Waiting

 It took two weeks for the cardiologist's office to call me.  I FINALLY have an appointment next week, on Tuesday.

In the meantime, I feel great, being off of all treatment. Returned to dance class this past week, and we have been taking walks, and I have worked out in the yard.

The only thing is the nagging anxiety about what the cancer is doing while it's being left alone.  Hopefully, the three months of Enhertu wiped it out for the time being.

Since we were going to scan after six months, we don't even know if it was working, before we had to stop it.

In other news, I have all of the components to my fire pit kit that I asked for as a birthday gift!

I have a set of uprights, that looks line a tiny swing set, a set of S hooks of different lengths, a hanging grill on chains, to adjust how far it is from the fire/coals, a grate, and a fire ring with moons and stars!

There will be cooking with fire in my back yard at last!  

I had a fire pit with fire bricks, and my Ren Faire iron set, way back when I owned a house in Lombard, Illinois....but the divorce saw all of that taken away from me.

I've wanted something here since we bought the house, and I finally have it!

I seasoned two of my food safe cast iron cauldrons last summer, so they're ready to make soups and stews, and maybe even bake pretty, round bread.

Now, just have to wait for the rains to stop, and for it to NOT be too hot to be out by a fire!

I'm finally over that flu, or whatever it was, with the exception of the occasional cough.

To say that I am ready to move on from this spring of sickness, and health challenges, is an understatement.

Have a good week!

No update

 It's been almost two weeks, and the cardiologist's scheduling office has never called.

I will message my nurse tomorrow to find out why.  I get the feeling that my doctor is too busy sometimes, and that he forgets to do things.... this is pretty important, though, and I hate to think that of him.

In other news, we had lots of rain this past week!  Most of the state is, for the moment, OUT of drought! This is VERY big news indeed.

The upper respiratory issue I came down with upon returning from Chicago is FINALLY resolving.  I was sick for two weeks, and lost weight because I had no appetite.

The cough is much better, and the fatigue is improving as well.  I tested negative for Covid twice, so I have a feeling it was the flu.

Thought about going to the e/r a couple of times due to pain in my diaphragm area from the cough, but it has also resolved.

Hoping to be well enough to go back to the office tomorrow.

That's about it!  It's a gorgeous morning, so we are going to get outside and do some yard work.  I plan to at least work on refreshing my garden containers.  I am weeks behind schedule!

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!

Negative

 I finally tested negative for covid on Friday.  I will do another test today, as recommended in the test kit literature, to be sure I am truly clear of the virus.

Dave has stayed well, and is out of danger at this point. From me, anyway.

The other thing that came up negative for any indication of injury was the shoulder-blade-area ultrasound that I had on Thursday.

SO.  SOMETHING happened in there that caused me to have excruciating pain and internal blood loss, but, so far, we still don't know WHAT.

The big swelling is completely gone, now, the bruises are mostly gone, and most of the pain is gone as well.  It's just a bit sore, and gets weirdly uncomfortable if I do too much with my right arm, and after a full week of sitting at my desk, using my mouse.

Tonight will mark three weeks since the popping sound.

My nurse said that we might do a CT, or an MRI, if it gets bad again... Ugh.

Maybe my routine CT, to see if the chemo is working, will find something...anything... to explain what happened, so maybe it won't happen again!

We had some more lovely rain this past week, and the back yard weeds are going crazy!  I pulled some out of my gardening barrels yesterday (very careful not to hurt myself).  The soil was moist and loose, so they came out very easily.

I'm starting to think about what I want to do in the yard this year, and some of it involves possibly renting a roto-tiller.... or asking if our occasional yard guy can do it for us.

My wildflower mound, which was completely taken over by lambs quarters last year, needs to be cleared out, tilled, and re seeded....SOON.  We shall see.

Plans are coming together for a trip to Chicago next month to see my family, and to meet my Great Niece.

My doc has re arranged my treatment plan by one week so that we can be in Chicagoland at the same time as our dear friend, Cathy.  Hoping to arrange some time with her, though our schedules only match up for one full day.

Today is mostly about me finishing my weekly chores, maybe doing some spiritual work, and, hopefully, spending some time outdoors.

My next treatment is this coming Wednesday, so I will get my labs drawn on Tuesday.  Will be checking out the new-to-me walk in lab.

I'll also ask doc about when we need to do a scan, and when he wants me to go for my every-three-months echo cardiogram. 

Have a good week!

Addendum... NEGATIVE!