Sunday, March 2nd, 2008 - A new week

Dear Bloggy,

As of what time it is when I started typing this entry, it is still Sunday for 20 more minutes. I'm sure by the time I finish typing the entry, it is going to be Monday, so I wasn't sure whether to put the title line as Sunday or Monday. See the dilemma?? :)

Anywho... this is just a little babble entry because if I leave it any longer, another two weeks or longer will have gone by. Which is crazy! If I leave it 10 days to two weeks, I seriously can't remember what happened in the last 2 weeks to report on here on the blog... yet, do you think I can get my act together to make an entry when things actually happen?? Nooooo! I need a secretary!! :)

Last week (yes, it's been a whole week!) was the Oscars. No big surprises there and no wild crazy moments that make the night memorable. It seems the Hollywood crowd has all grown older or something... there just aren't the crazy actors that used to be at the Awards and we all could look forward to some craziness to happen. I still haven't seen all the nominated movies and chances are I won't be getting to them in the near future. Time to move on I guess and will catch new ones that come out. I've got my eye on wanting to see The Other Boleyn Girl so hopefully will be able to take that in one of these days soo. I missed out on seeing the last Elizabeth movie and I really do like those historical movies.

But this week is already pretty booked, so I'm not sure that I'll be able to see any movies. Tomorrow I'm going to be meeting my friend, Alison Tohill for lunch down on Granville Island. We haven't been able to get together for lunch since before Christmas, so time to catch up. On Tuesday, I'm going to meet up with Jill in the TUTS office to do some spreadsheet work. Then, if all goes according to plan, I am hoping to take a bus downtown Wednesday afternoon so I can pop in to say "hi" to the gang at work. Hehehe... this is dependent on me having enough energy every day. I'm pushing myself a bit to try and build up those energy reserves. It's interesting how some days I have the energy of the good old days and other days, I wake up knowing I'm in big trouble for the whole day :)

On Thursday, I have to go to the clinic here in the West End to have Nurse Chris flush out my portacath with heparin. This has to be done every 4 weeks when it's not being used. I'm sure Dr. Gill is wanting me to keep the portacath for awhile yet in case we ever need to use it again... but it would be fabulous if we just keep getting it flushed every 4 weeks and never have to use it again :) At some point she will then arrange for me to go to Vancouver General to have it surgically removed.

After I see Nurse Chris, I will then have a bit of time to kill before I go to the Cancer Agency to have my PET scan. Hahaha... it's not even as if I can take myself out for a nice lunch before I go to the Agency because I have to fast for 6 hours before the scan. I will be taking a good book to read because it sounds like there's a lot of waiting around. I will be there for 2 1/2 hours but the scanning process itself is only 30 minutes. So for the other 2 hours, it will be prep time and waiting. At some point I have to drink this sugar water type drink... and will also be hooked up to an IV where they will put a radioactive dye into my veins. It's the combination of the beverage and the dye that will be able to show any suspicious areas. The scan will be from the head (eyes) to the knees. I have to take a list of any surgeries I have had in my lifetime because apparently scar tissue will show up the same as active cancer cells would. So they will want to know right off the top what might be scar tissue vs an area that might cause some concern.

Anywho... I'll be glad to have that scan behind me. I won't actually know the results until the following week when I see Dr. Gill on Friday, March 14th. At that time, I will also have more blood work done at the lab at the Cancer Agency, in particular the Tumour Marker test which measures the levels of CEA in my blood.

I may have been a little misleading in the last entry. I had said that the normal reading for CEA is 0... except that everyone is different. For me, we are pretty sure the normal reading is 0 because that is what it was during the chemo sessions. The reason we are having the PET scan is the December reading (first time the test was done post chemo) the reading was slightly elevated at a 6. Now that could have just been a fluke or false positive so Dr. Gill was not concerned. At the beginning of February, the reading was an 18. So since there was a rise, she has decided to call for a PET scan. It is not much of a rise and it still may mean absolutely nothing, but best to check it out. For someone else, a 6 or 18 is very low so they would be perfectly happy with that reading. So, like I say, everyone's "norm" can be totally different and different factors can raise or lower the levels of measurement.

Well, it's now midnight. Soooo, the big question, do I go to bed with a good book or do I stay here at the computer and out of the corner of my eye watch CSI: Miami?? :D

Oh, and I forgot... must make a note for myself to go to the Book Warehouse tomorrow and pick up a copy of Eckhart Tolle's "A New Earth". This is currently one of the books on Oprah's Book of the Month Club and she thinks the world of this author. So much so that she is putting on a world first online class with the author about the book. It is going to be every Monday at 6pm PST for ten Mondays. You can register on her website (http://www.oprah.com) for the class. Of course, I am behind in that I haven't picked up the book yet and it would be ideal to have read the whole thing before tomorrow's class. But, I thought I would read the book and even though I won't have read it by tomorrow at 6pm, I'd check out the class and see if I enjoy it.

Hahaha and I DID finally get to finish tidying and clearing out my front hallway today. I've been wanting to do this for months. You know how it goes... you start leaving the mail and then a bag goes here and a bag goes there. I do NOT have a big hallway so it doesn't take much for it to look totally cluttered... and I ended up having a lot in it. It is now all neat and no clutter! Yayayaya! This is just the beginning... I'm going to go methodically through the whole apartment, and then the closets. And hopefully I will get the whole apartment decluttered and simplified before summer :D

Ciao for now!

Cheryl