Mondays/Work

I have always hated Mondays! I think I always will. Getting back into the work routine. Ugghh. Not that I have been overloaded with work responsibilites, as I have hardly been here the last 2 months. As John puts it it is a Monday morning hangover without the booze. LOL

I am back at the office this morning. I am trying to get back into my "other" job of medical transcription. I did some work over the weekend and should be getting back this week more regularly. I miss the work. There is something about typing up a complete medical report with no errors from a fast-taking radiologist with a southern accent that makes me feel as if I have accomplished something great. About a year ago when I first started with this company out of Texas, I was ready to throw in the towel two weeks into training, singing the blues to my boss that there was NO WAY I would ever figure out what these two doctors were saying. Let me tell you, they speak fast and slurry! It was so frustrating. I stuck with it and I have to laugh now because they sound so normal to me. My main account is radiology (mostly MRIs,CTs, ultrasounds and some general radiography) and my other account is from the Chattanooga Heart Institute-Cardiology. I love the cardiology account as well but do not work on it often, so it is a bit of a challenge for me, which I like.

Time to get going. The coffee cup is empty, and I am ready to go!
Happy Monday!

Lunch Date

Today I met my dear friend Cathy for lunch. We haven't seen each other since she came to see me in the hospital, and well, quite frankly, the hospital is not the place to catch up with a friend. LOL I was craving a big salad, so we headed to Cheesecake Factory. It felt great to be out and about, and I actually did not feel self conscious at all with the new wig on. It was a great afternoon spent with a great friend catching up on each others lives. I am so lucky to have such a good friend as Cathy. Thanks for lunch Cathy and for the Mounds bars! (Mmmmm one of my favorites).

Hair

My hair started falling out this past Tuesday. I was ready to shave it off on Thursday night, but I just couldn't do it! Instead I took a scissors to it. LOL I cut it about 2 inches long. I am sure my hairdresser is cringing right now. I just can't seem to leave my hair behind. I went to work on Friday with my new wig on. It was kind of like wearing a hat. The UPS lady came in.... oh no....the first person to see me in my wig. Will she notice? I became nervous. "Wow, I love your new cut and color" she said. LOLOL I love you Miss UPS. I laughed nervously and said "gee thanks, it is a wig." She was shocked. I told her I was having chemotherapy for breast cancer, and she said "well I never would have known." It was a nice ego booster that's for sure.
Today I ventured out in public for the first time with the wig on. I did some grocery shopping at Pick N'Save. It was 8 am, so I figured there wouldn't be many people there. Did you ever feel like EVERYONE is looking at you?? Thankfully there were only elderly people there, but I felt like they were looking at me saying "oh my look at that woman with the wig on." LOL I couldn't wait to get out of there I was so self conscious. I suppose it will take some getting used to.

It is a gloomy day and cold. I am craving some pumpkin bars, and I actually feel like baking, so that is on to to-do list this morning. The house is empty right now, so I am enjoying the alone time.
Enjoy the weekend!

Quote of the Day

~From the bitterness of disease man learns the sweetness of health.~
~Catalan Proverb~

Swimming

The Wisconsin Girls High School State meet is approaching this weekend. This year our school is sending 10 girls who have qualified. This is the largest group ever! I am proud to say that Natalie is among this group. This will be her third trip to High School State. Not only did they win the Greater Metro Conference, they were also picked for team of the week by Preps Plus and were featured in a brief segment on TV. Tonight, we have the pleasure of a state team dinner at one of the parent's homes. I am soooo looking forward to dinner! LOL It is a tradition that Julie makes her famous glazed salmon and steak dinner, and it is to die for!!!! Can you tell I have been food deprived for awhile!?? It is a great evening with parents and swimmers as they gear up for the weekend. I am looking forward to getting out and ridding my mind of all of my troubles over the past week and half. The girls have worked very hard to get where they are today. Way to go Lady Lancers!
And yes, that is an actual photo of Natalie that was in the Brookfield News a few weeks ago.

Graphics & Myspace layouts

Today I had a followup visit with my oncologist since my hospitalization. My blood work looked great. Everything is back on track. We discussed in detail what happened and how,hopefully, to prevent another huge setback like what occurred. I am going to be on another extra week of antibiotics right now for precaution and my next treatment is tentatively planned for the day after Thanksgiving (I won't be out shopping anyways.....hate that day after crap!). I will have to give myself a Neupogen shot for 7 days after chemo to stimulate my bone marrow to generate white blood cells. He is pretty positive if my blood cells dropped the first time, it will happen again. The Neupogen shots will help prevent my white blood cells from bottoming out again. He then suggested possibly another week of antibiotics to be super safe. He is going to do everything possible to keep me out of the hospital the second time around. For now, I have a few weeks of getting back to "normal." I also gained 30 pounds in the hospital due to fluid retention and all the fluids they were pumping into me. As of today, I am back to prehospital weight. (why can't normal weight come off that easy when you want it to??? LOL) I left the hospital today feeling even just a little bit lighter.

good day/bad day

I was sitting having my morning coffee trying to wake up when I ran my hands through my mop of hair and lo and behold handfuls of hair came out. I knew this day would eventually come! I knew I would not be ready for it though. Is any woman ever ready to lose their hair???? I can walk around in public and no one will know that I have breast cancer, but when you walk out in public bald you wear your diagnosis on your head. Thankfully, I had an appointment with Lisa to get my wig trimmed and fitted. Perfect timing! I met her at Small Stones at Froedert mid morning. She asked me if she should shave my head. I most definitely am not quite ready for that. She trimmed the wig and showed me how to care for it. The time spent in the morning getting ready will definitely be cut down. This might be a nice thing. I left feeling a bit better with the wig in my hands. I had two more stops to make, a quick stop at the vet to pick up some x-rays and to drop off some movies, home by 1:30, made a few insurance phone calls,and I was exhausted!! I slept for several hours and probably would have slept longer but I heard the doorbell ring. Unfortunately I just could not wake up enough to get out of bed. I am not one of those that just jumps out of bed in the morning. When I did get up, I checked the front door and found a beautiful bouquet of flowers, some still warm banana bread and some scented candles. What a nice surprise. Thank you Lisa!!!!!!!

Tomorrow is my appointment with my oncologist, and I have a list of questions for him as I head into the next chemo treatment.

Today was a good day! Uneventful! And uneventful feels really good to me right now. I did some things around the house and relaxed most of the day.

My brother, Gary, took this photo in northern Wisconsin. I don't think he would mind that I share it with you.

It is beautiful!

Going Home

"Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in getting up every time we do." ~Confucius~

My friend, Ann, gave me a book mark a while ago with this quote on it when I was first diagnosed with breast cancer, and the quote really stuck with me so much that is has kind of become my motto. Well, I certainly have fallen again and I have gotten up. Right now the only thing I want to do is go home and be in my house with my family and get some real rest. It has been a difficult week, more so than the week I had my original surgery. I am sure within a few days I will be feeling a little stronger! If you don't hear from me over the rest of the weekend don't panic. I am probably sleeping!!!!

I'm bacckkkkk!

Hello, hello, hello!!!!!

I am sitting at Hotel Froedert right now as I blog. John brought down his laptop this morning with a cup of coffee and an egg mcmuffin (I know, I know, but honestly I have not eating much in the past week, the food sucks here and I am starving!)

This will be a pretty long post, so I hope you are not nodding off by the end.

The two days after chemo went well until Friday night when I spiked a fever of 101.9 and was sent to the clinic for blood work (normal WBC counts will drop around day 5, so it was kind of unlikely they said that anything was wrong). I checked out okay, went home and by Sunday night spiked a fever of 103.5 and a very bright red breast (the bad boob, as I refer to it). Unfortunately my WBC, white blood count, was 300. Normal is 3,000-10,000. Not good. There proved to be infection in my right breast just by looking at it, so an overnight stay with IV antibiotics was in store. Ok, I can handle that. Just to let you know the ER was fabulous there. I was seen right away, not sure if that is a good thing or a bad thing LOL meaning how much trouble is this lady in. LOL

Up to the floor, get checked in, all hooked up, pump the fluids, glad to be back NOT. This part is a bit graphic so if you get queasy feel free to go on to the next paragraph. On the way to the bathroom I sprung a leak in a small incision in my breast which was filled fill pus. Within 2 hours I was back in surgery to remove the soft tissue expander. There was no way they could leave it in with my white count so low.

Since that time my blood count has gone back up!! My electrolytes, sodium, potassium, all that stuff is coming around. My hemoglobin and hematocrit where really low so I ended up having a blood transfusion on Wednesday. I actually perked up after that.

I am honestly an emotional wreck right now. Physically I am pretty good. During all of this Sunny was supposed to have her ACL repaired on Thursday. They preoperatively did an x-ray of her leg to check everything out and found that she has bone cancer. I spent the day on Thursday crying about my dog. I am still having trouble taking this all in. Those who know me know that I love my Sunny girl. My heart breaks for her. She is still the same old Sunny for now. We will deal with the disease as it comes and go from there.

I would like to thank all my friends, family, neighbors and Komen sisters for all your prayers and support. As I have said before, I could not be doing this alone. Although I have a deep inner strength I never knew I had, I do need help, so I thank you all from the bottom of my heart!!!!!! Thank you Jess for updating my blog, Cathy for AGAIN always being there, my friends Connie and Sara from the Komen boards who have kept all my sisters updated and helped me along the way with encouraging words and Lisa, the wig lady, who so graciously came by my hospital room with my wig to show me and make sure the color was right (and it was, it is so cute), my hubbie who is a wreck with me right now, trying to carry on as usual, my immediate family who have kept my spirits up and kept me going, the wonderful, kind caring staff I had this time around (I had some great nurses) and everyone else that has played any kind of part in this ordeal!!!

I look forward to going home TOMORROW!!!!!

Love to you all, Gail

Still in the Hospital

Gail's doctor expects that she will be in the hospital another 24-48 hours. Here is what has been going on:

• She had to have a blood transfusion because her hemoglobin and hematocrit were very low.
• After the transfusion she felt better immediately. She actually ate something. :)
• Her potassium and electrolytes are out of whack so she is on additional supplements.
• Her white count is up to 22,000. Yesterday it was 2200. When she went in it was 300.
• She is off her IV antibiootics and is just taking oral antibiotics. She is not hooked up to any additional fluid right now, which is a good thing.

She says thank you for all the prayers, phone calls and food. :)

Update

Gail's surgery went well. She expects to be in the hospital 2-3 days.

Back to the Hospital

This is Gail's niece Jessica. She asked me to post a quick update. Today she went back to the hospital for an infection in her right breast, as well as a low white blood count. The infection has gotten worse and she is going to have surgery tonight to remove the expander, as the infection is sitting on the plastic. She has been pumped with antibiotics all day as well.

She expects to be in the hospital at least another day or two (originally she expected to go home tomorrow, but that is unlikely).

Please be praying for her and the doctors. I will update again when I hear more.

Hit by the Train

Good morning! As you can see I have not posted in a few days. The weekend did a number on me. I woke up Friday night with terrible chills, no fever, and by morning had a pounding headache and a 101.9 fever. According to my doc instructions I was to call if I had a fever over 100.5 with chills. I had to go into the infusion clinic at Froedert for a blood test to check my white count. They said it would be unusual for my blood count to drop that quickly (it usually happens about a week out). Blood work was fine, my fever came down and they called it a fluke but to keep an eye on it in case the fever went up. I layed on the couch with a nasty headache and body aches all day and night. I slept pretty well last night and today feel somewhat human, although not my usual self. Hopefully, I will get better as the day goes on.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

It is a gorgeous day here with the sun shining and mild temperatures.
I am feeling good! I didn't feel the greatest last night, just felt icky. Food has taken on somewhat of a strange taste in my mouth right now, so I haven't eaten much. Layed on the couch and watched TV all night. This morning I am feeling a little lightheaded but nothing intolerable. I am off the steroids now so that wired feeling should go away.
I am at home catching up on housework, laundry and errands. So far so good! I am waiting for something to hit me. Hopefully it won't.

Once again, thank you for all the emails, phone messages, texts, cards, gifts and FOOD! I am overwhelmed again with everyone's generosity!!

Day After

Guess what? My hair fell out last night, completely bald. hahaha Just kidding.

I am feeling good today so far! I took a Benadryl last night and slept really well. I took my steroid and anti-nausea meds and have my new piece of jewelery on, my anti-nausea wrist band, that my friend Linda got me. Hey, I will try anything that might fight off nausea. I am feeling a little wired from the steroid but today is the last day of that med. Keeping my fingers and toes crossed as the day goes on that I continue to feel good.

On a side note, our dog Sunny has been having some problems with what we thought was her hip. John had taken her hunting last weekend and she is now three-legged. She will not put any weight on her back leg, so another vet visit was necessary. We are pretty sure she has torn her ACL in her knee. She will have an x-ray to see if anything else is going on in the leg and then surgery to follow to repair the tear. The vet was pretty sure that this was the problem. That will be next week Thursday.
She is the sweetest family dog and a great hunting companion. I hate to put her through a surgery but she has to walk, so we really do not have any choice.
Poor baby!!!!

Feel the Fear/Chemo #1

My SIL, Debbie, gave me this "courage" stone shortly after I was diagnosed.
I took the stone along with me to chemo this morning and kept it in my pocket. It will go with me for all my chemo treatments. Yesterday I was feeling pretty nervous about the chemo (who wouldn't be nervous about having toxic drugs pumped into your system) and when I took the box out last night to put the stone in my hospital bag I saw the message written on the box "feel the fear and do it anyway" Well, that pretty much says it all, doesn't it??!!! I left the house this morning ready to go!! Thanks Debbie. It was the perfect gift for the perfect time!



I was at the cancer center bright and early just to catch a nice sunrise coming up over the lake.



I arrived at he cancer center at 7:15 for labs where they drew my blood and then placed on IV line in my wrist. I then had an oncologist meeting at 8:30 with Dr. Charlson and his nurse just to go over what was going to happen and check my labs. He is super doctor and his nurse is really great also. Everyone I encountered today was wonderful. My chemo started pretty much on time and the great news was that it was only going to take 3 hours, not the 5 hours like they had originally said. Premeds included another dose of a steroid, anti nausea (15 minutes total) and then the Taxotere (dripped for one hour) and Cytoxan (dripped for another hour). I sat in a nice lounger and read for most of the time in between a few phone calls and some text messages. It was pretty uneventful, which is a good thing! I left feeling not any different than when I arrived. I stopped at Panera and grabbed some soup and I am home. I will know in about 3 days what side effects will hit me. Both my doc and nurse think I will have no problems with the combination of drugs. One down three to go. Yippeee!!

I would like ask for some prayers for 3 people that I know. (I won't use their names for their privacy) The first person is sort of a distant family member who is having a bilateral mastectomy today for breast cancer. The other is a mom who I ran into this morning at the day hospital that I know personally and has a recurrence of cancer 5 years out. We were both very surprised to see each other there! The third is a good friend of ours who is battling prostate cancer and has gone through some radiation and will require some more shortly. I am finding out more and more every day about people that I know that are having to deal with cancer. It makes me very sad. Please pray for these people as they fight! Thank you!!!

Tuesday

Did you see the snow yesterday? Omggg, twice during the day I saw those dreaded snow flakes falling outside. Unfortunately my camera battery was dead or I would have taken a pic and posted as the first snow of the year. It is wayyyy to early for that nonsense. And after last year, I don't care if the ground is ever covered this entire winter. Wishful thinking isn't it??!!

I did a quick shopping run this morning for some last minute items before "C" day tommorrow. Lipstick (a woman can never have enough lipstick), Biotene mouthwash to use during chemo treatments to prevent mouth sores, soft toothbrushes (chemo does a number on your mouth and gums), stool softeners (chemo plays havoc with your intestines) Halloween candy for the 6 Trick or Treaters we will have, and last but not least hats! I honestly have never bought a hat for myself in my life. I hate wearing things on my head, but I have a feeling a might need a little warmth on my head this winter. My friend Sara said I will want to sleep with something on my head at night because I will be cold. I found the softest hats they had and even bought a crazy cheetah hat. Will I wear it? Who knows? LOLOL I am venturing into uncharted territory.

Here is my schedule for tommorrow: labs at 7:15, oncology appointment 8:30, chemo starts at 9:30. The treatment will last about 5 hours. I should be home mid afternoon. I will post late tommmorrow when the day is over and let you know how the chemo treatment went and how I tolerated my chemo cocktail. Cheers!

PROGRESS FINALLY!

I had an early morning appointment with Dr. John. The bad news is the few remaining stitches are still in (no biggie,they are just ugly) but the great news is that he actually did a fill on that side. It was only 50 cc, but none the less it is progress! I will be seeing him every week for a small fill until we can get the skin stretched out to the size of the other boob. I am not sure how long that will take, but it will be awhile. UGhhhhh!

I am trying to drink a ton of water before chemo starts. I am supposed to drink like a gallon a day! Who the heck can drink that much anyways?? I am not a big water drinker anyways so this is a challenge for me. So far, I am not doing very well today. LOLOL Guess I need to step it up a bit!

Fall