Every Once in a While...

...you have to change things up.  I was feeling more green than dark blue, and so my blog background had to be adjusted. :)


Tomorrow, I'll do my last four Xeloda tablets for this round.  Thank the deities.  Friday, it's time for another CT scan.  To say that I'm already fretting about it is an understatement.  Frankly, I'm terrified.  I have never ... not ONCE ... had good news following a CT.  As Gilda Radner said, 'It's always something!'  I have her book of the same title, describing her journey through ovarian cancer.  I can't read it right now.


I just have to tell myself not to think about it until Friday morning, when I get another exciting frosty shake of barium and the joy of iodine ... checking in at SIX!  And I thought the Eight AM chemo was bad.  HAH! ;)


Pessimistic isn't normally how I view the world, and I am trying hard to visualize a great outcome for this week's scan.  It's not helping that I feel horrible from the week's worth of chemo.  I have always had a hard time being upbeat when I feel crappy.  I'm guessing that's probably true for everyone.  But on the bright side... and of course, there always is one, just sometimes they are harder to find than others...temperatures are coming down in The Valley of the Sun.  YAY!


Also, my very favorite holiday of all time, Halloween, is coming up fast.  It will be bittersweet this year, as Halloween was also my brother Jerry's birthday, and this will be the first one since he died.  But that's what the season is for; to honor your departed loved ones and keep their memories close.


So that brings up a delightful dilemma:  What shall I be this Halloween?  If I do get clearance to return to work in mid October, Halloween falls on a Monday, which would be the PERFECT day to wear a costume to work.  Hmmm, it would have to be something that would go well with my scooter.  Maybe I could get Nancy to mount my broom to my scooter... oh man, now I really want to go to work on Halloween!


There.  I feel better already.  You just have to keep in mind all the great things in your life, and you can get through anything.  This is also why I have this blog, so that I can work through the silly fears and get back to having a life.


Be well, all!

Update on Jane

Bear in mind that Jane is currently at the Veterans' Administration Hospital, and is once again going to be there overnight.  They didn't get the barium procedure done today, and theoretically, it will be done tomorrow.  Um hmmmm.


She's in decent spirits ... considering. ;)  Still hurting, but she'd really like to come home.  I can empathize.

The joy of Barium!

Had my CT this morning.  I didn't realize they'd want to do both barium and the iodine.  What fun! 

When I got there at just before 7AM, the ladies at the front desk smiled and said "Oh, you're here for the breakfast shake!"  I just love those two; always happy and always kind.  Jane got them rings for Christmas.  I'll have to take a photo of mine so you can see what they got.  I love both of mine; one is red and one is turquoise.  The finest plastic bling money can buy. :D  The front desk ladies loved theirs.

So about 25 years ago, I had an upper GI, and I remember swallowing barium, but believe me, great strides have been made in the palatability of this stuff.  Mine was labelled a 'vanilla smoothie.'  It was not bad at all.  Definitely not a problem getting it down.

Considering I'm just getting through with my bout of Bronchitis, I think I was breathing pretty decently this morning, but once the iodine hit, I couldn't hold my breath to save my life.  I tried to breathe as shallowly as possible though.  Hope it worked out.  We did have to do the post Iodine part of the scans twice, though.  Oh well, it's not like they don't know I can't breathe well.

Now comes the fun part; waiting around for Thursday and the results.  I think my results are going to be very positive.  For one thing, I'm still eating and breathing.  Very good signs, I say. ;)  And frankly, I got through this bronchitis pretty darned well.  Seriously, I do think I'm going to be very happy with the results from this CT.  And let's hope it shows that the Herceptin is doing its job.  I can live like this for A LOT of years, believe me.  Just give me plenty of rest and good nutrition, and I'm set!

Well, I'm going in to the plant tomorrow, so I'm going to have an early night.  I wish you all sweet dreams and a restful night.