neulasta - we're giving it a pass

Dr. Fastenberg says we are going to skip the Neulasta; to this I say:  YAY!  We discussed to which hospital I should go, in the event I need to go to one.  He says to go to Banner Baywood, which is great because both my Pulmonologist and my Cardiologist are there.


You may have noticed that I've edited this post for punctuation and format. I was a little drugged out when I originally typed it during my infusion. :)


Today, I will post a picture of my drug pole with the huge bags of poison that drip into my chest.  Dr. F says we'll do three of these infusions before the next CT.  This one is number two.


I did just take a shot of my pre-meds. They are small bags but lots of them. :)

Here is my bag of taxol.

Please note those happy little words:  Toxic, Dispose of as a Biohazard.  Ai carumba! :D

We left the house at 8:30AM, and returned at 4:30PM.  I am dead tired.  Well, maybe I should just say, I'm tired. ;)

So, off I go to rest up.  Love to all!

The Sound of a Happy Parrot

Vinnie is greeting the morning.  Let's just say, he's no canary with sweet tweets.  But he does have a pretty decent vocabulary.

Every morning, I would greet him with "Good morning!  How are you?"  He truncated it a bit, and returned, "Good morning, you."

Then came the breakfast ritual, in which he would ask, "Time for breakfast?"  To which I would reply, "yes, dear, time for breakfast."  "A good boy breakfast?"  I don't know why he decided that the best breakfast foods were a "good boy breakfast!"  He's so SMART!

It startled me one day when he started chanting, "I love breakfast food, I love breakfast food."  Like all good amazon parrots, Vinnie lives for food. ;)  With the orange tree providing a bountiful crop, as the season comes to and end, we pull off what is left and juice them.  I gave the parrots orange juice one morning, and Vinnie looked at it suspiciously.  I told him to just try it.  "It's good, it's just an orange, honey."  He tried it, and loved it!  The next morning, he asked for it again.  "Time for breakfast?"  The routine started.  "Yes dear, time for breakfast."  "I love breakfast water!"  BREAKFAST WATER????  I swear there is a little Rhodes' Scholar in that amazon parrot suit.

We picked four beautiful squash this morning and sent them over to Leslie two doors down.  We still have several that will go on the grill this afternoon.  We're marinating a pork loin in Tequila, Chipotle chilies in Adobo, olive oil, garlic, teriaki and Worcestershire sauce.  And that reminds me...let me go turn it over!  Oh it smells so good!  We've also got some new crop corn on the cob which we'll grill as well.  Life is good, isn't it? :)

I took Jane and went to Sprouts yesterday.  I wanted to find something to take with us for the marathon chemo session Tuesday.  We found a couple of extra protein Luna Bars, and I got some cranberry pomegranate juice.  And I got worn out.  How can you get worn out while riding your scooter through the store?  But I did, and I was happy to get home.

We made posole for dinner, and it was fantastic.  You know how I adore hominy. ;)  And there is enough to have for lunch today!

I'm tired again, so I'm going to go rest up a bit.  Enjoy Memorial Day, my American friends.  My family has not lost a soul to war, at least in the past five centuries, but many were part of the armed forces and gave their support to our country.  Be at peace, all.

Well, it's Cool

The fallout from my hair was kind of making me a little crazy today.  I had horrific bald patches, and then lots of baby chick patches, and long bits.  I kinda had a Friar Tuck thing going, and while that might be fine for a Friar, it was less than attractive on me. :D


I had my sister, Nancy, take the clippers to me, and this is the result.  And yes, it's nice and cool!


I felt good enough to make some dinner.. and guess what I made?  Slumgullion!  Or at least what one person described as "fusion slumgullion."  Of course, I just took their recipe as a 'guideline' and went from there.


I had some ground turkey, portabella mushrooms, zucchini, several chili peppers, an orange bell pepper and an onion.  I simmered them all in vegetable stock and Jane chopped up some roma tomatoes.  I let it reduce and get all tasty from the cumin and chili powder I'd added, and then we had it over our favorite rice blend.  It was great!  Oh and I need to order some more of that rice.

The squash row in our garden is doing so very well!  I'm excited about the little flat white ones on the farthest end. The first section is the Mexican Grey, then the Zucchini, the Yellow crook neck and whatever the name of the flat whites was.


The row in front of them has one section of squash, and the rest is all yummy chili peppers!


I must report that my sore throat is now a thing of the past, and the nasal congestion is still with me, but much more manageable.  So I think there should be no problem in having the next chemo.  Of course, that depends on the outcome of tomorrow's visit to the phlebotomist. ;)  I'm feeling like it's going to be fine.


Now, I'm going to go play a little World of Warcraft and dream that someday, Diablo III will be out while I'm still alive and well enough to play it.  Hear that, Blizzard?  GET A MOVE ON!!!

Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow

Remember just a few days ago when I said something about at least my hair hadn't fallen out?  It's falling, and quite profusely.  Rats, I should have gone and gotten it cut really short again.


On the other hand, summer's almost here, and won't it be cooler to be bald?  And this way, my vacuum cleaner gets a workout. ;)


The sore throat has almost cleared up, still a little nose congestion, but no fever today, whatsoever, so must thank the Doxycycline for doing a fine job.


OH!  We got our first zucchini today!  And from the looks of it, yes, we'll be sharing plenty of squashes with our neighbors.  


The picture below is of my gnome Death Knight, Pinkpepper.  Her hair was pepper shaped, and pink, and thus her name.  She's riding her skeletal raptor.  I hope she has a really GOOD saddle. :D

Alrighty, my friends, sleep well and have wondrous dreams!

Sinus Infection

Well, there's a good reason I was feeling so crappy yesterday.  I've got a sinus infection and probably strep throat.  Last night it felt like a wolf was ripping out my throat every time I swallowed.  Luckily, I got in to see my dear PCP, and Jane's off to get my doxycycline.


I tried working this morning, but I was feeling so miserable I ended up using six hours of sick time.  Then I went back to bed.  The problem is, I have to be able to breathe through my nose, so that I can get my oxygen and use my CPAP.  Hopefully, this antibiotic will do the trick.  I have to be fine for my infusion next week.  We do NOT want to have to reschedule.


Now I have to watch my temp like a hawk and if it spikes up, to the ER I must go.  Actually, right now the only place I want to go is back to bed... and so I shall.


Be well, all... hugs to everyone!

Dry Mouth and other chemo Side Effects

Well, typing is much easier now that my fingernails have all split off.  Ahh, the proverbial silver lining.  But my mouth is SO dry.  I am using the Biotene mouthwash, but now I have the Taxol mouth sores, too.  Today I also started getting chills and some achiness.  Frankly, I'm just a mess. :D


My nose is sore because we have no humidity AND I get oxygen while I sleep.  So I wake up to blow my nose into a bloody wreck.  That's literal for all my British friends. ;)


I was running low on my Xylitol mints, which are a great help for dry mouth, so I ordered another batch from Amazon.  I don't really know where else to get them, and I'm kind of not supposed to go running around outside of my house until we figure out how my white counts are doing.  I'll be wearing my lovely mask when I go get my blood work done on Friday.  Darn those sick people getting blood work ... oh wait... I'm sick, too. ;)


Still have my hair, though.  I'm guessing another couple of rounds of chemo will see it falling out again.  At least it will be cool, although if you look at the Weather Channel widget, it's only going to be in the 80's again tomorrow.  But there is an Ozone health watch, which I guess is the price we are paying for the cooler weather.


Ok, that's enough whining for this post.  On the plus side, I'm seven episodes into Game of Thrones, and it's ... fantastic.  Get past the language and nudity (although ... cough... Khal Drogo... cough) and it's an amazing study of relationships, power struggles, politics and how each character either rises to their potential or falls into destruction.  Sean Bean has done a fine job as Eddard Stark, who's a moron, actually, but an honorable one... stupidly honorable.  Destroy your entire family for your honor, you boob.  And then, equally moronically, give UP your honor.  Alas.


Now, I know it's a little early, but I think I'm off to bed.  I'm just tired, and that's another one of those side effects.  Must be that triple dose; I swear it didn't get this bad last time.


Love and hugs to all.

Sunny Day

It's Saturday morning, cool with a light breeze, and the veggies are going gangbusters.  I counted five squash blossoms this morning, and the spinach is looking fantastic.


I spent some time in the past couple of days, looking through old family photos.  It brought back many memories and made me smile.  It's a bit sad, as well, seeing those that are no longer with us, but at least with the help of family photos, we'll never forget them, either.  And then there are those people we never even got to meet, like my grandparents.  Heck, my parents were old enough to be my grandparents, but it didn't help that both sets of grandparents died young.  I wonder what they were like?  


Finally began playing World Of Warcraft again, albeit half-heartedly.  I'm restless.  I had another ocular migraine yesterday, which was bizarre.  I usually go YEARS in between them, and this was four days from the last.  I know I've got some stress, which isn't being relieved in my usual manner of taking the NuStep through its paces.  But I try to make circuits around my garden, so that I can be on my feet and keep moving.  And that counts two-fold:  some exercise and an appreciation of how lucky I am that I have such a beautiful garden.  


Today we're heading back into the 90's.  We've almost had a whole week off, and it was much appreciated.  Soon we'll hit those triple digits and I won't want, or even be able to walk much in the garden.  The high temps make your heart rate go crazy, and you can hear it in your head. But of course, living here, you know how to deal with it.  Stay inside until the sun goes down, or get up and go outside before it comes up.  Do what you can to minimize its intrusion into your home.  I have Coolaroo shades on my bedroom windows, which face East.  They really do a fine job cutting the heat without limiting the light too drastically.   


Friday I go for my labs to see if that Neulasta shot has done its job and kept my white counts up.  Then the day after Memorial day, it's back to Ironwood for my six hour infusion.  I think I'll take the Netbook again.  We'll see.


Have a great weekend, all.