Tidbits

Lots of mini topics to discuss...

Bathroom Woes
I think I mentioned in my previous post about the project my Dad started in my bathroom. One thing he kept mentioning was that eventually I'd need to replace the tub surround. After some discussion, Eric and I decided that we'd do it now and tile the bath/shower area. After all, we needed to prime and paint and replace the tile trim around the surround anyway. So, Saturday we trekked to Lowes and bought all of our tiling supplies. Eric's Dad (who has some tiling experience) is coming to visit in two weeks and we thought he could help with the hard parts (i.e. cutting tiles). To prepare, though, we decided to go ahead and remove the surround, spackle and sand all needed area, and prime and paint. Then the project kept getting bigger. When Eric removed the surround we found some moldy looking spots on the drywall around the tub. Once we found it we decided we would have to replace it, and believe it or not, it doesn't seem like that will be too difficult, so we think we can do it ourselves. Since we're going to replace it, Eric decided to go ahead and pull it off. Guess what, more mold. This time in the insulation. Luckily, it doesn't appear to have damaged the studs, so this should be it. So, in the next two weeks we need to replace the insulation and drywall around the tub. Prime and paint the walls and be ready to begin tiling. Guess what our weekends will be filled with?

Wig/No Wig
Sunday, I decided to go wigless for the first time in public. My hair is really growing back and now just looks like a really short boy cut. I'm really self-concious though and decided church was a good place to start. I got several compliments and more than anything people understood. Then it got interesting. We needed to get the spackle (for project above) and stopped by Lowes after church. I didn't want to mess with getting Grace out of the car, so I ran in to the store while Eric waited in the car. My new fear? Instead of people thinking I was a cancer survivor (as I assume they do when I wear a scarf or turban), they now probably are thinking I'm a butch lesbian. That would be my first thought seeing a woman walking through a Lowe's store alone with a buzz cut. Nice.

Grace's New Chair
One of Eric's co-workers gave Grace this glider.

She loved it and spent all weekend trying to figure out how to get in and out of it. She had to do everything in her chair.


Ice Cream
Sunday when we were putting groceries away Grace was playing in the freezer. You know, taking things out as I was putting them in. Well, I stopped watching her for a moment and then looked back to find this.

She's a girl after my own heart.

Working Parts?
I thought I was doing good regarding keeping the possibiilty of fertility, because I continued to have my period somewhat regularly the whole time I was doing chemo. However, my last period started on January 21, so the last dose seems to have knocked my girl parts out of commission. Added to the fact that I started having hot flashes, I was pretty sure I was doing the chemical menopause thing. Of course, I'm still hoping it's temporary because I REALLY want more babies. Last week, on Cycle Day 64, I thought AF was showing her face, but it seems to have been a false alarm. Just a couple of days of super light spotting. I'm hoping this means my parts are trying to get back to working. They've still got some time before I need them fully functioning, but I'd be happy to know they are working before I need them. Infertility isn't fun.

Back to School
Tomorrow I start my chemistry class. I'm scared and excited all at once. I told Eric today that I was afraid to fail, but that isn't exactly true. I'm a smart girl, so I know I won't fail. I think I'm more afraid that I'll get a "B." I know that sounds a little petty. I think it'll be tough to get into med school. Right now I have a 4.0 from my previous college work. Since these classes are the science ones and thus more important to the schools than my degree classes, I need to do just as well in these classes. Oh, the pressure.

Ok, time to go relax on the couch and dare I attempt to go to bed early? We'll shoot for an update after class tomorrow (or maybe on Wednesday).

Where Have I Been?

Ok, so I didn't get around to blogging on Tuesday or Wednesday. I used to update a couple days a week and now it's been over a week since my last post. Life has just been speeding past me at the speed of light.

Here are some highlights from the last week...

Last Tuesday I had my 6th CPCU exam. I hadn't studied quite as much as I should plus they scheduled Eric's Lithotripsy for the same day, so I tried to re-schedule. Unfortunately, I had already passed the window to move it, and it would have cost me alot to move to the next window, so Eric told me to take it anyway. My test was at noon and his procedure started at 1:30 p.m. I came home from work changed into jeans and a scarf (instead of my wig) and dropped him off at the Kidney Center. Then I drove up to take my test. Weird story about the test...When you sign in they make you leave everything in a locker except your ID. I put everything away and went to sign in and the proctor asked me if I was wearing the scarf for religious reasons. I said no, and he told me that headgear wasn't allowed in the testing room and I needed to put it in my locker. I probably could have argued with him, but I just did as he asked and took my test with my head uncovered. While I always am uncovered at home, I havent' been in public that way, so I was a little self-concious. At least my hair is growing back! I finished in about an hour and fifteen minutes and then drove back to the Kidney place. They had just took Eric into surgery, so I waited in the waiting room. After about a half hour they told me he was in recovery. Once he woke up a bit, I took him home. (Side note: As of now, a week later, I think he's passed all the little stones and this is finally behind us. They'll do a follow up appointment in another week to confirm).

Later last week, I got my results and I passed my test. What a relief. Now I just have two more to complete to get my designation (and my trip to the ceremony in Hawaii!)

Work kept me very busy too. Wednesday I had a big proposal for a client and Thursday I worked late again. That seems to be my thing.

Friday my parents came in for a long weekend. They were at my house before we got home from work. We went out to dinner at TGI Friday's and then went to Lowe's to get some supplies. The main purpose of the trip was for my dad to do some home repairs/handywork as a birthday gift. Here's a list of what he got done:
- Replace front storm door
- Change outside lighting on garage and front stoop
- Repair board off of fence
- Add shelving to garage
- Install shop light in garage
- Put up new mailbox
- Change lightbulbs in 2-story entryway
- Cut out 3 mold/mildew spots in bathroom and repair drywall
- Strip all wall paper from bathroom (I'll need to repaint now)
- Babyproof Grace's dresser and bookshelf
- Bring shelf/quiltrack for Grace's room (I'll need to stain to match)
There may have been more, but that's all I can think of at the moment. Also, my Mom stripped and waxed my kitchen floor.

Besides all the work going on at home, this weekend I went to the school and paid my tuition, paid for a parking pass, got a student ID, and purchased my books for my first college class in almost 5 years. Wow. Saturday, Grace had gymnastics and we went grocery shopping. Sunday, we went to church and for dinner went to Outback.

Monday I went to work and left my parents at home to work on their projects. I have come down with a nasty cold though and was so exhausted from the weekend, radiation, plus Grace was up coughing all night, that I came home after lunch and took a sick day.

Today, it was back to work and while I still don't feel great, I just couldn't call in. I was supposed to go to a hockey game with clients, but I did decide to get out of that. I thought relaxing at home sounded better.

So that catches me up. Still got some work to get done this week. I've got a Herceptin appointment tomorrow. This weekend we need to paint our bathroom, so we can put it back together and start using it again. I'm also due for an oil change and I think I want to get Grace's hair cut (just so it will have some kind of style). Wow, even my home life is busy.

I'll try to get more interesting soon. I don't want to lose all my readers by just complaining about being busy all the time.

Getting Better

I'm feeling a little less overwhelmed this week. Eric came home from the hospital Friday night. His Mom came to help out over the weekend and we got my house clean and I got to rest a bit.

Work is still really busy, but I'm actual able to start marking things off of my to-do list instead of just adding them, so I feel like I'm making progress. I can't write much tonight because I'm taking a CPCU exam tomorrow and I need to study.

Eric is having a Lithotripsy tomorrow to break up the remaining kidney stone and hopefully, this chapter of our saga will be ending soon.

In other news, I think I'm starting to feel some of the radiation side effects. My bras are starting to become uncomfortable by the end of the day and if I exam myself close enough I can detect a slight difference in the color of my skin from the left to right side.

This weekend my parents are coming for a long weekend. For my birthday my Dad is doing some odd jobs around the house for me and Mom and I will get to visit.

Ok, I only have a couple of hours until bedtime and need to get prepared for my test. Maybe I'll write more on Tuesday or Wednesday.

Cracking...

I need to rest more than I need to post, but I wanted to give a quick update.

We're still dealing with Eric's kidney stones. To make a long story short...
Saturday and Sunday - Eric rested on couch and kept taking painkillers

Monday - Eric tried to go to work, but came home by 9 a.m. because he needed more painkillers and couldn't take them at work.

Tuesday - He went to work until 1 p.m. and then headed to the ER. I waited for a phone call to tell me when to pick him up. At 7:30 he called and told me he was being admitted. I found someone to watch Grace while I went to check on him.

Wednesday - I planned on working until noon, but at 10 I got a call saying he was having surgery at 1 p.m. I left immediately and headed to the hospital. Surgery went ok, but the doctor was only able to remove one of the two stones. As a result he's staying another night in the hospital and may need another procedure. We'll find out tomorrow.

I hate that we have to deal with more sickness. Plus I've had to miss even more work and this is not a good week.

I just need to take it one day at a time. More later.

ER

After I came back upstairs last night, Eric told me he wasn't feeling well. He said that it felt like he might be getting a kidney stone. He took 4 tylenol and we watched a little TV. Around 11 p.m. he decided to take some percocet (I've got alot of left over pain killers laying around). I went upstairs around 12:30 a.m. and read for a bit before going to sleep around 1 a.m. When I went to bed, Eric was pretty sure it was a kidney stone, but since we had a good supply of pain killers he didn't think we needed to go to the ER. Around 3:00 a.m. I heard some noise. I checked the monitor and Grace was quiet. I came back downstairs and Eric had been getting sick. He said he took some more percocet and told me to go back to bed. A little after 4 a.m. he came in and woke me up and told us that we needed to go to the ER. I got Grace out of bed, threw a blanket over her, threw on some shoes and my glasses and got in the car. Eric said we could just drop him off and he'd call us in when he was done. However, on the way he was definately in alot of pain and was concerned about filling out the paperwork. We decided I'd go in until he got registered and settled. Grace was really good and didn't seem annoyed that she was up 3 hours early. Around 5:30 a.m. Eric had gotten his drugs and told us to go home and he'd call when done. We got home around 6 and I put Grace back to bed. I layed down and at 6:20 a.m. the phone rang. It was Eric telling us to come get him. I got Grace back up and we went to pick him up. When we got back, we got breakfast and then we tried to go back to bed around 7:30 a.m. Grace wasn't acting overly sleepy though and was talking in her crib, so I jumped in the shower (I wouldn't have been able to fall asleep with her talking through the monitor).

Around 9:30 a.m. Grace woke up again, so we decided to get up. I got everything togehter and then Grace and I went to Wal-Mart to fill Eric's prescriptions. It took a little longer than we hoped, so I was cutting time short. I called Eric and he was still out of it, so Grace and I went to her Baby Gymnastics class that started at 11:15 a.m. It was pretty fun. She was really clingy at the beginning and wouldn't try some of the activities, but by the end, she seemed to get more comfortable and acted like she was having a good time. I think we may sign her up for a regular class.

Eric pretty much slept all day. After gymnastics Grace and I had lunch and then took a 2 hour nap. We had a pretty good day once we caught up on our sleep.

I did forget the camera, so no gymnastics pictures. Although if we sign up for good, I think eric will come next week and we'll try to get some pics.

Another Week Goes By

I can't even describe how over-extended I feel right now. Although, at the moment, it's Friday night and I'm sitting in my basement listening to the washer run and enjoying catching up on my blog reading and having a moment to update.

This week was extremely busy. Work is kicking my butt. My increased work load is really hard to keep up with. My desk is full of stacks of paper and work. Of course, it's extremely well organized (hee-hee). I have a list I keep with all of my open items or to-do's. Once an item gets written on the list, it goes into a stack by client. My open items list right now is about 1 and 1/2 pages of a regular notepad (one item per line). Any e-mails I print or new items that come in for me to do, go in a separate stack until I can either address the item or add it to my to-do list. I think when I left today I had about 20 things in that stack. Right now, I also have another three stacks of policies or endorsements that I need to check (review for accuracy, file, summarize, and send a letter with the summary and a copy to the client). I think I have about 8 endorsements and 4 policies waiting. I also have a stack of things to file, but the files are in the cabinets and not at my desk, so I haven't done it. We also have an online system where we are supposed to file all documents and e-mails, so I have another stack of stuff that I need to scan or add the attachments from e-mails to the online system. Next week, I have to put together renewal proposals for 2 clients.

So, that's what's currently on my desk at work. This week was also full of doctor's appointments. I had my appointment on Monday with Dr. Y and got my Herceptin. Thursday, I met Dr. B2 who is my new OB/GYN(I have another Dr. B that is my radiation doc). Today, I took Grace to see Dr. R for her surgery follow-up. Even with all of those doctor's appointments I still worked about about 45 hours this week.

I already gave you a recap of Monday's appointment. Thursday, I saw Dr. B2. She was great. If you remember I changed OB/GYNs back in August, before I knew I had cancer. I saw Dr. B2 on Maternity Ward on the Discovery channel and she seemed great and was in my city. Dr. D, my previous OB was ok, but didn't really give me the warm/fuzzies, so I decided to switch. However, in August I was just due for my annual and then wanted someone to check out my lump, so I saw a nurse practitioner. Today I was scheduled for an IUD insertion, so I got to see the doctor. When she came in, she gave me a hug (I love that!). She said she had reviewed my chart and the nurse had talked to me and she thought I was an amazing person. Talk about warm/fuzzies! Originally, she wanted to use an IUD called Minera. I had reviewed the information on it though, and it said not to use if you had or have breast cancer. The reasoning is that the IUD also releases small doses of progesterone. Her view was that since my tumor was negative for progesterone receptors, it would be fine. The other advantage to Minera is lighter periods. However, I don't really have problems with my periods and I'd prefer to stay away from the hormones, just in case, so instead we decided to go with a Copper T IUD. The advantages are it's long-term use (up to 10 years). It is as effective as tubal ligation. It's reversable. Since it's non-hormonal, I will cycle as normal and should be able to get pregnant as soon as it is removed (assuming the chemo didn't screw me up). There is also no maintenance involved. The doctor will check to be sure it's still in the right place in 6 weeks and then I'm supposed to check it monthly, but that's it. My insurance also paid for it 100% once I paid my office visit copay. The actual procedure was a little painful, but I was fine by the time I left the office. So, now no need to worry about an "oops" while I'm on radiation and Herceptin.

Switching gears, radiation is still going well. My appointments are extremely convenient. I get in and out quickly. The techs are extremely nice and friendly. No noticable side effects yet. I don't have any pain or redness or noticable increase in fatigue. 5 weeks to go.

Grace's doctors appointment also went really well. We had to wait for an extremely long time to see the doctor (1 hour past our appointment time), but he checked her palate out and it looks good. He said it looks like there is a "dent" in the roof of her mouth and there may be a tiny hole, but it shouldn't cause any problems. I pointed out that she had a hole when they saw her back in January. He checked her chart and agreed and said in that case it was healing nicely. They'll see her again when she's turns 2 years old. That's an answer to prayer. No more surgeries!

Looking forward. Tomorrow I'm taking Grace to a gymnastics class. Ava and Samara went last week and had a good time. They have a free trial class, so we are going this week. We'll see how she likes it. I'm going to try to plan some good meals for next week. I tend not to eat well or exercise when I'm extremely stressed or busy, so the last two weeks have been bad. I feel icky though and I really want to lose some serious weight by July and Heather's wedding, so I'd like to get back on track next week. It really stinks that since my diagnosis back in October I've gained about 15 pounds (although that's completly normal during treatment). Add that to the 10 I still had from Grace's pregnancy and I'd really like to lose about 25 or 30 pounds. Ick. Also, my Chemistry class will be starting soon. I'm a little worried about my work-load and class, but I'll have to make it work. I'm seeing more early mornings in the office in my future.

Ok, enough for now. I may go say hello to my husband before it's time for bed.