Adventure

Adventure I'd rather not have.

Lately I've been facing trouble with my port. If you're not familiar with them, it's kind of like a central line. I have a button under the skin in my chest and tubing that runs up and over my collar bone into my heart. I think that's the basics of it. They use it for my chemotherapy so they don't have to do so many needle sticks for IVs in my arm, plus the first four treatments of adriamycin are the more toxic chemo so they don't like putting it straight into the veins.

My last adriamycin three and a half weeks ago had to be put in through an IV. The nurse was having trouble getting a blood return from my port unless I turned my head. The IV wasn't dripping unless I turned my head. Basically she didn't want to put in a toxic chemo without being able to see it and know if it was going through or not. Adrimycin is given from a large syringe and pumped in separately instead of dripped in with the other IV bags.

Last night I looked at my neck in the mirror because it just hadn't felt quite right all day. It wasn't painful, just different. Well, the side of my neck that has the port was swollen enough to be visible. I ended up coming to the ER last night about 10:30, spending the night in the ER having a CT scan done and finding out I have a blood clot in my jugular vein in my neck. It's caused from my port (probably).

I've spent today in the hospital. I'm on shots to thin my blood since they can't give me coumadin until after I have surgery tomorrow to remove the port. They aren't putting another port in. They will just give the last 11 chemotherapy treatments through an IV. It's the less toxic of them so they are okay with it. I will be on blood thinner for three months until chemo is done.

Nothing has been ordinary!

On My Knees But Not In My Nose

So most of my hair started falling out the day before my second chemotherapy treatment. Finally I had hubby shave it down to mere millimeters just to make the showering process less messy. I still actually have some stubble left all over my head — it's just not much. I'm wondering if I'll keep it or if the Taxol I start after this last round of Adriamycin/Cytoxin will make it fall out.

Along those same lines, I've been kind of holding out on shaving my legs and arms. I'm thinking I'll just lose that hair and not worry about it. I've definitely thinned out. I did give in and shave my underarms this last week, but I've never been a hairy leg girl, so I just let that go.

Tonight on the way to church (the first time I've been in two weeks) I had on a denim skirt. When I would sit down my knees would show, so on the way there hubby looked over and saw hairy knees. I hadn't really noticed until then. The good thing is that we usually sit towards the back and it's dark enough that no one would notice when we were in the pew.

I just find some irony that I have hair on my knees and none in my nose that also happens to be longer than what's on my head.

Nose Hairs and Other Random Things

I take prescription antihistamines. Since I've started chemo, I've not been diligent about taking them in the morning and night both. When I was throwing up so violently after my first chemo, followed by four days of eating practically nothing, pills were not part of my thought pattern. Unless they were for nausea, of course.

For the last week or so my nose has been rather drippy, so I've been diligently taking my antihistamines morning and night. And I'm still pretty drippy. Which got me to thinking this morning.

Someone hubby works with mentioned that someone they knew lost their nose hairs along with all the other hairs that are unfortunately lost (although I won't mind not shaving my arms and legs, so that doesn't fall into the unfortunate category). And after their nose hairs fell out their nose ran all the time.

I checked in my mirror this morning. I don't know what I started with as far as nose hairs go. I can still see some, but I'm thinking that the nose hairs have significantly lessened enough in population that I am now in the 'nose run all the time' category, regardless of taking my antihistamine pills.

On another note, had you noticed that on my right sidebar I've put my upcoming treatment schedule? Betsy had that idea so people who wanted to specifically pray could find the dates without digging through old posts. You know, the ones about nose hairs and tongues and birds on pants.

I take a shot that helps my body produce more bone marrow the day following my chemotherapy. One potential side effect is bone pain. I didn't have any the first time, although I was already sicker than a dog. But after the second treatment two weeks ago and the shot, I did have some bone pain. It started in my ribs and then a couple of days later it hurt to take deep breaths. I had significant fatigue starting four days after chemo on Sunday which coincided with the bone pain. I had almost a full week of fatigue. We'll see what happens after the shot tomorrow (which we do at home and hubby gives me in the stomach!)

Switching gears, we lost a dear older friend at church a couple of weeks ago. This couple is part of the small group we host in our home. Bill was one of the most amazing Christian men I've ever met. Our kids love both he and his wife. After he passed away, Sparky said to her dad, "I think I'm going to quit being friends with old men. They keep dying on me." We had very special friends in Illinois, and Franklin died not too long after we moved to Virginia. We were family friends, but Sparky had a special relationship with him. He taught her how to use her natural artistic abilities to paint.

Chatty is away at horse camp as an assistant counselor for the next two weeks. It's harder for her to be away without one of us than for Sparky to just take off to other countries and continents. Our kids are all so different!

Sparky decided I needed to do an update on my 'Meet the Kids' posts since things have changed. I think I may take her up on it.

Oh, and in again totally unrelated but kind of big news, depending on which camp you're from, I'm on Facebook now. I was a serious hold-out, but I started to see some benefits and decided to take the plunge. Now I'm addicted to this Gardens of Time game. That wasn't the benefit I saw and probably won't ever be the benefit! If I know you from here and you want to friend me, just send me a request.

Signs Of Summer

Bundling Skills

We like to watch the TV show American Pickers at our house. If you've seen the show, Frank always likes to go for the bundle. Instead of paying one price for something, and one price for something else, he tries to bundle two or more things for a little lower price.

Those skills came in handy when Sparky went to the Dominican Republic in February. They had some good shopping close by, and she was able to buy lots of bracelets and necklaces for practically nothing to give to her friends. We even have a few left over.

The same man who made the jewelry also made wooden carvings. Sparky always tries to get Caboose some kind of carving if possible (and he loves turtles), and the Hispaniolan Woodpecker was a must for her dad. Not to mention her dad's love of birding, Sparky saw the Hispaniolan Woodpecker when she was in the DR.

The woodpecker was $10 and the turtle was $7. She looked around and didn't seem overly interested, and then asked if he would take $12 for both. He did.

She came home and told me all about her bundling skills! She did good.

On Always Being Behind In Electronics Purchases & Tongues & Scalps

We (as in Hubby and I) have always been behind the electronics power curve. We'd just assume wait until the models get better and the prices go down.

Plus we're kind of electronics wimps.

We didn't get our first VCR until 1991. It seems like everyone we knew had them already.

Answering machine — we didn't get one of those until 1998-ish. I couldn't stand to leave messages on them, so I didn't want one.

Now, people make fun of me for the length of messages I leave. I have no one to stop me from talking!

Our camera — film. Until recently. We loved our film camera and had a couple of extra lenses for it. We had purchased the girls small digital cameras that have been the source of the majority of my blog photos for the last couple of years. I borrowed their cameras a lot.

Until now.

A few months ago (about one month before my breast cancer diagnosis) we purchased a very nice digital camera with an extra zoom lens. Hubby had been saving leftover money from his business trips to purchase it.

I've now become a heavy clicker. I take lots of pictures when I'm photographing the birds in our back yard to try and get the best ones. Because of course the beauty is that you can delete everything you don't want.

In being a heavy clicker, I've gotten some great, if not unusual, shots of some of the birds. Specifically, their tongues. Here is the male red-bellied woodpecker. The first two are tongue shots and the last two you can actually see spit.




These next two pictures are a female oriole the first day we saw her when she migrated in. She's licking her lips/beak in the first one. The second picture also has some orange hanging out.


These next two are the female red-bellied woodpecker. It's a little harder to see her tongue in the first one than it was of the male in the earlier pictures. Her tongue is dark. The second picture we got spit again.


The blue jays aren't really showing their tongues, but I thought they were some cool shots of the one bird feeding the other.


And just to mix things up, this molting cardinal is how I'm feeling about now. Or maybe I should say looking like.


How ironic that he just showed up.

Even Moms Say The Funniest Things

My mom and stepdad are in Texarkana for my (deceased) grandpa's army reunion. It's a WWII group and there are fewer of them every year. My parents are honorary members and go every year.

So today my mom called to check on me and to see if I still had my hair (it's been one week since my treatment).

I told her I thought the inch I have would probably go today or tomorrow.

While we were on the phone, I asked her if she remembered it was my anniversary.

She said she didn't, but that if she was home with her calendar she would. Or at least she thought she had it written down and would.

She apologized and wished me a happy anniversary.

I asked her if she knew how many years I'd been married. She said, "Let me get my purse."

I told her to guess without getting it.

She said, "Forty...."

Me: "I'm only 45!"

My mom: "How many is it then?" (I'm wondering if she realizes that I'd have to be her age to be married that long...)

Me: "26 years."

My mom: "Would you believe me if I told you I was trying to be funny?" With a giggle.

Me: "No!"