Baby steps to the elevator ...Baby steps to the elevator ... - LiveJournal.comWaiting to wait- May 31, 2008 There is no news ... which overall, I think, is good news.Oncologist was pleased with my breathing - "lungs sound great, actually" - and had nothing to report as far as biopsy results. "The pathology showed nothing." This does mean they didn't find anything identifiable as a cancer cell, and it means there was no sign of infection (which we kind of already knew). The oncologist scheduled me an appointment for August 1 (the same one, in fact, that I already had that he cancelled last week)...http://chimalis.livejournal.com/746541.html Thank you!- May 28, 2008 By the way ... I have received some absolutely kick-ass cancer presents lately from all of you. They deserve pictures and things, they really do, but I am here in Alma, away from both camera and goodies.Quick mention to the top three:3. New red and white blood cells! Cute stuffed ones, that is. From both revelation8 and riggs 'n' gearmonkey. Great minds!2. An official OMG Indiana Jones hat, from beckybmw. I AM TEH JONES!1. And from formeranonymous: A complete detailing of my car,...http://chimalis.livejournal.com/746468.html Still alive. Yes, seriously.- May 28, 2008 Yes, it's been a while. It's been a fun-filled eleven days in two different hospitals under the care of five different doctors and teams. It's been an interesting and long diagnostic journey, with all the twists and turns of a House episode ... and we're still not quite sure. But there is some news, and they have let me out. (Semi-)final verdicts: The pneumonia iswas almost certainly caused by built-up toxicity from one of my chemo drugs, bleomycin. 1-2% of patients who receive bleomycin...http://chimalis.livejournal.com/745826.html Um. Damn.- May 18, 2008 So. Bad news. I'm at Gratiot Community Hospital in beautiful Alma, Michigan. In the family lounge, to be exact. My room, which was about 60 degrees yesterday (and I was STILL too hot) is about 80 degrees today. Yikes. Here's the story:On Friday they announced my pneumonia and assigned me levofloxacin and call on Tuesday if you're not noticably better. I wasn't better but I wasn't worse ... so I called. My oncologist was on vacation, and the fill-in (someone I have seen before,...http://chimalis.livejournal.com/745523.html How it feels, part 1- May 15, 2008 Everyone keeps asking, so here we go. Yes. Completely and totally, I do feel a hundred different ways about the finish of 6 months of chemo.I barely made it through yesterday, I will say. I wobbled to Mom's car, wobbled in to support group, and wobbled back home. Other than that, I never left bed. This morning, I thought for a moment that I had critically overextended and was planning how to crawl, semi-conscious, from the shower to the nearest cell phone in the event that I should black...http://chimalis.livejournal.com/745277.html Oh, the exciting last one- May 13, 2008 Chemo 12 could've been nicer. All last week I had an exciting new ring to my cough and on top of a pounding heart all the time, a new shortness of breath. The chemo nurses attempted to jam me in a chair in "overflow" and despite my speaking English quite clearly, the nurse at the cancer center's urgent care desk (on the way to overflow) pretended not to understand me as I described what was wrong with me and why I'd really like to be looked at. Luckily, someone in the vicinity spoke English,.http://chimalis.livejournal.com/745045.html Disappointments and subsitutions- May 6, 2008 Pre-cancer (oh, if you're in the "cool" club like I am, the anagram PC has a whole new meaning!), I was a hardcore House fan. Then they stopped making new episodes just as the chemo sort of took over my life. And they started up recently, and moved the time and moved the day. And I haven't seen any of the new episodes! And it was on tonight! And I missed it! The Tigers are my only alternative, and OF COURSE they're losing to the GD Red Sox. Sigh.Normally this kind of disappointment would.http://chimalis.livejournal.com/744806.html Accomplishment!- May 2, 2008 ... in so many ways. Today, despite cancer and chemo (I swear, you guys, the chemo has put me at death's door. Literally. I can barely make it up one flight of stairs without a rest. If I wave my arms too much while sitting still in a chair, my heart pounds. I don't know what my hematocrit (red blood cell count) is, but I'd bet damn low. This tired isn't really tired ... it's this whole other thing on TOP of tired, where your muscles just don't have enough oxygen to do what you say, since.http://chimalis.livejournal.com/744703.html |