Stuffed Mushrooms

Tonight, especially so we can turn on the oven, we're having stuffed mushrooms, and steamed asparagus.  I know the sisters are using the George Foreman Grill to make some kind of meat product.  I may or may not have a bit of that; we'll see how I feel. :)

You know, this is probably our fifth or so George Foreman Grill.  Whoever convinced that man to market these products was a genius.  They really are amazingly useful items.  Sure, you can get the same thing from Cuisinart, and pay a heck of a lot more, if you want.  Ol' George has been good to us.  Besides, George Foreman is one cute ex-boxer. :)

My dad and I used to watch "Thursday Night, Boxing from the Olympic" Auditorium, that is, in Los Angeles.  Daddy had been a boxer back in his teens.  But he gave it up; he didn't like beating people up for no good reason.  Give him a REASON... well.... :) 

I think the stuffed mushrooms are almost ready, so I'm off to sup.  Love and hugs to all.  Be safe this New Year's Eve!

Good Results from Echocardiogram

The cardiac nurse called today to tell me my Echo was normal.  This is a good thing. :)  SO, Dr. F the Medical Oncologist says that we'll probably do them every three months or so, to make sure the Herceptin is not damaging my heart function.  Happily, they don't hurt or anything.

On the way home from chemo, we had weird stuff hitting our windshield.  It was snow.  SNOW!  See, I knew it was going to snow.  It lasted a good THIRTY seconds.... hehehe.  But it's gotten very dark again, and I imagine it's going to do it again sometime during the night.  It's sneaky that way.

Ok, this was just a quickie blog post to share the echocardiogram results.  All is well on the heart front. :D

If it's Thursday, it must be Chemo!

Actually, this will soon no longer be true.  I'm getting triple doses of Herceptin, starting today, so that means I only have to get my infusion every three weeks. :)  Looks like I *will* be heading back to work at the end of January!

Gosh, how exciting to be getting back to a semi-normal life.  I'll have to decide on things to wear, and what earrings to put in, and all that mundane crap that I can't wait to experience again. ;)

Of course, we'll have to see what Dr. Tsai, the radiation oncologist decides to do when I see her again on the13th of January.  It's possible we'll start a new round of radiation.

So, I don't see Dr. Fastenberg again until March.  And before I see him, I have to have another CT with contrast.  Everything is looking good, I have to say.  I'm still anemic, according to my labs, but I don't need a transfusion yet.  Keep up with the iron supplements is the plan.  One of my liver function measurements was a little wonky, but we're going to watch it; it may just be a fluctuation.  The glucose was up, but I wasn't doing a fasting test, and I had just eaten breakfast.

Oh yes, I have to take my traditional chemo picture!

Look, I also managed to get my sister, Jane, in the picture.  She's my chemo buddy most days. I can drive to get the treatment, but I can't really drive back, so Jane's my post-chemo chauffeur.

I should not have taken the picture with the light fixture behind my thin, spiky hair.  I really look like a pound puppy with mange. :D

Well, that's it for this post.  Things are going VERY well on the cancer front.  Let's hope my body can hold out.

Love and hugs to all!

Adventures in Phlebotomy!

I think by now, it's well-known how much I love to say the word Phlebotomy.  Today I headed to Sonora Quest to get my pre-chemo blood work done.  I felt so good today, I went by myself. :)  My sisters have gotten in the habit of either driving me everywhere or at least accompanying me, just to be on the safe side.  It was nice to be self-sufficient, for a change.

Today's phlebotomist was one of the regulars, but bless her heart, she spent most of the time with me apologizing for hurting me.  I tried to tell her that on the pain scale, blood draws barely register, but truth be told, she really was hurting me.  But the main thing is, she got the blood, and out of my arm, not my hand.  Woohoo!

As I got into the car for the trip home, I removed my handicapped placard, and lo and behold it began to disintegrate in my hands.  Now, here we are in Arizona, land of the sun; the relentless, bright, overbearing sun.  It's not a secret that we enjoy sunshine for 360 days a year, on the average.  Bright, overbearing, handicapped placard disintegrating sunshine... it happens!  So, wouldn't it follow that the Department of Transportation would fabricate a placard that wouldn't fall victim to sun rot?

I think I'm probably a normal commuter type.  When I'm not out on sick leave, I work five days a week, and park outside... in the bright, overbearing sun...for more than eight hours a day.  Oh wait, actually, I telecommute sometimes three days a week.  And then the car's in the garage.  But, my point is... I can't be the only person with a handicapped placard that disintegrates.  My last one did, too.  Oh well.

So, I called the MVD and the very happy lady that answered the customer service line said I'd have to bring the placard in to have it replaced.  Hmm, my placard will be replaced anyway in June of 2011, so if I don't run out of this see-though packing tape, I think we'll just make do. :)

Yesterday's dinner was OH soo good.  Jane had gotten us a nice bit of salmon and some beautiful asparagus.  We made some of our favorite rice, steamed the asparagus and pan-seared the salmon.  WHAT a great dinner! 

Oh, and I made that Paula Deen chocolate cake.  It was divine, but I doubt we'll do it again; it's just not at all good for you, although, it does have walnuts and nuts are a good source of those GOOD fats. ;)

And now, I'm off to play a bit of World of Warcraft and beforehand, I shall make a pot of tea.  Keep warm and safe, all... and give someone a hug today.

Starting to Research more...

Now that I have somewhat gotten over the initial fear of information on Esophageal Cancer, I have started to do some research.  My friends over at the National Cancer Institute have an entire booklet on the subject, as one might expect. 

As I am well into treatment, now, reading things like this doesn't give me as much trepidation as when it was new and I hadn't begun to fight.  I know now that I can handle MUCH more than I originally thought.

Well, today has dawned brightly!  Tomorrow is supposed to bring the really cold stuff, but so far today, the sun is amazing!  I'm going to be a very bad girl and make a chocolate cake later today.  It's really bad because it's a Paula (Butter is a Vegetable Isn't It?) Deen recipe.  Yeah, there's not a single redeeming ingredient in the entire thing. ;)

I can't tell you how much I miss work.  I really do hope I can get back to work on the 30th of January.  I won't know what to do.. someone will have to retrain me. ;)  Luckily, numbers are numbers; I think I'll be fine.  I'm going to guess I won't remember a single password.   Ugh. :D

Happily, the neighbors' pecan tree has finally lost all its leaves.  This is good in two ways; we can finally clean up all the leaves in the backyard and not have it look horrible two hours later, and also, we can now see who's IN said tree.  We've seen some wonderful birds up there:  Prairie Falcons, a Red Tailed Hawk, a Harris Hawk, cardinals (the good ones, not the football players), a Ring Neck Parakeet, peach faced lovebirds (there's a HUGE feral flock of them out here), and various species of doves.  We do love birds in this house. :)

And with that, I'll end this post.  Try to keep warm and healthy and safe. 

In Sympathy for my Frozen Eastern Friends...

... It's supposed to be rather cold here, too.  Thursday and Friday, our highs are predicted to be 49... FORTY NINE!!!!  I had to check to make sure I hadn't mistakenly called up the forecast for Bismark, North Dakota!

Oh holy cow.  Good thing Julie made me all those knitted goodies.  I'm wearing my Pittsburgh Steelers' Daniel Sepulveda jersey, but I'll tell you now, it won't cut it with THOSE temperatures. 

Well, the lows are going to be 30 degrees those two days.  I may actually have to break down and turn on the heat pump.  Or, I could grab the chihuahuas and use them as heating devices and just stay in bed.  No, that won't work.  Gotta go do a blood draw on Wednesday, and chemo on Thursday.  Argh... I'll have to go OUT INTO IT!  What if it snows?  I can't drive in snow.  I can't even be outside in snow.  ... calm down, woman... it won't snow.  IT WON'T SNOW!

Whoa, I almost got hysterical there. :D  But seriously, that's pretty freaking cold, and the forecast does say rain both those days.  Time to get out the REAL coat, I guess... you know, wool, as opposed to fleece. ;)  I wear it a couple of times a year.

And in the spirit of the season, here is my Undead Rogue, Ynez, on her festive Holiday Mount, flying over the vast continent of Northrend.

Have a lovely Monday, everyone.  Be safe, warm and loved.

I enjoy breathing...

...but this is the second time in a month I've woken from an asthma attack.  Hey, at least I wake up. :D

I'm wondering, now, if Herceptin can exacerbate asthma.  I have never in my life been woken up from asthma until this month.  Let's (finally) go look at the Herceptin side effects.  Hmmmm.... this site says that Herceptin can cause Congestive Heart Failure.  And I know from a brother that had it, that CHF does cause you to cough a lot at night especially.  So this is probably something to tell my oncologist.  But I'm not having any other symptoms of CHF; no edema and no more coughing than I always have.

Besides, I'd surmise that if they had seen signs of CHF on that echocardiogram I would have heard about that by now.  So, I'm guessing it's the weird weather, coupled with PM 25's from our crappy air.  But, I'm not going to be a bozo and not tell the oncologist about this, just in case. :)

Now, I have a couple of CD's of family pictures I want to watch, so I'm off... and wish everyone peace and happiness.  If you are lucky enough to have time off between Christmas and New Years, spend it wisely; rest, relax and enjoy your family and friends!