It looks like the early bird does indeed get the worm. And by worm I mean IV with which nuclear powered sugars are pumped into ones body and by bird I mean me. Lisa and I got up extra early this morning (5:30am for those keeping score at home) and battled medium traffic to MD Anderson where before my seat even had a chance to warm up and/or I had time to finish my survey about me (when was the last time you had a biopsy, chemo, surgery, do you have asthma, who is your favorite radioactively powered superhero, etc) I was whisked into the PET scan waiting area where there jabbed me with a needle, injected me with radioactive sugars, and then told me not to move for the next hour.
After my hour was up (well done is how I like my insides) I was moved to the (freezing) cold room where the PET/CT scan tube is located. I then lay there for the next 18 minutes pretending the Arctic blast I was feeling was something I could ignore. They then dismissed me and told me to have a good day. (Side note, I still have a few hours left to avoid children and small animals until my body cools down a bit.)
Our trip home took less than 25 minutes (reverse commute) and we were home before a lot of you Pacific time-zoners were even out of bed. I'll be waiting for next Wednesday to hear about how those scans look. I am hoping for less color, more darkness.
Thanks for the support everyone. Maybe by the end of next week we'll have some idea about staying here or being back in Colorado Springs.
~B.
PET Scanning
Pain
Yesterday was a pain marathon. First was the pain in my side from who knows what. Feels like I did something to my ribs (sneezing? Sitting strange for hours? Coughing?) but I don't really know what that is. Following that I picked up a migraine (I KNOW that source. The weather swooped in and changed pretty quickly. My head didn't stand a chance.) So, a little frustrating yesterday, but honestly it was a Sunday and it's not like I had to be anywhere or answer any emails. I've kind of learned though that following a whole day of doing something (Saturday) I am very likely to be out almost completely the following day. You'd think this would improve with time and getting away from heavy chemo, and who knows, maybe it will, but so far I haven't seen any change in the way my body seems to react to being out and about and social all day long. I should probably watch that.
Food update: My blood sugar seems to be something that I can somewhat control with what I eat. The upside to controlling my blood sugar with what I eat is that my taste buds have been slightly effected by the chemo these past few times and sweet things have taken on a very salty taste. No one else seems to notice so I assume it's just me. (This is also saving on the money we spend on salt!) So my desire for sweet sugary things has scaled way back as they taste funny. The plus side being I don't eat sweet much, so my blood sugar doesn't soar as high.
Cholesterol wise I didn't see last week's numbers but they gave me a reduced dose of the stuff that was causing the cholesterol to climb and last week they didn't give me any of that. We'll see this week what it looks like.
Thursday I have my scan. I won't get any kind of update on that until the following Wednesday.
Oh, Saturday we were invited to a game day where the guys played a game called Twilight Imperium. It took us at least 4 hours to get through and in the end my poor race of turtle people were pretty much refugees from their home planets. It was entertaining enough though (the rule book is over 40 pages) and I got to meet some new people. Not a complete loss. This however most likely lead to the situation in paragraph one. I'll need to watch that.
Thanks everyone for the continued prayers and support. Lisa is still coughing like crazy and is headed off to see the doctor later today. Hope everything is well with you all!
~B.
Year 2.1
Hey Folks,
Just realized the other day that we are coming up on a full year since I started treatments. (It'll be October, but our first trip to Houston was in September) I realized this because the insurance company has been calling and informing me that my "Short Term" disability is almost up and I'll be qualifying for "Long Term" here in a bit. Long term disability before 30. Heh, sounds like a Facebook group I need to start or something. It would be great if LT disability was actually shorter than ST disability so we could head back to Colorado Springs.
I guess something I am having to learn (one of the things) with all this moving around is to find contentment where you're at. I really am not a big fan of motivational posters, but the whole, "Bloom where you are planted" comes to mind. Not like we're planted here at the moment, but the concept holds.
I think one of the big issues right now in our lives (this includes Lisa) is the sheer lack of "We know what we're doing." In some ways we are kind of torn between two, maybe even three places. A good chunk of you are in Seattle, the place we call home, and yet we "live" in Colorado Springs, and here we are in Houston trying to get better, but we have no idea how long we will be here. I hate to keep pounding that drum but I think it is really starting to wear on Lisa. It's funny to think about how much we rely on "knowing" what our future will be, when in fact none of us really "knows", the illusion is just easier. How to live outside the illusion of a future you can control. Sounds like a self help book.
Lisa took me to my appointment on Wednesday and then went back home. She also had a very difficult time sleeping last night so if you could pray for her that would be excellent. She is my very real support structure and while I enjoy being able to help her when she isn't feeling very well, I am significantly more used to it than she is, and I think she being sick is making her frustrated. She could use some prayer.
Thanks for the continued support. Scan next Thursday and results from that the week following. Here's to a darker scan than the last ones!
~B.
Not the 4th of July
The recipe is modified from this one on allrecipes.com I left out the jam and used less sugar than it called for. Ginger-snaps instead of graham crackers for the win on this one.
~B
