Ugh, Leg Pain

It's back with a vengeance.  I took a Naprosyn today.  Yesterday I got a call from the Apothecary Shop that my prescription for the anti-coagulant shots would be delivered today.  Dr. F had told me to not take Coumadin the day before I started the shots, so I didn't take anything yesterday.

Having given myself Lovenox injections many years ago, I figured I'd be fine to do these.  And I was, but I pretty much had to stare at the needle for about a minute before I finally put it into my flesh.  You couldn't feel a thing.  The med wasn't as stingy as I recall the Lovenox being.  Oh, this stuff is Fondaparinux Sodium.

The happiest part of taking this shot is that I don't have to go twice a week for blood draws any more.  My poor arm can heal.  It's ... colorful at the moment.

Also, happily, now that my asthma exacerbation is almost over, my glucose numbers are back where they should be.  You see, any time you body gets stressed out by illness, it plays havoc with your glucose.  Plus many different meds can influence your glucose levels, as well.  It sometimes gets pretty difficult to keep these numbers under control.

Oh, I like that the Apothecary Shop also brought me alcohol swabs and a sharps container.  But according to the note in my meds delivery, they still owe me 21 syringes of this stuff.  I do have a copay for these shots, but it's manageable.

So, that's what's been happening this week; leg pain, change of anti-coagulant, no more phlebotomist twice a week, although I'll still see them for my pre-chemo testing.  Now I must go drink lots of water.  Oncologist has me on Lasix again, hoping to reduce the swelling in my foot and ankle.  I have my circulation socks on, but I don't really think they work all that well.  And I'm tired and I don't feel so hot, so I'm going to go have a nice lie down. :)

Hugs to all!

Pet Scan Number Two.... Strike Two

UGH!  So, I have no idea what the heck happened today.  I got up, checked my glucose, which was 136.. not great, but nowhere NEAR 200, so I'm thinking we're in like Flynn.  


Alas, I get to Ironwood, and the tech takes my reading and we both gasp.  His meter reads 212.  WHAT THE ... FLOCK?  He says, we'll wait five minutes, and then test your other hand because... things happen.  I drink water and read my book.


Second reading, 220.  Is the stress of this whole situation making my glucose rise, because let me tell you, this whole enterprise is making me crazy:  it's demoralizing and frustrating as hell.  I have watched my glucose obsessively.  It's been fantastic since I got off the prednisone!  One last try, the tech says... we'll wait 15 minutes.


Third reading, 215... sorry, no scan for you today.  Ok, now I am so upset.  I make my sister drive me to Walgreens where I buy a new glucose meter.  I get home, prime it, and take a reading... 150.  Again, WTF?  So, I get out my regular meter, and test again.... 148.  This is driving me mad.  I don't know what to do!  My meters are fine; I use the control solution to check 'em out.  My test strips don't expire until 2012, so they are fine.  Apparently, my blood does not want another PET Scan.  But, I do, and so... we'll wait a week and try again.  And try again if that fails and if it does... then we'll keep trying.  


If I were laissez faire about compliance, then I would understand, but I am not.  (Insert very tired sigh here.)


But tomorrow, I am going in to the plant to work!  We've got my scooter all charged up and ready to hit the road.  I've got my Chevy guy working on getting me a class three hitch so that Mobility Center can install a lift for my scooter and then... the world is my oyster!  I'll be able to go anywhere BY MYSELF!  Muahahahahah.  But tomorrow, Nancy and Jane are driving me to work so that they can get the scooter out of my car for me.  Then they'll come get me after work.  Hopefully, this will be the only time they have to do this.


Must remember that I am supposed to report to Medical before I can actually go do some work.  I will show them that I am, once again... STRONG LIKE BULL!

Pet Scan Number Two, take Two...

The redo on the PET scan is scheduled for tomorrow morning at 9:00.  My glucose has been stellar since I've been off the steroids, so I do not see any problems.  However, I didn't anticipate anything the last time, so I will be testing before I head out to Ironwood C&RC.  


I'm not having any major anxiety about the scan, since the last one seemed to be no problem.  But, the last PET was done at another facility.  However, Ironwood always seems to have top-notch equipment, so I'd guess the one tomorrow will be even better than the last one.  Yeah, that's what I'm going with on the anticipation front.  And yet, I shall still be packing the Xanax, just as a bit of insurance against a random anxiety attack.


I was warned not to wear an underwire bra for this scan.  HAH!  Those evil slings of torture?  No underwire has gotten near my 'girls' in years, and never shall again.  No, my 'girls' are quite happy with cotton; they need no trussing up in what amounts to barbed wire!  (Well, after being worn for more than an hour or so, it starts to FEEL like barbed wire, anyway.)

This handsome devil to the right is my Orange Wing Amazon Parrot, Vinnie the Vampire.  He's 15 years old, and is the sweetest thing on earth.  In the old days, before my lungs went to hell, I used to do minimal parrot rescue.  Vinnie wasn't exactly a rescue, but he wasn't a tamed bird, either.  We both had to overcome fear of each other, and now, we're great friends.  He was just under a year when he came to me, and enjoyed drawing blood, hence the "Vampire" sobriquet.


Not sure why I decided to talk about Vinnie today, but I love this picture of him, out in my back garden, and thought I'd share.


Take care, all.  Send me some good juju for tomorrow's scan.  HUGS!

It's Getting so HARD!

Well, I had reasonably decent glucose numbers today, but you should have seen what I ate!  I had two fried eggs for breakfast.  Glucose went down.  Lunch was 8 heirloom cherry tomatoes, one slice of pepper jack cheese and an orange.  Glucose almost hit 200 again!  For dinner I made a skillet supper of chilies, onions, ground turkey, Rotelle tomatoes and chilies, brown rice, rye, and barley.  Glucose is best it's been all day.

So what have I learned?  Not really sure, except I think oranges must be bad, but those whole grains are really good.  And I really have to work on my protein consumption.  Breakfast was fine, lunch was rather iffy.

Then I've had a really nasty stress headache all day for which I used to get my bi-weekly massages... but, alas, I had just better get it through my thick noggin that I'll never have another one of THEM!

I woke up so depressed this morning; definitely not like me, and it occurred to me that my previous, daily exercise routine was something that always helped my mental state.  Of course, not to mention it helped my glucose as well.  Thus I hit the NuStep.  As you might imagine, I haven't been very active for a while, but I thought, if I at least try to get ten minutes a day or so... maybe twice a day, surely that will help.

I managed nine minutes, and coughed like a loon through eight of them.  But I did feel at least a small sense of accomplishment.  Frankly some days, it's been a chore to get from my bedroom to my home office.  So I'll take those nine minutes and maybe tomorrow I'll GET to ten minutes.

The main thing is that I have to remember that my glucose is still wonky because of the Prednisone.  It will take a few days to get it under control, and I doubt that 'worrisome' mass on my adrenal gland is going to do anything sinister in that time-frame.  I'll bet it's a wart or something.  Or adrenal prednisone acne!

Anyway, I'm looking forward to a good night's sleep, hopefully uninterrupted by my friendly owl family who are SO DAMNED LOUD, but exciting to have around as long as they don't eat my chihuahuas.

So, sleep well, all.... eat right, get rest, and drink Geritol... do they even MAKE Geritol anymore? :)

Saw Pulmonary Doc Yesterday

... and was he ever happy with my progress.  I think of all the doctors, he was the most taken aback by the esophageal cancer diagnosis.  He kept telling me how amazed he was that I was doing so well, considering how debilitating my treatment regimen can be.

It had been three months since I had seen him, and I had lost 10 lbs, but he said my lungs really sounded great for me. :)  Now I don't have to return to him for four months. 

I had radiation number TWENTY-FIVE yesterday!  Some days, it's hard to drag yourself out there every single week day, but hey, it keeps you alive, so you do it.  And it's not like I have to drive to Peoria or someplace on the west side.  The only problem is surviving the commute through the snowbirds.  Sometimes, they do ... odd things... with their vehicles.

Jane just got up and decided we needed to have pancakes for breakfast.  Ok, that gets my vote.  Better check my glucose first.  My poor glucose numbers get all out of whack after chemo.  Usually by Saturday we're back in my normal range.  And hooray, we are indeed. :D

I have a little One Touch Ultra Mini glucose meter... in pink.  It's fast and very accurate.  They were using it for pre-pet scan testing at East Valley Diagnostic Imaging, and I thought it was ... cute.. and FAST!  So, I went to their website and got a free one.  Oh yes, they can give you a free meter because believe me, they make up their costs in the profits from the test strips.

Well, I hear pancake production has begun in the kitchen, so I must go investigate. ;)

Be happy, all... and keep warm!