Suspended

 Well, that was fun.  After I put up my last post a week ago, I started feeling really, really tired.

SO, I took a 2 hour nap.  That night, I went to bed before 8:30.  I just figured I was "crashing" from the trip.

Monday, I was a little woozy, but figured that was because I was still tired from the trip.  

Nope. 

Tuesday was awful, with a BANGNING headache, body aches, and the beginnings of a tickly cough.  I don't know what I have, but it's lasted a week, with a fever spiking on Wednesday. (tested negative for Covid)

Thankfully, no high fever since it broke late Wednesday morning.

The cough comes and goes, and responds well to cough medicine.  It has not been a pleasant week.

My appetite has been effected, and I've lost a couple of pounds.

My birthday was Friday, and it was cold, windy, and rainy.  While I was starting to feel a little better, there was no way I was going to go out into that miserable weather, so I ordered my birthday dinner for delivery.

I felt less fatigued yesterday, and the cough seemed to be getting a bit better.  We got in the hot tub in the evening, and it was SO NICE!

The rain this past week was such a blessing!  It's been MONTHS! 

In other news, my treatments have been suspended, and I am being referred to a cardiologist.  To have such changes in cardiac function in such a short amount of time is alarming, and we need to address is before we continue with treating the cancer.

That's about it for this week.  Dave got me the fire pit accessories I had on my wish list, so maybe we will set that up today, while we are out doing yard work.

Have a good week!

Home again

 Our trip to Chicagoland was great!

Traffic on both sides of the trip was pretty good, surprisingly, and our only close calls with big trucks on the highway were on the first day going up.

It was wonderful to see my family, and to meet baby Zoey, who pretty much screams when anyone other than her parents holds her.  Unless she is asleep, of course, haha!

She's finally up to newborn size, and is thriving!

We got to go down town one day, which was Dave's wish, and we got to eat all of the things.... 

Arrangements were made, far in advance to meet with a few friends, too, which was much needed.

Including our friend Cathy, who introduced us.  She was traveling to Illinois from Washington state, so that was why we went to Illinois when we did.  She and her husband have been my dear friends for over 25 years.

My long time friend, Margaret, was also able to come down and spend an afternoon, and evening, with us. 

Our weird thing that we do on road trips is to count dead armadillos, and we broke our all time record this time, with 99 round trip.

In other news, my nurse never called about the heart scan results.  I find that odd, since the report I saw on line was alarming to me.

Moderate to severe mitral valve regurgitation was the main thing that concerned me, after the initial scan was completely normal.  There was something else, as well, but I have forgotten what it was.

I have staunchly refused to go on line to research this, as I do not want to make my anxiety any worse.

Thankfully, I was able to put it all out of my mind during vacation, and focus on what we were doing, who we were seeing, and so forth.

My appointment is on Thursday, so I suppose that someone will read the report by then, and we will find out what's to be done next.  I am still assuming that the heart damage has begun, and I will no longer be able to receive this treatment.

It's a shame, because I have been tolerating it really well, in every other way.  

I also feel fine, by the way, for what that is worth. No shortness of breath, or issues with chest discomfort or anything one might expect with a malfunctioning heart valve.

Today, we will finish unpacking, and get some groceries.  I go back to the office tomorrow. 

It's supposed to be a beautiful day, so we might get out in the yard a bit, as well.

There is rain in the forecast for the entire week ahead, so I hope we actually get some of it.

Have a good week!

Three day weekend

 This is the third day of our three day weekend.  The weather has been perfect, so far!

I got my heart ultrasound on Friday, and saw the results on the patient portal.  I am worried, but won't say more until I talk to my care team.

We got some errands done, and a bit planting.  There's a little planter box built into the stone work by the front steps, and the succulents I had in there, which had previously done exceptionally well, died during the Yule deep freeze. 

I replaced them with creeping phlox, which I had in that planter previously.

After that, we drained, cleaned, and re-filled the hot tub.

Then, yesterday, we did more errands, and I cleared out the herb garden, and got some plants out of their pots, and into the ground.

I hope they continue to thrive.  They survived the winter by being placed in the shed when the temperature dropped below freezing, but they were getting too cramped in their pots.

There could be some rain tonight, and tomorrow, to help them to get established.

After I cleared out the herb garden, Dave cut back the dead stuff in the front flower bed, and today, he will mow the front yard. 

We head to Illinois soon, and want the house to look like people live in it, HAHA!

Unfortunately, Dave put off mowing for too long, and now we have to pay someone to do the back.  It grows SO MUCH thicker and fuller than the front, and is a varied mix of weeds, with some grass.

Anyway, I am going to make us pancakes for breakfast, and there's bacon in the oven. 

After breakfast, we are going to go take a woods walk.  The chores will wait until after I have had my nature time!

I will try to post a mid week update, based upon what I hear from my care team. Have a good week!

Welcome, April!

 This past week, due to my preferred walk-in lab closing, we went to the other location that is relatively close to home (it's 5 miles away, as opposed to 2.5), assuming that they are all open the same business hours, because they are all the same company.

Not so!   We got up there, and the place had closed at the same time I had clocked out of work.  A half hour EARLIER than the place I had been using!  I arrived 10 minutes after they closed.

UGH.

SO, since it was March 28th, and the original place was not set to close until March 31st, we rushed off in that direction, but got there JUST as the lights went out.

How aggravating!  

Fortunately, they can draw my blood at the oncologist, they just don't have an in-house lab.  So, Markie pulled out the vials when she set up my chemo treatment, and we got the results the next day.

The hemoglobin is coming back up slowly, after the mystery injury and blood loss.  My white count continues to be in the normal range, and the "iffy" liver enzymes had come back down into normal, or close to normal, range.

This was good news!  

I will continue to take iron supplements to work on rebuilding the hemoglobin.  Doc said I don't need a transfusion, and I'd love to keep it that way!

In the future, I will have to take time off work to go get my labs drawn.  What a pain!!  What I will probably do is work through lunch and clock out early.

Treatment went fine, and, though I was a bit fatigued yesterday, I have felt pretty good!

My next treatment will be in four weeks, instead of three, to allow for our vacation.

The only lingering covid symptom is congestion, and that is probably being caused by allergies at this point anyway.

We had terrible high winds here the other day, and the air is full of all kinds of irritants.

Yesterday, we took a little bit of our tax refund money and bought a new little chest freezer.  

We have one, but it's out in the shed, which is not ideal in the summer time.  We had moved it to the shed a few years ago because the space in the laundry room was too cramped.

SO, we got a smaller freezer (3.5 square feet instead of 5...and that is still PLENTY big enough), and re-arranged the laundry room storage plan a bit.  

We will give our existing freezer to our friend Lori.  She is also going to get the card table that we had back there for our previous storage plan!

The laundry room is now much less cluttered, actually, than it was before we did this project yesterday! 

 Funny how putting something NEW INTO the room allowed for freeing up our thinking about where, and how,  the laundry stuff, and hot tub stuff, could be stored!

Taking the freezer out of the shed will open up space for another shelving unit in that spot, which we also purchased. This will also improve organization in the shed, so it's definitely a win/win!

Today, we will disconnect the old freezer, move the stuff inside to the new one,  and Dave will put the shelf together.  

I also REALLY need to get out to the woods, so I am off to the shower shortly.

Plans are starting for come together for our visit to family later this month.  

We may not have time to visit with many friends on this trip, as we are only in town for 4 days, and two of those days are already completely booked, and one other is mostly booked.

It's a lovely morning, and supposed to be a spring-like day, so I am off to enjoy it. Have a good week!