Quick look

A quick trip to Cedars for a nurse's visit.  The research nurse wanted to check out the injection sites on my leg.  It did not have the crazy reaction that past drug trial treatments have shown.  She thinks that my immune system is getting back on line, thus I am not having drastic adverse reactions to the injections anymore.  This is good to hear!

Drug Trial Day - Month 12

Time for my twelve month follow up and next round of injections.

As always, first stop the vampire's lair.  Today we set a new record as the vampire sucks out twelve vials of blood.  It takes a while to suck out twelve vials of blood.  I'm going to say twelve minutes at least, but I think it was more like fifteen.  And, since they were taking so much blood this time the vampire informed me that she needed to use a bigger needle.  Oh yay!!! Blah!!!  The vampires do their best to keep the mood light as it seems like it is taking forever to fill all the vials.  They are quite the jovial bunch of blood suckers.  We had some laughs and finally I was done and on my way.

Next stop is the doctor's visit.  First we discuss the results of all my tests from last week.  Everything looks good, except they did not do the ultra sound on my pelvis to check on the fibroids so they will schedule one for me.  Blah, definitely not a favorite test.  He would also like me to schedule an appointment with my breast cancer surgeon to go over my mammogram results.  He said that I should be seeing her after each of my mammograms (every six months).  Then we discuss how I have been feeling lately.  My biggest complaint is that I seem to feel nauseous more often these days.  Other than trying to eat much healthier, there does not seem to be anything in my diet that would be causing it.  He thinks my body is beginning to produce hormones again.  At my last visit, my estrogen levels were still very low and the tamoxifen will block any estrogen my body tries to produce, however, the ovaries are still trying to do their job and are likely producing other hormones that my body is trying to adapt to.  Other than that, all the same fun symptoms seem to be hanging around; fatigue, hot flashes, memory loss.  On the plus side of side effects, my body seems to have adapted to allow me to eat berries again.  I have been slowly testing the waters this last week.  So far blueberries and cranberries have made it through without any hives.  Yay!  We shall continue albeit slowly with the berries.

Side note:  the research nurse had to do this huge report (looked like 50 pages) for my file from my little  over night stay in the hospital when they thought I had a blood clot.  I felt a little bad and told her that it was not my intention to stay overnight and have them run all those tests.  We agreed it would be best if that did not happen again, I for one am on board with that plan.

Now it is time to head over to the short-term treatment area to be tortured by the cobra.  I put the first round of lidocaine on my leg in the doctor's office to give it time to set in.  Plus, took the Ativan after I finished at the vampire's lair.  I should be nice and ready for these injections.  There is still some time while they prepare the injections, so Southpaw and I ready ourselves.

Tried to get the cobra to give Southpaw some of my injections.

Southpaw checking the needles. 

Let the games begin:

First injection goes in, no problem.  Hardly felt it.

Number two is not too bad either.

Not happy about number three.

Three does not go in very nicely.  I'd give it a six on the ole scale.

Fourth injection, the worst of them all.

I'm not sure if it is the placement or what, but the fourth one goes in with a big bang.  I even flinched a little and when it was done it still felt like the needle was in.  Now we hangout for an hour to make sure I don't have any adverse reaction.  Southpaw and I finish watching our movie and then the cobra comes back to bandage me up before I go home.

Southpaw checking out the cobra's bandaging technique.

The cobra gives the okay and I am discharged.  Off to lunch and get today's treat.

Today felt like a two treat day so we got both.

Marathon Scan Day

Time for my annual scans, twelve months post chemotherapy.  It is going to be a long day at the Cedar's Campus.  Arrival time: 8am.

First stop is the new Heart Institute Pavillion for yet another echocardiogram and ekg.  The technician remembers me from July.  I get through this test without any problem.  The ekg technician comes in afterwards and takes care of this test rather quickly.  Now I have some time to kill before my next appointment.  I go in search of food.  For my next round of scans I cannot eat or drink anything after 10:30am and will not be able to eat again until about 5pm.  I find myself a nice breakfast; eggs, chicken sausage, potatoes, and toast.  Good to go.

Next stop, Imaging Center.  First up is the injection for bone scan, she also puts in an IV port for the afternoon procedures.  This one goes in so much more nicely than the last time.  It probably helps that I have also had a couple of Ativan.

Southpaw thinks she did a nice job.

This takes only a few minutes and I am off to the CT scan area to drink the "smoothie".

Southpaw shares smoothie.

After we drink up it is off to the mammogram area.  I only have to have my right side done, so I am anticipating no real problems.  I get three images done and then wait for the doctor to look at them.  He wants to see some more images, so the technician does four more images.  So, that is a total of seven boob squishing pictures.  They want me to wait again for the doctor to look at these images.  I inform them that I need to go to my CT scan appointment.  They let me go, but I have to come back to them when I am finished with all of my other scans.  I get to the CT area and they make me drink a baby "smoothie" because too much time has passed.

Banana, not so bad.

I make it through the CT scanning without any issues.  Now it is over to the bone scan area again.  The technician is ready and waiting for me.  She gets me all secured into the machine, they strap you in nice and snug to keep you still.  And off we go.  This room is dark and cool.  The scan takes about thirty minutes.  I am exhausted by this time.  I fell asleep about five minutes into it.  A nice little cat nap.  I wake up when the technician comes back into the room at the end of the scan.  All went well, so off I go back to the mammogram area.  The nurse informs me that the doctor would like to have an ultra sound done.  So down the hall we go to the ultra sound room.  This test takes about twenty minutes and then I have to wait for the doctor to look at the images.

Southpaw the Ultra Sound Tech

The ultra sound looks fine and they schedule me for another mammogram in six months.  My day is now complete, nine and a half hours later.  No treat today, I just want to go home and go to sleep.

A month without doctors

Aside from a couple of physical therapy appointments, I made it through my first month without any doctor's visits.  Feels pretty darn good!  But, I am far from being 100% healthy.  I am still pretty tired most of the time.  It could be that I might be pushing myself a bit though too.  Besides going back to work, I have been increasing my physical activity.  I have been playing pick up basketball games twice a week (with a few nurses so I feel protected in case anything goes wrong) and softball once a week.  A couple of other days I try to get in a short jog on the beach.  My breathing is much better, I don't get as winded as I did back in July (I can run the bases now).  This is a big improvement.  I still have to compression wrap my arm every night before I go to bed.  This seems like it will be my "normal" as long as I keep on being active.  All, in all, I feel pretty good about how far I have come considering this time last year I was going through my last round of chemotherapy.

Unexpected Hospital Time

It's always something, that is for sure.

My arm and hand have been a little more swollen than my normal swell ever since the airplane ride back home on Monday night.  My hand started showing signs of an infection late Wednesday evening.  By Thursday there was significant pain, swelling of the index finger, and some redness.  I had a physical therapy appointment Thursday afternoon.  The therapist examined my hand and told me that I needed to monitor the situation, if it got worse I would have to go the emergency room and get antibiotics for cellulitis.  She did some lymphatic massage to help move the swelling in my hand and arm out towards the other lymph node clusters.  The redness appeared to go away and the pain was a little less.  We wrapped my arm before leaving her office.  The next morning I unwrapped my arm and my hand was significantly more swollen than the day before.  So much, that I could not fit my compression glove on.  I got ready and head to work.  As the day progressed, the pain in my hand increased to the point that I decided I needed to go the hospital and get some antibiotics.  Knowing how emergency rooms operated, I stopped by my house after work to grab a few things to make my wait bearable, including Southpaw.

I arrived at the ER about a quarter past five.  The triage nurse took my vitals, checked out my hand, and wrote down my symptoms.  I told her that I also had some pain in my chest.  I described it as one feels when they are catching a cold or have the flu.  The pain you get when you are getting sick and it is hard to breathe.  In my mind, I had an infection.  She gave me a mask to wear in the waiting room.

ER fashion at its best.

After about three hours they finally had a bed for me.  The doctor came right away and started asking me a ton of questions.  He was very concerned about the pain I had in my chest.  I reviewed the events of the past week:  airplane trip, I did a short little jog on the beach Tuesday morning, physical therapy yesterday, worked, nothing out of the ordinary for me.  He asked if I had any cramping, I told him the other night I was woken out of a deep sleep by an insanely painful leg cramp in my calf muscle.  I told him I didn't think much of it since I have a tendency to get cramps in my calves often.  He told me that he wanted to check me for a blood clot.  Argh!!! Really!!!  I apparently hit the blood clot symptom trifecta: cancer, swollen arm, long airplane trip.  Plus, the chest pain.  I was going to be there for awhile.  It was already after 8:30pm.

Southpaw comforting me after an oh so painful IV placement.
Right in the crease of the elbow - not fun!!

The battery of tests came fast: chest x-ray, IV placement, blood work, ultra sound, and then a CT scan of my chest.  In between all the tests, I was given an IV drip of concentrated antibiotics for the cellulitis in my hand.  By the time I was finished with the CT scan it was now about 12:30am.  All the tests came back negative.  Whew!  But, the doctor was still puzzled by the pain in my chest.  He told me that  it would be best to admit me overnight for observation.  It was already the middle of the night so, why not.  He did not like the idea of releasing me yet since tomorrow was Saturday and I would not be able to see my doctor until Monday.  They took me up to the cardiac isolation ward for my stay overnight.  The nurse settled me in, hooked me up to a heart monitor and the team of doctors (2) came in and asked me a bunch of questions, too.  They took their notes and left.  It was now about 3am.  I got to doze off for a bit before the nurse came in around 4:30am to check my vitals and heart monitor.

Southpaw checking heart monitor

Fell back asleep for a couple of hours.  The nurse came back in shortly after 7am.  I would get to have breakfast after they came and took my blood again.

Not the breakfast in bed one hopes for.

The doctors made their rounds just before 11am.  The two doctors from last night, plus their boss and a few others.  We recounted the events of the past week once again and what brought me there last night.  She told me that all my tests came negative including this morning's blood work.  She asked how I was feeling this morning.  I told her that I was feeling better and the pain in my chest had mostly gone away.  We discussed doing a follow up with a stress test to make sure that all was well with my heart.  She did not see any reason for me to stay any longer so they would go ahead and discharge me after lunch.

Finally, left the hospital around 1:30pm.  I headed home, stopping to pick up my antibiotic prescription on the way home.  When I got home, I took a shower and then fell asleep on the couch.  It had been a very long 36 hours.

Family time back home

Had a wonderful visit to my home town to see my family.  It was a quick trip filled to the brim with activities.

In continuation of my birthday, more baseball games.  Saturday night, Sox annual Half-way to St. Paddy's Day game.  Wasn't much of game, Sox are in last place, but it's a baseball game and I am happy.  The added entertainment of Irish music and fireworks show made it worth while.  Plus, two of my favorite fans were there, Dad and my brother which makes it even better.

Half-way to St. Paddy's Day Game

Sunday the baseball game was on rain delay, so we watched the Bears game on the jumbo-tron in center field.  Chalk that up to an unexpected experience that could never be planned.  Unlike ball parks on the west coast, the beer vendors made their rounds even during the rain delay, love Chicago ball games.

Rain Delay

After the football game ended, the baseball game was still on delay so we figured three hours at the ballpark with no baseball was enough so we head home for family dinner.  My mom loves to prepare family dinners, as per usual she produced a wonderful feast.  Happy tummies all around!!

Birthday Noodles - family tradition

Table of Yumminess

Round 1

The next day before heading to the airport, we stopped at Hot Doug's for lunch.  If you are ever in the neighborhood, you must try these gourmet sausages.  You will not be disappointed.  This time around we had quite the tasty tasting:

Hot Doug's!

The best part of going with a small group is you get to try a bunch of them.  There was three of us, so we each choose two.  Classic Chicago hot dog, grilled; Apple, Pear and Port Wine Elk Sausage; Foie Gras and Sauternes Duck Sausage; Smoked Bison Sausage; The Atomic Bomb Spicy Jack Cheese Stuffed Pork Sausage with Sweet and Spicy Mustard and Habanero-Jack Cheese; Brandy-Infused Portuguese Chorizo.  Once again happy tummy!!

Headed to the airport to fly home.  Wonderful trip, way to short.  Hope to do again soon.

Flight of the Invisible Man

Flying for the first time since my journey began is a little nerve recking.  I have many things to consider when getting onto an airplane now, more so than before.  My arm will not handle the cabin pressure the same way as a healthy arm so precautions need to be taken.  Step one: compression wrap.  To avoid issues at the security check point, I waited to wrap my arm until I was at the gate.  I made sure I arrived extra early to give me time to wrap up.  I have become quite the pro at compression wrapping and can get it done in about 15 minutes now.

This is how the Invisible Man flies.

Next step to preparing to fly, hitting the airport lounge for a little help relaxing.  A nice double shot of Maker's neat should do the trick.

The Invisible Man's happy juice

The flight went well.  I did feel some pressure in my hand and the area on my arm above the compression wrap.  It wasn't too extreme, so I think it went well.