Oven roasted

 ...or is it rotisserie?

The heat has returned with a vengeance. This weekend is to be the hottest of the summer, so they say.

So, today, we are not going anywhere, if we can help it.

My plan is to clean the guest room/my work from home space/yoga space, etc. space.

Dave has a couple of cleaning projects that I hope he will do, as well.

My treatment this past week went somewhat awry.

I have a different nurse almost every time, and this time, I had three.... 

The first one was not able to access my port, and I FUCKING HATE when that happens.  

I kept telling him to just do an IV in my arm, but he ignored me, and got a second nurse, who continued to poke and prod the port, trying to figure out it's angle, and where the "bumps" are.

She was finally able to get the port accessed, on her first try.  But....WHY DID THEY NOT HEAR ME?  I was starting to freak out, and it was starting to hurt! 

Fortunately, this is the first time this has happened at OU, and I have been going every 3 weeks since October. 

All of the other nurses have been able to access the port without issue, and so I was actually thinking about that on the way, and then this happened. UGH!

Anyway, after the second nurse accessed the port, a third nurse was the one who came with my various drugs.

One of the things I still hate about the place I go now is the impersonal nature of it all.

Anyway, as per the discussion with the pharmacist after the last treatment, the benadryl "push" was not part of the protocol, so I did NOT have the horrible agitation during my time in the chemo chair, which was MUCH better.

However, the cold sweats and insomnia that night were much worse than before.  I woke up at 11:30 pm and never really went back to sleep.  The sweats lasted until about 2:30 am.... and I had an AWFUL headache.

So, on Friday, I worked half a day, and then took the afternoon off because I felt so tired.  That headache was basically a migraine.

We have no way of knowing if it was just the intense heat and barometric pressure, or if it was the change of not having benadryl in the treatment.  I guess we will figure that out over the next few treatments.

Anyway, I had not taken any time off, due to feeling bad after any of my cancer treatments, since 2015, so there's nothing anyone can say about it.  I don't even feel the least bit guilty about it.

In other news, the steroid DOES carry the blessing of me being pain free for a couple of days!

I slept SO well Friday night, and the headache was gone, so we went to the Oklahoma City Pagan Pride Day festivities yesterday.

It was held a full month earlier than usual, and it was INDOORS, in air conditioned comfort, at the State Fair Grounds.  

THAT was the only reason we went... if it had been outdoors, there was NO way.

It was good to see my friends dance, to get lots of hugs from folks I rarely get to see, AND I even met two friends in person for the first time!  I had only known them on line before.

It was a wonderful time!  It really did my heart good to feel part of a community again.

We stopped for lunch on the way home, and then watched the Cubs game, and relaxed.   

The steroid made it possible for me to do all of my chores, go to Pagan Pride, AND so all of my physical therapy exercises!!  It felt like a normal day!

I wish that would last...sigh.

The good news is that I get to return to physical therapy sessions this coming week.  HOPEFULLY, everything is ironed out, and it will continue to be paid for.

I made another batch of barley and black bean salad for dinner, with red bell pepper, English cucumber, broccoli, scallions, and feta....and then we settled down to watch some old "Outer Limits" before bed.

SO cheesy!

I will check in with my brother this afternoon.  He saw his regular doctor this past week, and seems to be doing a little better than when I spoke to him last weekend.

Hopefully, when we chat today, he will be in good spirits.

And, speaking of primary care providers, my PCP is a P.A., not a M.D., but that's fine with me.  I had her labs drawn at the same time as my usual ones for treatment, and she contacted me asking me to go in a Statin drug for my high cholesterol.

I replied that my liver has enough to do right now, and how about we increase the fish oil she had recommended for me 3 months ago?  SHE AGREED, and so I got a stronger dose, AND will be shifting up our diet a bit.

It needs cleaning up anyway.... I've gotten lax in the last couple of years, and KNOW that I will feel better, too, on a cleaner diet.

We already eat salmon once a week, but I will hopefully be able to add mackerel (there's a fish market here in town that sells frozen filets), and more tuna, whole grains, and legumes.

We already don't eat very much beef.

Anyway, she will re-test my lipids in 3 months, and if there is not a satisfactory change, then I will start on a low dose Statin, but I REALLY do not want to!

Statins are why my brother is diabetic, and why Dave's brother has non-alcoholic cirrhosis!

That's about it for today.  I am off to make whole grain pancakes for breakfast, with sliced strawberries!

Had a wonderful week!