4 of 12

It seems strange to keep writing about "nothing" (at least nothing new), but I guess this is my new normal.  I'm still kinda sleepy (and dopey), so not much writing, but I have a lot of pictures to share.

My chemo regimen is/was 4 AC's every 2 weeks and 12 TH's every week.  So whether you are counting number of infusions or weeks, I'm over half done either way. Woo hoo!

This was the week I didn't have to see Dr. Shah--only the nurse.  Unfortunately, my blood counts all dropped and they wanted to check/count them manually, so the time I saved by not seeing Dr. Shah was eaten up by waiting for lab counts!  Numbers were:

Platelets: 88 thou/mcL 
Abs # neut:  1.9 thou/mcL
WBC: 3.1 thou/mcL
Hemoglobin 9.8 gm/dL

My chemo buddy was Laura, who actually took a day off of work to chauffeur me around.  We had a great time catching up over lunch and while waiting for my lab results. :)  

She was an especially good sport since the Benadryl hit me pretty quickly and I actually fell asleep this time. :(

I seem to be developing a pattern whereby the Benadryl knocks me out during and shortly after chemo.  I get home, manage to eat a little supper, then crash (nap) for a few hours. When I wake up, the Benadryl seems to have worn off and the steroids kick in.  The last couple Thursdays, I've felt awesome all day.  Here's hoping that holds for tomorrow as well!

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Last Friday I wore the wig in public for the first time--to a graduation party held at Zilber for the Fall and Spring grads.

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My friend Bailey got me the coolest print at a local art fair.  The print, and others like it, are on the website ArteryInk.com.

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Mira did "Run the Bay"--a 5K fundraiser for our public school district.  I'd hoped to run it with her, but I have been very short of breath and tired lately--my attempts at running have not been good.  She did amazing (24:30) for not really running much since last fall.

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Travis won an award from the high school tonight--Outstanding Junior Math Student!  He also got a pin for another year on the varsity Math Team.

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And Cara is on her way across the state now, to be home for the summer.  Greg is a champ, as he left home at 6:30 this morning, drove to the Twin Cities, moved stuff for Cara, then packed the CRV to the top to move her home.  I expect they'll be here sometime shortly before midnight.

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I haven't posted knitting pics for awhile.  I've been too tired to knit much more than in the waiting room.  I haven't made it to Night Knitting for a few weeks, but now that my job at Mt. Mary is done for the year, I have Tuesday mornings free to knit with that group.

Here's hitchhiker with 38 of 42 teeth:

And Travis' socks are almost done:

I'm ready to finish both of those projects and move onto something new.

I've also pulled out the sewing machine and am trying to find a decent pattern for a lightweight chemo hat/scarf/turban thing.  I've pinned a few patterns and may try to play around with them.  

And I'm caught up on Grey's Anatomy (through this season's finale) and we're on Season 3, episode 19 ("The Price") in Angel.  It's going a bit slower, as my eyes get too tired and blurry to watch more than one episode a day.

Medical appointments--and knitting

I had my one week follow-up with the plastic surgeon and either I misunderstood, he forgot what he'd told me, or the plans changed when my repair surgery became more intensive (think it's the last of these).  So I did NOT get my stitches out and I did not get "embiggened."  :)  BUT I am healing very well and am cleared for starting chemo next week.  So if all goes well when the stitches come out on Tuesday, and my blood counts are high enough on Wednesday, I will start infusions Wednesday around lunchtime.

The other thing is that I'm able to start running again next week.  I can use the elliptical this week if I want (it's NOT my favorite form of exercise), but it takes 6-8 weeks for sufficient integration of my tissue into the AlloDerm following surgery, so to be safe, no running before 8 weeks.  The last time I ran was January 7th, so I'm wondering if I'm going to have to re-do the whole C25K program from the start again.  Of course, given the horribly long stretch of temps not getting above freezing, I may not want to run--at least not outside, even next week.

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Finally, it's been awhile since I posted knitting updates.  I've been working on all three projects to a certain extent.  Trav's socks are slow-moving, as they're my totally brainless knit:

I'm really enjoying Hitchhiker.  I waited so long for the plastic surgeon (before my five minute appointment) that I was able to knit three notches worth on it--11 of the 42.  That was also long enough for me to finally memorize the 8 row repeating pattern!  I like the way the yarn (an old Knit Picks sock yarn) is pooling.

And then there's the recovery cardigan.  I'd taken some time off from knitting it, as it's not portable.  But this weekend I had time to knit at home and this pattern has sucked me back in!  Back, both fronts, and about 1 1/3 sleeves are done.

Happy birthday to me!

Today I turned 45 years old.  I had long ago wondered how this birthday would "hit" me, as I was surprised that both turning 30 and turning 40 were relatively nothing birthdays, but for some reason 35 was tough.  

I can say that, at least on the actual anniversary of my day, 45 was another "nothing."  The rest of the year may prove different, but so far, so good.  :)

And I appreciate so many people hoping for a Packers' win for my birthday, or telling me how sorry they are that the Packers didn't pull off a win for my birthday.  However, I am not, have never been, and don't think I ever will be a Packers fan, so that didn't ruin my day!  I didn't necessarily WANT the Packers to lose, and I do have a lot of people who are important to me who are now pretty sad, but I can say that I enjoy watching the Super Bowl more when the outcome doesn't really matter to those I'm watching it with.  So in that sense, I'm happy with today's outcome.


All in all, it was another low key day with a walk outside, some knitting (turned the heel!), a family game of Rummikub, and Rice Krispie treats for dessert.

Knitting

Since Nancy asked what I was knitting, I figured I'd take the opportunity to share what projects I have going.

I started a pair of socks for Travis in December, during my mom's last hospital stay.  My goal is to get them past the heel turn before starting chemo so that they can be my "take with" project.  The best thing about knitting socks is that they're so small, lightweight, and portable.  I have developed my own sock pattern by merging my favorite techniques from several patterns.  I prefer to use funky yarns and a very plain pattern (just knit--not cables or such) because I do usually take the socks along to work on when I'm doing other things and don't have the ability to focus on a complicated pattern.  Today I actually got to the point where I can start the heel turning.  Yay, me!  :)

The other thing I'm not yet working on, but looking forward to is this cardigan:

I had posted how beautiful it was on Facebook a few weeks ago and a group of Facebook friends (many who do not even know each other--I'm not sure how they all pulled this off!) sent me the yarn to knit it.  Surprisingly I was missing a size 13 needle, but got an Amazon gift certificate from another friend, so ordered that.  As soon as I have the socks past the heel, I'm going to start my recovery cardigan.  It's super thick and will be so warm and comfy, but will decidedly NOT be a take-with project!

And much to my surprise, I received another beautiful gift of yarn from another set of friends.  I have five skeins of Noro Taiyo and the latest Noro magazine.  I have no idea what I will make from it, but Noro is so beautiful that I may just leave it as is for awhile so I can pet it and imagine all sorts of possible projects.  (And I'm open to suggestions from those of you who have experience with Noro color ways)

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Today was a lot more normalcy.  I actually went to the mall for a bit because the temps were in the 40's and I decided to run errands with Greg instead of just walking around the block again.  I also helped (a little--very little) with making supper today.  

My complaints are minimal, but still annoying.  The compression bra that I need to wear post-surgery is causing some sort of rubbing irritation on my right side.  A lot of my whining about the drains and stitches pulling are in that area and when Greg got home, he told me that area is all red.  Ugh...  So glad I have an appointment with the plastic surgeon on Monday--hoping he can make a suggestion or let me switch to some other, less-irritating thing to wear.