Deb's Update: October 26, 2007 9:15 AM PT
Hi All,
I have finally found the time to sit down and write a blog update. I have been busy as hell these days and have decided to give myself some "down time"... I need it!
As you already know, my last MRI was a good one! Phew!!!!! I'm sure you can imagine the stress that my body had for 4 weeks between the last two MRIs. I was so happy that my dad decided to come out here to spend some time with me and of course come to the MRI and doc appointment with me for support. I think my dad was just as stressed as I was but the minute we found out it was a good MRI, it eased both of our stress! I almost cried hearing that it was a good MRI....instead, I made the neuro-onc doc stand up so I could give him a big hug! I think it shocked him but hey, it's what worked for me!!! I will get back on my previous MRI schedule so my next one is Nov 13th.
Monday , Oct 22nd I finished Cycle 9 of chemo... I look at it this way: 9 cycles down and only 15 to go! Not much different than the usual in terms of side effects... slight headache, sinus pressure feeling and of course, constipation! I know you guys like me to talk about bowel movements don't you!? :-)
November 12th will be my yearly anniversary of being a cancer survivor... I'm keeping the faith that you will hear the same thing next November! This anniversary I intend to send an anniversary type card to Dr. Yu (my Cedars-Sinai Neurosurgeon) and Anne (his nurse practitioner)! Why not, right???
Dad's visit was nice and calm... he did some work of course, but it felt good to have a family member out here for a week. No golf since it actually rained a bit when he was out here! Neither of us could believe it, but it gave us both some nap time and some time to watch some pre-world series baseball games... it was great for him since according to the time clock, he didn't have to stay up until 1:30 in the morning to watch the entire game :-)
He left one week ago and the Sunday after he left is when the CA winds started and that's when the So Cal fires began... I'm sure you all know that there are fires all over the place in Southern Cal right now.
Some are already contained yet some are not fully contained. From Sunday on, it's been an ashy/hazy sky and hot! Not a good combination. When the fires are blowing the ashes around, it basically means: stay in your house, windows shut and no AC on even though it's almost 90 degrees! Not fun for me or the dogs. My house didn't seem to get too hot, but it's not fun to do NOTHING outside. No walks for the dogs after Sunday night... Today I can actually take them for a nice walk since the air quality outside is better.
My neighborhood was out of power for most of the entire day that Sunday when the winds began. Even one of the electric wires sparked and ended up falling down on my driveway! So, of course the electric company had to come here to fix the three poles that weren't that happy (one just sparking, one actually on fire a little and the other that was sliced off by the wind and came down on my driveway)... My house was obviously affected and I have to basically put in a claim for the things that were surged and ruined (television, router, vacuum cleaner, water fountain, dining room ceiling light/fan, thermostat, sprinkler system and my AC). So, it'll be lots of estimates to get some of these things fixed... I'm thinking I will probably find more things that were ruined.
I actually had to call the electric company AGAIN this Wednesday since I was having light flickering in my house! Not a good thing. In a nutshell, the guys that supposedly fixed the power, didn't cover the neutral wire which had sparked and obviously was affecting my house. Hopefully this will all be solved after I get the claims sent in and hopefully approved. So, here's another nutshell... I've had to just listen to the Red Sox and NOT WATCH THEM the past two days.
Tuesday night this past week I went to Pantages Theater to see Wicked! I thought it was a great musical so I would highly recommend it to anyone that likes the Wizard of Oz... my favorite song was the "Popular" song! I actually find myself singing the few words I know from that song when I'm walking around my house... I can't do that in public as people would think I'm crazy! Those who have see Wicked will know the song and will probably giggle when they know I'm walking around singing it!!!!
I was supposed to go to San Francisco this weekend to see Joann for a night before she headed back to CT and then spend the weekend with Ant and Paul. But..... I decided I was too exhausted and needed 'down time' to slow myself down. Ant and Paul had called me and wanted me to reconsider going since there was a surprise: Donna was coming out to San Fran for the visit as well!!!. But, I had to decline since I need to do what my body tells me to do.... "stay home and slow down and get some sleep". This was a very tough decision since I would have loved to see everyone, but it's what I had to do.
That's it for now... next time I'll have to post pictures of what's been going on around here these days.
Love you guys!
Debbie
Friday, October 26, 2007
Monday, October 15, 2007
Tuesday, October 09, 2007
Deb's Update: October 9, 2007
Hi all,
Here is an update with no pictures... now I'm totally due to post photos: from Jodi's visit, the dog's new trick, Camp Keepsake, and now the Red Sox/ Angels game!
I'm done cycle 8 and all is well. The dose did go up a little for 3 of the 5 days... I'll take it! It didn't make me feel any worse, so I'll have to see how the labs go tomorrow. Hopefully my counts are the usual counts that I've been having since Radiation/Chemo combo. Of course I am completely focusing on my brain these days... wondering if I can feel a twitch in the frontal lobe, or headache, or balance problems, etc... So far so good. I am hopeful that Monday the 15th's MRI will be the same (which will be a good thing!).
I'm still meditating but it seems to be more challenging now that I'm back into my normal routine. But, I would say it's still keeping me grounded which is a good thing :-) I even meditated the usual times while I was at the Camp Keepsake event the weekend of September 28th, 29th and 30th! Now I can talk about the Cancer Hope Foundation camping event...
As much as I didn't want to go to the camp with all cancer survivors, their families, current chemo patients, etc... it was great! Thanks to Kim for making me apply to get into the camp for that weekend. Campers and their friends/family were given a host who was the one that helped us do EVERYTHING that weekend from getting warm water to drink, meeting us at an event of doing crafts, or going to a Life Coach to hear him talk about getting your life in order. Kim and my host Donna was amazing... she even made Kim and I some nice scarves which was needed at night in Malibu!
Thankfully the camp had 'dormitories' instead of tents! Phew, huh? I wouldn't have been interested if I had to sleep in a tent, on the ground, when it's cold! Okay, not totally cold, but you get my idea, huh? We arrived on Friday night at 4:30 PM and set up our room in our London Tower dormitory (everything was named for Europe stuff since that was the theme!). Then it was introduction time to the staff and a nice camp dinner... okay, so the food wasn't great, but the atmosphere was. The one thing that was completely amazing is that all of the events from jugglers, singers, 'coaches', massage therapist, other spa treatment types, acupuncturists, etc... were all volunteers. They spent their time to help us and never got paid a dime by us or by the Cancer Hope Foundation. Amazing, huh? My hope is that someday, I can become a host and help someone there... I told my Mom she will be coming with me next year! I'm sure she will love it too!
There was obviously lots to do which I am not going into too much details on, but you can always check the website for the Camp Keepsake and you'll be able to see how amazing it is. We got pictures from them but Kim has the CD so she could copy it for herself... so, I of course don't have those pictures to post yet. I'm really getting behind in pictures, huh?
I was able to go to the third game for the Red Sox... they were out here in Anaheim playing the Angels (I'm sure you all know that) so I knew it would be a great/fun thing to do. If you saw the game, you can relate: WHAT A SWEEP! The Sox won 9 to 0... you should have seen all the Angels fans leave in the 8th inning knowing their team wouldn't win. Boy oh boy was I glad to be sitting near the Red Sox dugout since there were lots and lots of Sox fans screaming and yelling. Of course, we made the Angels fans 'annoyed', but hey, live life to the fullest, huh? Now if the Red Sox get into the World Series with the Diamondbacks, you know where I'll want to be: Arizona! I've been to the stadium in Phoenix before so it'd be a great place to see the Sox...
I should know in the next 2 weeks ( I know I keep saying something like that!) whether I have a job here at Amgen or not. We were told that about 675 people would be laid off from the Thousand Oaks campus... So, fingers are crossed that regardless of what happens, I can keep insurance somehow. It's not all about work for me these days, it's all about keeping health insurance!!!
I have definitely added more Yoga than I had been doing. The facility (YogaWorks) has finally opened at the end of August so it's nice to be at a studio where yoga is the thing to do! They also have an area where you can meditate, so it's right up my ally!
My dad is coming to visit for about 8 days... you guessed it, he will be supporting me for my next MRI. Hopefully, he'll be the one that throws me a party when the results come back perfect... maybe those darn dots are gone! Or, I'll take it if they're just the same. I have to start setting up a 'to do' list for Bobby when he's here: probably walking the dogs, painting my master bathroom and of course doing something fun with me and Charlie like GOLFING! I am not 100% hooked yet, but I'll get there.
Oh, by the way, Charlie is the guy that I have been dating and I haven't mentioned that yet... I just didn't want to get you guys all excited in case things didn't work for Charlie and I. He doesn't know a ton of details in terms of what I am going through (cancer and chemo wise) but he knows some minor details but hasn't asked me any more questions... he'll ask me when he wants to know what's going on with me. We're just about at our 6 month anniversary (Oct 15th if you can believe that). So, hopefully that day will be a great day: good MRI and Happy 6 month Anniversary! Oh, and just so you know... he's only 5'4'!!!!!!!!
That's it for now... I don't have much time to type and proofread what I've written these days, so I'm sorry if there are spelling errors!
Love you guys!
Debbie
Hi all,
Here is an update with no pictures... now I'm totally due to post photos: from Jodi's visit, the dog's new trick, Camp Keepsake, and now the Red Sox/ Angels game!
I'm done cycle 8 and all is well. The dose did go up a little for 3 of the 5 days... I'll take it! It didn't make me feel any worse, so I'll have to see how the labs go tomorrow. Hopefully my counts are the usual counts that I've been having since Radiation/Chemo combo. Of course I am completely focusing on my brain these days... wondering if I can feel a twitch in the frontal lobe, or headache, or balance problems, etc... So far so good. I am hopeful that Monday the 15th's MRI will be the same (which will be a good thing!).
I'm still meditating but it seems to be more challenging now that I'm back into my normal routine. But, I would say it's still keeping me grounded which is a good thing :-) I even meditated the usual times while I was at the Camp Keepsake event the weekend of September 28th, 29th and 30th! Now I can talk about the Cancer Hope Foundation camping event...
As much as I didn't want to go to the camp with all cancer survivors, their families, current chemo patients, etc... it was great! Thanks to Kim for making me apply to get into the camp for that weekend. Campers and their friends/family were given a host who was the one that helped us do EVERYTHING that weekend from getting warm water to drink, meeting us at an event of doing crafts, or going to a Life Coach to hear him talk about getting your life in order. Kim and my host Donna was amazing... she even made Kim and I some nice scarves which was needed at night in Malibu!
Thankfully the camp had 'dormitories' instead of tents! Phew, huh? I wouldn't have been interested if I had to sleep in a tent, on the ground, when it's cold! Okay, not totally cold, but you get my idea, huh? We arrived on Friday night at 4:30 PM and set up our room in our London Tower dormitory (everything was named for Europe stuff since that was the theme!). Then it was introduction time to the staff and a nice camp dinner... okay, so the food wasn't great, but the atmosphere was. The one thing that was completely amazing is that all of the events from jugglers, singers, 'coaches', massage therapist, other spa treatment types, acupuncturists, etc... were all volunteers. They spent their time to help us and never got paid a dime by us or by the Cancer Hope Foundation. Amazing, huh? My hope is that someday, I can become a host and help someone there... I told my Mom she will be coming with me next year! I'm sure she will love it too!
There was obviously lots to do which I am not going into too much details on, but you can always check the website for the Camp Keepsake and you'll be able to see how amazing it is. We got pictures from them but Kim has the CD so she could copy it for herself... so, I of course don't have those pictures to post yet. I'm really getting behind in pictures, huh?
I was able to go to the third game for the Red Sox... they were out here in Anaheim playing the Angels (I'm sure you all know that) so I knew it would be a great/fun thing to do. If you saw the game, you can relate: WHAT A SWEEP! The Sox won 9 to 0... you should have seen all the Angels fans leave in the 8th inning knowing their team wouldn't win. Boy oh boy was I glad to be sitting near the Red Sox dugout since there were lots and lots of Sox fans screaming and yelling. Of course, we made the Angels fans 'annoyed', but hey, live life to the fullest, huh? Now if the Red Sox get into the World Series with the Diamondbacks, you know where I'll want to be: Arizona! I've been to the stadium in Phoenix before so it'd be a great place to see the Sox...
I should know in the next 2 weeks ( I know I keep saying something like that!) whether I have a job here at Amgen or not. We were told that about 675 people would be laid off from the Thousand Oaks campus... So, fingers are crossed that regardless of what happens, I can keep insurance somehow. It's not all about work for me these days, it's all about keeping health insurance!!!
I have definitely added more Yoga than I had been doing. The facility (YogaWorks) has finally opened at the end of August so it's nice to be at a studio where yoga is the thing to do! They also have an area where you can meditate, so it's right up my ally!
My dad is coming to visit for about 8 days... you guessed it, he will be supporting me for my next MRI. Hopefully, he'll be the one that throws me a party when the results come back perfect... maybe those darn dots are gone! Or, I'll take it if they're just the same. I have to start setting up a 'to do' list for Bobby when he's here: probably walking the dogs, painting my master bathroom and of course doing something fun with me and Charlie like GOLFING! I am not 100% hooked yet, but I'll get there.
Oh, by the way, Charlie is the guy that I have been dating and I haven't mentioned that yet... I just didn't want to get you guys all excited in case things didn't work for Charlie and I. He doesn't know a ton of details in terms of what I am going through (cancer and chemo wise) but he knows some minor details but hasn't asked me any more questions... he'll ask me when he wants to know what's going on with me. We're just about at our 6 month anniversary (Oct 15th if you can believe that). So, hopefully that day will be a great day: good MRI and Happy 6 month Anniversary! Oh, and just so you know... he's only 5'4'!!!!!!!!
That's it for now... I don't have much time to type and proofread what I've written these days, so I'm sorry if there are spelling errors!
Love you guys!
Debbie
Charlie and Debbie pre Red Sox game sweep!
Debbie and Jodi 
Radar and Nala "sitting pretty"
Red Sox line up: Game 3 Vs Angels
Cool flag they had during the Spangled Banner
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