Three weeks of work complete and counting! Sorry it has been so long since I've written another entry. Being back at work does take up all the free/boredom time I had before.
I feel that probably my biggest accomplishment since my brain surgery in November is that I have managed to make it through the last three weeks of work without hitting what my husband calls "crash mode". (I have a feeling he gathered that saying from one of his destructive X Box games). I have also had my first round of chemo after my six week straight of treatment, and let me tell you . . . double the chemo dosage is certainly a new experience. Before my major food repulsion was blueberry yogurt, thanks to my double dosage, it now seems to be ALL yogurt. I had a hope that the nasty/gross/vomit/overall-eww feeling of this would pass after I finished that week of treatment, but unfortunately it has not chosen to leave. After my next six months of chemo treatment end I am going to have to create some real courage to attempt to try yogurt again. Or, if you have someone you really don't care for, give me some yogurt (preferably blueberry), and tell me where to aim.
Right now my life has changed from staring at the inside of our house all day to a very predictable schedule. Now it is work, doctor, sleep . . . work, doctor, sleep . . . work, doctor, sleep, etc. To help with this I have set a time limit on myself; my goal is to leave work every day by at least five o'clock. For my first week back, my goal was 5:30, but I've learned that while I don't feel the tiredness at the time, I do feel it when I hit the bed that night. My husband has been pretty nifty though and has begun cooking dinner during the week so there is dinner there and waiting for me when I get home . . . and this time he hasn't set fire to anything! (To make a long story short, he once left tortillas in the oven and forget they were there. You can probably predict what happened after about twenty minutes of tortilla-oven-cooking).
Last Thursday I had my first appointment with Dr. Stilles post-radiation. It was good and bad. First of all the good: They did not feel a need to do the scheduled CT Scan since my MRI a couple weeks before showed absolutely no tumor regrowth or brain tissue damage from the radiation treatment. Whew! That was the good news. Now the not so good news: My left ear appeared to have an infection, but it was not a normal infection. It apparently looks a lot like swimmer's ear since it is before my ear drum; but the problem is that the medication they had me take has had zero impact. That leave my special left radiation-filled ear with two options; one is that it is an odd fungal infection. The second option is that it is permanent damage as a result of the radiation being fired at the area for six weeks. I will be meeting with Dr. Stilles this Thursday again to discuss options. If nothing else, one amusing thing about this is that everyone sounds very odd in my left ear, while very normal in my right. When I woke up this morning I let my husband know that he sounded a bit like a koala (No, I have no idea what that sounds like, I was half asleep and clearly in the middle of some really weird dream). My hope is that I can figure out a way for my husband to sound like Leonardo DiCaprio. Wish me luck! ;)
Sunday, March 24, 2013
Sunday, March 10, 2013
My New Best Friend? Anti-Itch Cream!
I've survived my first week back at work! Don't get me wrong, it wasn't like it was a walk in the park, but I'm back and and I'm back for good. With everything going on at the school it was more than a little crazy the first couple days, but with any luck there is no other place to go but up (knock on wood)!
The big news this coming week is that I am going to be starting my next round of chemo as of Monday evening. It is only going to be a week long, so in theory it shouldn't affect my body as much as my six week stint of chemo did. The big difference this time is that while I am only taking this round of chemo for a week, it will be twice as strong as my last daily dosage. Ouch. Dr. Wagner is not predicting that this will affect my immune system to any problematic level since my immune system kicked-some-behinds (in a good way) during my six weeks, all that he said could be bad is nausea. Before I was able to just take one anti-nausea pill, and it would last me all day, and my only issues would be oddball ones (ex. blueberries). I am planning on upping any anti-nausea drug up to "two a day" without an experimental "one a day" this week. I am also considering adding a new rule to my classroom of no more blueberries within my presence. ;)
This next week I also have another CT Scan on Thursday with Dr. Stilles. The only goal of this CT scan is to look at my brain and check to see that appropriate repair within my brain has taken place since my last set of radiation four weeks ago. I had a MRI a couple weeks ago that showed awesome improvement post-brain surgery, so I do not see any upcoming problems from the data that will be collected on Thursday. The only annoying thing about this is that the latest the radiology department at the hospital could make my appointment was 4:00 pm, so I'm going to have to leave school just after the kids and try not to get stuck behind a logging truck or some quirky person who doesn't believe in going over 50 mph on a
70 mph highway. My odds of avoiding those vehicles are probably a lot smaller than the odds were of me making it out of brain surgery in November 100% okay.
On another happy note, my hair is beginning to show some more growth. The only areas that are growing are still just the couple areas where I did not lose hair during radiation, but the rate of growth has certainly increased. I now have to shave my had twice a week to keep my "Mr. T" patch to a short length. Except for my Mr. T patch, I do not have any new hair coming in, but I think I might be enjoying that for now, because I am now learning how growing hair on your scalp patches itches like no tomorrow. Anti-itch cream here I come!
The big news this coming week is that I am going to be starting my next round of chemo as of Monday evening. It is only going to be a week long, so in theory it shouldn't affect my body as much as my six week stint of chemo did. The big difference this time is that while I am only taking this round of chemo for a week, it will be twice as strong as my last daily dosage. Ouch. Dr. Wagner is not predicting that this will affect my immune system to any problematic level since my immune system kicked-some-behinds (in a good way) during my six weeks, all that he said could be bad is nausea. Before I was able to just take one anti-nausea pill, and it would last me all day, and my only issues would be oddball ones (ex. blueberries). I am planning on upping any anti-nausea drug up to "two a day" without an experimental "one a day" this week. I am also considering adding a new rule to my classroom of no more blueberries within my presence. ;)
This next week I also have another CT Scan on Thursday with Dr. Stilles. The only goal of this CT scan is to look at my brain and check to see that appropriate repair within my brain has taken place since my last set of radiation four weeks ago. I had a MRI a couple weeks ago that showed awesome improvement post-brain surgery, so I do not see any upcoming problems from the data that will be collected on Thursday. The only annoying thing about this is that the latest the radiology department at the hospital could make my appointment was 4:00 pm, so I'm going to have to leave school just after the kids and try not to get stuck behind a logging truck or some quirky person who doesn't believe in going over 50 mph on a
70 mph highway. My odds of avoiding those vehicles are probably a lot smaller than the odds were of me making it out of brain surgery in November 100% okay.
On another happy note, my hair is beginning to show some more growth. The only areas that are growing are still just the couple areas where I did not lose hair during radiation, but the rate of growth has certainly increased. I now have to shave my had twice a week to keep my "Mr. T" patch to a short length. Except for my Mr. T patch, I do not have any new hair coming in, but I think I might be enjoying that for now, because I am now learning how growing hair on your scalp patches itches like no tomorrow. Anti-itch cream here I come!
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