We learn something new

Today was not as good a day as others have been. I went upstairs - when I came down, I felt a bit exhausted. It was like that for most of the day.

This afternoon - we went to see Dr. Wallach, my oncologist. She went over the tests with us that I went for just before the surgery. The PET-CT and bone scan were okay. Also the CTC was okay too. That's all good news - so no cancer showing up in other parts of my body.

She said that I'm going to need to go through 4 courses of chemotherapy over 12 weeks - 3 weeks apart. She said the first time we need to plan on being there about 4-6 hours. It takes longest the first time because there's education involved as well as just taking longer so that we become familiar with the procedures. I should be sure to drink a lot of water before hand to plump up my veins. I asked about using a port. Dr. Wallach said that it looks as if I have good veins in my right arm and therefore shouldn't need a port. I'll be able to start chemo as soon as my plastic surgeon gives the okay. She said ideally she'd like for me to start while I'm still on sick leave. I don't know if that's going to happen as I'm going to be off work for another two weeks. I have no idea if I'll get the go ahead from Dr. Jones that soon. I go see him next week - so we'll see.

We also learned that now I should only have my blood pressure taken using my right arm only. That's because I'm now missing some of the lymph nodes on my left side. I asked about when women have both breasts removed. What then when taking blood pressure? The answer was that then they use the ankle. Who would have thought?

And then about 2 weeks after the first chemo treatment, I'll start loosing my hair. I'm trying to prepare myself. My calculations make that around the end of June-beginning of July. I'm thinking about cutting my hair shorter and shorter until it's time to shave it all off.

I think I'll check with my insurance company tomorrow to find out what they'll pay for.

I got a surprise today. There was a knock on the door. When I opened the door, there was a FedEx truck driving off. I found a box from ProFlowers on my doorstep. A beautiful bouquet of roses from Lissy Jarvik. They came just before I had to leave for the doctor's appointment which was a good thing since the sun was beating down on my front door at the time.

Oh I finished reading Angels & Demons tonight. Wow, what a story. As the ending was unfolding, I kept guessing at some of the answers. Sometimes I was correct and sometimes I was totally wrong. Now to find another book that will be all engrossing . . .