| Update |
[Nov. 19th, 2009|11:09 pm] |
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I went to the doctor today hoping to get off oxygen and go back to work Friday night. Not happening. I'm still on O2 and apparently will be for awhile. Thankfully I was planning to go bother my children next week for thanksgiving so I am not due back to work until the 30th. Please sent energy that I can go back--I'm out of sick leave. |
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| well sh*t |
[Nov. 17th, 2009|12:14 am] |
For anyone that doesn't know, I've spent the last three days in the hospital. As a patient as opposed to as a nurse. I was at work Thursday and I've been having an issue for about a week with shortness of breath--I thought I was *really* getting out of shape. But that night I was huffing and puffing after walking down the hall and I was next to the pulse ox so I measured my oxygen level: 83%. Not good, should be over 90%. My coworkers made me sit down and put portable oxygen on me. After I was back up to 92-93, I took off the oxygen to see if it was a fluke. No, my level dropped like a rock. Long story short, I had DH drive me to the ER an hour away because we live in the middle of nowhere and they admitted me with a shower of pulmonary embolisms i.e. blood clots in my lungs. A lot of them. Probably caused by the estrogen blocking drug tamoxifen that I have been taking since April to help forestall any occurrence of the breast cancer I had in January. I'm home on oxygen and will be OK.
Some days you just can't win. |
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| Homeless |
[Jun. 12th, 2009|10:21 am] |
We've been homeless for 2 weeks now. I'm waaaaay over this as is the rest of the family. Today I get the keys to the house and tomorrow our household goods get delivered. This is job is going to be ... interesting.
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| moving |
[May. 30th, 2009|07:11 am] |
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The packers/movers spent all day yesterday and did probably 2/3 of the house. Those guys *work*. I'm enjoying the quiet of sitting here with the cats. They are traumatized, they have on harnesses with rabies & lost tags that make funny noises. They keep trying to back out of them or lick them off, neither works well. Until the 12th and possibly beyond, we are homeless. 4 cats, 3 humans in hotels ain't this gonna be fun? But the "stuff" will be taken care of and we will be fine eventually. My internet access may be spotty for awhile. |
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| (no subject) |
[May. 20th, 2009|05:48 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  crazy | ] |
Ok this is driving me nuts. Now the job is changing my start date and saying that they don't have all the approvals. Excuse me? Was this a job offer or not? What about all that paperwork I signed? And the upheaval in my life? Do you have *any* clue of what you doing? *sigh* |
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| (no subject) |
[May. 14th, 2009|09:56 pm] |
It's official. I have a job. We are going to go live on the Navajo rez in New Mexico. They are paying me very well to go live in the middle of nowhere. But we *like* the middle of nowhere, so it's a fit. I start on May 26th.
It was a long 2 days to drive there and back, about 500 miles each way. I'm tired. |
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| job |
[May. 12th, 2009|06:40 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  excited | ] |
I have a job offer!! In writing. We are traveling to the site for the next couple of days. Stay tuned. |
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| (no subject) |
[May. 6th, 2009|09:44 am] |
| [ | mood |
| |  uncomfortable | ] |
After all was said and done, I ended up with a radiation burn. Picture an second degree sunburn in your armpit. Not fun but it's healed now. I went to the surgeon yesterday and everything is good--mammogram in 3 months on the cut boob.
Now I need the place that I hope I'm going to be working at to get with it. I applied with Indian Health Services 2/24 and they are still messing around. I'm getting frustrated and depressed which is making it hard to get anything done. |
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| Done |
[Apr. 11th, 2009|11:07 am] |
This is the last planned update. I have finished radiation and it wasn't too bad except that I have a radiation burn in my right armpit. The radiation oncologist and the therapists all tell me it isn't bad and that I did very well. I pity the folks that have a bad one--this is annoying enough. Picture a bad but not blistered sunburn in your armpit. Your dominant armpit. Anyway, I started the tamoxifen this morning and will be on that for five years, so I'm kinda done for the moment. The docs want follow up appointments but I'm pretty convinced that those are revenue generating appointments--not interested.
Thanks for all the interest and energy. You life is changed forever when you hear the words "you have cancer" but it is not a death sentence.
Maureen |
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| (no subject) |
[Mar. 24th, 2009|12:14 am] |
It occurs to me I haven't updated for awhile. I had my 19th treatment today, so I have 14 left to go. My skin is doing OK, the right breast is very definitely a darker color than the lily white left one but has so far been recovering on the weekends and doing well with being smeared with Aquaphor twice a day. My energy level is better but sometime I feel like I'm a marionette and someone has cut my strings. I certainly sleep well.
Two weekends I went to Brownsville Texas for job interviews (didn't get either one, grrr) and last week end we went to Grand Junction Colorado to see relatives and get some stuff placed for when we eventually move. This next week end I'm going to Bakersfield California to sing with my chorus. No wonder I'm tired! |
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| radiation |
[Feb. 25th, 2009|05:25 pm] |
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2 down 28 to go. The prep has been a pain, literally. My back has been spasming off and on due to an hour or more on a damn hard xray table. But the actual treatment is about 10-15 minutes and is just a question of lying still. I got home today and my eyes felt like I'm been out in the sun and my boob feels sunburn type sensitive. I'm using aquaphor and plan to use aloe to keep the skin in good shape. I was so tired, I took a nap. Maybe not having a job is a good thing. |
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| (no subject) |
[Feb. 16th, 2009|04:00 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| | numb | ] |
Last Friday, we saw the oncologist. No new news there, pretty much as expected. I plan on starting tamoxifen after the radiation and will continue for 5 years. Unless the medication doesn't agree with me and then we'll do something different. So the plan is that I start radiation on 23 Feb and end on 3 April. Mind you, that is a perfect world and that is something I haven't seen lately, so I'm not making any concrete plans for the 4th of April. Than I start the tamoxifen and we put this episode behind us except for the extra checkups, mammography, doctor bills ... |
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| (no subject) |
[Feb. 10th, 2009|05:05 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| | optimistic | ] |
I must be feeling better--I'm getting spunky.
I went to the radiation center yesterday and the measured and ran me through the machine and what not. I was bare from the waist up and had black marker and sticky wires for whatever reason. When all was said and done, the guy tatoos me four times so I have four tiny little dots: one in my cleavage, one under my breast and one in each armpit. I may have something done later with the one in the cleavage but then again, maybe not. The doc wants to start a 4 weeks postop--actually she wanted to start next week and I reminded her that I was only 2 weeks postop. The outside window is 8 weeks postop--just in case we end up relocating if I get a job! |
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| radiation |
[Feb. 4th, 2009|06:44 pm] |
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I saw the radiation oncologist today--I'm meeting all kinds of people I never wanted to meet! The plan is to start 4-6 weeks after the surgery (1/23) and it will be 5 days a week for 6 weeks. Each treatment will take about 15 minutes. Side effects are : fatigue and skin irritation. I can drive myself to the center and there are no restrictions. I meet with the oncologist on the 13th. |
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| (no subject) |
[Jan. 29th, 2009|03:40 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  tired | ] |
I saw the surgeon today. She said that the margins were clear i.e. they got it all and the cancer was estrogen & progesterone positive. She is referring me for radiation for probably 6 weeks, every day and to an oncologist who will probably put me on tamoxofin or an equivalent for 5 years.
I feel OK but still have no energy. I have been told that I'm only 6 days post op and I need to relax. *sigh* And the doc said I could go to word when I felt up to it. I don't think I could handle a 12 hour sift right now but maybe in week or so. Now I need a job to go to. |
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| (no subject) |
[Jan. 23rd, 2009|02:32 pm] |
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The surgery is done & I'm at home. I still have two breasts but I really lie drugs. And my throat hurts from the tube. *whine* |
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| (no subject) |
[Jan. 20th, 2009|07:01 am] |
I just talked to the doctors office and we are scheduled for Friday. There go *my* plans for the weekend! They will put a guidewire in my poor boob at 0700-via yet another mammography--and the surgery is scheduled for 0900. Which means I need to go to the hospital tomorrow and preregister and have bloodwork repeated that I had done on the 9th and pick up my films from the doctors office today. Would someone explain to me why they could not have sent them with me yesterday? *sigh* Apparently I expect too much.
I can't decide if I'm feeling better, not that I have felt sick physically, or the irritation is just part of the whole thing. |
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| (no subject) |
[Jan. 19th, 2009|05:18 pm] |
I saw the surgeon today and the plan is lumpectomy followed by radiation. This plan could change when the actually surgery takes place which will probably be Friday the 23rd.
Thanks for all the thoughts. At this point about the only the thing you can do is send positive energy. |
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| Bad news |
[Jan. 19th, 2009|06:19 am] |
| [ | mood |
| |  distressed | ] |
I think I'm going to need to journal. This is not going to be as fun as the last time.
In September I had routine mammography and they wanted to redo some of it. OK, no big deal it's happened before. But then they decided that I needed a biopsy. No can do because my health insurance ended the next day due to the fact that I was changing jobs. OOps. I wasn't too worried, they spoke of "calcs". OK, I start the new job and will not be eligible for insurance until 1 December. But when that date comes, I'm trying desperately to keep the job which is not going well. Like I'm thinking about throwing up every time I go to work not going well. New Years day, we get the call that the mobiles in Colorado burned to the ground. Not a huge loss but we still had stuff in them, Then on the 2nd I get called into the office and canned. Nicely but I'm unemployed. I triple check and I've got health insurance until the end of the month. So.
Last Monday I had repeat mammography--nothing changed. Wednesday I had the biopsy, The radiologist that did the biopsy walked in, announced it was benign and if he had read the mammography we wouldn't be doing this. I'm sitting there with my boob squashed between two plastic plates and said something to the effect of we're here, let's do it. And I get the call Thursday that the report is ductal carcinoma in situ. I spend the rest of Thursday a) freaking out b) trying to figure out what to do next and c) telling people that need to be told, like my kids.
I called a friend of mine who is a fifth generation Nevadan figuring that she has contacts and she did but that particular surgeon is going to be out of town and didn't want to see me. I went to the Komen center and talked with the director there. She gave me a bag with information, tee shirts that don't fit me and we talked. She mentioned another surgeon and I have an appointment with her today. Meanwhile Chris & I are snapping at each other, I still don't have a job and we are working on broke.
It's been a hell of a week. |
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| (no subject) |
[Jun. 20th, 2008|04:05 pm] |
20 June
OK, so we get another entry. We made it back--I really do not like staying up 30someodd hours and dealing with airports. I finally passed out on the San Francisco to Las Vegas flight.
Our last day we shopped and visited in the hospital, damn near died in a taxi--it's bad when the *driver* is making little noises, and went to SeaCon for dinner. So much for being low key. I'm glad I did it and I'm glad I'm home. So are the family and the cats.
If you have been reading this journal, please comment or email me. I feel like I've been talking in a vacuum. If you send a comment, it may take a day or two because I have it set up so that I need to approve them. And there are a few more pictures from the hospital. |
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