A Good Dentist is a Joy Forever

Dr. Robert Baker is my dentist and he got me all fixed up today.  We talked about a lot of things; he's just the best.  Unfortunately, I cried a little as we were talking about my prognosis, but he got me laughing again pretty quickly.


I only cried because I'm getting a little tired of pain.  It wears you down, you know, and makes it hard to be your normally happy self.  But I came home, took a Naprosyn and felt better.  It doesn't take away all the pain, but it makes it manageable.  I just don't want to vomit and I don't want to keep taking the compazine, either.  The vicodin makes me sick.  I've always had a very low tolerance for pain killers.  


I'll discuss all this with Dr. Fastenberg on Tuesday when I see him before the next infusion.  The major pain is still in my left leg.  It feels muscular to me, but I don't know.  I had the sonogram on both of my legs to check for blood clots and everything was fine.  And my left leg doesn't LOOK any different than my right leg, which is a good sign, I think.


Tonight, though, I will probably take a vicodin before I try to sleep.  


Other than that, I broke down and got a game from Amazon even if it is from those evil cads at Electronic Arts.  It's called Darkspore and so far, it's not bad.  Kind of a dungeon crawler in space.  But you know me, it needs more phat lewtz. ;)  I do like the ability to change your 'hero' in mid battle.  I just wish EA would stop making you go ONLINE when all you are doing is playing a freaking single-player game.  They treat their customers like we're all thieves.  


Anywho, thought I'd best post as it had been a couple of days, and people worry when I don't post.  Oh, and speaking of posts, over the weekend I wrote my last blog post, with instructions for my sisters on how to access my blog and copy and paste it in.


It's unsettling when you find a blog you are drawn to, especially the ones written by people with a chronic disease, and it just stops.  No more posts.  You don't know if they have gotten so well, that their exciting life has given them no time to post, or if something more final has happened.  It's sad, too.  


So, I didn't want anyone to come upon this blog someday, and have to wonder what ever happened to Tequila and her journey through cancer.  I think it's a good final post, if I do say so myself; upbeat, not maudlin, or scary, just factual and happy. :)


You know, I love every single day I get, even the ones with pain, because I get to be with people I love, chihuahuas I adore, and I get to let people know that just because you've got an expiration date on you, it's no reason to stop living and having fun.


Live long and prosper. :D

The Dentist

I'm not supposed to have invasive dental procedures while undergoing chemotherapy.  But the temporary fix to the missing filling has bitten the dust.  I called my dentist today, and we worked out the probable best time for doing another temporary, and that will be on Wednesday.  Hopefully, I will be feeling well enough to at least walk with the walker, but at least my dentist has a handicapped parking space right outside his door.


Happily, I have no pain, just the abyss where the filling used to reside.  Mainly, I don't want to screw up that area in any way and GET pain, or have to have some really invasive procedure.  And since I can't have work done on my mouth while I'm doing chemo, ... It's hard to tell WHEN I can get the situation truly fixed.  Oh well.


Tomorrow, I take my Xeloda morning pills, and then I have my beloved week off!  Had another ocular migraine this morning, and I had had one on Saturday, which means I will have to tell Dr. Fastenberg, and he'll want to have my head examined. :D  Yeah, I will certainly be looking forward to a brain scan.  Thank the deities for Xanax.


Plus I have to tell him that I am having shooting, nerve-type pain in my LEFT shoulder, now.  Ai chihuahua.  It's always something.


The weather is pretty hideous this week; we have an Excessive Heat Warning in effect until THURSDAY!  And when they say Excessive Heat out here, they mean business.  Like we PRAY for the lows at night to be under 90 degrees, and the highs to not get any worse than 110.  Of course, you probably realize that my veggie garden is done for the summer, but wow, did we get great produce!


Oh, I finished my triptych watercolor!  Nancy and Jane are going to see about the framing for me.  I have decided that I just love how it turned out, and now I feel much more confident about hitting the canvas to make something for Wendy and Dean.


Be well, all.  Make sure you hug someone every day!  I'm going to close this post with a picture of Portia, the scarlet macaw.  She was a rescue, and the sweetest thing, but alas, years of malnutrition cut her life short.  At least she did finally learn to eat real food and play, so I am happy the final year of her life was good to her.

Quiet Day

The Apothecary Shop delivered another batch of Xeloda pills today.  Excitement plus. :P  Oh don't mind me, I'm not feeling great so my attitude is less than stellar today.  Cancer and its treatments really do force you on a rollercoaster of emotional responses.  I never did like rollercoasters, though. :D

The temporary crown the dentist put on a while back came off today, but they were not open, so I'll have to wait until Monday to call them.  Meanwhile, I shall do my best to ignore what feels like a gaping abyss on the right side of my mouth.

I can't actually get it really worked on while I am on the chemo, so I guess it'll be another temp.  I wonder if there's a temp that's a bit more substantial?  Oh well, no worries; it'll get fixed in some manner.

Oh, but Jane and Nancy found me some really great paint brushes and I'm working on that tryptych again.  It's not bad.  I may hang it in my bedroom.

Don't have too much to say in this post; I'm tired, weak, dizzy sometimes, .. you know, it's the usual for my week ON chemo.  I'm sleeping like a champion, though, can't quibble about that.  My glucose is doing incredibly well.  Dammit, if I wasn't dying of cancer, I'd be in pretty good shape! :D

Seriously, though... I'm not often serious.  Don't forget to take most of my posts with a shaker of salt.  Oh, and I love salt.  And that's another thing.  I have the best blood pressure!  I tells ya, I'm fit as a fiddle, except for one thing, the bane of my existence, cancer.  Ai chihuahua.

Well, hugs and love to all.  I must drink more water.

Ahhh, Tooth is Covered

What is it with teeth, or your mouth in general, that makes your tongue seek out and obsess over even the slightest change?  Maybe it's just me. :D


Dr. Baker fixed me up, using a clove flavored putty-like substance as a temporary cover over the crumbling filling.  It's hard as a rock now, but it WAS putty when it went into my mouth.  It took approximately 15 minutes total, with my drive over and my drive back home.  It's good to have a dentist just around the block.


Later, I had my appointment with Dr. Tsai, the Radiation Oncologist.  She says I don't need to see her anymore unless Dr. Fastenberg thinks she's needed.  She checked my lungs, as she always does and was happy with the air movement.  I did tell her I'd had several infections since the beginning of this round of chemo, as well as four ocular migraines in one month.


She told me that Dr. F was thrilled at how well I was tolerating the chemo.  HAHAHAH, that means I haven't been hospitalized.  But I did tell her about the horrible pain and that I can tolerate it because I know it won't last.


So, I'll tell all this again to Dr. Fastenberg on Tuesday before my next infusion.  Monday I go for my pre-chemo blood-letting.  Can't wait to see those results, since I didn't do the Neulasta shot.


We woke up this morning to TV news 'copters circling the neighborhood.  Sadly, a house fire took the life of an elderly gentleman, although he managed to get the woman who lived with him out to safety.  I knew this man, vaguely.  In my younger days, I used to do a lot of volunteer work in my city.  I remember very well the day he stood up and called the city council 'whoremongers.'  And that was just the tip of the iceberg for this guy.  But he certainly was a citizen who felt strongly about community involvement.


Of course, being a very hot, very smokey fire, and because we were in the middle of an Ozone Health Watch, I was having a hard time breathing well today.  Again, thank the deities for my Albuterol and the nebulizer.


Since I had such a trying day, I think I'm going to go have a glass of red wine.  Just kidding about the trying day, but not about the glass of wine. :D


Be safe, all, be well, happy and may you always have many hugs in your future.

Another Chemo Adjustment

Well, not an adjustment to my chemotherapy, but how I have to adjust to my chemo. :)  Saturday a filling in my tooth started to crumble.  Although it feels like the Grand Canyon when I run my tongue over it, you can't really see it.  It doesn't hurt in any way, either.


So, anyway, I called my dentist this morning, and they said, "well, you really need to talk to your oncologist first before we touch you."  Alrighty, then.  I called Ironwood and talked to one of the nurses and she looked at my chemo regimen and told me that as long as they were going to do a quick temporary fix, and if I did it toward the end of the week, we should be OK.  So, I'm going on Thursday and we'll see how it goes.  As for any other dental procedure; not until after the chemo is over, and then not for six to eight weeks after.


I'm saddened to say that I lost a beloved cousin over the weekend.  Helene was a Sepulveda that ended up in Hawaii.  We found each other years ago via Ancestry.com.  The minute I saw her, I knew she was family.  She was like a hybrid of my two aunts, Cee Cee and Lottie.  A tiny woman, full of strength of character; a dynamo of energy.  She had just been diagnosed with Stage IV Bone Cancer.  Rest well, now, Helene.


I've got a friend from work coming this afternoon to help me with my handicapped placard renewal.  Despite having your doctor attest to your permanent disability, the placard needs renewing every five years.  I certainly understand why they do this; to prevent fraudulent use by people that are in no way incapacitated.  We just have to sign it and have it notarized, and that's where Judy comes in.  She's an angel; how kind of her to come to my home to help me out. :)


Well, Ned Stark decided finally, that family was more important than his honor, but his timing couldn't have been worse.  And thus, he lost his head in last night's second-to-the-last episode of "Game of Thrones."  Ned, you idiot.


And that's it for this post.  I'm sending love to all, and please give someone a hug today, if at all possible.