I haven't updated in a while, but I don't feel like much is going on. I guess that's good. With the craziness of January it was nice this weekend not to do much of anything.
Friday night was like most normal nights. The normal routine and we watched a little tube. Saturday morning Eric went to a pre-employment screening at a local company. He's considering a weekend job and this place pays really well and could possibly give him some management options if he decided to work there full time. The second job would be to help us pay on some debt. We have one credit card with a significant balance and the change in credit card legislation has really jacked our payment. That combined with our plans to go to a one income family when I start medical school in 3 short years, makes it seem like a reasonable idea to find some extra cash and try to get as much out of debt as possible. Anyway, Eric went there Saturday morning and Grace and I just hung out at home. After lunch I took Grace to the mall to get her 1 year pictures taken (just 6 weeks late) and then we stopped by Best Buy and I got some ink for my printer and a new pair of headphones with a Gift Certificate my brother gave me for Christmas. It was such a beautiful day that I didn't want to stay cooped up inside all evening too, so Eric and I decided to go to Applebee's for dinner. We got there early (about 5:45 p.m.), but still had a 30 minute wait. We had a decent dinner and then picked up some movies on the way home. We put Grace to bed and then watched Wedding Crashers and The Transporter 2. Wedding Crashers wasn't as good as I expected and the 1st Transporter was way better than the sequal.
Sunday we went to church and took Grace back for the first time since her surgery. She did fine in the nursery despite her "sleeves" and everyone seemed glad to see her. Sunday afternoon we napped and just hung out. I spent my free time this weekend working up a plan/timeline for diet and exercise and printed off a bunch of worksheets to make a new BFL journal. That's the only diet that ever really worked for me, so I'm planning on doing it again starting towards the end of this month.
I've been noticing some side effects from the Taxotere the last couple of days too. All last week, I noticed my stomach was a little upset. Not nausea, the other way. I wondered if I had a bug, but then it occurred to me, that I had chemo last week, so maybe it's related. I have also noticed I've been a bit more achy and have had a headache the last few days. The headache isn't like my migraines though, it's more like my head hurts to touch. Weird. Today at work I noticed that my hands were a little numb and tingly. All of those things are side effects they warned me about, so I'm not too concerned. I just keep thinking, one more dose!
I had my Herceptin today and didn't get a recliner. I hate it when they are busy. Luckily my treatment was short, so I didn't mind much. Tomorrow I'm going to go see a new Primary Care doctor. It's just an appointment to meet her and see if I want to make her my PCP, so hopefully we like her. We don't have a good relationship with our current PCP and it keeps us from going to the doctor sometimes, so we need someone new. I hope I like her.
Ok, I'm going to go study a little CPCU and then head to bed. I'm going to attempt to get up early tomorrow to run on the treadmill. Wish me luck!
Monday, January 30, 2006
Wednesday, January 25, 2006
School News
Since I have the "all clear" from the surgeon for Grace to go back to daycare, I thought I'd give her a trial run this afternoon. I dropped her off and then drove downtown to the Community College to make sure I was on track to start classes in March.
My first stop was the Admissions office. I met with an advisor and we had a nice chat. It seems that I am on track. They don't have my transcripts yet, but I have been accepted. She said I will need to meet with an advisor in person to get permission to register for classes until my transcripts have been processed. I also asked when payment will need to be made, since I want to pay with my tax check.
Next I went to the advising center to meet with an Arts and Sciences advisor. I wasn't especially impressed with him. I told him that I wanted to take the Chem 171 class. He looked at my "unofficial" transcript and said I didn't have the calculus class needed as a pre-requisite and no chemistry, so I'd have to start with Chem 100. I told him that I took AP Calculus in high school and received college credit. However, my transcript didn't show the calculus and I only took Finate Math in college, so it didn't show up. The last time I took Chemistry was in High School, but that was over 5 years ago. He said if I can get the AP board to send my transcript, it should cover the calculus. He agreed to send an e-mail to the Chemistry department head to see if they'd let me in anyway. I don't want to have to take another class that won't even count. I asked if maybe I should start with Biology, just in case we don't get this worked out in time. However, he said I'd have the same pre-req issues with that class. However, if I get into the chem class, I'd also be qualified for the upper level biology.
I was slightly annoyed. I know I don't have all my transcripts processed yet, but I have a Bachelor's degree with a 4.0 GPA. I think I could handle an upper level chemistry or biology class. I left and went home. Luckily, later I checked my e-mail and I received an e-mail saying the chair approved me for the Chemistry class. Yeah! One down. Registration begins on Monday and at some time I have to go back and get the advisors signature and actually register for the class. I'm hoping to take classes on Tuesday and Thursday evenings.
Well, enough for tonight. I'm going to go back to work tomorrow. Wish me luck!
My first stop was the Admissions office. I met with an advisor and we had a nice chat. It seems that I am on track. They don't have my transcripts yet, but I have been accepted. She said I will need to meet with an advisor in person to get permission to register for classes until my transcripts have been processed. I also asked when payment will need to be made, since I want to pay with my tax check.
Next I went to the advising center to meet with an Arts and Sciences advisor. I wasn't especially impressed with him. I told him that I wanted to take the Chem 171 class. He looked at my "unofficial" transcript and said I didn't have the calculus class needed as a pre-requisite and no chemistry, so I'd have to start with Chem 100. I told him that I took AP Calculus in high school and received college credit. However, my transcript didn't show the calculus and I only took Finate Math in college, so it didn't show up. The last time I took Chemistry was in High School, but that was over 5 years ago. He said if I can get the AP board to send my transcript, it should cover the calculus. He agreed to send an e-mail to the Chemistry department head to see if they'd let me in anyway. I don't want to have to take another class that won't even count. I asked if maybe I should start with Biology, just in case we don't get this worked out in time. However, he said I'd have the same pre-req issues with that class. However, if I get into the chem class, I'd also be qualified for the upper level biology.
I was slightly annoyed. I know I don't have all my transcripts processed yet, but I have a Bachelor's degree with a 4.0 GPA. I think I could handle an upper level chemistry or biology class. I left and went home. Luckily, later I checked my e-mail and I received an e-mail saying the chair approved me for the Chemistry class. Yeah! One down. Registration begins on Monday and at some time I have to go back and get the advisors signature and actually register for the class. I'm hoping to take classes on Tuesday and Thursday evenings.
Well, enough for tonight. I'm going to go back to work tomorrow. Wish me luck!
Tuesday, January 24, 2006
Busy, Busy - Weekend and Doctors
So, I've had a pretty busy week. I'll try to break it down for you.
Thursday - Including Doctor Appt.
Wednesday (my chemo day) Grace was running a fever on and off all day. At 4:30 p.m. it was back up to 102 degrees so I called the Dr. H (Grace's pediatrician) to see if they wanted to move up her Monday appointment to Thursday. They did and we had a 9ish appointment. Of course, no fever present, but she still sounded a little congested and we thought the Augmentem should have been knocking out the strep, so they did a repeat chest x-ray and blood work. They also called Children's to get her paperwork on the her bloodwork from her discharge. Late afternoon we got a call saying the chest x-ray showed the pneumonia was gone. Blood results on Friday.
Friday
Pretty lazy day. Grace seemed much better. I called the doctors office at the end of the day and they told me her blood work was normal and they thought she was on the right antibiotic based on the hospital sensitivity tests. They still wanted to see her again on Monday though.
Saturday
The morning started out awesome, because Mom took the baby monitor Friday night and let Eric and I sleep in Saturday morning. We got up around 9 a.m. Then we were starting to get a little stir crazy, so when Samara called and offered us a trip to the mall, we thought it sounded like fun. I had some Christmas gifts to return although I didn't have much luck. Mostly we just walked around. I think Grace enjoyed a change in scenery and I'm sure my Mom did too. I was very good and only bought the cutest pair of shoes for Grace at Children's Place. I did use a coupon though and they were just $13. Late afternoon we headed home so Grace could nap. Then Eric and I had a date! I love when Grandma's are around to babysit! We went to Champps for dinner and used are Christmas Gift Certificate from Will and Samara. Then we went to the movies and saw Memoirs of a Geisha. Eric let me pick it and it was totally my kind of movie. He said he liked it too, so we were pretty happy. I think I'll try to make it one of my books to read this year for fun. I'm sure the book would be even better. They usually are.
Sunday
Eric and I went to church while Mom stayed home with Grace. I was really tired though, so after we got home and had lunch, I took a nice long nap. That was about it for the day.
Monday - More Doctors
Monday was very busy. Mom was flying home, so I took her to Bob Evans for breakfast before heading to the airport. It was yummy and I got to use another Gift Certificate! Grace and I dropped her off around 9 a.m. for her flight and then we came home and I let Grace take a 45 minute nap while I showered and dressed. Next we had a 10:50 a.m. appointment with Dr. H to check on Grace. No fever since Wednesday and her cough is much better, so she seems to be over her sickness. Barring any other complications we shouldn't have to see her again until our 15 month appointment. Good thing, we've already seen her 3 times in January. After that we went back home, I fed Grace her lunch and put her down for her afternoon nap. She slept from about 12:30 to 2 and then got up just in time for Sherri from church to pick her up. She went to her house to play while I went back for cycle 5 1/2 of chemo and Herceptin. I actually had a really nice appointment though. Dr. Y wasn't scheduled to see me, but he stopped by and was chatty and we talked a bit more about my med school plans. I think I'll be able to use him for a reference if needed. Once I was back in my chair I had a really nice chat with a black woman named Veronica. She told me about how all her hair fell out in one day and she praised God that it only took her 15 minutes to get all of her braids out instead of the normal 4 to 6 hours. We talked alot about attitudes towards cancer and how we both feel blessed for the things we do have even when it's hard. She's on the same treatment as me, but this was her 3rd cycle. I'm a few ahead of her. I also got to talk to a man named Gary that is in there most weeks. His diagnosis isn't so good. He'll be on chemo for the rest of his life. I told him I hope he has lots more treatments to go! He has a great attitude too. He's usually the first patient to arrive on his days and the last to leave, plus he takes home a bag that he has to wear for a week to continue getting chemo at home. Then he gets a week off and starts all over. See, it could be worse. I got home at about 5:45 p.m. and relaxed the rest of the evening. Fatigue.
Tuesday - More Doctors
Grace was awesome this morning. She woke up around 7:30 a.m. but was just chatting in her crib and I was tired, so I decided I'd wait until she started fussing to actually get up. She'd talk for a while and fall back to sleep, so I stayed in bed until 9:30 a.m.! It was awesome. I decided to get up and I went in her room to check on her and she was asleep, so I headed downstairs to eat some breakfast and wait on her to wake back up. Finally at 10 she got her breakfast too! Once we were both up I did some housework and took a shower. I had lots of energy today. I gave Grace her lunch around noon and then we hit the road for her post-op appointment at the Craniofacial Clinic. Her appointment was at 1:30 p.m., so I was concerned about her missing her afternoon nap, but they got us right in and out. The good news is that her tubes look great. The ENT wants to check her again in 6 months, but that's it. The bad news is that there's a small hole in her palate. I'm not sure how it got there. We haven't been making her wear the sleeves all the time, but I haven't seen her putting too much in her mouth. The doctor didn't seem accusatory about it. He didn't say she would need another surgery. He said for now, they won't do anything. As it continues to heal and scar tissue develops, it could close up on its own. If not, I'm not sure what the timeframe is to get it reapaired. They want to see her again in 4 to 6 weeks to see how it's coming. I pray that she gets a little scar tissue and this closes on it's own. I don't want to see my baby go through another surgery.
So that's about it. I'm going to upload some more hospital pics in Flickr for your pleasure. I've also decided I'm getting a little tired of doctors. In January I have been in some type of medical office 10 of the 24 days. Enough is enough!
Thursday - Including Doctor Appt.
Wednesday (my chemo day) Grace was running a fever on and off all day. At 4:30 p.m. it was back up to 102 degrees so I called the Dr. H (Grace's pediatrician) to see if they wanted to move up her Monday appointment to Thursday. They did and we had a 9ish appointment. Of course, no fever present, but she still sounded a little congested and we thought the Augmentem should have been knocking out the strep, so they did a repeat chest x-ray and blood work. They also called Children's to get her paperwork on the her bloodwork from her discharge. Late afternoon we got a call saying the chest x-ray showed the pneumonia was gone. Blood results on Friday.
Friday
Pretty lazy day. Grace seemed much better. I called the doctors office at the end of the day and they told me her blood work was normal and they thought she was on the right antibiotic based on the hospital sensitivity tests. They still wanted to see her again on Monday though.
Saturday
The morning started out awesome, because Mom took the baby monitor Friday night and let Eric and I sleep in Saturday morning. We got up around 9 a.m. Then we were starting to get a little stir crazy, so when Samara called and offered us a trip to the mall, we thought it sounded like fun. I had some Christmas gifts to return although I didn't have much luck. Mostly we just walked around. I think Grace enjoyed a change in scenery and I'm sure my Mom did too. I was very good and only bought the cutest pair of shoes for Grace at Children's Place. I did use a coupon though and they were just $13. Late afternoon we headed home so Grace could nap. Then Eric and I had a date! I love when Grandma's are around to babysit! We went to Champps for dinner and used are Christmas Gift Certificate from Will and Samara. Then we went to the movies and saw Memoirs of a Geisha. Eric let me pick it and it was totally my kind of movie. He said he liked it too, so we were pretty happy. I think I'll try to make it one of my books to read this year for fun. I'm sure the book would be even better. They usually are.
Sunday
Eric and I went to church while Mom stayed home with Grace. I was really tired though, so after we got home and had lunch, I took a nice long nap. That was about it for the day.
Monday - More Doctors
Monday was very busy. Mom was flying home, so I took her to Bob Evans for breakfast before heading to the airport. It was yummy and I got to use another Gift Certificate! Grace and I dropped her off around 9 a.m. for her flight and then we came home and I let Grace take a 45 minute nap while I showered and dressed. Next we had a 10:50 a.m. appointment with Dr. H to check on Grace. No fever since Wednesday and her cough is much better, so she seems to be over her sickness. Barring any other complications we shouldn't have to see her again until our 15 month appointment. Good thing, we've already seen her 3 times in January. After that we went back home, I fed Grace her lunch and put her down for her afternoon nap. She slept from about 12:30 to 2 and then got up just in time for Sherri from church to pick her up. She went to her house to play while I went back for cycle 5 1/2 of chemo and Herceptin. I actually had a really nice appointment though. Dr. Y wasn't scheduled to see me, but he stopped by and was chatty and we talked a bit more about my med school plans. I think I'll be able to use him for a reference if needed. Once I was back in my chair I had a really nice chat with a black woman named Veronica. She told me about how all her hair fell out in one day and she praised God that it only took her 15 minutes to get all of her braids out instead of the normal 4 to 6 hours. We talked alot about attitudes towards cancer and how we both feel blessed for the things we do have even when it's hard. She's on the same treatment as me, but this was her 3rd cycle. I'm a few ahead of her. I also got to talk to a man named Gary that is in there most weeks. His diagnosis isn't so good. He'll be on chemo for the rest of his life. I told him I hope he has lots more treatments to go! He has a great attitude too. He's usually the first patient to arrive on his days and the last to leave, plus he takes home a bag that he has to wear for a week to continue getting chemo at home. Then he gets a week off and starts all over. See, it could be worse. I got home at about 5:45 p.m. and relaxed the rest of the evening. Fatigue.
Tuesday - More Doctors
Grace was awesome this morning. She woke up around 7:30 a.m. but was just chatting in her crib and I was tired, so I decided I'd wait until she started fussing to actually get up. She'd talk for a while and fall back to sleep, so I stayed in bed until 9:30 a.m.! It was awesome. I decided to get up and I went in her room to check on her and she was asleep, so I headed downstairs to eat some breakfast and wait on her to wake back up. Finally at 10 she got her breakfast too! Once we were both up I did some housework and took a shower. I had lots of energy today. I gave Grace her lunch around noon and then we hit the road for her post-op appointment at the Craniofacial Clinic. Her appointment was at 1:30 p.m., so I was concerned about her missing her afternoon nap, but they got us right in and out. The good news is that her tubes look great. The ENT wants to check her again in 6 months, but that's it. The bad news is that there's a small hole in her palate. I'm not sure how it got there. We haven't been making her wear the sleeves all the time, but I haven't seen her putting too much in her mouth. The doctor didn't seem accusatory about it. He didn't say she would need another surgery. He said for now, they won't do anything. As it continues to heal and scar tissue develops, it could close up on its own. If not, I'm not sure what the timeframe is to get it reapaired. They want to see her again in 4 to 6 weeks to see how it's coming. I pray that she gets a little scar tissue and this closes on it's own. I don't want to see my baby go through another surgery.
So that's about it. I'm going to upload some more hospital pics in Flickr for your pleasure. I've also decided I'm getting a little tired of doctors. In January I have been in some type of medical office 10 of the 24 days. Enough is enough!
Friday, January 20, 2006
Chemo #5
Sorry for the delay. With the little one running around, it's hard to get a chance to update. Not that having my Mom here isn't tons of help, Grace just wants her Momma, so I can't always get away.
Anyway, chemo #5, or dose #2 of Taxotere was on Wednesday. A woman from church came by with a friend to watch Grace for us, so Mom could take me to the doctor. My appointment was at 9:45 a.m. and there weren't very many people there, but it still took over an hour to get the drugs started. Luckily, since they weren't that busy, Mom got to sit in the back with me in a recliner. One of the first things they told me was that they had screwed up the ordering. The new office I am going to isn't fully stocked like the main office, so they have to bring the drugs, etc. from the other office. This time they only brought 1/2 of my Taxotere. So, I had my Herceptin and a half dose of Taxotere. I will have to get the other half on Monday when I go in for my usual weekly CBC and Herceptin. So, I guess I have 1 1/2 rounds of chemo left.
Oh yeah, before the infusion I talked to Dr. Y. I had him schedule me for my repeat lung CT to check on that spot they saw the first time and my MUGA scan. I'm scheduled for February 22nd. I also told him that my hair is growing back and that I've had 2 periods while on treatment. He seemed a bit uncomfortable about talking about my female issues, but I wanted him to know. Sometimes I get a little paranoid about how well chemo is going for me. My hair is growing back, I haven't been that sick, I'm still having cycles, etc. Hopefully, the bad cells are getting the brunt of the medicine.
That's about it. We got home around 1:30 p.m. No major side effects except fatigue. Although it's been busy around here and today I woke up a little conjested again.
Tuesday and Wednesday, Grace had been running a bit of a fever, so at 4:30 p.m. on Wednesday when it was back up to 102 degrees I scheduled an AM appointment with Dr. H. We took her in and had to wait for about an hour, but they decided to do a follow up chest x-ray and bloodwork to be sure she was getting over her infection and pneumonia. The chest x-ray showed no active pneaumonia and after reviewing the lab work from the hospital, she seems to think we're on the right antibiotic course. I haven't heard anything back on the new bloodwork, but she hasn't had a fever over 100 since Wednesday, so I think she's doing ok.
That's about all I can think of for now. I'm hoping Monday goes ok for me, as Tuesday I have to take Grace back for her post-op appointment with the surgeon. I'm secretely hoping that he'll say she can get off the arm restraints and back to normal activity and diet. She's starting to get annoyed by the inability to bend her arms. I'd also like to not take 4 days of vacation time next week. No arm restraints means daycare is ok, and I could go back to work before Jan 30th.
Anyway, chemo #5, or dose #2 of Taxotere was on Wednesday. A woman from church came by with a friend to watch Grace for us, so Mom could take me to the doctor. My appointment was at 9:45 a.m. and there weren't very many people there, but it still took over an hour to get the drugs started. Luckily, since they weren't that busy, Mom got to sit in the back with me in a recliner. One of the first things they told me was that they had screwed up the ordering. The new office I am going to isn't fully stocked like the main office, so they have to bring the drugs, etc. from the other office. This time they only brought 1/2 of my Taxotere. So, I had my Herceptin and a half dose of Taxotere. I will have to get the other half on Monday when I go in for my usual weekly CBC and Herceptin. So, I guess I have 1 1/2 rounds of chemo left.
Oh yeah, before the infusion I talked to Dr. Y. I had him schedule me for my repeat lung CT to check on that spot they saw the first time and my MUGA scan. I'm scheduled for February 22nd. I also told him that my hair is growing back and that I've had 2 periods while on treatment. He seemed a bit uncomfortable about talking about my female issues, but I wanted him to know. Sometimes I get a little paranoid about how well chemo is going for me. My hair is growing back, I haven't been that sick, I'm still having cycles, etc. Hopefully, the bad cells are getting the brunt of the medicine.
That's about it. We got home around 1:30 p.m. No major side effects except fatigue. Although it's been busy around here and today I woke up a little conjested again.
Tuesday and Wednesday, Grace had been running a bit of a fever, so at 4:30 p.m. on Wednesday when it was back up to 102 degrees I scheduled an AM appointment with Dr. H. We took her in and had to wait for about an hour, but they decided to do a follow up chest x-ray and bloodwork to be sure she was getting over her infection and pneumonia. The chest x-ray showed no active pneaumonia and after reviewing the lab work from the hospital, she seems to think we're on the right antibiotic course. I haven't heard anything back on the new bloodwork, but she hasn't had a fever over 100 since Wednesday, so I think she's doing ok.
That's about all I can think of for now. I'm hoping Monday goes ok for me, as Tuesday I have to take Grace back for her post-op appointment with the surgeon. I'm secretely hoping that he'll say she can get off the arm restraints and back to normal activity and diet. She's starting to get annoyed by the inability to bend her arms. I'd also like to not take 4 days of vacation time next week. No arm restraints means daycare is ok, and I could go back to work before Jan 30th.
Monday, January 16, 2006
Home Sweet Home
For those of you that may be wondering why I haven't updated on Grace's surgery, the main reason is that I haven't been home. Finally today, after 5 nights in the hospital we were discharged and are at home. Here's a recap (it's nice and long, but I like to have all the details for posterity):
Wednesday
Eric and I got up and dressed and got all of our stuff together. We woke Grace at the last possible moment and got her dressed and headed to the hospital for our 8:00 a.m. arrival time. Grace wasn't allowed to eat or drink after midnight, so I was concerned she'd let us know that she wasn't happy about missing breakfast. Surprisingly, she was an angel and didn't fuss or cry at all before surgery. Once we got to the hospital we registered at surgery and were triaged by a nurse. Grace put on a cute hospital gown and had all of her vitals and history taken. After that they took us up to the surgical floor and we were given a room to wait in. They told us they'd come take us to pre-op about 30 minutes before her surgery (surgery was scheduled at 10:10 a.m.). We had about an hour and a half to kill, so while we were waiting we went to a playroom. Grace found stuff to keep her busy and made some new friends. Then we went back to pre-op. In that room, she decided she needed a nap, so she fell asleep in my arms while I rocked her. When it was time to go to surgery, she sat on her hospital crib and just looked around while they rolled her away. I got a little teary eyed, but then Eric and I headed to the surgery waiting room. They told us that they would be doing her tubes first and the the palate repair, so to stick around the waiting room because the ENT would come talk to us when his part was done. So we waited. And waited. Finally around 12:15 (about an hour and a half later), the waiting room receptionist told us the doctor was on the phone. That scared me a little, but I took the call. It was the plastic surgeon telling us that he had completed the palate repair. I asked if the tubes were done too, and he said those were done before he started. He said her surgery went well and that she was on the way to recovery and would be there for about an hour. Apparently the ENT surgeon didn't feel it was necessary to tell us he was done. After the phone call, Eric and I went to the cafeteria to get some lunch while Grace was in recovery. After eating we headed up to Grace's room (we got the room number in the waiting room). They had just dropped her off. She looked so pitiful in her "welcome sleeves" and she was so groggy, hooked up to an IV and pulse/ox machine, and was trying to cry. The nurse told us to keep her from crying if we could, because crying would hurt her throat and mouth and make her feel even worse. We just held her and cuddled her alot. We were told that the goals for going home were to have her eating and drinking. We started with a liquid diet and would move to purees. That afternoon she slept alot, but she took a bottle in the afternoon and I think even ate some jello around dinner time. The nurses thought she was doing great, so they took her off the IV fluids. They left the line in her hand though, just in case. We also got a visit from our minister that afternoon and we told him she was doing great! Only one parent was allowed to stay overnight, so around 7:30 p.m. Eric headed home and I put Grace to bed. She didn't sleep very well, but it was mostly because she couldn't roll over with the sleeves on, so every time she'd try to reposition she'd wake up and cry. Oh yeah, one piece of good news was that in pre-op when the surgeon saw her teddy-blanket (the comfort object we brought with us) and saw that she liked to chew the arm, they said it would be fine for her to have after surgery because it was soft. I was really worried because Grace uses it as a pacifier to sleep and I didn't know how she'd feel without it. Overnight the nurses would come in and check vitals every 4 hours and I remember at one point them telling me she had a fever.
Thursday
Grace woke up for the morning around 6:00 a.m. I decided to give her breakfast. She ate a jar of bananas but wouldn't take her bottle. She acted really sleepy again, so we went back to sleep. Around 7:00 a.m. the plastics resident stopped by while doing her rounds. She checked out the palate and said it looked good. She also listened to Grace's chest and said she heard something and wanted to do a chest x-ray to check it out. About that time, Grace decided the bananas didn't agree with her, and vomitted all over herself. She was laying down and it got all in her hair. Grace's 8:00 a.m vitals showed she still had a temperature of around 102 degrees (I can't remember exactly). Eric got to the hospital around 8:30 a.m. and soon after, an orderly came to get us for her tests. He told us he was there to take us to nuclear medicine. I asked if that was for the chest x-ray and he said it was for nuclear medicine. We decided to go with it, but that didn't sound quite right to me (I spent time in nuclear medicine for my bone scan and MUGA scan. X-rays are in radiology). They took us down to a room and the tech came in and asked if they had explained the test to us. I asked if it was the chest x-ray. She said no, this test was for kidney function. They would inject an agent and then do an hour and a half scan to determine if the kidneys would pick it up and excrete it as appropriate. If not, they'd give her something to help her urinate more and kick-start the kidneys. Eric and I looked at her like we were a little scared. Eric then told her that since he just got there, could he explain why they needed to do this? She said that they wanted to see how her kidneys were working and because she had a Urinary Tract Infection (UTI). I then said that I knew she had an ear infection, but not that she had a UTI and that this morning our doctor had only mentioned that she needed a chest x-ray. This prompted the tech to check out Grace's leg band and at that point they realized that they had the wrong baby! A minute later the x-ray tech came in and said that she had just called up for us. She took us over and did a quick x-ray. Grace didn't like being held down, but it only took about 2 minutes, so it wasn't bad. Sometime that morning, Grace also managed to pull the IV line out of her hand. They decided to leave it out, hoping we wouldn't need it. Around 11:30 a.m. Eric offered to let me go home and take a nap, so I did and planned to come back around 3 p.m. (By the way, after the bananas Grace hadn't eaten anything plus she'd been running a fever all day, so we were preparing for a possibility of another night in the hospital. Eric called me at home around 2 p.m. to tell me the chest x-ray came back and Grace had pneumonia. Also she had a temperature of 103.6, so we were definately staying another night. Also, since she wouldn't eat, they needed to put the IV back in, so they could start her on fluids again and they wanted to give her IV antibiotics for the pneumonia. It took an IV team to get her IV back in (they took her to another room and had Eric and I stay behind). The only other thing I remember about Thursday was that she was so lethargic all day and had quite a fever. Since surgery she'd been getting Tylenol with codine every 4 hours, but still couldn't break the fever. At some point they started giving her Motrin too and finally between 9 and 11 p.m. her fever broke. Here's a picture from Thursday. It's obvious she felt awful.
Friday
No fever! Friday morning when the plastics resident came by she said that they wanted to see her fever free for 24 hours, but if she started eating and drinking, they would maybe let her go that night, but more likely Saturday morning. This was a bummer for multiple reasons, one being that Danialle and Erica were coming in for the weekend. She cut the IV fluids in half to help encourage Grace to eat. She also set us up with a general medicine doctor to deal with the pneumonia issues. She stopped by about an hour later and said that the blood work they did on Thrusday showed that Grace had a bacterial infection in her blood. Most likely some form of strep. That explained the high fevers and why she was so miserable. However, the antibiotics they started her on Thursday were working, but they wanted to give her 3 to 5 days via IV, which meant we needed to stay all weekend. I called the girls to see if they still wanted to come since we were going to be stuck in the hospital all weekend and they said yes. The only other medical issue on Friday was that Eric and I were concerned that Grace hadn't had a bowel movement since Tuesday. We had asked about it before, but they said that was fairly normal after surgery. During one diaper change on Friday though, I could tell that she was trying to go, but it just wasn't coming out. We called the nurse and she came and gave her a suppository. She said to call back if she pushed it out. About 5 minutes later we had to call back. The nurse came back and saw that Grace was really trying to go, so she had to help her out a little. It was so awful to watch, but she got out the piece that was blocking everything up and after that, it was smooth sailing for Grace. She definately made up for the 2 days of no poop. Friday was also much better because Grace started feeling better. She started eating at every meal time. By noon they took her completely off the fluids, which meant she wasn't hooked up to the IV (they just injected the antibiotics into the line in her hand 2 times a day). She also started getting down and playing instead of just sleeping and having us hold her. Here we are when she feels better.
Eric went back to the house in the evening to let Zeus out and meet Erica. Then they got me some dinner and came back to the hospital. Danialle's plane was supposed to get in at 8:15, but kept getting delayed. Eric decided to stay overnight with Grace and let me visit with my friends. Finally around 10 or so, Erica and I went back to the house and I started a load of laundry and we waited for Danialle to call and tell us she finally left Chicago. That call came at midnight. Her flight landed at 1:00 a.m. and we got to bed around 2 a.m. So much for getting more sleep at home!
Saturday
I meant to get up at 7 a.m., but couldn't get quite do it. At 7:45 a.m. we got up and then made it to the hospital around 9 a.m. We just hung out with Grace and had a little girl talk. After about 2 hours, Eric decided he'd had enough girl talk, so he decided to take a break and go home for a while. He came back around 6 p.m. to let us girls go to dinner. The plan was I would come back after dinner and stay overnight, but he called a little while later and told me to have a good time and come back in the morning. We went to Olive Garden and ate and talked. Seems we can't hardly do a Girls weekend without eating Italian! We were all so tired, that after we got back to the house, we talked for a bit and then were in bed by 10:30 p.m.
Sunday
We got up and made biscuits and gravy for breakfast and headed to the hospital around 11 p.m (per previous agreement). That morning they took blood from Grace to test to see if the bacteria was gone. The results took 24 hours though, so we'd find out Monday if they were clear and she could go home, if not, we'd do it again and try Tuesday. Eric left and went home to watch the Colts game in peace. We watched the game at the hospital too and were very of course disappointed by the outcome. Around 6 p.m. Eric came back and brought us BW3s for dinner. Grace was her normal self, just very bored being cooped up in her room. We did have toys and stuff, but she wanted out! She got a little fever, but after a dose or 2 of tylenol, it went away. By this time we were only doing tylenol on request rather than every 4 hours. At around 7:30, I said goodbye to my friends and they went home with Eric. We were hoping that Grace would go to sleep better without so many people around. She did fall asleep and go down in her crib around 8 p.m. By this point in the weekend we were starting to have sleep issues. Because we were in the room, she wouldn't let me put her down awake, so I have been rocking her to sleep. Unfortunately, she started complaining when I'd put her in the crib afterwards. Sunday night she slept from 8 until 11. I tried to go to bed around 11, but Grace was up. I would rock her and then put her down and she'd wake right back up. Around 1:20 a.m. she stayed asleep for 30 minutes and then was up again until 3 a.m. At this point I'd only had 30 minutes of sleep, so I put her in the crib awake and very mad and layed down and ignored her. I decided I'd count to 200 and if she was still crying I'd try to rock her again. We both fell asleep before I got to 150. We slept until 6:15 a.m.
Monday
Grace and I were up at 6:15 a.m. Nurses came in to do vitals, I fed her breakfast and then the doctor stopped by. She said that the cultures were negative at 15 hours, but she'd check again around noon. In the meantime she'd start our discharge paperwork, so we could leave if they were clear. The morning couldn't go fast enough. Erica left from my house, but Eric and Danialle came by the hospital before she had to go to the airport. While Eric was taking Danialle to the airport, the nurse came in and told us that the cultures were clear and we could go home! She brought me all the papers to sign and gave us our instructions and prescriptions. Eric came back in the process. I was packing like the house was on fire and we had 5 minutes to get out. I've never wanted to get home so bad. We left the hospital and were home by noon. I gave Grace her lunch while Eric went to get her prescriptions filled. Then we both took a nap. Grace seems much happier at home although I think she was running a bit of a fever late this afternoon. We just keep giving her the tylenol!
Tomomorrow (technically today since it's after midnight) I have to go back to work. Eric's staying home and my Mom is arrving around noon for the week. It will be nice to have help, because it's a little exhausting. Luckily, Grace doesn't seem too bothered by the arm restraints ("welcome sleeves") and has figured out how to sleep with them on. Wednesday, someone from church will come watch her while Mom takes me to get chemo. I'll try to update again then.
Wednesday
Eric and I got up and dressed and got all of our stuff together. We woke Grace at the last possible moment and got her dressed and headed to the hospital for our 8:00 a.m. arrival time. Grace wasn't allowed to eat or drink after midnight, so I was concerned she'd let us know that she wasn't happy about missing breakfast. Surprisingly, she was an angel and didn't fuss or cry at all before surgery. Once we got to the hospital we registered at surgery and were triaged by a nurse. Grace put on a cute hospital gown and had all of her vitals and history taken. After that they took us up to the surgical floor and we were given a room to wait in. They told us they'd come take us to pre-op about 30 minutes before her surgery (surgery was scheduled at 10:10 a.m.). We had about an hour and a half to kill, so while we were waiting we went to a playroom. Grace found stuff to keep her busy and made some new friends. Then we went back to pre-op. In that room, she decided she needed a nap, so she fell asleep in my arms while I rocked her. When it was time to go to surgery, she sat on her hospital crib and just looked around while they rolled her away. I got a little teary eyed, but then Eric and I headed to the surgery waiting room. They told us that they would be doing her tubes first and the the palate repair, so to stick around the waiting room because the ENT would come talk to us when his part was done. So we waited. And waited. Finally around 12:15 (about an hour and a half later), the waiting room receptionist told us the doctor was on the phone. That scared me a little, but I took the call. It was the plastic surgeon telling us that he had completed the palate repair. I asked if the tubes were done too, and he said those were done before he started. He said her surgery went well and that she was on the way to recovery and would be there for about an hour. Apparently the ENT surgeon didn't feel it was necessary to tell us he was done. After the phone call, Eric and I went to the cafeteria to get some lunch while Grace was in recovery. After eating we headed up to Grace's room (we got the room number in the waiting room). They had just dropped her off. She looked so pitiful in her "welcome sleeves" and she was so groggy, hooked up to an IV and pulse/ox machine, and was trying to cry. The nurse told us to keep her from crying if we could, because crying would hurt her throat and mouth and make her feel even worse. We just held her and cuddled her alot. We were told that the goals for going home were to have her eating and drinking. We started with a liquid diet and would move to purees. That afternoon she slept alot, but she took a bottle in the afternoon and I think even ate some jello around dinner time. The nurses thought she was doing great, so they took her off the IV fluids. They left the line in her hand though, just in case. We also got a visit from our minister that afternoon and we told him she was doing great! Only one parent was allowed to stay overnight, so around 7:30 p.m. Eric headed home and I put Grace to bed. She didn't sleep very well, but it was mostly because she couldn't roll over with the sleeves on, so every time she'd try to reposition she'd wake up and cry. Oh yeah, one piece of good news was that in pre-op when the surgeon saw her teddy-blanket (the comfort object we brought with us) and saw that she liked to chew the arm, they said it would be fine for her to have after surgery because it was soft. I was really worried because Grace uses it as a pacifier to sleep and I didn't know how she'd feel without it. Overnight the nurses would come in and check vitals every 4 hours and I remember at one point them telling me she had a fever.
Thursday
Grace woke up for the morning around 6:00 a.m. I decided to give her breakfast. She ate a jar of bananas but wouldn't take her bottle. She acted really sleepy again, so we went back to sleep. Around 7:00 a.m. the plastics resident stopped by while doing her rounds. She checked out the palate and said it looked good. She also listened to Grace's chest and said she heard something and wanted to do a chest x-ray to check it out. About that time, Grace decided the bananas didn't agree with her, and vomitted all over herself. She was laying down and it got all in her hair. Grace's 8:00 a.m vitals showed she still had a temperature of around 102 degrees (I can't remember exactly). Eric got to the hospital around 8:30 a.m. and soon after, an orderly came to get us for her tests. He told us he was there to take us to nuclear medicine. I asked if that was for the chest x-ray and he said it was for nuclear medicine. We decided to go with it, but that didn't sound quite right to me (I spent time in nuclear medicine for my bone scan and MUGA scan. X-rays are in radiology). They took us down to a room and the tech came in and asked if they had explained the test to us. I asked if it was the chest x-ray. She said no, this test was for kidney function. They would inject an agent and then do an hour and a half scan to determine if the kidneys would pick it up and excrete it as appropriate. If not, they'd give her something to help her urinate more and kick-start the kidneys. Eric and I looked at her like we were a little scared. Eric then told her that since he just got there, could he explain why they needed to do this? She said that they wanted to see how her kidneys were working and because she had a Urinary Tract Infection (UTI). I then said that I knew she had an ear infection, but not that she had a UTI and that this morning our doctor had only mentioned that she needed a chest x-ray. This prompted the tech to check out Grace's leg band and at that point they realized that they had the wrong baby! A minute later the x-ray tech came in and said that she had just called up for us. She took us over and did a quick x-ray. Grace didn't like being held down, but it only took about 2 minutes, so it wasn't bad. Sometime that morning, Grace also managed to pull the IV line out of her hand. They decided to leave it out, hoping we wouldn't need it. Around 11:30 a.m. Eric offered to let me go home and take a nap, so I did and planned to come back around 3 p.m. (By the way, after the bananas Grace hadn't eaten anything plus she'd been running a fever all day, so we were preparing for a possibility of another night in the hospital. Eric called me at home around 2 p.m. to tell me the chest x-ray came back and Grace had pneumonia. Also she had a temperature of 103.6, so we were definately staying another night. Also, since she wouldn't eat, they needed to put the IV back in, so they could start her on fluids again and they wanted to give her IV antibiotics for the pneumonia. It took an IV team to get her IV back in (they took her to another room and had Eric and I stay behind). The only other thing I remember about Thursday was that she was so lethargic all day and had quite a fever. Since surgery she'd been getting Tylenol with codine every 4 hours, but still couldn't break the fever. At some point they started giving her Motrin too and finally between 9 and 11 p.m. her fever broke. Here's a picture from Thursday. It's obvious she felt awful.
Friday
No fever! Friday morning when the plastics resident came by she said that they wanted to see her fever free for 24 hours, but if she started eating and drinking, they would maybe let her go that night, but more likely Saturday morning. This was a bummer for multiple reasons, one being that Danialle and Erica were coming in for the weekend. She cut the IV fluids in half to help encourage Grace to eat. She also set us up with a general medicine doctor to deal with the pneumonia issues. She stopped by about an hour later and said that the blood work they did on Thrusday showed that Grace had a bacterial infection in her blood. Most likely some form of strep. That explained the high fevers and why she was so miserable. However, the antibiotics they started her on Thursday were working, but they wanted to give her 3 to 5 days via IV, which meant we needed to stay all weekend. I called the girls to see if they still wanted to come since we were going to be stuck in the hospital all weekend and they said yes. The only other medical issue on Friday was that Eric and I were concerned that Grace hadn't had a bowel movement since Tuesday. We had asked about it before, but they said that was fairly normal after surgery. During one diaper change on Friday though, I could tell that she was trying to go, but it just wasn't coming out. We called the nurse and she came and gave her a suppository. She said to call back if she pushed it out. About 5 minutes later we had to call back. The nurse came back and saw that Grace was really trying to go, so she had to help her out a little. It was so awful to watch, but she got out the piece that was blocking everything up and after that, it was smooth sailing for Grace. She definately made up for the 2 days of no poop. Friday was also much better because Grace started feeling better. She started eating at every meal time. By noon they took her completely off the fluids, which meant she wasn't hooked up to the IV (they just injected the antibiotics into the line in her hand 2 times a day). She also started getting down and playing instead of just sleeping and having us hold her. Here we are when she feels better.
Eric went back to the house in the evening to let Zeus out and meet Erica. Then they got me some dinner and came back to the hospital. Danialle's plane was supposed to get in at 8:15, but kept getting delayed. Eric decided to stay overnight with Grace and let me visit with my friends. Finally around 10 or so, Erica and I went back to the house and I started a load of laundry and we waited for Danialle to call and tell us she finally left Chicago. That call came at midnight. Her flight landed at 1:00 a.m. and we got to bed around 2 a.m. So much for getting more sleep at home!
Saturday
I meant to get up at 7 a.m., but couldn't get quite do it. At 7:45 a.m. we got up and then made it to the hospital around 9 a.m. We just hung out with Grace and had a little girl talk. After about 2 hours, Eric decided he'd had enough girl talk, so he decided to take a break and go home for a while. He came back around 6 p.m. to let us girls go to dinner. The plan was I would come back after dinner and stay overnight, but he called a little while later and told me to have a good time and come back in the morning. We went to Olive Garden and ate and talked. Seems we can't hardly do a Girls weekend without eating Italian! We were all so tired, that after we got back to the house, we talked for a bit and then were in bed by 10:30 p.m.
Sunday
We got up and made biscuits and gravy for breakfast and headed to the hospital around 11 p.m (per previous agreement). That morning they took blood from Grace to test to see if the bacteria was gone. The results took 24 hours though, so we'd find out Monday if they were clear and she could go home, if not, we'd do it again and try Tuesday. Eric left and went home to watch the Colts game in peace. We watched the game at the hospital too and were very of course disappointed by the outcome. Around 6 p.m. Eric came back and brought us BW3s for dinner. Grace was her normal self, just very bored being cooped up in her room. We did have toys and stuff, but she wanted out! She got a little fever, but after a dose or 2 of tylenol, it went away. By this time we were only doing tylenol on request rather than every 4 hours. At around 7:30, I said goodbye to my friends and they went home with Eric. We were hoping that Grace would go to sleep better without so many people around. She did fall asleep and go down in her crib around 8 p.m. By this point in the weekend we were starting to have sleep issues. Because we were in the room, she wouldn't let me put her down awake, so I have been rocking her to sleep. Unfortunately, she started complaining when I'd put her in the crib afterwards. Sunday night she slept from 8 until 11. I tried to go to bed around 11, but Grace was up. I would rock her and then put her down and she'd wake right back up. Around 1:20 a.m. she stayed asleep for 30 minutes and then was up again until 3 a.m. At this point I'd only had 30 minutes of sleep, so I put her in the crib awake and very mad and layed down and ignored her. I decided I'd count to 200 and if she was still crying I'd try to rock her again. We both fell asleep before I got to 150. We slept until 6:15 a.m.
Monday
Grace and I were up at 6:15 a.m. Nurses came in to do vitals, I fed her breakfast and then the doctor stopped by. She said that the cultures were negative at 15 hours, but she'd check again around noon. In the meantime she'd start our discharge paperwork, so we could leave if they were clear. The morning couldn't go fast enough. Erica left from my house, but Eric and Danialle came by the hospital before she had to go to the airport. While Eric was taking Danialle to the airport, the nurse came in and told us that the cultures were clear and we could go home! She brought me all the papers to sign and gave us our instructions and prescriptions. Eric came back in the process. I was packing like the house was on fire and we had 5 minutes to get out. I've never wanted to get home so bad. We left the hospital and were home by noon. I gave Grace her lunch while Eric went to get her prescriptions filled. Then we both took a nap. Grace seems much happier at home although I think she was running a bit of a fever late this afternoon. We just keep giving her the tylenol!
Tomomorrow (technically today since it's after midnight) I have to go back to work. Eric's staying home and my Mom is arrving around noon for the week. It will be nice to have help, because it's a little exhausting. Luckily, Grace doesn't seem too bothered by the arm restraints ("welcome sleeves") and has figured out how to sleep with them on. Wednesday, someone from church will come watch her while Mom takes me to get chemo. I'll try to update again then.
Tuesday, January 10, 2006
Grace's Surgery
Tomorrow is the big day. Grace will have her cleft palate repair at 10:10 a.m. We have to be at the hospital at 8:00 a.m. She isn't allowed to have anything to eat after midnight. She can have water, apple juice or pedialyte until 6 a.m., although I don't think we'll get her up early just to give her a drink. Tonight she had a late dinner and had McDonald's for the first time. She had chicken nuggets and fries. She loved the fries!
I'm most nervous about how she's going to react. I'm slightly concerned about how fussy she'll be tomorrow morning since we can't feed her before surgery. I have no idea how she'll feel after surgery and I'm really concerned about the recovery period at home. First of all, I think the arm restraints will make her really mad. I'm also concerned about how she'll sleep since she usually sucks on her teddy bear arm while sleeping. Nothing like that will be allowed in her mouth after surgery.
Overall, though I'm hopeful. I think the tubes will help her keep from getting ear infections. The surgery will also help her later in speaking and even eating or drinking from a cup. She'll never remember any of it either.
We'll be spending the night in the hospital tomorrow night, so don't expect any updates until Thursday after we come home. Say a little prayer that Grace will tolerate everything well.
I'm most nervous about how she's going to react. I'm slightly concerned about how fussy she'll be tomorrow morning since we can't feed her before surgery. I have no idea how she'll feel after surgery and I'm really concerned about the recovery period at home. First of all, I think the arm restraints will make her really mad. I'm also concerned about how she'll sleep since she usually sucks on her teddy bear arm while sleeping. Nothing like that will be allowed in her mouth after surgery.
Overall, though I'm hopeful. I think the tubes will help her keep from getting ear infections. The surgery will also help her later in speaking and even eating or drinking from a cup. She'll never remember any of it either.
We'll be spending the night in the hospital tomorrow night, so don't expect any updates until Thursday after we come home. Say a little prayer that Grace will tolerate everything well.
Friday, January 06, 2006
Those Crazy Buckeyes
I grew up in small town Indiana. Maybe it was just my town, but in my recollection, the only college sport anyone remotely cared about was basketball. College football was just something to be endured until basketball season started. Well, things are a bit different in this town.
Football season in Columbus is crazy. People in this town love their Buckeyes. On the Friday before a game, you see people in Scarlett and Grey wherever you look. My office is known to have several “tailgate parties” each season on game Friday’s. We can wear jeans before big games. (I’m not even sure how many alumni are actually employees). One employee gets on the intercom and sings the fight song each Friday. If you are crazy enough to try to eat at a Bar & Grill on gameday, your lucky to get in. The crowds are red and white, and it’s easy to get the whole place into a chant of “O-H” “I-O”. Yes, this town is crazy about those Buckeyes. The radio station creates multiple tribute songs each year. Store employees dress up on game days. Even Wal-Mart sells Ohio State crib sheets in the baby section. And don’t even get me started on what happens to you if you where Blue and Gold (the colors of the hated school up North (Michigan).
So, now football season is over. Ohio State won their bowl game on Monday. The National Championship Game was played on Wednesday. This town can get back to normal, right?
Last night one of the late news headlines, “317 Days until Michigan.” Tell me I’m dreaming.
Football season in Columbus is crazy. People in this town love their Buckeyes. On the Friday before a game, you see people in Scarlett and Grey wherever you look. My office is known to have several “tailgate parties” each season on game Friday’s. We can wear jeans before big games. (I’m not even sure how many alumni are actually employees). One employee gets on the intercom and sings the fight song each Friday. If you are crazy enough to try to eat at a Bar & Grill on gameday, your lucky to get in. The crowds are red and white, and it’s easy to get the whole place into a chant of “O-H” “I-O”. Yes, this town is crazy about those Buckeyes. The radio station creates multiple tribute songs each year. Store employees dress up on game days. Even Wal-Mart sells Ohio State crib sheets in the baby section. And don’t even get me started on what happens to you if you where Blue and Gold (the colors of the hated school up North (Michigan).
So, now football season is over. Ohio State won their bowl game on Monday. The National Championship Game was played on Wednesday. This town can get back to normal, right?
Last night one of the late news headlines, “317 Days until Michigan.” Tell me I’m dreaming.
Tuesday, January 03, 2006
Random Cancer Tidbits
Just thought I'd through out some tidbits that I may not have been sharing lately.
- I have a mammogram tomorrow. I was supposed to get it done before my 6 month checkup in February. I called last week to schedule it and they got me in now. It's only actually been 3 months and 12 days since my diagnosis. I suppose if you count September and February as entire months it would be 6 total, but this seems quick. I'm not sure if I should be nervous. I wouldn't expect them to see anything, they did remove my tumor after all, but I would imagine there is some scar tissue that would show up.
- While I'm happy I have insurance (and pretty good insurance at that), this is still an expensive process. I've been keeping good records and finally today called both my insurance company and the doctor's office to discuss some co-pay inconsistancies I've noticed. The good news: Apparently my doctor is also an internal medicine specialist and in the insurance world he also somehow qualifies in my insurance plan as a Primary care physician. Thus, my insurance only charges me the $20 co-pay when I see him, rather than the $40 specialist copay. Good for me, although I've already seen him for 6 official visits, so it still adds up. The bad news: Due to the fact that a nurse triages me (takes my temp, BP, etc) when I go to the office to get my blood drawn weekly, they charge me for an office visit. Because there is an office visit charge on my statement and not just lab work, I have to pay a copay of $19.14. I would have the option of going to a lab draw station (hospital, etc) to get the lab work done and faxed to the doctor to avoid this copay. However, from now on, I'll be getting Herceptin each time I have my CBC done, so will still need to go to the office and be charged this fee. To date, 7 times and counting.
- My 30 minute bag of Herceptin, Monday took about 2 hours to administer.
- My hair is starting to grow back. Mostly on my head. I've still only needed to shave my legs and armpits 2 or 3 times over this whole process. I'm not sure it's growing in thickly yet, but the hair on my head is getting longer.
- I got my period again. Only a 29 day cycle this time, which is actually shorter than my pre-chemo normal. I still don't think I ovulated (my temps were all over the place), but at least it's something.
- Grace doesn't like it when I wear a hat. The first thing she does if I come in with one of my caps on is try to pull it off my head. I try not to wear my wig around her, because I'm sure she'd pull it off too.
Well, that's all for now. Wish me luck tomorrow. Grace has a doctors appointment too. She's going to be checked to see if her ear infection is cleared up and that's she's ready for her surgery in a week. I can't believe it's that close, I'll have to write more about that later.
- I have a mammogram tomorrow. I was supposed to get it done before my 6 month checkup in February. I called last week to schedule it and they got me in now. It's only actually been 3 months and 12 days since my diagnosis. I suppose if you count September and February as entire months it would be 6 total, but this seems quick. I'm not sure if I should be nervous. I wouldn't expect them to see anything, they did remove my tumor after all, but I would imagine there is some scar tissue that would show up.
- While I'm happy I have insurance (and pretty good insurance at that), this is still an expensive process. I've been keeping good records and finally today called both my insurance company and the doctor's office to discuss some co-pay inconsistancies I've noticed. The good news: Apparently my doctor is also an internal medicine specialist and in the insurance world he also somehow qualifies in my insurance plan as a Primary care physician. Thus, my insurance only charges me the $20 co-pay when I see him, rather than the $40 specialist copay. Good for me, although I've already seen him for 6 official visits, so it still adds up. The bad news: Due to the fact that a nurse triages me (takes my temp, BP, etc) when I go to the office to get my blood drawn weekly, they charge me for an office visit. Because there is an office visit charge on my statement and not just lab work, I have to pay a copay of $19.14. I would have the option of going to a lab draw station (hospital, etc) to get the lab work done and faxed to the doctor to avoid this copay. However, from now on, I'll be getting Herceptin each time I have my CBC done, so will still need to go to the office and be charged this fee. To date, 7 times and counting.
- My 30 minute bag of Herceptin, Monday took about 2 hours to administer.
- My hair is starting to grow back. Mostly on my head. I've still only needed to shave my legs and armpits 2 or 3 times over this whole process. I'm not sure it's growing in thickly yet, but the hair on my head is getting longer.
- I got my period again. Only a 29 day cycle this time, which is actually shorter than my pre-chemo normal. I still don't think I ovulated (my temps were all over the place), but at least it's something.
- Grace doesn't like it when I wear a hat. The first thing she does if I come in with one of my caps on is try to pull it off my head. I try not to wear my wig around her, because I'm sure she'd pull it off too.
Well, that's all for now. Wish me luck tomorrow. Grace has a doctors appointment too. She's going to be checked to see if her ear infection is cleared up and that's she's ready for her surgery in a week. I can't believe it's that close, I'll have to write more about that later.
Sunday, January 01, 2006
Happy New Year - 2006!
I must say I am glad to see 2005 gone away and am ready to start fresh this year. Unfortunately, I woke up with a horrible cold this morning, so apparently this is my new tradition for bringing in the new year. I remember being sick last year too. We did manage to make it to church this morning though and thankfully, Grace took a 2 1/2 hour nap this afternoon, so I did get to rest.
I've been giving a lot of thought to my goals for the New Year this year. I've got alot I want to accomplish and I like to be organized. I'm a little excited to start with a blank calendar and no screw ups...yet. To help me organize my goals, I got a planner that has month view and weekly view pages and also notes pages for each month and a place on the weekly page for notes. I will be posting my goals for the year here, but I'm going to keep track of weekly/daily goals in my planner and also my monthly goals. Hopefully it will help me stay on track.
So here they are...
Jennifer's Goals for 2006
Health
1. Lose 20 pounds
- 5 pounds by April 1
- 10 pounds by July 1
- 15 pounds by October 1
- 20 pounds by December 31
2. Plan meals weekly (To start I just want to plan meals, I'll be trying to add a "healthy" dinner to the plan each week)
3. Exercise (by March 1, I'd like to be back up to the old BFL exercise plan, assuming I have clearance from my doctor due to my port and surgical issues) - I will be starting to use the treadmill as early as this week
4. Drink 4 to 5 bottle of water daily - At first I'll still allow myself Coke as long as I get all my water in. Then we'll be phasing out those drinks.
5. Update Diet Blog weekly. It helps to be accountable and once a week is doable.
6. Don't get any additional diseases or life-threatening illnesses (not that I have a lot of control, but it's a good goal)
Finances
1. Stay within monthly budget
2. Only eat lunch out once per week
3. Stop using credit cards
Intellectual
1. Take 4 pre-requisite courses for med school
2. Take 2 CPCU courses
3. Read 4 books for fun
Spirituality
1. Do bible study daily
2. Update and pray over prayer list daily
3. Memorize a verse each week
4. Tithe according to committment made to church
5. Get involved in some type of group study
Personal Development
1. Get a new hair style (just joking!)
2. E-mail a friend each week that I don't already communicate with on a weekly basis
3. Send birthday, anniversary and other cards
4. Join Young Survivor Coalition or other breast cancer group
5. Review progress at 6 months
Looking forward the most important goals to me are probably the finance goals. We didn't do a great job at staying within budget this year and with the big plans I have for our future, we've got to get things turned around. Otherwise my next big categories are the spiritual and intellectual ones. With the holidays and everything else, I've been letting my bible study slide and with the whole medical school thing, I don't think I should get too far away from where I God wants me. I want to be sure I'm doing it for His purposes, not mine. The intellectual stuff is important just to stay on task. I've got to take classes to go to med school. The CPCU stuff is for my current job. If I get my 2 classes done this year, I'll only have to take one next year and will have a free trip to Hawaii, so that's a no-brainer.
That's it for now, I think I'm going to try to set up the diet blog for 2006, plus I need to do today's bible study and go get a healthy snack. See, 2006 is looking good already!
I've been giving a lot of thought to my goals for the New Year this year. I've got alot I want to accomplish and I like to be organized. I'm a little excited to start with a blank calendar and no screw ups...yet. To help me organize my goals, I got a planner that has month view and weekly view pages and also notes pages for each month and a place on the weekly page for notes. I will be posting my goals for the year here, but I'm going to keep track of weekly/daily goals in my planner and also my monthly goals. Hopefully it will help me stay on track.
So here they are...
Jennifer's Goals for 2006
Health
1. Lose 20 pounds
- 5 pounds by April 1
- 10 pounds by July 1
- 15 pounds by October 1
- 20 pounds by December 31
2. Plan meals weekly (To start I just want to plan meals, I'll be trying to add a "healthy" dinner to the plan each week)
3. Exercise (by March 1, I'd like to be back up to the old BFL exercise plan, assuming I have clearance from my doctor due to my port and surgical issues) - I will be starting to use the treadmill as early as this week
4. Drink 4 to 5 bottle of water daily - At first I'll still allow myself Coke as long as I get all my water in. Then we'll be phasing out those drinks.
5. Update Diet Blog weekly. It helps to be accountable and once a week is doable.
6. Don't get any additional diseases or life-threatening illnesses (not that I have a lot of control, but it's a good goal)
Finances
1. Stay within monthly budget
2. Only eat lunch out once per week
3. Stop using credit cards
Intellectual
1. Take 4 pre-requisite courses for med school
2. Take 2 CPCU courses
3. Read 4 books for fun
Spirituality
1. Do bible study daily
2. Update and pray over prayer list daily
3. Memorize a verse each week
4. Tithe according to committment made to church
5. Get involved in some type of group study
Personal Development
1. Get a new hair style (just joking!)
2. E-mail a friend each week that I don't already communicate with on a weekly basis
3. Send birthday, anniversary and other cards
4. Join Young Survivor Coalition or other breast cancer group
5. Review progress at 6 months
Looking forward the most important goals to me are probably the finance goals. We didn't do a great job at staying within budget this year and with the big plans I have for our future, we've got to get things turned around. Otherwise my next big categories are the spiritual and intellectual ones. With the holidays and everything else, I've been letting my bible study slide and with the whole medical school thing, I don't think I should get too far away from where I God wants me. I want to be sure I'm doing it for His purposes, not mine. The intellectual stuff is important just to stay on task. I've got to take classes to go to med school. The CPCU stuff is for my current job. If I get my 2 classes done this year, I'll only have to take one next year and will have a free trip to Hawaii, so that's a no-brainer.
That's it for now, I think I'm going to try to set up the diet blog for 2006, plus I need to do today's bible study and go get a healthy snack. See, 2006 is looking good already!
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