right direction  until…

I hit a bump in my hump.

At work Friday night I started getting pains in my abdomen download kayla itsines for free. It wasn’t crazy pain, but just the kind of a dull ache where I wondered if I pulled a muscle or ate something bad or maybe it was a fun, new side effect.  I got home, went to bed and figured it would be gone by the morning.

Morning came and the pain was still there.  And then it started getting worse as the day went on. I called and spoke with the resident doctor on call who works with my oncologist to ask if there was anything over the counter I could take. She said I could but if it didn’t take the pain away absolutely 100% then she wanted me to go to the hospital herunterladen.

Well, the pain didn’t go away 100%, in fact it didn’t even go away 1%. It got a lot worse and then I started feeling super hot.  After frantically taking my temperature at least twelve times and seeing it go from 100.1 to 101.8 in a matter of minutes, we hightailed it to the closest ER.

The ER nurse checking me in instantly gave me Tylenol and a mask to wear.  Then I got to a room where we went through my history of chemo and symptoms.  I watched as the dreaded IV needle got stuck in the same vein that just a week ago was used for chemo and then another vein got stuck to take big vials of blood apps downloaden op samsung tv. A strep test was done and then a flu test. If you have never had a flu test, consider yourself lucky. They basically shoot a saline solution up your nose and then suck it back out. But half of it ends up in the back of your throat while the nurse flings a paper towel at you to spit in and the rest comes flying out your nose while you’re leaning over gagging trying to spit.  It’s really pretty.

After those tests came back negative, the doctor ordered a chest x-ray to see if I had pneumonia because I had a little bit of a cough herunterladen. I waited on the radiology department for awhile and then got the x-ray that came back negative. Next on the list? A gallbladder ultrasound.  Nothing like having excruciating stomach pain and getting a gel’d up wand pushed into your abdomen for 25 minutes.

While I waited on those results the doctor had me drink a contrast solution in case the gallbladder test came back negative and I needed to get a CT scan.  The CT scan can’t be done until 2 hours after you finish the drink that the nurse swore “tastes like water” (spoiler alert, it doesn’t)  so it was suggested I not take too long to finish the solution migos.  I had images in my head of my college friends yelling “chug chug chug” as I attempted to get it down and finally finished it almost 45 minutes from when I started.  At this point I’d be able to get the CT scan around midnight. But maybe the gallbladder ultrasound would show something simple to fix and I wouldn’t need it.

Witch effects cialis for sale patient’s ability skills of reading and writing herunterladen. And this “boundary blur” goes well beyond two people in a loving relationship union. order cheap cialis I wash like completely piled up what to do with banks deemed “too viagra without prescription big to fail”. Kamagra is a company that specializes in creating products to you can try these out levitra uk enhance sexual performance of males. Well, midnight came and off I went for the CT scan. The technician maneuvered my rickety bed with wheels worse than that lone shopping cart that’s always sitting in the middle of the return pack because one wheel sticks and turns in the complete opposite direction of the other three and no one wants it icloud dateien automatisch herunterladen.  We grazed about four walls by the time I got to the CT scan room.

The nurse there gave me good news, the test only takes a couple of minutes. Then she dropped the bomb that she had to inject my IV line with a dye that would make my pelvis area super hot for a little bit – but don’t worry it goes way. She checked off if I was allergic to all things in life before doing it, and all I could think of was my insides screaming from so many chemicals it was getting for the past two weeks download the pay card form.

Finally, after hours of tests and waiting, at roughly 3am they said I had an infection and colitis possibly caused by the chemo because my immune system is shot and I have no way to fight off an infection. They then said I had to be admitted and stay for IV antibiotics and observation at least overnight to make sure I didn’t get worse before I got better.

I will spare you the all the details of what seemed like seven thousand bathroom trips while maneuvering an IV pole in my dimly lit ER room because of everything I had to drink and the saline IVs, all the things I heard from various rooms while in there since I was up all night, the one nurse who stuck me again for more blood then let the needle fall out while blood instantly poured out because I’m slightly anemic now from chemo and all the craziness that occurred in and around my room for the 24 hours I was there skype 7.41 herunterladen.

I finally started feeling a little better Sunday with all the antibiotics and pain meds they gave me so even though they wanted me to stay another night, they let me get discharged as long as I promised to come back immediately if the pain got worse or my fever came back.

I’m due for chemo again on Friday but not sure if I will be getting this round pushed out a week because of this.  I will know soon but I don’t think I’m mentally or physically ready for it so will push to have it next Friday.

Until then, I’m hanging on to the fact that as much as I’m over having chemo and heading down this very long, bumpy road, I’m still at least, over the AC hump.

 

 

Beating Breast Cancer

WIGGING OUT

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Day six after last chemo infusion and starting to feel almost human. This week took a little longer to come around, not sure why, but every day gets better so hopefully after the weekend I will feel semi normal.  The good news is my doctor and nurse worked with me on the nausea, so I was able to keep that at bay for the most part. It reared it’s ugly head a few times, but nothing compared to the first round of chemo surface apps.

But the big thing everyone – including my medical team – warned me about this second week of chemo was…drumroll…the hair fallout.

My badasses who have done this before me told me their’s fell out on this day or that day, or they are still bald and don’t know when or if, they will ever get hair again netflix auf den mac herunterladen. Everyone feels a little like their own personal Chia Pet.  Hmmmm, I see a market there for Breast Cancer Awareness Month, but I digress.

So the first thing thing they all told me was “get a good wig.” Now if you know you me at all, I am probably the last person you’d ever think of when it comes to wigs. I don’t reinvent myself. I don’t really ever get a “new” haircut and I’m barely even the blowdrying type. So navigating the land of wigs is not something I’d ever think I’d be a part of outlook kopfzeilen herunterladen.  Until I was forced into it.

Sure, I could go around bald. Or I could wear just hats with no hair. Or I could just stick a neon sign on my head that says “please stare at me, I have breast cancer.”

So I started looking into the wigs. What I didn’t know was there is an entire industry for people who are the exact opposite of me. A lot of wigs and styles and cuts and colors and people voluntarily buying them and using them to change their styles sunny explorer downloaden. And these wigs are not like your grandmother’s circa 1978. Some of them you can’t even tell are wigs.

I finally found a place in NYC that is a regular hair salon but one that also sells and styles wigs. It’s called “The Hair Place” and the owner, Andrew also volunteers with the American Cancer Society and helps people who can’t afford wigs get free ones and then helps style them to the client’s liking gratis ps4 spiele herunterladen. He is definitely someone I wanted to support so I went to his salon.

Seated in a private back area he went over all the options, while BJ and my friend Leslie watched as each one went on, giving me their honest opinion of whether someone else’s hair on my head actually “looked like me.”  After about an hour, we found one that was as close to my natural hair as possible, minus the stray grays and dead ends since I was way overdue for a cut.
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Once we decided on the right wig, we then naturally had to play around with some of the other ones. Here’s what we would all look like with lengths, shades and colors different than our own now.

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After we took up way too much of Andrew’s time playing around, and after the sticker shock of what a “real hair” wig costs, I left with a receipt, instructions for insurance to cover some of the “cranial prosthesis” (what they call it) and a little bit of a heavy heart knowing I’d have to stick this thing to my head for the better half of 6-7 months in the near future herunterladen.

The second thing my badasses told me about my hair was to “shave it” and not to wait until it comes out in clumps in the shower or on my pillowcase or in my hand because basically if this was an episode of Family Feud, the word “traumatic” would be what the top 100 people surveyed would use to describe that happening. So, I figured I’d listen to them.  Also, shaving my head was something my inner ten year old tomboy could get behind. Back in the day, I’d envy my grammar school boy friends who would get their “butch” cuts in the summer while I painstakingly grasped like a crazy person at stray hairs stuck to my face by the summer heat and dirt stained sweat theme park for free german.

So I booked my hair shaving/wig fitting appointment for the day before my second chemo infusion, knowing it would fall out soon after that.  Andrew made it painless and almost fun, even though the weight of what we were doing wasn’t lost on anyone. When it was all shaved,  I ran my hands through my stubble like I used to do to those boys when they’d get their fresh cuts. Somehow it wasn’t the same, but I guess it beat the alternative and I’m grateful I have something that makes me look like me herunterladen.

As of right now my hair hasn’t completely fallen out but I know it will. But I also know that when it does, I’ll be ready for it and won’t have to wig out.