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.