Sunday, June 10th, 2007 - Nothing much new

Hiya Blogster,

There's not too much new to report but I relaized, once again, the days have gone by between posts. And, yes, trying to catch up is a bit difficult since (grin) I can't remember much past the last 24 hours.

This past week I completed the 4th week of radiation, so I have 7 more radiation sessions to go. 5 this coming week and 2 the week after. I think I've sailed through this pretty darn good. No major side affects other than I do get tired easily, I have problems with memory and concentration and the big challenge is walking. The walking challenge is not because of the radiation but because of the oral chemo. Sooooo, I think I may have mentioned at some point that Dr. Gill had changed my protocol with the chemo to only take it Mon-Fri, when I get the radiation, but to take a break from it on the weekends. When she made this change, it was not because of the feet, but so that I could regain some of my energy that has been very low. But alas, that hasn't seemed to help with the feet... OUCH!! The only way of describing it is, when I walk, besides the joint/arthritis pain in the knees/hips, every step I take it's like I am walking on a dozen tacks or nails in my heels. So one does not want to walk too far with that kind of pain. I do take pain killers (Tylenol #3 with codiene and/or Oxycodone with 400mg of Ibuprophen) which doesn't get rid of the pain 100%, but it does help, especially in the mornings.

Anywho... only 1 1/2 more weeks to go with the radiation/oral chemo and then Dr. Gill is going to put me on a 4 week break so that I can rebuild my system a bit before we start the aggressive IV chemos. The good thing with doing those, I'll be back on the steroids for 3 days our of every 14 day period... and those, not only help with the chemo side affects, but are miracle pills for the arthritis/joint pain. With a little bit of luck, the heel pain will be gone and Bridget and I can build up our walking regime again. Of course, the yucky trade-off is I will have to deal with that hypersensitivity to cold where I need to wear a glove to take anything out of the fridge and I can't drink anything cold. Yikes! With summer and the warmer weather here, I can't imagine how I'm going to survive with nothing cold to drink!

But... the above is my whining (grin). I try to offset that with keeping myself busy with stuff that doesn't require using my feet/legs, my memory, and/or the need for serious concentration LOL!!

So, this week (ok, I had to cheat and look at my appointment book - hahahaha!)... I met up with my Aunt Eileen and cousin Holly. I can't believe I took my camera to get some pictures, which of course I'd post here, and totally forgot I had brought my camera!! See what I mean?? Darn memory!! And I could have got some great ones of little diva Bridget telling off Holly's gorgeous black lab, Nelson. He is the sweetest black lab with a wonderful, calm, gentle temperment... but when Bridget would go out to explore the backyard, Nelson would follow her and hope that she would play with him. Instead, she would yell at him and tell him to back off... which he thought was her way of saying "Let's play!" Hahahaha... it was hilarious to watch them... as time went on, you could tell Bridget was not at all perturbed that Nelson was there, but she had to yell at him anyways just to remind him that SHE was the DIVA and HE was to listen to HER! I have no idea where/who she gets that attitude from!!! :) Anywho, Eileen, Holly and I had a wonderful visit and we really must get together more often. It's really hard though since Eileen lives on Saltspring Island and doesn't get to the mainland too often.

Now let's see... I think it was Wednesday that Nurse Donna was suppose to come over to flush out my portacath with saline solution, but lo and behold, Nurse Carol showed up. Now this is like a time warp!! Back in 2001 when I had the "Oops, sorry, wrong person" hysterectomy surgery, which ended up me having a major post-op infection... I had to have home care nursing for about 5 months for changing the wound dressings. Well, one of the nurses back then was Nurse Carol! That was 6 years ago!! As soon as we saw each other, we both recognized the other... and she was getting the feeling of deja vu when she came to the apartment building because she remembered being here before. Hahahaha... well, she's made an appt. to come back July 4th to do the portacath flushing again and it will be interesting to see whether her or Nurse Donna come because they both enjoy coming over because we get yakking (gee, who would have thunk poor, shy me would talk up a storm when they are here?). Carol and I had lots to talk about since we last saw each other. I sure enjoy those home care nurses...they are all so wonderful!!

Oh... and I met Kimberly, the Volunteer Co-Ordinator for TUTS (Theatre Under the Stars). Part of me keeping busy and getting out of the apartment is that I'm going to be involved with TUTS this year. One of the reasons is a lot of the people I did theatre with 25 years ago are involved and the other reason is I need to have something I can do in the summer that doesn't involve being out in the direct sunlight, since I (the sun goddess) are not allowed to be in the direct sun because of the reactions with the chemo. So TUTS will be perfect... I'll be with friends, it's in the evenings, and even though I will be there at 5pm or late afternoon... the sun will be behind the trees at that time so I won't be in the direct sunlight. Perfect! Of course, it will be interesting at night when it cools down... I'll have to be careful with the hypersensitivity to the cold. I'll probably be the only one there with a pair of wool gloves "just in case" :) Anywho... I will be taking on the position of Box Offic Co-Ordinator BUT they are being ever so accomodating because of my "condition" :) We are going to get three other volunteers who will be Co-Ordinators as well.. so the 4 of us will know all aspects, policies/procedures. One of us will have to be there at every performance to supervise AND if I can't make one of my performances, then one of the others will be able to cover for me. Meanwhile, I will work with Kimberly with organizing the volunteer box office staff, scheduling, training, etc.

Last night (Saturday), Joan, Eva and I went to Christ Church Cathedral (corner of Georgia and Burrard St) to take in the concert of the Good Noise Gospel Choir, conducted by Marcus Mosely, with guest singer, Lovie Eli. What a wonderful concert! I had arranged tickets through my dear friend, Nancy Herb, who is in the choir and she had a solo number with the choir backing her up. She was wonderful!!!

Today, I had a list of apartment chores I wanted to get done and it looked like a perfect day for it. It was gray, with the threat of rain (we only got showers here and there, no like the rain we got yesterday). It was so strange to take Bridget out and all the roads were shut down to vehicle traffic because all day it was an International Triathlon. When we went out in the afternoon we did go to the road because the bicycling part of the triathlon was happening... so we stopped to watch. Ha! These are no ordinary bicyclists.. they went by so fast it was like a blur!! Anywho, I'm sure they were happy with the weather... mild, very light showers... which is better weather for them than the scorching hot of the sun overhead.

Needless to say, no chores got done. I was tired, lack of energy and had a nagging headache. So Bridget and I napped and basically vegged out. Right now, I'm on the computer (surprise, surprise) and watching the Tony Awards! (sigh) Watching them make me really wish I was in New York and could take in some of these shows!! Hahaha.. of course, if I was there right now, I would have a hard time, or a painful time, walking around... but it sure would be fun to be there!

So, that's about it... I was going to say, no rest for the wicked... but that seems to be all I've been doing is resting!

Ciao for now!

Cheryl