Sanbans lymphorama

Happy Thanksgiving!

2009-11-25T00:36:00.002-05:00

Hi and I hope everybody has a happy Thanksgiving!
I have been very neglectful keeping up with my blog, I know shame on me.
Not too much has been happening. Living in Nashville and still looking for a job there. Anyone out in cyber land know of any admin work in the Nashville area?

Spending turkey day with the fam down in Mississippi. Uncle was diagnosed with colon cancer and after his surgery they said they got it all. He'll meet with an oncologist to follow up. My great aunt just was diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer and has surgery tomorrow. Prayers being sent to her. I guess she didn't feel well for a long time but never wanted to go to the doctor.

Last CT scan in October was good. This new oncologist here in Nashville, likes just CT scans vs Pet and CT scans. Took a first PET scan with them in July i guess it was along with a CT scan,says if a CT scan comes up any different from the previous one then he'd order a PET along with it.

Some fun events coming up this December, Nutcraker, Mame, Holly Trolly light thing so should be a fun filled month!!

I'd also like to say I am thankful for my family, friends, health, docs (old and new!). oh and unemployment!!! ;)

happy turkey day y'all and take care

It's been awhile!

2009-06-04T18:30:00.002-04:00

Hi there from Nashville, TN!
I realize it has been quite a long time since I've posted anything on here! But things got a little crazy for a bit, but not health related...whoohoo!

Let's see, I was getting very tired of living in NY and wanted to leave. At the same time, I also new that my position at the company I worked for was also going to be eliminated, they just weren't giving a time frame. Well come the end of this past March, my lease on my apartment was also up. I talked to some people at work and it all worked out that at the same time, my final day at that company was March 25th and I got to leave with a nice package. So no more job and soon to be no more apartment, my roommate and I packed up, and she went her way and I went off to Nashville, TN. j

So here I am in Nashville, TN , no job yet, but enjoying the grass and trees much more than the concrete jungle. Anyone reading have any job leads for an administrative assistant type role in Nashville?!

On the medical front, my last Petscan came back ok. There was slight activity in Waldeyer's Ring, but is read as physiologic to my age and my doc didn't seem too conscerened about it. Also was starting a cold/sore throat at the same time as those scans. So now I'm moved and through a recommendation have found a new doc to go to. The problme was trying to get originaly biopsy slides sent to his office from NY. I had hand delivered all the scan results and cd's and forms that my former onc had given me but this guy wanted actual slides. who knew!? So i call the pathology dept and go round with different people who say i can only fax over a request but need their form and they can only fax it. But they would mail it and accept a signed letter asking for the slides. I fax it, a few days later, they still never received it. Speak to someone else who then tells me oh yeah I can email you the form and you can email it back. Well why couldn't those other people have told me the same thing..,,because i did ask them that very questions. Anyways, i got it all filled out and scanned in (after problems with my scanner of course lol) and finally they received it and sent everything out. I have my first appt with the new onc this coming Tuesday. I was told by someone who used to work in the office that there's a possiblity they might want to do another bone biopsy, which does not thrill be at all and I can't really see the reason why if I wouldn't have one if I never moved and stayed with my other onc. So I hope they don't!!! I just hope for the regular blood work and scans.
Other than that, I'm off to the Gulf Coast for a couple of weeks to visit my family. So that should be fun.
Hope everyone is in good health and even better spirits!!

Suvivor Corps'

2008-11-20T14:10:00.002-05:00

I received an email from Dani Sevilla of Survivor Corps, to help spread the word about their program for U.S. veterans and service members, Operation Survivor.

Here is the info on their Operation Survivor program:

Survivor Corps Supports Returning
Troops and Their Families!

News Facts
Within the United States there are over one and a half million service members that have served in military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Over thirty thousand have been physically wounded, but many more have experienced less visible, psychological wounds. Traumatic Brain Injury and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder have emerged as signature injuries of these conflicts, with recent reports suggesting an increase in rates of suicide, alcohol and drug abuse, homelessness, and domestic violence among returning service members and veterans.

These traumatic affects of conflict, left unaddressed, could have far-reaching negative consequences for the individuals affected, their families, and our country. Survivor Corps’ work in some of the most conflict affected countries in the world has shown community reintegration to be the key factor in those that overcome their traumatic experiences, and those that are consumed by them.

YOU CAN HELP!

Operation Survivor
Ongoing conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan are creating a generation of veterans in the United States from all branches of the armed services and all 50 states who are struggling to overcome physical and psychosocial injuries. Most combat veterans convalescing in military hospitals across the country will survive physically, but getting on with their lives after returning home to their families and communities is proving a significant challenge for hundreds of thousands. Among the 1.6 million who have served since 2001, suicide is on the rise, as is unemployment and incidents of substance abuse and domestic violence.

The successful reintegration of returning service members is an issue that will have a long-lasting impact on American society, and may become the single defining struggle facing this new generation of veterans. Survivor Corps and its partners are determined to avoid the mistakes made when veterans returned from Vietnam, which resulted in tens of thousands of post-war suicides and over 200,000 men and women living on the streets.

To head off this tragic outcome, Survivor Corps will build peer support programs at the community level that will bring service members and veterans together for mutual support and encourage both individual responsibility and collective action to help others in need.

Survivor Corps is offering an alternative “treatment” that can be made readily available in all communities, regardless of proximity to traditional military or govern¬ment centers of support. Our approach is nimble enough to address the needs of individual survivors, while still broad enough to build a coalition of survivors and service providers working to effect long-term positive change.

This new program will help the recovery and reintegration of hundreds of thousands of returning U.S. service members at a critical time for them and their country.

Video Elements
Kyra Phillips of CNN Interviews Scott Quilty About Survivor Corps

About Survivor Corps

Survivor Corps helps people around the world who have suffered war and violence to rebuild their lives and rejoin their communities. By connecting those affected by conflict through networks of survivors, we help people overcome trauma and injury and regain their place in society. Survivor Corps (formerly Landmine Survivors Network) was born out of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, co-recipient of the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize, and recently spearheaded the development of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Over the past ten years, we have established successful peer support programs in eight war affected countries in Latin America, Europe, Asia, Africa and the Middle East.

Contacts
Scott Quilty
squilty@survivorcorps.org
US Program Manager
Survivor Corps
2100 M St, NW, Suite 302
Washington, DC 20037
(202) 250-3946

Elizabeth Miner
eminer@survivorcorps.org
202-250-3929
2100 M St. NW Suite 302,
Washington, DC 20037

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Sept 28th at 8:30

2008-09-06T20:35:00.004-04:00

Hello hello hello. Yes it's been a while, but hey probably no one reading this anyways and if you are you probably already know whats goin on, but hey maybe for those who don't here a new little tidbit of info.
Sept 28th at 8:30pm I will be performing in my own one woman (ok and one guy playing the piano yay Brett Kristofferson) show at Don't Tell Mama. If you're in the NYC area and feelin like checkin me out in person, see how funny i may be and hear my luscious tones as i sing through some musical theater tunes and ooohh a kd Lang tune, come out and see it.
Again thats:
When: Sunday Sept 28th at 8:30pm
where: Don't Tell Mama
343 W 46th Street btwn 8th adn 9th ave
New York, NY
tix are $10 and there's a two drink minimum
for reservations you can call 212.757.0788

Got a call back this coming monday for a preview reading of a new musical. Should be interesting.

Hanna has dropped some rain on nyc today. I made it wandering around quite a bit and then walking from my train stop to my apartment, i finally got completely drenched. This huge downpour started and the wind came. Of course by the time i made it to my front door...it stopped and went back to a moderate rain. Figures. But hey at least I was home and could change quickly and laugh at myself without anyone noticing!

I've been searching photography classes to take. I got a new digital slr camera and need to learn how to use it properly and take great pics.

Lets see what else?! My hair is still growing yay!! And 3/4 of it is super curly. But hey I'll take it! It's funny the sides next to my ears are quit a bit straighter then the top so it's entertaining.
I'll post a pic (it's of me and my friend Pat at the preseason Giants vs Patriots game out at the Meadowlands from couple weeks ago.) That was my first nfl game (or well almost regular season game, but still first nfl)

So thast about all, just workin and memorizing and rehearsing!!

july update

2008-07-26T01:29:00.000-04:00

Howdy all!
First a shout out to Duncan and his cast of Prince Trevor Amongst the Elephants and the Midtown International Theater Festival. If you get a chance check it out!
Got the results of my latest Pet/CT scan and evrything is all negative!! Yay!! No activity and thats a good thing! whew!! I had some weird itching on my ankle that was freaking me out like hodgkins coming back but it wasn't. Mustve just been some sand flea from the beach biting me!
I got a new MacBook and am loving it. Though it is something to get used to since I've been on a pc for so long. I do miss some applications! I need to get a copy of windows for mac thats for sure!
I'm finally motivated to put my cabaret feature length debut show together. I've been listening to tons with thoughts of what to do and how to piece it all together. I'm thinkin sometime in Sept as long as I have an accomp and the venue is free! Most likely a sunday or a monday night. If you have any suggestions of what you may want to hear me sing....let me know!
Oh! and my website it kind of up and running. It's really generic but for know it's something. I have to figure out how to add some music to it. If you care to take alook at it it's www.saundreasanburn.com . Or you can also check out www.myspace.com/saundreasanburn and check out a couple of songs there. I threw that back up there for a submission for an audition. All i heard was we'll get back to you in a couple days so I dunno if i even get to go to the audition lol. Hopefully I'm getting new headshots in August! If you've seen my headshot, then you really know it needs an update for sure! Oh it's from 2002 and my hair has since fallen out and grown back and as you can see is now short (but growing!) and curly! Still trying to figure out this curly business. I'm used to wavy but curls are good too!
Guess thats the update for now
ciao!

Alaska sideshow

2008-06-06T11:13:00.001-04:00

Here's a slide show of my Alaska Cruise pics!

Cruisin through Alaska

2008-06-04T22:33:00.003-04:00

Happy Memorial Day-a little bit late. But hey I was on a cruise in a Alaska over Memorial Day.
i have to say it didn't start of so great. My first flight (to Atlanta then would connect to a flight to Seattle) was an hour late. Normally wouldn't be that big of a deal but I only had 45 minutes between flights in Atlanta. I missed my connecting flight and had to wait 3 hours for the next flight out. I had the last seat on that sucker, the middle seat, in between two guys. One extremely tall, but who slept the whole flight and one metrosexual guy with his eye mask on to sleep. Seemed to get an attitude when after about 4 hours i finally was like "excuse me" so I could get up. whatever dude. Anyways, just before I was boarding the flight to Seattle, I realized I didn't have my passport or my birth certificate! ahhhhhh!!! I was thinking Alaska, its the US why would I need it. Not remembering that we also were stopping in Canada. Luckily I texted and left a voicemail for my roommate and my mom called her, I knew exactly where my documents were and told her. She was able to find everything and scan it to my moms cousin who lives in Seattle and works 2 blocks away from the hotel we were at. So 8am the next morning she dropped those off. I had to take a cab to the hotel becuase the one we were staying at was not covered by the shuttle bus and the bus voucher i had from Holland america, they closed at 11 and i got in at midnight. However my luggage made it on the original plane i was supposed to be on, so it got to Seattle before I did.
The next morning, Diana dropped of the documents, we talked to the Holland America rep who said luckily they are the only cruise line who will accept copies of the actual documents. When we go through embarkation just ask to speak to a supervisor. When we got to the embarkation place, we talked with the supervisor. She saw we had copies of everything and was very happy to tell us it was all ok and we did good. And we got on the boat yay!! Apparently the week before a couple couldn't find the passports and had no copies. the were from Georgia and ended up not being able to get on the boat. So lesson learned, going on a cruise anywhere, always take your passport and birth certificate!
It was a great trip. Alaska is beautiful!! I took over 290 pictures, not including the ones I deleted along the way as bad ones lol. The weather was great! Juneau was around 72degrees, Sitka around 68, Galcier Bay 60's, and all sunny. Ketchikan (the Salmon Capital of the world and rain capital of alaska) was cloudy, around high 50's but no rain!! Victoria started in the 70's but since we got there in the evening it did drop quite a bit. We took 3 whale watching catamarans (Juneau, Sitka, and Victoria) Saw Humpback whales and seals in Alaska and in Canada we saw Killer Whales or "Orca's". We watched a whole pod, the J Pod, about 15-25 of them just frollicking and having fun. It was great! Couldn't get any great shots becuase of the boat bopping up and down and my slow camera but was really fun! I definelty recomment cruising to Alaska.

On the med front, the steri strips all fell off the med port removal incision. The scar is a little lumpy so I keep massaging it hoping it will go down and not be a keloid scar. but if it is it is. My next scan isn't until end of summer, though I kind of wish i had one a little sooner. Just nerves of not knowing or having confirmation that things are still fine.

If you want to see some pics just let me know, i'm not good at posting a bunch on here. or you can checkout my facebook page too (just ask for it)
happy summer!

I have been deported!

2008-05-08T19:45:00.000-04:00

Well folks,I have been deported! That is to say, I have had my mediport removed. This morning to be exact! I had to be at the hospital at 7:45 in the morning. Ugh. Now thats a hard fete but I made it. I dragged my roommate Angela with me (thanks Ang!) as they said to bring someone with you because of the sedation. Well come to find out after all was said and done, I didn't have any seditives so really didn't need an escort, but it was a funny experience.
We got there, i got registered then went on up to the vascular radiology dept. They let Angela go in the room with me and this young guy named Bradley I believe came in. When walking to the room, i heard him quickly say his name, while just staring at Angela. Once in the room he repeated his name, then added the Dr Speilman or whatever it was, and still would look at Angela. lol. In my head I was like hey I know she's the hot one but hey I'm the patient lol It was rather amusing. Then we moved to the room next door and waited awhile. the nurse came in , took a look at the veins and said yeah these will work basically. Then came back and said, they said you don't need seditives they're just gonna numb up the area so you don't feel anything. Ummm ok. So after a while of waiting Dr Charles is ready to being. And they kick Angela out back to the waiting room. then they begin. I'm just layin on the stretcher in a gown, jeans, tennis shoes, they stuck a cap over my bandanaed head. He numbed up the area, which friggin stings! Then started slicin and dicin. there was a point where i was like ouch ouch ouch ouch ouch! "Ooohh thats just the scar tissue that hurts more", was the response. then i said "well use more lidocaine!" they did. it was a gross feeling when he was tugging away trying to pull out the port. after a year I guess it was nicely stuck in there! ick gross, cuase he was tuggin pretty hard for it to come out. then he stitched me up. There was a couple little spots where it stung a little more but they said no more lidocain lol. then it was done. I think it took like 15-30 minutes in total. During the procedure, the doc was making small talk like "Do you have any children?" To which i said, no. then it was, "do you want any?" which i said, "someday but i have to have the husband first." "Well when is that happening?" "Ummm thats a good question" lol. Then it was "what do you do?", "I work for a publishing company" (which he actually knows of and subscribes to one of our jrnls, which is apparently expensive lol) and I said I sang and oh didnt he hear my roommate singin in here earlier. his reply was "oh that was your roommate? You two must be a force.....maneaters!" hilarious. But I think through this morning they all probably thought we were lovers lol.

Then we left, went to breakfast, did some shopping then came back. Then i took a nap yay! I love naps!

I have to say, the removal was much easier and moving around afterwards, much easier. I remember when I had it put in, it was hard to lay on my side or stomach but now I can lay on my side, well not that side, but get to the side easier and move without any problems.

So that was my day!

Side effect or no side effect?

2008-04-25T16:27:00.002-04:00

Visited TONS of doctors this week. Sheesh every day but today i was seeing someone! Though tonight is Reiki! yay!
Monday started out with a trip to the physiatry doc for my wierd tinglies in my legs, but only when I look down. She said yeah thats weird and sent me off to get a circulation function test (arterial dopple of the extremeties). Basically you lie there and they put 3 blood pressure cuffs on each leg and one on one arm as the base blood pressure reading. Then they just take readings from each cuff and listen to my heartbeat with a handheld sonogram thingy. (love my tech jargon haha) at two spots on each foot and the crook in my arm that they were taking the reading from. Thenthat was all. He said there's nothing major to report back to the doctor immediatly so she'll have the results on this coming monday at the latest. That test ws done on Wednesday. This coming Monday I'll see her for the nerve function test. Which i have no idea what it entails, but I just envision being poked by needles. eek!
Tuesday was a visit with the dermatologist. This is the gross part people... so she looked my side where a large cyst under my skin was getting very angry and red looking, then she shot some numbing juice in it and make a couple little slices into it. Then she pushed on it and drained some of the stuff out of it, blood and whatever else. She said it didn't look infected but would send it off to test it. I haven't heard back so I guess it wasnt. then she put a shot of steroids in it and a layer of antibiotic ointment and bandaged it. Now I see her on Tuesday this coming week. If it's shrunk and small enough she will cut it out and stitch it back up, if not she'll send me to a plastic surgeon to do it. Fun stuff...
Thursday was a checkup with the Oncologist and the radiology oncologist. Nothing big there, just go in say hi. Got the number again to schedule the port removal. He said if the dermatologist takes off the cyst, it's fine and I can still get the port removed. Told the radiaologist about the weird tinglies and he said it actually could be a sympton from the radiology since it was hitting my neck and spine. Something called Lhermittes syndrome. He said don't tell the other doc though. Let her run all her tests to be thurough. Sometimes if they find out it could be something else they won't be as aggressive, he said, so dont tell her lol
I guess should the other tests come back all negative, we'll figure it's this and will resolve on its own.
So that was alot of doc visits this week. ugh.
Also saw a very unwanted guest in my apt the other day...on my bed. Agggghhh a bedbug. I hate those little things. I hate movign into a place and barely a month later having them show up. I know the people on the 6th floor have them, i ran into them the other day and they mentioned it. Oh and they are the peopel that used to live in the apartment I'm in. So I'm guessing since they travel all the time, one of them picked them up from a hotel and deposited them into the apartment we now have and the one they have. Ugh sucks!!! So now we have to launder everything! Exterminator is coming on Monday to fog the place and I just ordered a box spring, matress and pillow encasements from protect-a-bed, which is supposed to be the best covers/encasements out there. We are trying to get the owner to cover the laundering costs, or we will just deduct it from out rent since our apartment was actually never cleaned or repainted after the people moved out, becuase they moved out the day we moved in as the upstairs place they were going in to wasn't dry til that morning. So we are arguing or well my roommate is arguing with the landlord.
So thats the excitment on my end of the world aaaaaaggggggggghhhhhh!!
have a good weekend

All moved in

2008-04-13T00:08:00.002-04:00

I'm all moved in! Actually as of april 1 I've been moved in. Been a slow process of getting the apartment all together though. First thing is that it was never cleaned adn painted when we came, as teh people in it where finishing moving their last pieces of crap out as we started in. Reason: their lovely new renovated apartment 3 floors up had wet floors until that morning. Sucks for us especially since this place is in needs of some serious repair in places. It's had a couple major leaks, needs silicone caulking along with basebords, the paint is like 70 years of layers and chipping everywhere! I saw a mouse today. But that doesn't really bug me, I mean really tehy are everywhere. But we have cat...who just layed on the ground staring at it. Nice cat action there. Oh our landlord is dropping by this coming monday and tuesday and my roomie has a whole list of things that need to be attended to, and asking, should we get a cleaning crew in here and just have them bill the management company? Oh and an exterminator too?!
We went to Ikea yesterday and I got to pickup my little 4drawer dresser and nightstand. yay! I put them together today. Now all i have to do is fill them!
Oh and we got curtains for the living room, a new shower curtain and red bathmat and curtains for my room. I have some white blackout curtains hanging already, but these are nice sheer white with little teeennnyy tiny green flowers on them. I mean really teeny flowers. Cute though.
On the health front.... I was supposed to have had my port out this week, but I ended up getting a mild case of shingles and so that had to be postponed. The shingles showed up behing my ear first. The oncologist looked at it but I guess it was just starting and he thought it was just an irritation. Well 4 days later my shoulder started itching and i felt these bumps, yep it had showed up on the same side just down near my shoulderblade. But luckily like i said it was a mild case. The worst of it just felt like getting a neck hair caught in a necklace. So completely tolerable, and luckily my new roomy did not get chickenpox! Apparently ifyou've never had chickenpox (which she hasnt) you can get them from someone with shingles (although I think you have to directly touch them and she didn't so all was good). Now that they're cleared up I have to call and reschedule the port removal.
I have a physical on Wednesday night, which is good cause I want to get a bunch of things checked out. This weird tingly thing in my legs has been happening after I walk about 2 blocks and then if I look down, bend my neck down, it gets all weird tingly in my legs. So I'll bring that up. My back hurts and muscles are all tight constantly. Want to get my lungs and heart checked and run a diabetes test since it all runs in my family on both sides. Anywho, guess thats whats happening there.
Man my room is a mess, boxes still everywhere. Tomorrow off to see Sunday In The Park again. I love that show, then I'll probably come home and unpack a bit more!
ciao for now!

My it's been awhile!

2008-03-26T22:28:00.003-04:00

Wow I didn't realize it was a little over a month since I last posted a blog! lol
Guess not that much had been going on till recently.
I decided to move out of my apartment in Astoria and move into the big city with my friend Angela. So that past couple weeks we were checkin out apartments.
We saw a few one night and put a deposit down on one, 5th fl walkup ouch! small apartment. And the next morning I just had this horrible feeling that it wasn't right. Sucks becuase even though we told the realtor before 24 hours was up, we lost the deposit. Ouch big lesson learned. So the search was back on, keepin in mind that my new roomie has to be out of her current place march 31! So the next day we looked with another realtor and found the perfect place! It was more than we wanted to spend but after seeing the place it was soooo worth it. Big rooms, lots of light, quiet street, 1/2 a block from the Hudson River, river view from one of the rooms, laundry in the basement and an elevator bldg, apt on the 5th floor. We went back to the realtor office, filled out all the paperwork and handed over the deposit. That was a friday, come monday we get the news that no we didn't get it because someone else had applied earlier that day and their realtor didn't advise anyone of it. Needless to say I was sooooo bummed and Angela was bummed. So the search continued that night. We found another place, elevator bldg, 3rd floor, big and spacious. Still on the higher end, but still a good deal for the apt and area oh and laundry in the basement. The only issue is that it doesn't get alot of natural light and may be a little warm. There's a hole in the bathroom door, that will bereplaced before we arrive to a week within getting there. Ooohh and there's currently a tenant in it. They are moving up to the 5th floor for more light. But we saw teh 5th floor and it was in major fix/repair mode, though I dunno if they can get it done in time, but they really have no choice. And the tenants got alot of stuff so they need to start packing and gettin out of there! Oh and teh Super quit on Monday lol. Still I think it will all work out fine. Neigborhood is /seems quiet. Still 1/2block from the river. Big park that runs along the river. Riverbank State Park. Apparently its like 95 acres all built on top of like a water treatement plant. The only one of it's design in the US. Lots of stuff there.
So I called the movers and Tuesday April 1 i'll be takin the day off and finishing packing and watching the movers haulit all off to the new place and put it all inside!
Guess I better start packing! Oh and my current roommates have found a replacement the other day and she'll be movin in on April 4th I think he said.
So that is the news.
Saw the oncologist and got the all clear to call and have my mediport removed. So as soon as the nurses call and give the script info and bloodwork info I can call and schedule it within the next two weeks! ah! Hoepfully I wont be a big ole cry baby again like when they put it in !!
So that's whats fit to report!
wish me luck gettin all packed!

Take me out of the bath cause I AM CLEAN!

2008-02-22T14:39:00.000-05:00

Well boys and girls, Monday I went and had my PET/CT scan. The 2months after radiation ended scan. It went fine. Tasted a new horrible flavor of barium crap. This one was supposedly Apple. But tasted nothing like an Apple ever would or should. It was sooooooo nasty. But after an hour of slowly sipping it or just trying to gulp it away, it was finished. Went into the scans (nodded off every now and then in the machine) and then I was done.

Tuesday was not such a great day. Monday, foundout a friend has passed away after her fight with stage 4 lung cancer. Tuesday we went to the service. Quite a large turn out, over 500 people. For a young woman she really touched a lot of peoples lives thats for sure! Marissa will truly be missed by many people.

Wednesday, just another day in paradise.

Thursday took my roommate Kevin and I over to Studio 54 to catch the opening of Sunday In The Park With George. I really love this show. And after seeing it live, I really really love this show! The leads that were brought over from the London revival were excellent. The digital lights and effects used to recreate George Seurats Sunday Afternoon on the Isle of Gran Jatte, most excellent. I wept (ok not obsessively or embarassingly). We had a couple of celebrity sightings at the event, one being Jane Krakowski (who i kept seeing throughout the night..it was like she was stalking me haha jk) and Lauren Bacall. So fun evening.
Oh during the day I went to a new gyn doc. Not a very happy warm greeting and i waiting a long time in the room for her to make her entrance. Then it was like oh why do you come every 6months? My reply was becuase I was told too, I mean i'm not the doctor so I dunno what the rules are with that. She said oh thats a waste of resources you only need to come annually. Then talked about having Hodgkins to which she said..Aren't you a little old for Hodgkins?? In the same kind of tone someone would say, aren't you a little old to be dating so and so, or aren't you a little old to be wearing that? REALLY?????? Hmmm well the biopsy (ya know wher ethey cut into you and take a piece out and study it under a microscope and see the tell tale signs and markers of the disease....well yeah that is what it said it was, i dunno what to tell ya. She just returned to writing on the form. Then she took off, as apparently there was another patient with an emergency. So i waited a bit longer after changing into the tent they gave me to change in to. She came back, told me of the emergency and how i had perfect timing (cause ya it's all my fault some woman had an er issue and you're swamped yep all me i cuased all that) but then her demeanor turned really pleasant and caring. So wierd. I dunno if i'll go back there in a year lol

And today....today my results were supposed to be 2pm but i got a call to move it up to 11:15. So i walked over in the snow (love it, it started snowing somewhere between midnight and 3:30am yay) got there, gave my blood. Then waited forever in the room waiting for the doc to come in. He forgot I was in there. I could hear him through the glass chattin with another doc in the office, then started singing "these boots are made for walking" hilarous. Then i asked the receptionist (right outside my room) if she could remind him i'm in there. The nurse was walking by so she did. He then quite hurridly came in. Then opened up the file and showed me the report that said....... ALL CLEAN!!! No signs of malignancy anywhere!! Yay!!! So I see him in a month just to checkin but no more petscans until end of summer (around 4-6 months he said) he may throw in another ct scan sometime but maybe not. Then after that one at the end of summer, not another one after that for another 6months. So good news! I was really getting nervous on the walk over to the office man. Butterflies in the stomach somethin bad. Just kept tellin myself I'm cured, I'm cured, over and over. Glad that wait is over! So glad it all came back clean!

Tomorrow is a fun filled movie day. Fo $30 at AMC i'm see all the best picture Oscar nominee films. from 11-11 I'll be there. I get a free large popcorn too with free rifills and some keepsake lanyard with pics of the nominated movies.

So there's my week recap!! Hope everyone has a great snowy weekend!!!

a little scare

2008-02-11T13:44:00.001-05:00

Whew had a little scare today, but all is fine. I went to the oncologist this morning. All was fine, said I looked fine, said oh your hair should start growing back in in about a week, week and a half. We'll see. I had them take the blood from my port since they had to flush it anyways. Told the doc about my issue with standing up from squatting looking at some low shelves or getting up from laying on the couch and things start getting a little black. NEver have passed out but came pretty close in GameStop the other day. He said it was because of the radiation. The area that was radiated is now all stiff and whatever ventricle that helps the blood pressure regulate is not quite up to par, so just get up slowly. lol. ok guess I can do that lol. So i was an hour late to work, no biggie. Then about 12:30 the docs office and says to come back in and have my blood drawn again. The platlettes were too low compared to a month ago. yikes, whats up with that. So I went and came back and all is fine. As the doc put it it was just clumpy. Whether it's clumpy inside my port or just clumped up in the tube i dunno, but the blood drawn from my arm is much better and pretty regular numbers so they sent me on my way yay! i have to say though, it's too cold to be runnin back and forth lol!
But i'm glad that they are lookin at all the numbers and act on them.
I'm super excited for the end of May to be here! My mom and I will be hopin on a plane and goin to Seattle to then catch a boat and go cruising through Alaska!! yay!! I can't wait. I think i'll just be standing along the railing taking pictures the whole time. Well, when I'm not off the boat on a tour taking more pictures!! I can't wait!
Well thats about all, guess I should go do some work now!
ciao

Update:
Took forever to get the authorization for the PetCat scan but finally got the call and hten was told, oh you don't need precertifications for out of office scans. So i waited for a couple days for nothing. But I called this morning and my scans will be on Monday. I have the day off from work then anyways so no big deal. Just can't eat after 9am. Guess I'll have to wake up early anyways and eat breakfast. Then go back to sleep haha.

Thats the latest

Waiting.....

2008-01-30T16:11:00.001-05:00

Howdy. Nothin really big to report. Just throught I'd drop a line since I haven't in a little while. Had my 1 month after radiation checkup with the radiation oncologist. Ended up waiting in the exam room for like 45minutes till he finally finished with a patient. Took a little nap lol. Nurse came in at one point to tell me they hadn't forgot about me and if I needed anything. I said, how about a pillow and a blanket haha. The appt went fine. I still really like Dr Shah. He so nice and thorough, generally there is the whole hair issue he forgot to mention in the beggining but other then that he's great. He never guarantee's anything, which is kinda good since really, can you really guarantee anything in life? There is a small possibility my hair wont grow back, another possibility it will grow back patchy or it may all grow back soft as babies hair (in the beginning). I choose the babies hair please thanks. He's seen it all. But teh good news is that since it held out on falling out till 3 days before I was done with radiation, it wasn't unhappy with it early. I alsohave little patches of peach fuzz in areas that were definetly hit by the radiation so it's a good sign that the other places will start to grow back too, just will takea few months. Sucks it's winter cause the back of my head is cold!

Saw Kathy Griffin at the WaMu theater at Madison Square Garden. She's hilarious. She did a straight 2 hours. She is just so hilarious, bawdy, foul mouthed, I love it! Kelly from Boston (chemopalooza) came in to town to see the show with me.

I see the regular oncologist beginning of February. Then we will schedule the PET scan and hopefully the removal of the port. The scans have to be 8 weeks after the last radiation so no false positives show up. So heres hopin for some clean scans baby!

hmm for not much to say I certainly seemed to have said alot. Still thinkin with moving to Portland OR probably in a year. The city just drives me crazy. I guess unless I can move someplace near a park, away from constant major street noise. So we shall see!!

That's all for now!

I am now 34 years old...is that a new age box???

2008-01-10T22:18:00.000-05:00

Yo yo yo yesterday was by birthday biatches step up and recognize! hahaha. well it was my birthday and it was a really great day! yay! I even had 3 drinks! A glass of red wine, a glass of white wine and a mojito! Great food and good friends!

Today I went to the oncologist. It was fine. Just had to wait a little while. Tried to get blood from my arm (since it doesnt hurt there I rather that then the port) but the blood was moving soooo slow it was crazy. i dunno if it was my vein, lack of hydration since I really hadn't drank anything, or the phlebotonist. She was a newer one for me. I had to have my port flushed anyways so they gave up quickly and Gerri just got the blood from the port and flushed it. Waited for a bit and then the doc came in. Everythings fine was just a checkin. Slightly enemic most likely from the radiation. Throat is about 95% better. I got back in a month and then we'll schedule the port removal and the PET/CAT scans.

My grannys surgery went great and within 2 days she's been up walkin around, sitting in chairs and eating! She had colon surgery, removed a tumor. When the surgeon got in there the tumor had shrunk so much he had a hard time finding it!

Moms biopsy is scheduled for Jan 16th.

I think the hair or whats left on the back of my head has finally stopped falling out. Now just waiting for some peach fuzz to start comin in!! :O)~

Guess thats all for now! Happy January!

Holiday catch up

2007-12-30T12:59:00.000-05:00

Hello everyone out in bloggerland! HOpe everyone had a great christmas and hope you all have a great new year!! I'm down here in southern Mississippi. Hangin out with the fam. Christmas was good. Though uncle did have a little goof with the potatoes. Instead of having mashed (which i was bummed out cause that wouldve been one thing i wouldn't have had a problem eating) he decided to make some augratin scalloped potato dish. Only at dinner time, they weren't cooked all the way. It took almost another 2 hours to cook them lol. So for a little midnight snack they were ready! Was very funny.
Lets see, i flew down here the saturday before xmas. Later that night i looked at my tongue as i felt like i was gettin alot of canker sores, turns out I now had Thrush. It's really kinda gross looking. Since there's not really any over the counter treatment for that, I waited till monday to call my radiation onc since he's the last doc I'd been seeing. And his lovely treatments are what was causing everything. Only, he wasn't in, still on vacation. But I did get ahold of another doc who called me back and I told him what grossness lied on my tongue and my throat was still burning like a madman. He called in a perscription of Niastatin. Some anitfungle, sugary cherry flavored slightly numbing concoction. But it's doin the trick. By wednesday my tongue was looking almost normal. Today itlooks completely normal yay! (oh it's sunday the 30th) Happy birthday mom! I still have to take it for another week. My throat is slowly getting better. Yesterday was the biggest improvement day and today feels better too. Still hard to swallow things. But I just chew chew chew and drink and swallow. It's a shame my tastebuds have gotten all knocked around too. I couldn't even enjoy pizza lastnight. It just tasted sooo awful. How many times are you gonna hear me say that!!! I love pizza! Was such a shame. But apparently when I was out at the store my parents were like, hmmm how many pieces do we save for her, how many can they have. Ha turns out they had it all except for one pieces with like 2 bites out of it. I'm really tired of this now. I'd love to eat like a regular person and swallow easily. I did got to a couple casino buffets and got soft stuff, ie mashed taters, mac N cheese, but it all tasted gross. Now I'm not sure if thats cuase it was my tastebuds or buffet food lol. I did manage some crab legs, which would've been great but they actually weren't very good in general.
Today is moms bday, big old 59, so we are taking her to a Japanese steak house that she loves, Saki's. It's really good. I hope my tastebuds like it. I love the hibachi chicken and vegetables. So yummy. And soft enough I think I'll be ok now!

I guess thats about all, catches everybody up. I fly back home on Jan 3. Oh if you got some extra prayers in ya, can you send some to my ma. She has to have a biopsy done make sure she's just got a benign breast cyst or tumor and nothin worse. She meets with the surgeon on the fourth. She just found this out friday before xmas and on teh 26th we went and she had a magnifying mamogram and a sonogram. So meet with the surgeon and then he'll schedule the biopsy.
Anywho that covers it. Have a happy and safe and healthy new year!!!

and one more "lovely" gift from radiation

2007-12-20T10:47:00.000-05:00

Well well well, I now have one more gift from radiation. Something completely unexpected and rather annoying and upsetting. I woke up yesterday, hopped in the shower, was washin my hair and then looked at my hands to find hair all over them. Yep the back of my head is pretty much bald now. Unfortunately, I have to tilt my head back during radiation to keep my lower jaw out of the way, well, this has now put the back of my head in the field. It's now been zapped but good and those little follicles have all just fried up and let my hair go. Very sad since as of right now I only have 2 more treatments left, it was completely unexpected and the other spots that lost hair from chemo are finally all filling in and looking good. I guess the good thing is, from the front the hair looks good, its just at the back that looks pathetic. And its just hard as its come out pretty much all at once and not slowly.
I went and thought getting a haircut would help it, but not really. Just looks bald and splotchy. I wish she'd have actually listened when I said shave it off and blend the rest not just blend it down.
Throat is still messed up. The hardest part is swalloing the oxycodone pills in the morning. I try to wash them down with slimfast cause it's thick and coats them a little, and I cut them up in quarters.
Thanks Jessica for all the advise on the soft foods, it's much appreciated.
So far just swallowign even water is an icky experience. :(
Well today and tomorrow and then I'm done and hopefully things will improve quickly!!!!!

throats-a-fire

2007-12-17T22:06:00.000-05:00

Well all the radiation is takin a toll on my throat, thats for sure! Now it feels like a code red triple alarm sever strep throat. The doc gave me some magic mouthwash ( a lovely mixture of maalox and lidocaine) taste gross. Numbed my mouth but did nothin for my throat (and yes i swallowed it too). So I rang up the doc today and said the magic just wasn't working. When I got to my radiation appointment he had a prescription for Percoset waiting for me. he said they would be little pills, which is good cause I have trouble swallowing my tiny little pill for my bloodpressure right now. I drop of the script to the pharmacy, go back an hour to get it only to find out that they actually didn't check to see if they had it when they told me it would be ready in half an hour. But they had sent the manager to a nearby location that had it. Of course nearby I think was like half an hour away. I waited probably an hour and he finaly got back. Nice he sent the mgr over to get it and not me. I get the pills home and they are oxycodone and acetametophin mix and the tablets are big!! Very sad....very very sad. But luckily nowhere did it say do not chew or crush or break, so I chopped them in quarters and swallowed them done, but they still hurt. I tried taking one in a spoonful of icecream. That really didn't work to well. It's been about an hour and a half since I took them. It's not as severe but it's still really sore to swallow. I dunno whats gonna happen tomorrow. If it's only supposed to get worse this week. But luckily this week is the last week! Hopefully xmas day I'll be good enough at least to eat mashed potatoes without a bunch of pain! ya know when you can't eat something all of a sudden is when you really want it lol
Anyone watch Clash of the Choirs??? I'd have to say Patti LaBelles choir was the best, or well my favorite, Michael Boltons choir was my least favorite. Seriously why turn Livin On A Prayer into a big ole choir piece...just wierd.
Anywhooooooo, hope all are having a good start to their week!

swim swim swim

2007-12-13T18:23:00.000-05:00

Caught The Little Mermaid lastnight at the Lunt-Fontaine theater. I'd say I'd give a 7 1/2-8 out of 10, 10 being the best. I felt they kind of scimped on some effects that really wouldve given a little bit more of a wow factor. It was cute and fun. And I love Sherie Rene Scott!! Vocally that woman is amazing with a breath support that can go on for days and days and days! There are quite a few new songs added to mix. A lovely quartet in act 2. Norm Lewis, King Triton, gotta love his voice too. so warm and melty and yummy! I notice not really any mermen in the mix. Lots of other fish and sea life, but really if Ariel is supposed to fall in love with a merman, they couldve at least showed one lol. Or maybe I just missed him.
It's fun and Poor Unfortunate Souls...great ending to it!That alone was worth the price. So there's my review.
Saw the rad.onc. today, everythign is coming along smoothly. I'm lining up under their machines very nicely so i'm gettin zapped in all teh right places. I'm not majorly bombarded by sideffects which is good. I did get some magic mouthwash today. I'll take a swig before bed as that seems to be the worse time for me.
Got a Holiday Party at work tomorrow yay!!
ciao for now!

just a quickie

2007-12-12T14:05:00.000-05:00

Hello just droppin a quickie here. Finished week one of radiation. In the middle of week two. It is now getting hard to swallow, or well more of I'm swallowing harder if that makes sense. Kind of the hard swallow feeling you get at the beginning of a cold when your throat gets scratchy and kinda sore and saliva just feels gross and thick and you really have to work at swallowing. ..anyone? no, just me, oh well.
Other than that, just alittle more sleepy and the waits on mondays and tuesdays are crazy. I had to wait an hour and half on monday after my time to finally get in and yesterday was 2 hours. But yesterday their servers crashed so I can understand being delayed because of that. But normally, just cuase they have new patients it completely throws everything else off. I just sit and basically nap on and off in the waiting room. But i'm not the only one. One guy was snoring lastnight!
Goin to see The Little Mermaid tonight! Yay I'm excited!! Saw Young Frankenstein last friday. Very fun! Andrea Martin...hilarious!!!! Got to see some buds from Michigan who came to town to visit.That was nice, love seein my friends!
ok thats about all, ciao and happy holidays!

Anyone need a glowstick?

2007-12-04T00:20:00.000-05:00

Today I officially started radiation. Other then waiting in the womens waiting area (first you wait to be called inside, then you go to seperate men/women rooms once they call you and then change into a robe and then wait some more in the seperate waiting rooms till someone comes and gets you). I waiting for what felt like forever! Finally I was called in. They had to take another film or two and then the radiation started. Really, it was like one long xray and then one short one. Then the machine moved around to under the table I was laying on and then another zap like a long xray and then a short one. Then i was all done.
The longest part of it all is making sure my little dot tattoos are lining up how they should and making sure my chin is lifted (or well my head is tilting back as far as it can so my chin gets out of the way) then they taped it all up so it wouldn't move. Not the most comfortable position but easily maintainable for waht 5 minutes at the most.
Once a week I'll go and visit the nurses there and fill them in if I have any side effects. They will also do blood work every Thursday and I'll chat with the doc every Thursday.
After "rads" today I went over to my buddy Josh's apt. Then we went and saw his partner Asi do his magic at Monday Night Magic . I have to say it was definetly a fun time. Asi is a great magician. Keep the name in mind in the magic world Asi Wind! The headliner, John Graham, great job as well. Both were so funny and entertaining. The whole evening was fun and fun magicians. If you like magic and just want a fun evening I highly recommend it. Every Monday is different, has different performers. Just something to be aware of.

So now that it's like 12:30AM I am off to bed! Took forever for a subway to come tonight. Geez sometimes they are such a pain! lol.
Happy first week of December!
xo

Winters here and I want some hot chocolate...with whipped cream!

2007-11-30T19:54:00.000-05:00

Hello lovely ladies and gorgeous gents! I hope all had a lovely Thanksgiving! Mine was really very good, no complaints! Made out like it was xmas! Got lots of black friday clothes sales and basically xmas for me is over except for the food lol.

I met up with my oncologist today. Bummer news is that he has added another week to the plan. So, instead of having 2 weeks of radiation I now get 3. Lucky me! I understand his thinking though. And I actually understand now, kind of how their measuring it. At 3 weeks, it's 30 gray ("an extra 10 gray because i guess it's 2 gray each treatment so an extra week tacks on the extra 10). some more studies and research had come out since the last time i talked to him, more debating over whats better 20 or 30 gray. I guess the debate keeps going back and forth. But for 20 gray treatment, there's only 4 years of data on post treatments patients and in the overall scheme of things 4 years is a short amount of time to base a lifetime on. So better to err on the side of caution and add the extra week on. It's refreshing to know (or well actually hear) that he is constantly researching and studying reports and studies that are published and keeping on top of things. Apparently, as he told me, whether to give me 2 or 3 weeks kept him awake at nights trying to make the decision. I feel loved :) I'm pretty impressed with him! Kind of a bummer though, my company holiday party is on teh 14th (end of week 2) and I probably shouldn't be drinking, but he said he's not going to tell me not to but limit it to one or two. Just listen to my body and how it's feeling. I'll finish up on Dec 21st and fly out back down to MS early morning on the 22nd. good xmas present yah?!

I am happy and thankful to report, my hair is filling in yay!!! I got it trimmed up on Tuesday. Didn't have any product with me till today so it was a bit poofy the last few days lol. But I noticed today that it's fillin in more and more, i'm very happy! Sad that my hair can make me that happy. But it does! ;)

My quick training trip to Philly was fun. I'll probably have to go through another week in January here in teh ny office, but still was a good time. And I stayed at The Sofitel. Oh My Gosh this is one of the best hotels if not the best hotel i have ever stayed at ! Huge bed with feather bed and comforter, it was like sleeping on a / in a cloud! A seperate shower right next to the tub, huge bathroom, bathrobes. Great place! Glad I didn't pay for it! And had dinner with the group at Fogo de Chao a Brazilian steakhouse. So much meat flyin around that place! If you're a vegetarian DO NOT go there!! They had a $635 Remy Martin cognac (i think it was remy) but it was for an ounce of it. That's some expensive stuff!! We joked about how much just a taste would cost! lol

so Monday i start with the rads and before ya know it, it'll be xmas and I'll be done!!

Hope everyone has a great December!

san

When the glow begins!

2007-11-18T22:26:00.001-05:00

I checked back in with the radiation oncologist on Friday. Got all their cat scans out of the way. Layed down in a weird bean bagish thing, the size of a (if you have pets you'll get this) a wee wee pad lol. Then it kind of inflated around me and made a mold of my neck and head and shoulder area. Very weird. I kept getting slight adjustments that lined me up in the crosshairs of these red beams (kind of like the ones that read barcodes). Once all lined up they marked on me with a blue sharpy with x's. Then once they made sure those were all in the right place, I got tattooed. Yep thats right another 5 tats to add to the on i had. These however are about the size of a freckle.Oh and I might add, old school tats lol. The technician took a needle and a little cap full of ink and then dipped and then poked me in the center of the "x" So now I have three black dots one in the center of my upper chest, one at my sternum and one an inch above my belly button. Then also I have one on my left side (litterally the side of my body) and one on my right. So now they line up the dots with the red beams o' light and make sure I'm all lined up. Then I'm supposed to hold my chin up but I keep dropping it, I now get to have tape running from the side of the head rest under my chin to the other side to keep it up and out of the way. I'm sure I look fabulous while lying down there. I'll go back on Nov 30th for more films that they need and then on Dec 3 start gettin radiation. The good news is that ( as long as all goes well and nothing changes accept in a good way) I only have to have 10 treatments and at a very low grade of radiation (20grey/gray not sure which way they spell it) not so good news is that it's going to go farther up my neck then originally thought. Apparently it was nodes further up in my neck above the supraclavical ones so my saliva glands are gonna get some rads but hopefully since it's a low dosage it wont' affect them.

I then went to the dentist on Saturday. That was quite the adventure. The normal way to get in was shut down because their elevator didn't work. I went to the address that was left on the note on the door and the security/door woman didn't know there was a dentist office upon the 5th floor. So I went up but couldn't figure out where anything was. Just a kidn of hallway, but all in a nice dark wood. Normally there's people sitting behind a desk right infront of the elevators I guess to direct you to which door but they weren't there. So I headed back down stairs and went outside,called ifnormation , got the number to my dentist office and asked how I get in. I was right but just didn't venture forward on the 5th floor to really figure it out. The lady on the phone said she put signs up, but really you had to walk down the hall to the end then know to turn right and follow another hall before you even saw her signs. She should've put them out right when you got off the elevator. But as soon as I turnd the corner she appeared. She figured if she didn't see me in a few minutes she would hunt me down and come to the rescue. But good thing i was early!
The actual visit was interesting. I got to have a device that I had never had before. It's like a little sandblaster that removes staining of the teeth, but it creates a huge mess. It shoot water too and the little suction thing wasn't in the right spot so the water dripped out down my neck and the back of my shirt was all wet. Not to mention when she was done I had sand all over my face and neck. It felt like I had taken a nose dive on a sandy beach! She looked at the back of my shirt and said oh it's all wet, but you have a coat so you'll be ok lol. Not like I really wanted to be all wet after leaving a dentists office. I do have a cavity that needs filling, on my front tooth of all places. How crazy is that. But the dentist said it can wait till january once I'm all done with radiation. She kind of chuckled when I told her I was having 10 days and at 20 grey. I guess she was thinking i was going to get like 3 months, does make a big difference. After hearing that she wasn't too concerned about the time period in which to get the filling done by. But then she says she wants to crown a couple other teeth because , they have already been filled years ago, and are all full of silver but the pressure of chewing and grinding will eventually cause the teeth to fracture. Not that I want that to happen, but I don't think my dental insurance is gonna cover crowning as a preimptive measure but I'll have to check it out. Not that I really want either to happen. I hate hate hate hate hate having dental work done. I think after I had braces. for a second time, I would be used to it, but, nope, I hate it still and never get used to it.

So there were my adventures that started off the weekend. I did watch a couple movies, Mr Brooks and Ratatouille. Mr Brooks was ok, Ratatouille was cute.
Other than that not much else to report. Hopefully will be a nice calm and quiet short work week!!

Have a Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

That special glow

2007-11-12T20:21:00.000-05:00

Well kids, the verdict is in and it looks as though I will be getting radiation. I met with Dr Shah, the radiation oncologist. Wow such a nice guy. Young,nice, seemed very knowledgable, meticulous,accessible, personable, on top of everything. Gave me lots of info but even said you probably will only retain 40-60% of this lol. I did even take some notes. For example the stats for secondary cancer that he gave me were .5% per every year of life after radiation. So If you're 5 years out of radiation the percentage of developing a secondary cancer from radiation is 2.5%. Now, these are based on patients who were treated 10-20 years ago. 10-20 years ago the radiation dosages were much larger then they are now, so theoretically the actuall .5% should be lower since they use lower dosages now, and they are more precise (down to teh millimeter). So I feel very confident in Dr Shah. He said treatment would probably be 10-17 days. I go back on Thursday for their CatScan and the tattooing of the target spots and will find out exactly how many days I will go through then. But with Thanksgiving and me going out of town for that and for xmas its' gonna be fun. Looks like I'll get back from Thanksgiving down south then go to Philly for the 28th and 29th and then start radiation on the 30th and go (possible if 17days) straight to Dec 21 (with a saturday thrown in most likely dec 1) and then leave to go back down south on Dec 22. Time is gonna fly by!
So there's the update. Like I think I said previously, i look at it like a second line of defense!
Hope everyone has a great week!

The waiting game

2007-11-08T14:10:00.000-05:00

Hello folks of all ages and sizes.
I know some of you have been a' clammerin for my blog posts so here ya go! I can't keep my adoring fans waiting anymore haha.
Since we last spoke (ok well since I last posted) what has been going on?? Not much really. I went back to the onoclogist. Blood counts pretty normal, slightly enemic but not enough to give me a procrit shot. But boy did Jeri want to lol. She always likes to inflict pain upon me. I scheduled my radiation oncology appointment. That will take place monday nov 12 at 11:30 and then at 2 I'll head back over to Dr G (oncologist) and I guess fill him in on what happened, though i'm sure Dr Shah the radialogist will send him his opinion as well. Dr G seems to think that Shah will say yes to radiation. Ya know, not that i have any overwhelming desires to go do it, but it is what it is, and you do what you gotta do. To me, I think of it more like a second line of defense if I have to have it. So we'll chat about long term side effects and all that fun stuff.
So really not much else happening. Just going to work and going home. Some laundry occassionally and lots of tv. I'm addicted to the tv these days. Although with the writers strike I may not be very soon.
Hope everyone is well. Take care of yourselves as tis now the cold/flu season! bundle up if your in cooler parts of the nation! Anyone ever been to Portland OR or Seattle WA?
ciao for now!

Happy Halloween!!!!!

2007-10-31T13:36:00.001-04:00

Today I am dressed in scrubs and a stethascope. Can you see the humor in it? A few people were like gosh aren't you tired of seeing those. I just think it's kinda funny, and actually they are quite comfy!
Enjoy your Halloween everyone!!!! Boo!!!

Hip Hip Hooray!!!!

2007-10-24T12:16:00.000-04:00

Yay!
I saw my onc doc today for the results of my pet/ct scans and yay, he said he's lettin me go!! No more chemo yay! I do have a cough though so he gave me the zpack adn I'll return in 10 days to check my blood counts and get ready to consult with the radiology oncology peeps to see if they want to zap me or not. But for the next 10 days I'm free yay!!!!!
Here's what the latest and greatest pet/ct scan says (for those of you that understand all the medical jargon)

The previoulsy noed hypermetabolic activity (From march 07 scan) in the lymphadenopathy in the neck and chest has resolved. The size of the lymph nodes on the CT images has decreased. Represetative measurements include a left internal jugular lymph node in the base of the left neck, which currently measures 1x1.1cm and previoulsy measured 2.5x2.2cm; a left supraclavicular lymph node, which currently measures 2.1x1cm and previosly measured 2.7x1.6cm; a right paratracheal lymph node, which currently measures 1.4x1.1cm and previoulsy measured 3.7x3.4cm and an anterior mediastinal lymph node which currently measures 1.6x1.5cm and previously meausred 5.8x2.9cm.
There are hypermetabolic foci in both sides of the pelvis, which correspond with the adnexa (whatever that is) on teh ct images. These findings are most likely physiologic in a patient of this age. There is a right adnexal dermoid.
Otherwise no evidence of abnormal lypermetabolic activity. There is physiologic distribution of the radiotracer in the neck,chest,abdomen,and pelvis.
On the anatomic images, there is no evidence of new enlarged lymphadenopathy in either side of the neck.
There is a right central venous line (my mediport). There is no evidence of new enlarged mediastinal, hilar or axillary lyphadenopathy. No Pleural or pericardial effusions are noted.
examination of the lung parenchyma reveals no evidence of suspicious pulmonary nodule or infiltrate
The liver is diffusely low in attenuation, most consistent with fatty infiltration. No focal liver lesions are appreciated. The patient is post cholecystectomy(gallbladder removal). otherwise, the visualized portions of the spleen, pancreas, kidneys, and adrenals are unremarkable.
There is no evidence of intra-abdominal,pelvic, or inguinal lymphadenopathy.
The remailing visualized pelvic structures are unremarkable.
Impression:
1.Interval resolutoin of the hypermetabolic activity in the lymphadenopathy in the neck and chest. The size of the lymph nodes on the CT images has decreased.
2. No new hypermatabolic activity to suggest new site of malignancy.
3. No evidence of new enlarged lymphadeopathy in the neck, cheest, abdomen, or pelvis.
4. Fatty infiltration of the liver
5 right adnexal dermoid

So theres the results folks! yay! So I shall enjoy the next 10 days of freedom for sure!!
xoxo
san

The Rejuvenizer!!!!!!!!

2007-10-22T15:06:00.000-04:00

Hello guys and galls, how is it goin!?
So yesterday my friend Nic and I went to the New Life Expo at The New Yorker. Total New Agey stuff. But I went for a specific reason. A woman named Phyllis Light was there. I learned of her through my reiki friend John. He had purchased a rejuvenizer from her. Here's what the rejuvenizer is
"The Rejuvenizer® line, created by Dr. Phyllis Light, is designed to help protect your physical and subtle bodies from the harmful effects of electromagnetic fields (EMFs) and to help repair subtle damages to those bodies from all such negative energies, as well as from drugs, surgical procedures, and other people's negativity directed at you"
They are nice looking things too. I got one that a ring and it's like looking to a purple and blue little universe of stars. Thanks Nic for bringin this particular one to my attention. I figure cant hurt and there's a fun little parlor trick you can do with them too lol. My ring is kind of like the picture on here but much more purple and sparkly and pretty!

Then we went off and ate at Ruby Tuesdays. Which I've been dying to go to. I love their Salad Bar. But let me say, this new one in Times Square.... really... why do they hvae two menus, a cafe menu for the first floor (just like burgers and sandwiches I guess) and then the dinner menus for wayyyyyyy upstairs. whatever. Had to go upstairs as thats where the saladbar was. service... not the best. Took forever just to meet our waitress and forever for her to bring the drinks. I mean really, we were sitting across from the beverage station, i was about to go over and get my own water! But anywho, got our drinks got our salads! yummy. then got the little mini burgers. Not so yummy. Very salty and oddly had a spicey heat to it. wierd. But I was full on salad anyways! Love the pumpernickle croutons...my favorite!!! Then just hung out at Nics, she did some numerology, watched Brothers&Sisters and then I went home.

Been having trouble getting to sleep not sure what it is. But all last week it took forever trying to fall asleep and then just tossing and turning. Drugs, nerves, subconscious mind not shutting up, dunno. But took some ativan on saturday and sunday nights and finally slept yay!!Sucks though if I'm gonna have to keep takin it to get to sleep ugh.

Friday had a Pet and CT scan done. I'll find out the results from the oncologist on Wednesday. But while I was being removed from the machine, the technician, says "I see you've had some chemo" and honestly my first thought was , "yeah anyone who looks at my hair can tell that lol" but I didn't say it. I just said yep. He asked how many, I said 12 adn that I was getting the scans to show the doc so he can decide if he wants me to have more (i hope not) or be done (yes please). Then the tech says, "oh i don't think you'll need anymore chemo". Hmmmmm???? Now what does that mean? Aren't techs supposed to be tight lipped and keep their mouths shut? Did he imply that he say the scans and things look great or was he just tryign to say something supportive lol. My ma chooses to think he saw the scans and she's thinkin good things. I'm thinkin i'm not gonna think he saw anything and won't get my hopes up until i hear the onc say hey you're done!

Ma visiting for a week. That was nice though we don't always get along lol. I saw it's because we are both too selfish lol. But she left on saturday. While she was here though we ate a TAO (her request-I think i'm over that place, good but the awe has worn off) visited the M&M store, chinatown, and I'm sure other things other then eating at the local diner. lol. but i just can't remember.

hope all have a great week!
ps Kelly, you're welcome for the Netflix :) Have fun!

New hair cut, treatment and update

2007-10-12T22:43:00.000-04:00

Hello there everyone!

Well today was treatment day. Feelin a little off and nauseaus but not too bad. Took a zofran for the sicky feeling helps a big not still got an edge of icky left but it's alright.

So the update...... i will get a new petscan and cat scan at the end of this coming week or the beginning of next week. Once we get the results of that then we ha or the oncologist will determine if he wants to tak on more treatments or give them to the radiologist oncologist to see if they want to radiation. I guess if finally clicked in to my onc that i did do 12 treatments so maybe i won't have to have the extra. But, I'm not getting all excited until I actually have the scan results and now for sure.

On another front, my mom gave me a hair cut. I thought she would just buzz it all off, which is what I told her to do, but she actually just gave it a little short cut and it actually doesn't look bad at all. So let me know what ya think!

Have a great weekend everyone!

mon coeur

2007-10-11T19:49:00.000-04:00

Quick little update..... My little old heart has been pumpin pretty quickly lately. In other words, my pulse has been fairly fast. So I had my nurse at the oncology office check it. it was clickin along at 100. So i made an appt with my primary doc today. He seemed like he was havin a bad day. Usually i find him a little more talkative, but today, not very talkative at all, or at least to me. But he took my pulse and blood pressure a few times and while lying down. though he never told me what it was. And i never asked. But he also had the ekg machine come on in and hooked me up. He said that came back fine. Then gave me a perscription to get an echocardiogram. Since its in the same office, when i went to schedule it at the front desk, and the girl asked when i wanted to make it for, I said, "got anything for today?" It was almost 3 at this point, not like i really thought they would. But they did!! So it was at 4:45. instead of going back to work, because by the time i got there I would just have enough time to check my mail and turn off my computer and come back, i went to Borders grabbed the next book in a vampire romance series that I got hooked on, grabed a seat and sat and read for an hour and a half lol. Thanks to Jackie at the oncs office for gettin me hooked on those. Luckily she owns them all so i can just borrow for her, cause there's like 7 or 8 in the series. So I went back to the office and got my echo. This time (beacuse i had one done before back in Feb/March) this guy was much friendlier. so after a few minutes he said, looks great. He said my heart looks nice and strong and healthy!! yay!! so I guess the rapid pulse may be from the drugs (decadron more maybe) and subconscious anxiety or some conscious too I suppose. Anywho, I got some drug, Toprol. supposed to take two aday, but was told if one seems to do it i can stick to that. So now when I lay down to sleep I won't feel my pulse pump pump pumpin away!

Mom is flying in tonight to visit for a week. Was supposed to be here for my last treatment. But after she booked the flight and i had a visit with the onc, he decided to add two more on to the end (which by the way would've been tomorrow 10/12) So now the end will be nov 9th. Ma's flights gotten delayed due to weather. Saw there was a tornado watch or warning in Nassau county. So that would more explain flight delays. Not that I'm in Nassau but its around the area. got a call though and she has landed. will arrive about 3 hours late lol.

Well there's my update. Hope all is well with everyone else!
san

Visitor, shows and treatments

2007-09-28T20:22:00.000-04:00

hellllooooooo everybody! It's been a little while since I updated this so here goes!
First of all, a big howdy and thanks and good to finally meet ya face to face, Kelly . She scored some free tix to the Stupid Cancer Comedy Show, a fundraiser for I'm Too Young For This a social network online for young adult cancer survivors. It was a fun show and a couple of them made me just really bust out laughin alot. Felt good!!! Then I scored some free tix to the bway play The Ritz (thanks Scotte!). It was fun. Not the greatest play ever written but fun. Who wouldn't like a bunch of hottie probably all gay men runnin around in tiny towels on stage or just a pair of buttless leather chaps lol. Sorry Kelly it was so hot and humid for those couple of days you stayed. finally sprinkled today and today was nicer and cooler but the sun light was pretty toasty if you were standin in it.

Had treatment today. went fairly quickly about 3-3 1/2 hours. got in at 11 left a little before 2:30. It's gettin crazy at the office. They are renovating for the next few months. Yep it's pretty needed too but know everything is moving downstairs and a new desk in the chemo lab takes up some room so you can't recline recline very well without missing the knees of the person in front of you lol. Gonna be a crazy few months but when it's done there will be like triple the amount of waiting room space and new air ducts so should all be good although by the time they're done I should be done with treatments and only visiting every three months or so.
I tried to fill my zofran script and ran into more problemsn. The insurance people never told us I had to get an actual new script written for the increased amt of pills given in a month, so we assumed i could just refill the one i had, but no. I hd three pills left, was calling the insurance poeple and after a half hour with them they couldn't do anything to get me through the weekend, but they did tell me to call the pharmacy and tell them to go into their computers and change the amount of days the script was for to 4 days so i could get another 4 pills. I called them they said they had to call the insurance people again adn for me to call back in a hour. so I called back and turned out he just tried and got in the system and changed it without calling and the insurance peeps overrided the days so he could. Yay! So i picked those up and am much happier! I'll see the nurse on monday and tell her she needs to write a new one. so then hopefully all should be good!
The idea now is that the doc might add a couple on to the end. I guess I'll find out next week when i go in for the neupogen shots. no more neulasta that crap hurts!!!! I told both the nurses that they should try it sometime so they know what the patients get to go through lol. Jerri and I exchange more laughs and digs at eachother. Fun times.
I finished the Dark Prince a book that the Jackie the receptionist at the office let me read. Fun book. The writter though needs some new descriptive words other than white hot pain or velvet all the time. lol.
So for now I guess thats about all. Busy week, was wiped out today! I'm not an early to bed kind of person and I did take a nap earlier so I'll probably be up til around 1. I can't help it, but then i'll probably sleep till early afternoon :) I like to sleep man! Even before this cancer stuff, I still liked to sleep!!
Oh good news on the granny front her docs said the colon cancer was found early and they'll do 12 radiation treatments and a chemo pill then check things and if all is good do to the surgery and then maybe won't need a bag and can hook up all the internal tubing and fix her up and get her goin so yay!

hope all have a great weekend!

Doc n Kathy Griffin

2007-09-24T22:01:00.000-04:00

So I went to the oncologist today to checkin. He siad sounds like it's the whitecell booster and chemo that given me the aches and pains. OH and the really "good" news (and i'm being sarcastic) is that he may want to add on another 2 treatements beacuse I had two breaks (one for the gallbladder removal and one cause of strepthroat) Thats annoying. If the scans are soo clean and I'm getting quite a few after a clean scan, why add two more. Ugh. I have plans for turkey day and I dont' want more treatments screwing up gettin the hell out o the state! But it is what it is and I don't want this crap to come back because that would be bad and a lot more crap to deal with. So do what i got to do. So I got back on friday and get more toxic cancer killing drugs adn hope that they don't kill off too many of my good cells while they're at it! I like to keep the good cells!

The White cell booster Neulasta did it's job and my whiteblood count is great! So thats nice that it did it's job and I probably wont' have to have another shot till probably right before the treatment on the 12 of Oct.

Ordered my KathGriffin tix a little while ago. She's at the Garden in January. Super excited. I really enjoy Life on the D List and have seen her live before. She is just hilarious!!

thats all for now, but stay tuned for another gripping edition of life on the hodge list

the cumulative effect

2007-09-20T21:45:00.001-04:00

these past few treatments have been gettin harder and side effects lasting longer. My back hurts (so far chemo was last fri and its thursday now) still hurts, muscles ache in the back, arms, neck, chest. ugh I wish it would stop. Ocassionally even my lower teeth start feelin tense and achy too. Muscles start feelin like they want to tense up. Not fun. Then I got the neulasta shot this time and tonight i now feel the bone pain kicking in in the pelvic/hip bones. Not fun at all. I took a couple prednisone, hopefully it will start workin soon. Monday was the only full day I actually was at work. Tuesday was off, wednesday I left early, today was off.I dunno about tomorrow, but if the bone pain is still here, I won't be going in.

I had a PFT (pulmonary function test) today. A bunch of breating into a spirometer. Breath into a tube like normal, deep breath in, let it all the way out, do that a few times. The deep breath in hold it and push it out fast. Then step into a glass box and all sealed up, mouth on tube, pant like a dong. Then the airflow is cut off in the tube for a second and you keep panting and then it open back up. That happens a like 4 or 5 times. That was about all. Took about 15-20 minutes. The lady technician remembered me from way back end of march or beg of april when i did the test before. Since I got a bit more winded then normal the doc decided to send me in for the test. I dunno the results probably just get them later at the docs office.
So that all i got to report right now.

Two more to go!

2007-09-14T22:22:00.000-04:00

Hellooooo everyone! Got my chemo today....without the Bleo. Havin a few episodes of getting winded quickly so thought we'd lay off that and get the lungs checked next thursday. Chemo went a little faster today. Was done about 2:40, normally i'm done about 3:30. I looked up at the bag that only like an hour ago was completely full and it was almost finished and then i looked at the drip and it was pretty open and drippin fast. I normally don't like it fast as i tend to feel a little more icky later. This time on Monday instead of the neupogen i'll get a shot of neulasta. It saves me from repeatedly going in for a few days in a row but Friday (at least thats how it happened the last time )the bone pain will hit. Odd though as recently I was feelin bone pain with the neupogen, not as instense and managable, just annoying and all the time. This should just be the one day yay! But the really good news is, only 2 more treatments to go yay!!!!!

Oh the antinausea front, thanks friends and peeps that have read my blog and have offered to send me the meds. Not needed but greatly appreciated. I actually talked to my insurance and my nurse talked to them and we got it all worked out so I can get the Zofran tablets (the ones you swallow not the icky berry disolvable under the tongue ones). So yay i should be all set with the drugs now....hopefully they will work!

Went to lunch with Jackie and Josh, Asi, and another of their friends/magicians, who's name i can say but have no clue how to spell...maybe Ehud but said ayud i guess. Went to Caliente on 33/3ave. Such sucky sucky sucky sucky service. Was horrible service. Then they gave my dish to Asi (i had the cheese enchiladas and he had chicken) but before I cut into mine, and half of his was already devoured, then i realized it. Surprised he didn't realize he had cheese and not chicken, but whatever. I was dissapointed, i wanted my cheese and not the chicken. totally different flavor combos. I did have a virgin pina colada. It was fine. Yummy cherries. Then went to Josh's and saw his awesome work on Asi's dvd and petted the puppy. then walked with them down to Union Square and then i came home.

I came home to find that my interent is not working. The modem may be bad. But since i have a wireless card on my laptop I've found some service.

Random/////// I really want to go to Alaska and spend a long time there. Once in the summer and once in the winter. Hopefully a cruise there is in the not too distant future!! one can hope!

have a great weekend everybody

the weekend

2007-09-09T18:25:00.000-04:00

It is Sunday, so it was laundry day. Man did i have lots of laundry to do. By the time I was done and luggin it all up to the apt, i was sooo winded and had a lung burn thing happenin. Guess I'll bring it up with the nurse tomorrow. Maybe they'll cut back on the bleo. we shall see.
I tried to make some plans to go to a great chocolate shop and an italian restaurant but ended up cancelling them becuase of feelin really wierd icky. Was really bummed.
Not diggin this cumulative effect of chemo.

why don't people understand that during chemo one must stay away from sick people. If you have a fever, don't hang around and say oh hey my fever is this.. what the fuck?! Hello? If i get a fever and it gets tooo high I have to go to the hospital, not like someone else who's healthy who gets a fever and just sleeps and rests till it goes away. it's not the first time sayin if you are sick you need to stay away and back off, cause it's bad, jesus get it through your head already! Sorry you are sick and not feeling well but please don't feel the need to share!

ok well enough of that venting. At least i have clean clothes now and kinda of wiped my stuff down with the clorox wipes!
Not sure what I'll be eating for dinner. Don't really feel like eating much. Uck.
probably grab some soup or plain fried rice.
Peace out, hopefully everyone have a great week

chemo on!

2007-09-04T19:37:00.000-04:00

Went to the onc's office today. And today white blood cell count was nice and high! But also now that I had to give myself a shot in the belly of the Neupogen, they rather I do it to myself. I rather keep going to the office and little professionals do it! Although a buddy offered to do it, he has experience with given shots, so I might just take him up on it! too scary when i did it myself, I was all shaky and turned the needle since i couldn't really grab it to push the plunger down the way i had it in lol. Shakin like a leaf!
But the two shots worked plus i think the extra days gave my bod the time to get back on track and kickup the white bloodcells on it's own too. So my counts as they look tome on paper and as i have no real idea of the measurement is 13.1 i believe, high end of normal is 10.somethin.So i got alot floatin around and thats fine.
I got the chemo, no big events thank ya! But i do feel queasyish. don't like that at all. I just took Kytril hopefully that will kick in, and I'll take an ativan before bed (apparenlty it also helps with nausea) and in the a.m. will take my other Kytril and hopefully it will all have passed.
Drinkin some Coke the real stuff hopin maybe that will settle things too. if not i might try some GingerAle or GatorAde. it's not horrible, I just hate the feeling. I'm completley able to go out and do things, probably go to work tomorrow.
Guess thats all for today.
Oh did you know that one of the Williams sisters (tennis) dated Bret Rattner? I learned that today while getting chemo lol! Ah the trivia I pickup in the fun places I go!
so thats what I know for today
Ohhh also, if anyone knows the symbology of the japanese maple leaf in terms of a tattoo, please let me know thanks!

No Longer Pissed and The Supid Cancer Show

2007-09-02T20:54:00.000-04:00

OK I got over my being pissed. What good is it to hold on to anger, so I try and let it go!

Took a trip to Target today. Yay!!! It was quite the journey on the way home. I bought a floor lamp w/ 5 different colored shades, in blues and a green. I love it. It replaced my old black halogen ugly thing. I was sooooo tired of that. But this new one was a little heavy! I carried it to the subway which was packed with people waiting. Hot and sweaty down there. then about 5 minutes a train showed up yay!! This little old Asian man completely blocked the center of the door to get on, I was off to the side, moving over to let the person trying to get off the train, get off. This little old mad pushed his way onto the train completely blocking the guy who wanted off, so I just moved wayyyyy over so he could squeeze by. The little old man wanted a seat but there were plenty, no need to run onto the train and block everyone else lol. I'm not being discriminatory but little old Asian people always seem to do that. They don't care who you are but you better get out of their way cause they are on a mission to a seat!!!! Just a fact that I've come to learn watching train rider traffic. Anyways, I ended up catching a cab once i got back out of the subway and into my hood. yay cabs, love cabs! My lamp is all put together and all pretty yay!

Oh and on Monday Sept 3 on The Stupid Cancer show will be Kris Karr. If you watch TLC you may have caught her documentary called Crazy,Sexy Cancer. I thought it was great! Here's the link to The Stupid Cancer Show

"Cancer Society Focuses It's Ads on the Uninsured" from the NY Times

2007-09-01T16:06:00.000-04:00

August 31, 2007
Cancer Society Focuses Its Ads on the Uninsured
By KEVIN SACK
ATLANTA, Aug. 30 — In a stark departure from past practice, the American Cancer Society plans to devote its entire $15 million advertising budget this year not to smoking cessation or colorectal screening but to the consequences of inadequate health coverage.

The campaign was born of the group's frustration that cancer rates are not dropping as rapidly as hoped, and of recent research linking a lack of insurance to delays in detecting malignancies.

Though the advertisements are nonpartisan and pointedly avoid specific prescriptions, they are intended to intensify the political focus on an issue that is already receiving considerable attention from presidential candidates in both parties.

The society's advertisements are unique, say experts in both philanthropy and advertising, in that disease-fighting charities traditionally limit their public appeals to narrower aspects of prevention or education.

But the leaders of several such organizations, including the American Heart Association, the American Diabetes Association and the Alzheimers Association, said they applauded the campaign's message that progress against chronic disease would be halting until the country fixed its health care system.

As in the past, the heart association is using its advertising dollars these days to promote more rigorous exercise and healthier diets. The most recent cancer society campaign encouraged screening for colon cancer, including a memorable commercial in which a diner plucked — and then ate — a lima bean polyp from the intestinal tract he had carved in his mashed potatoes.

But John R. Seffrin, the chief executive of the cancer society, which is based here, said his organization had concluded that advances in prevention and research would have little lasting impact if Americans could not afford cancer screening and treatment.

"I believe, if we don't fix the health care system, that lack of access will be a bigger cancer killer than tobacco," Mr. Seffrin said in an interview. "The ultimate control of cancer is as much a public policy issue as it is a medical and scientific issue."

The two 60-second television commercials that form the spine of the campaign make that point.

One features images of uninsured cancer patients, appearing hollow and fearful. "This is what a health care crisis looks like to the American Cancer Society," the narrator begins. "We're making progress, but it's not enough if people don't have access to the care that could save their lives."

The other commercial depicts a young mother whose family has gone into debt because her insurance did not fully cover her cancer treatment. "Is the choice between caring for yourself and caring for your family really a choice?" the narrator asks.

Census figures released this week show that the number and percentage of people in the United States without health insurance rose last year, to 47 million and 15.8 percent. A 2003 study estimated that one of every 10 cancer patients was uninsured.

Other surveys have found that one of every four families afflicted by cancer, which is projected to kill 560,000 Americans this year, is effectively impoverished by the fight, including one of every five with insurance.

The cancer society plans to buy time on network and cable channels from Sept. 17 to Thanksgiving, said Greg Donaldson, the group's vice president for corporate communications. There will also be advertisements in magazines and on Web sites.

With nearly $1 billion in revenues, the cancer society is the wealthiest of its peers and has spent about $15 million annually on advertising since 1999. By comparison, Geico, the automobile insurer with the "Caveman" advertisements, spent about $14 million on network advertising in the first quarter of 2007, according to TNS Media Intelligence, a tracking firm.

Advertising about the health insurance crisis is not uncommon among more broadly based medical organizations and other interest groups.

Last week, the American Medical Association kicked off a three-year campaign called "Voice for the Uninsured" that will begin with $5 million in advertising in early primary states. AARP, in conjunction with the Business Roundtable and the Service Employees International Union, recently began a similar effort called "Divided We Fail."

This year, the cancer society formed a collaborative with the heart, diabetes and Alzheimers associations, as well as AARP, to promote awareness of the health access problem. The group adopted as common principles that all Americans deserve quality, affordable health care with transparent costs.

But the cancer society is the only disease-focused group ever to have dedicated advertising resources to the topic, said officials with other charities and with trade groups."I've never seen anything like it before," said Bill Novelli, chief executive of AARP and, in a previous career, a co-founder of the Porter Novelli public relations firm. "It's taking a different tack for them."

That a charity like the cancer society felt compelled to join the access debate reflects both the urgency and the resonance of the issue. Nonetheless, Mr. Donaldson said it was "risky business" for the tax-exempt group.

It steered away, he said, from promoting solutions that could be viewed as partisan, like mandatory insurance or single-payer government coverage. Rather, he said, the commercials are intended to urge action by the next administration, and to drive viewers to a Web site linked to the group's advocacy and lobbying arm.

"We very much see a moral imperative to raising the discussion," Mr. Donaldson said, "but we understand there's a need to be appropriate."

Cancer society executives said they had heard little dissent from volunteers and donors, and several regional officials said they supported the new approach.

But others called the campaign misguided. Valerie C. Robinson, a longtime board member of the Jacksonville, Fla., chapter, said expanded access to insurance coverage was "not our fight."

"To me, it's throwing away money that we could have put into providing free mammograms or free PSA tests or free colonoscopies," she said.

Mr. Seffrin initiated the advertising campaign after being pushed by the society's board to make faster progress toward its goals of reducing cancer death rates by 50 percent and incidence rates by 25 percent from 1990 to 2015. If trends continue, the actual reductions are projected to fall well short, perhaps by as much as half.

While the decline in death rates is accelerating, studies have shown that if cancer was diagnosed more in its early stages, the rates would fall faster. And new research is confirming that insurance status often determines whether a person's cancer is diagnosed early or late.

One study published this year found that uninsured breast cancer patients were more than twice as likely to have their cancer diagnosed in late stages as those with private insurance. Other studies have found similar results with cancers of the larynx and mouth.

"The truth is we know what's going to happen with cancer if we don't intervene," Mr. Seffrin said. "It will become the leading cause of death in the world, needlessly."

Copyright 2007 The New York Times Company

Fucking annoyed

2007-08-31T15:21:00.000-04:00

I'm so fucking annoyed and pissed.
went to go get chemo today, everything for the day started off fine. But when i brought down the bloodwork, my counts were too low. My whiteblood count was at 3000 and my gromules or whatever the hell they're called were at 1000 which is way to low I guess. So no chemo, i have to come back on Tuesday to get it. I got a Neupogen shot while i was there and on Sunday I have to give myself a shot. We'll see how that goes, but if i don't i'm afraid that the counts will still be too low on tuesday. Whats really more annoying than anything is that I was there a week ago, the counts were a little low but the doc wasn't worried, so he decided that I didn't need the neupogen. They are now being cautious with it becuase of the link between it and Bleo being bad for you. Find drop of the Bleo give me the neupogen cause obviously I need the friggin stuff.
Grrr with only 4 more to go, I'd like to get them all on time please and like to be able to go off to MS for Thanksgiving, instead of people coming here. Grrrrrrr, just very annoyed. I'm sure Tuesday will be fine but I don't want to wait.
And now after watching the Food Network I was a big ole piece of steak!

doc visit today

2007-08-24T17:34:00.000-04:00

Met up with the oncologist today, just for a check on the blood work and see how I am. I said i got weird aches and he said its just the chemo. Which i knew. It's like the weird aches I had back in the beginning of all this lol from the first chemo.
My blood work though they said looked really good and no nuepogen shot for me. They'll just check it again next friday before chemo and if I need it then I'll get the shot. So probably around the second to last chemo I might get another pet scan to just be sure we are ending at 6 cycles and not continueing to 8. Then sounds like off to visit with a radiation oncologist to determine if they feel I should get rads or not. Rads are a little bit of a harder thing to digest. Side effects that could pop up years down the road are possible lung or breast cancer or luekemia.So it's not really on my top list of things to too. But I chatted with my nurse Geri and she said the risk of a luekemia is generally associated to long term radiation, like months of radiation where i guess mine would probably be a couple to a few weeks, i'm guessing.But the up side to it is that having it done in connection with chemo does seem to put the odds more in my favor of not having a recurrance. Also Geri said that being classical hodgkins nodular sclerosing at stage 2A is a good thing and has like a 90% survival. though I think i remember my doc way back in March sayin the percentages were like 75% and then I read online its like 85%. Now neither of those do i know if they are Hodgkins in general or specific to stage 2a.
so thats what I know

Ton of Bricks

2007-08-23T22:12:00.000-04:00

Man the chemo i got last friday has hit me like a ton of bricks. I've been so tired this past week. Either not going to work or coming and going back home. crazy tired. And on top of that my back is hurting. I have no idea what i did to it. The only thing I can think of is maybe sitting oddly at the baseball game. But that was Sunday and it's almost friday and still hurting! I went to the chiropractor today, helped for a couple hours but it's startin to ache again. I go back to the onc tomorrow for a blood check and probably get a neupogen shot. Here's hopin the back gets better and I'm more awake next week!

Batter Up!

2007-08-19T19:35:00.000-04:00

Went and saw a baseball game today.Saw the Yankees vs. Tigers. Ok since I'm from MI i love my Detroit Tigers but man.....the only had like one good inning. Whatever, not like I really follow the sport that much anyways lol But it was a fun afternoon. Was sooo tired though towards the end of it. We left in the 8th inning, good thing we got to sit on the subway instead of stand and being crushed like sardines!

Oh, I asked the pharmacist today about the 'limitations exceeded' on the Kytril. She said that they only give it out in limited quantities because it's expensive. But seriously to only give me two at a time. Thats just crazy. At least give me four and get me through chemo night and the whole next day and not just half of it lol.
I ended up taking a Zofran late lastnight. So gross. I tried to have amouth full of water to let it dissolve under my tongue faster and then just ended up swallowing it back quickly. Fake berry is soooooo nasty. I'll pay $100 for 8 pills of Kytril at once if I never have to let that gross berry flavor dissolve in my mouth again! But after Oct 14, i won't have to worry about that any more. yay!

Let the count down begin, 4 treatments left, oct 14 is the last yay!

Woooohooooo results!!!!

2007-08-17T19:08:00.000-04:00

Got my midway point Pet and CT Scan results today. News is great!!!
here's the stats (keep in mind the size of a normal lymphnode is 1cmx1cm)
I had 4 lymphnodes that lit up on the PEt scan and were enlarged. Lit up means they show hypermetabolic activity (cancer) this was back in march.
Current Scans
The previously noted hypermetablock activity in the lymphadenopathy of in the neck and chest has resolved. The size of the lymph nodes on thh CT images has decreased.
measurement of the left internal jugular lymph node is the base left of the neck currently measures 1x1.1cm...previously was 2.5x2.2cm
measurement of the left supraclavicular lymph node currently measures 2.1x1cm ...previously was 2.7x1.6cm
measurement of teh right paratracheal lymph node currently measures 1.4x1.1cm...previoulsy was 3.7x3.4cm
and measurement of the anterior mediastinal lymph node currently measures 1.6x1.5cm...previously measured 5.8x2.9cm

Other than some mypermetabolci foci in the pelvis (this is most likely physiologic in a patient of my age so no worries) there is no evidence of abnormal hypermetabolic activity! No evidence of new enlarged lymphadenopathy in either side of the neck.
There is no evidence of new enlarged mediastinal, nilar or axillary lymphadenopathy. No pleural or pericardial effusions are noted.
Exam of the lung parenchyma shows no evidence of suspicious pulmonary noduel or infiltrats. So all good
Spleen, pancreas, kidney, and adrenals are all unremarkable (thats good!).

So yay all looks good, looks like no more cancer activity, it's outta here and all the nodes are shrinking!!!

I'l continue treatment. Got #8 today. Even started feeling a little off during treatment. Got new anti nauseau meds, but because my zofran had a big refill number on it, my insurance denied it so i paid $25 for two pills! ah!!! have to figure out how to cancel that other drug! it's icky!
I've got 4 more treatments left to go and then another scan to make sure things are still good and gone!!!!

Also wanted to give a shout out and a big thanks to everyone who's been sending good/great thoughts, vibes and prayers!!! Thank you!!!!

So that my good news!
have a great weekend!!

anxiety

2007-08-16T21:36:00.000-04:00

Had a hard till getting to sleep yesterday. I had this intense itchy thing happening. Which turned out to be a yeast infection from a big course of antibiotics for the strep. But once a little seed of doubt gets in ones head thats all it takes. I couldn't help but think, what if this is the hodge itch! What happens then if you get the sympton of hodgkins disease in the middle of treatment just becuase you missed a treatment. ugh, that so sucked! But with the help of lovely ativan i finally fell sleep. Still was wiggin this morning. Finally called a doc for an appt and luckily got in today and he gave me some drugs said it's just a yeast infection. yay!! Calmness settled in. so hopefully tonight will be a little bit more restful.
I'll find out the results of the Pet Scan tomorrow.....fingers crossed everybody!

Scan results to come Friday

2007-08-15T18:58:00.000-04:00

Went to get my PET and CT scans lastnight. I rushed on over there since my appt was at 6:30 i didn't want to keep them waiting. They said they could't use the port because of the CT scan so they first went after a tiny vein at the outer side of the crook in my right arm. Weird. And of course he had to dig to find it. He got it in there but when he went to flush it it stung! So he took it out and went for a bigger vein in the underside of the forearm. Got it on the first shot. Hello..... why not start at that spot in the first place? Now I got a bruise, ok it's little but it's gross looking. Looks more like a hickey lol. Where he ended up is just a slight bruise, very light. The PET took 5 minutes, the CT took 25min. I ended up dozing off a little bit, thought i might have moved too much, ya know when you jolt awake lol. Guess not.
Anyways, I'll get the results of the scans on Friday before I get my chemo treatment. Here's hopin for great results!
Oh and catch Crazy Sexy Cancer on TLC on August 29th at 9pm or Aug 30 at midnight!
You can also visit www.crazysexycancer.com

Good news!!! Yay

2007-08-13T14:06:00.000-04:00

Went to the Onc today. Throat looks good. Since I haven't had my chemo we are going forward with the PET/CT scans tomorrow night and finally get to see what kind of improvement we have goin on in there!!! yay!! i'm excited. Well excited and scared (ok any musical lovers out there, what line is that from) hah. Scared cause well, what if there's no improvement, that would suck. But just excited to finally have it done and see whats happening!

Had a good weekend. Watched an oldie but a goodie on DVD, Romancing The Stone. Ah a young Michael Douglas bounding down hilltops, fighting with alligators. Ah a young Kathleen Turner, trouncing around the rainforests in heels, being all nieve. And in a small roll but always fun in whatever she does.... Holland Taylor!

Took a walk outside yesterday. There was a streetfair happening up and down my street. Didn't buy anything, it's always the same old junk. But it's fun to walk it and grab a lemonade or grilled corn on the cob!

So thats all I got for ya so far today!

Interesting article on Hodgkins

2007-08-12T10:59:00.000-04:00

Tuesday, July 31, 2007
Harvard researchers identify treatment target in Hodgkin lymphoma
By Elizabeth Cooney, Globe Correspondent

Hodgkin lymphoma tumors are a paradox. In tumors that can grow as large as baseballs, only a small fraction of the tumor is made up of cancer cells – about 5 percent – but they are surrounded by the patient’s normal immune cells. Something keeps the immune cells from attacking the cancer cells they vastly outnumber.

Harvard researchers will report later this week in the online Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that they have identified a protein that acts like the tumor’s bodyguard. Called galectin-1, it disables the immune cells, a discovery they believe will lead to better diagnosis and treatment of the blood cancer that usually strikes young adults.

"The reason we think this may turn out to be very important from a clinical perspective is it suggests if you could neutralize the galectin-1 that is being secreted by the Hodgkin lymphoma cells, then you would have a very good chance at re-regulating or reinstalling an effective immune response in Hodgkin lymphoma," Dr. Margaret A. Shipp of Harvard Medical School and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute said in an interview. "We think this may have relevance in other tumors."

The protein is already showing promise as a way to identify tumors as Hodgkin lymphomas as opposed to other types of lymphoma, the paper suggests. Previous work in mice has shown that galectin-1 can also be produced by tumors in melanoma.

Shipp and her colleagues are working on generating an antibody to neutralize galectin-1 that would be an attractive alternative to the chemotherapy and radiation used to treat Hodgkin lymphoma.

"This is a fascinating paper from a big-picture perspective because we are increasingly learning that the immune system is often involved in cancer formation and it can be stimulated to be part of cancer treatment," said Deborah Banker of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, which is funding the research going forward. "It seems that in general none of us might ever get cancer if the immune system were better at finding the very first cancer cells and eradicated them before they had a chance to multiply."

Yay

2007-08-10T14:11:00.000-04:00

Yay my throat is reducing in swelling. It's gonna get kind of gross here but, this morning some big chunk of something that was stuck in my tonsil (hardened puss, old food who knows what it was) came flyin out. AFter that the tonsil suddenly reduced in size and no longer felt like a piece of popcorn stuck in the back of my mouth!
OH yay sweet Jesus, I have relief!!!!
Now, Monday hopefully they'll either say o for chemo or just wait till friday. i'd rather they say ok just go down and get it and then reset my days to that. But I guess it's wait and see till then.
OH and Jon thanks for the comment, couldn't leave one on yours but hopefully you'll read this and know i got it and appreciate the visit!

it's a rainy day here in the big apple. But oh so much cooler! Lastnight ws beautiful. I enjoyed a lovely walk home from Ruths (voice teacher) and a lovely evening at her place) but that walk was so nice. it was cool and breezy. I can't wait for the fall weather like that!

have a great weekend!

What a commute!!

2007-08-08T16:05:00.000-04:00

Well if yesterday was boring, today started off anything but!!
First I woke up at 4:30am with this weird feeling like a buzzing energy runnin through me. Not painful just like a low buzz, very weird. Stayed up for a little while, not long, then back to sleep. Then woke up at 6:30am to the sounds of thunder. Didn't think anything of it, we were expecting storms and the thunder though it was often sounded far enough away, so I just fell back asleep for another hour. Proceeded with my usual, shower, get dressed etc, then went to the bank and the store to pickup some stuff, then saw there was a bus. Great! I'll catch the bus to the subway stop..perfect! And the bus wasn't even that full...even better! Then I started hearing...through my headphone... that the trains weren't running. So I took out a earbud and listend some more. Apparently there was alot more rain then I knew an no trains in Queens were running into Manhattan (has happened before, they flood easily if there's alot of rainfall in a short period of time. Ok no problem, I'll stay on the bus as it goes into Manhattan. It progrossivley got fuller and fuller and more crammed with people. Lucky me I sat down before it got full! yay me! So packed in like sardines we head off over the Queensborough Bridge. We all get kicked out at 58th and 2nd ave. So I think hey no problem i'll walk a couple blocks to the 6 train and take it downtown to work. Apparently that is not an option i found out as all the eastside train lines weren't running even in Manhattan. So lucky me (and many others) I ended up walkin to work. So 32blocks later (and this is short compared to some of the other stories i've heard) and much sweatier, i end up at work. Only took me an hour and a half, not bad. I beat my manager in and the VP. I was in at 9:30, hopped on a conference call that had started at 9:30. But was basically over by the time I got on lol.
Then later today it was off to the oncologists office. Throat still swollen with gunky puss stuff. So got 5 more days of antibiotics and will go back on Monday. No chemo. I'm bummed but I guess I got to let my body heal up. Only question now is, do i get it on monday or just wait till next friday when is my regularly scheduled day and just have skipped a treatment and tack it on at the end. my doc was busy so i saw his associate, but he reviewed everything and I'll see him on Monday. So I guess no chemo news till Monday. Oh that reminds me I have to report my short term hours!

Bored

2007-08-07T16:59:00.000-04:00

I'm bored, bored, bored. Sittin at home is very boring. Luckily i have access to work email and that can keep me a little bit occupied. Although I have been getting to watch the travel channel and visit some lovely european cities. Today we went to Helsinki, Finland. Just another place to add to the life list of places to go visit!
I wll probably go to work tomorrow then off to the onc to check the throat. Still feels swollen, looks swollen,a little icky. so I'm guessing that the chemo won't happen, but possibly stronger antibiotics, though I still have no fever (so thats good i guess). Just really want to get back into the chemo regime and get things goin and cured and done done done!

throat coat

2007-08-06T20:57:00.000-04:00

Grrrrrrrrrr...... I don't think the antibiotics are working. I try to say a little mantra, ya know, healthy throat healthy throat healthy throat, i'm cured, i'm cured, i'm cured. But so far, my right tonsil is still pretty swollen and looks just the same as it did and it's still a wee sore. this is getting really annoying. I really want to get treatment on wednesday so it doesn't delay it anymore, and get in and get my CT and Pet scans. Guess I just have to wait it out and get more antibiotics or stronger ones.
Tonight....it's lets see who will win Hell's Kitchen.
does anyone read this thing other than Kelly? lol. It's great for me to write this but just curious, not many people comment (thanks kelly and carrie) so I was just curious.
Don't have much else to report, just waitin for the throat to heal up.
Oooohhh and Carrie whats your home email?
ciao

Delayed

2007-08-03T13:50:00.000-04:00

My chemo treatment has been delayed due to this stupid strep throat :(
Went to the oncologist today, only to meet the nurse as she was breaking for lunch, who said, "Didn't they call you yesterday?" I said no no one called me. Apparently she told them to call me as my oncologist was out of the office today. Well i went in and spoke to the other nurse who called upstairs to the other doc and I was able to see her. Got my blood drawn, counts were perfectly fine, then saw the other doc in the office. She took a look at the throat and said yep its red and swollen and irritated but not puss-y. thats good it was on wednesday! In the end, I'll go back on Wednesday when i'm done with the antibiotics and if everything looks good I'll get my chemo then. So I'll only be a a few days off instead of a whole week, and then I can go back to my fridays.
I decided to come back home and not be around other peoples germs any longer. and I had a bad start to the day at work with my friggin computer. Stupid excel program kept locking up, makin me crazy. I was swearing at it and everything lol. so i didn't want to go back to that machine today!

Now i'm just chillin at home watchin the travel channel wishin i was in Italy or Armania or Jordan or Scottland :) Can't wait for this stupid cancer stuff to be out of me cause I got places to go coming up over the holidays and places I just want to go to!!!

Oh my goodness

2007-08-01T12:47:00.001-04:00

Well what I thought was allergies has now just been identified as strepthroat. The culture will confirm but my GP is fairly certian. Weird things is that I've got no fever and it's realy not very sore, just swollen and red and puss-y. Although maybe that weird bout of stomach stuff a week ago monday was from the virus and it moved down into the stomach?? who knows. But I get some amoxycillin, see the oncologist on friday which would've been my chemo day. Hopefully all the blood work will be fine and he'll say ok and give me the chemo still. I hate to push it back.
Thats the latest scoop. Can't wait till 1:30 and I can go pickup my meds and start taking them!

it's the weekend

2007-07-29T16:51:00.000-04:00

I'm feelin much better than I did on monday! Made it to work for the rest of the week, this past week. Felt a little down yesterday so stayed home and just read the new Harry Potter book allllll day and night long. I finished it at about quarter to 5 this morning lol. But it was sooooo good!!!! ok thats all I'll say about it! so good!
went to the diner with the boys (roomies) this afternoon. Its raining off and on today. Lightening and thunder off and on. Seems to have stopped now, though I'd like it to continue. I like thunderstorms.
Nothin really new to report, just thought I'd drop a new post is all.

Ugh sick

2007-07-24T11:32:00.000-04:00

I guess it was due, I finally got sick. Spent yesterday morning with my head in (ah not the toilet) the sink actually, only cuase I didn't have to bend over as much and could just leave a constant run of water. Spiked a fever. got up to 100.9. Was going to go in to the doc early (was already planning on going in the afternoon for a shot) made it to the couch and crashed there for a few more hours. Man it sucked. I finally made it over to the docs around 2:30ish. Saw the nurse for my shot and told her what happened. She didn't like the idea of having a fever with the chemo. I said i didn't like the vomiting! Especially when you don't really have anything in you to get out! So she gave me my shot, almost painless,the best shot i ever got! Then sent me up for bloodwork. I didn't get any calls and showed up this morning. Fever is gone, went away on its own. Now I'm just very sore through the ribs from all the upchucking. Still feel off but better then yesterday!

two days later

2007-07-22T18:30:00.000-04:00

well tis the sunday after chemo and I'm really not doing much for a change. I feel usually i've been going out and runnign around the saturday and sunday after but not this time. I have totally vegged this weekend. Minus the laundry that i'm doing now lol. Although I must say, i think becuase they pushed the drugs faster this time around, i feel side effects quicker. I never felt crappy on the saturday after (except tingling) and i felt yucky yesterday. Just a general achy in the chest, maybe it's the drugs killin cancers ass off. Sounds like a good idea to me. Then my face got sooooo red, i was like a tomatoe! And it spread into my arms too. Now i've checked it out before and I get flushed becuase of the decadron (steroid?) but this was crazy flushed. Even my eyelids were all red, and the going down my arms. Just weird and hot. But no fever so it's all good. Not as bad today. My arms are back to normal and it just looks a little red up on the cheekbones.

I must say at least the weather has cooled off! Although I hear it's supposed to get hot and humid again. Yuck! Oh and this Thursday is our company picnic! Always fun to get out of the office and eat burgers with the gang!

On the computer front, my roommate just got a new laptop, with wireless internet hooked up on it. We tried loading up the webkey or keyphrase or password thing into it and it would say connected but with limited capability and wouldn't connect to the internet. Anyone know how to solve that? I'm pretty sure the password is correct, it's the only one I ever setup when i installed the router. So if anyone has a clue that would be great!

well time to check the laundry!

Movin on into cycle 4 treatment 7 down

2007-07-20T20:33:00.000-04:00

So I have moved into cycle 4, treatment 7. I've made it over the half way point, as long as I'm on the 6month plan still. After treatment 8 i will have a Petscan and probably a ct scan and other stuff. I'll find out everything that i get a perscription for on the day of the 8th treatment.

I have to say todays treatment flew by and was quicker then previous treamtents. I went in at noon, an hour after last week and the week before. Annnnddd i was done before 3pm and usually i think I was done after 3. Today I more or less slept through todays treatment. I was tired. My leg muscles lately have been feeling like they've been tightening and wanting to stretch all night long. I just lay there stretching and not falling asleep and then end up takin a muscle relaxer and finally going to sleep. But usually after 2am. ugh. So I was sleepy and dozed, hopefully didn't snore! lol. During one point, Priscella uped the speed on the DTIC and i felt the IV move over my hand, woke me up. She just gently said go back to sleep lol. I knew what she did and the next thing I knew she was puttin a new bag on there!

After treatment I,in typical style after treatments, went and saw a movie. Although this time without mom as she flew back home last weekend. I went and saw Hairspray. I have to say it was fun and enjoyable. Some very funny moments and good performances from almost everybody. I'd say don't go into it with the idea of the original movie as it is differnet. Drop my a line if you've seen it and just want to chat about it. There's some fun cameos of actors in the history of the different movie and stage show that are fun and a fun number in the credits (That was in the stage show) you gotta watch to the end to see who it was performed by. Just really fun.

Well the tinglies are starting in my feet now. Guess I really need to get on the regimen of taking the vitamin B, I realy slacked this last two weeks. I'll go mon tue and wed and go get my neupogen shots because i'm too much of a wuss to give it to myself! :) I got that nasty taste in my mouth. it's moved from sickly sweet to just nasty uck. so i'm chompin on sweettarts to help mask that taste!
now I'm currently watching Scott Baio 45 and single. Yeah he's a womanizer (or at least was) adn is kind of a jerky a$$! no wonder he's single. But it is nice to see past girlfriends tell him off! lol gotta love VH1 and their reality shows. Although I did read that one of his friends (the older brother from The Wonder Years who i thnk is a producer/director now) is supposedly setting up the "real life" scenes it it. Just something I read online whether its real or not I dunno. this is just the first episode i've seen lol. Oh and his friend is a jerk too. whether he's acting that way or is that way, geez what an a$$!

it's funny how once you get diagnosed with HD all of a sudden you hear about a hundred other people who now have it, have had it or have just been diagnosed. Before this I think maybe i had heard of 1 person probably a celebrity.

Ok and for my voice teacher who asked why i didn't include this tidbit.... June 8 was our voiceclass. havent been to one since i think jsut before xmas time. ( i should remember when it was as it was at my house last time)Anywyas i decided to go to the class although I hadn't been to a lesson since February, and I havne't really been practicing except for some singing along with the radio ha! so i went to the class. They're always fun, get to catch up with friends not seen in a while, hear everyone sing. I still was thinking I probably wont sing. But a little piece of me wanted to as I did bring some music. And I did end up getting up and singing. the word from my teach was that it as amazing and people were talking to her commenting and complementing it for the rest of the week. So yay for me! Makes me really want to get back in there and sing sing sing sing. So my new news in the singing ring is that I'm creating a show. when i hit the end of chemo will be the performing date. I'm actually thinking Nov-Jan sometime. And profits will be going to CancerCare, their young adult programs. Since I'm hooked up with them and think it's a good organization, has meaning for me.

so thats the skinny for today!
Have a great weekend!

it's me

2007-07-13T19:59:00.000-04:00

Just thought I'd post a current pic. This was taken last weekend at the museum :)I'm in the center of a giant clam shell!

arise fair one and come way

2007-07-13T15:40:00.000-04:00

Woke up this morning and was still feelin achey in the abs. logged into work email and answered some stuff. Ate some cheerios. haven't had them in a while yummy. Then went back to sleep for a couple of hours while my computer scanned itself and it's thousands of files. Went to the doc. She said it most likely seems to be muscle related and gave me some muscle relaxers. Supposedly they'll make me sleepy. I'll take one later this evening and see how it goes. But at least nothing hurts like it did the other night. ouch! it's in the low 80's i think a little humid but nothing unbearable like previously. The wind is blowing too so thats nice.
Mom leaves to go home tomorrow. Will miss her but it's time. She needs to get back to her life and friends and grandma and auntie.
have a great weekend!

No AC (sorry Atlantic City not air conditioning)

2007-07-12T23:35:00.000-04:00

Well starting lastnight today was a bummer. WE didn't get to go to Atlantic City :( Why?? you may ask... well lastnight when i went to get up from sittin on the floor enjoying some chinese food, I had a horrible pain in my abdomen. It was a couple inches to the left of my bellybutton and about an inch and a half up. Felt like a knife trying to cut through the muscle. Not a happy felling. Everytime I would stand up or sit straight up it would happen. So I spent most of the night just layin on my back in bed. Was the only position I didn't feel in pain. My mom decided to email the surgeon of the gallbladder removal as since the surgery the muscle on that side was always the worst feeling. Of course he said it had nothing to do with the surgery as they were on the right side. Then sent me off saying he'd call my oncologist (oh who is on vacation this week lol). So after seeing the surgeon and since this morning I wasn't in as horrible of pain more just a crampy feeling, we went and saw Harry Potter. Thast the bad thing about the dr's offices all being around a movie theater lol. After I went over to the oncologists office and talked to the nurse. She said oh your spleen is over there, but go see Dr Hagloff. Its the other doc in the office. So she called upstairs and I took the elevator up. Long story short, she did some poking and questioning and really didn't come to any conclusion of what it could be. Could be muscle related, could be viral gastrointeritis, but I'll go back tomorrow and tell her how i have been for the rest of the day. It's been feeling like it wants to act up again so i'll go take some more tylenol extra strength. So thats the news for now. Now it's off to bed :)

yeah

2007-07-11T14:13:00.000-04:00

Yay it's not as hot today! Yes it's very humid, but not as hot!! My weird queasy off feelin seems to have passed too. Still got a weird muscle pain to the left of my bellybutton, i think i was just rolling around too much through the night and pulled it :(
Had a bout of insomnia lastnight. Took an Excedrin PM and that didn't do anything then took an Ativan around 4:30, finally napped a little, but still waking up at 5 somethin then 7ish and off and on till about 8:30.
A bit sleepy today but not too bad, probably will nap later and that will probably screw me up for tonights sleep lol
well back to work
peace out!

Its Too Damn Hot!

2007-07-09T16:02:00.000-04:00

It's too hot today for sure! I haven't even gone outside but our hallway radiates heat and it's hot in there. I did go down in the stairwell today to open the door to Nic droppin off some stuff to me. And just opening the door felt the heat. I heard 100 degrees (was forcasted yesterday for today) and was like ick. Think i dehydrated myself over the weekend and started feelin queasy yesterday and still today. So add the heat on top of that and I decided to stay home and not even try to go into work today. Still feelin a little queasy but it's gettin better.
Kelly over at www.chemopalooza.com posted this link about a Times Magazine article with voting for the best website. I'm Too Young For This is listed on there. It's a cancer resource for young adults under 40. They also had a release of a cd with cancer patients work on it!

Stay cool

Bummer no mythic creatures

2007-07-07T18:08:00.001-04:00

Well bummer, we tried to go to the mythic creature exhibit at the museum but it was all sold out! :( so we roamed around the regular museum stuff. Snapped shots of the giant whale,dinosaurs etc. long day. Ate at a little BBQ joint called Brother Jimmy's. Was tasty and they have appreciation days. Tuesday is their teacher appreciation day and wednesday if you have a southern ID you can get 25% off. they also have a wednesday white trash feast night. all you can eat for 2hours of white trash food lol. Basically anything full of fat! BBQ ribs, Mac N Cheese, meatloaf etc. Was a cute fun place up on 80th and Amsterdam. Just roamin around the museum and walkin to trains to get home, whew i'm sleepy now!!
On the chemo side effect front, Arms were tingly lastnight but held off on moving to the hands till around 11ish. Though i also started feelin naseaus (probably all that frozen yogurt i had lol) but I did take a zofran an it worked! Hands were tingly when I got up this morning and finally subsided around 3-4. Which is good. Think i'll keep up with the Vit B and the multi vit. They seem to make it shorten so yay! Other than that just sleepy. Oh and my face is gettng all flushed again from the steriods. Looks rather funny with my cheeks getting so red like i put too much blush or something lol.
ciao

Chemo #6 down!

2007-07-06T21:49:00.000-04:00

Well today was chemo #6 really #7 but since i missed one from the gallbladder surgery it's #6. Hopefully soon is a Petscan, but since i had that surgery the nurse thinks it will be a little while yet before i get one. Probably at least not for another 2-4 treatments.
After chemo went for lunch. If you're in the city on the mid east side, head on over to Vezzo for some thin crust pizza. yummy yummy yummy!! It's on 30th and 3rd. Then we headed over and saw Live Free or Die Harder. We enjoyed it. Gotta love bald Bruce Willis and Justin Long! Guess thats the schedule now after chemo, getlunch and catch a movie. Although when mom leaves guess that will probably change, unless anyone out there had a friday afternoon off and whats to meet up with me :)
leave a me a comment or two and let me know or even if you can't. Hard to tell if anyone at all is reading except for Kelly (thanks Krazzy!) Though it's good for me to do this even if i get no comments lol. Got some tingling in the arms, but hasn't hit the hands yet, so i'm hopin it holds off and the vitamin B and multi vitamin i've been taking are working somewhat and it will only get better!Oh and I can't believe it but i just ate a pint of the Lighten Up! Ben and Jerry's Half Baked. yummy, but seriously the whole pint! i never eat the whole pint! Must be the steriods! At least I chose not to get the Baskin Robbins tonight!
Tomorrow looks like we'll head out to the museum and catch the Mythic Creatures exhibit. Should be fun! Dragons, Unicorns and something else. thats about all oh and a voice class at my voice teachers apt,though since i actually haven't been taking lessons for a little while I won't be singing anything. NOr have i actually practiced for a while cause I'm lazy and just had other stuff on my mind and people in my house. Lately it's just been singing along with the radio or humming along, but my itch for singing has returned and it's gonna start getting loud in my apt again :) yay!
tis all for now!!!

Relax!

2007-07-05T09:57:00.000-04:00

Well after a busy weeks of show seeing and traipsing about the city, my friend has left for Jersey to see some friends and then tomorrow he'll be leavin on a jet plane back to MI. A good time was had but man it was kind of exhausting! Damn those toxic drugs makin me tired lol. I have to say thanks to Mike for all the theater, dinners and BBQ! It was greatly appreciated, completely unnecessary to do all that but again appreciated! Can't thank him enough!
My ab muscles on the left side are still out of wack! But on the good side, I can lay on my right side to sleep and have been waking up on my stomach. But if I lay on the left it gets a bit sore.All that extra weight shifting to that side i suppose. I'd like it to stop so I can roll around trying to get to sleep as usual.
I thought yesterday would be my independence day from my hair, but I couldn't do it. Had it all planned out to use my roommates clippers and start shaving while Martina McBrides "Independence Day" played in the background. But I just couldn't do it and my roommate never found his clippers. I dunno what it is. It's a fallin out anyways every second of every day. And lovely amounts I pull out in the shower. So it's weird why i just can't buzz it off. I guess maybe since i only had short hair in 7th grade when the hair dresser got carried away talking to my mom and I ended up with boys cut. Or maybe the idea that what if something were to happen and it never grows back? well hell i got a couple wigs anyways. Not that thats really a comforting thought. I've just always had really thick hair and lots of it. It's not horrible yet. A tiny bit patchy in the temples and sides, but i've seen women with alopecia(sp?) much worse then what i have now who go about stylin their hair. Why does hair matter so much? UGh!!!!!
well guess thats the ramblings for today

It's the 4th!

2007-07-04T18:21:00.001-04:00

Hope everyone has a Happy 4th of July!!!!

ahhhhhhhh refreshing

2007-06-29T17:04:00.000-04:00

Today, totally a refreshing day outdoors. Soooo much cooler then it's been, thank God! And it's breezy outside! So nice!
Been a busy week, with a friend coming into town on Wednesday. We went and saw two shows already, got another one tonight, saturday night and sunday evening have a friend cabaret. I must say, Drowsy Chaperone, cute and entertainment. Didn't care about the two lead characters one bit, but loved the "charperone" and Alfonso and "guy in chair" he was entertaining. He also plays Lex Luthers dad Lionel on Smallville. "Curtains" loved it. David Hyde Pierce was fantastic as was Debra Monk (love her! Want to be her when I grow up!) Fun, cute, entertaining, lots of laughs. Just a good show! Tonight is Company. Not going to be as fun and uplifting as the other shows but should be an interesting concept.
On the health front news, everything seems to be going fine. I got the regular aches from chemo in my chest and shoulders. I also got weird stomach aches, but I believe it's from the gallbladder surgery and them inflating my abdomen with carbon dioxide. I really should ask how big they inflate it. But i'm sure enough that it stretched the ab muscles so now they are trying to get back to normal and aren't very happy to do it. But today the chest aches have left so that's nice!
Also had a little queasy feelin monday-wednesday. Took some Zofran but mine is a nasty fake berry flavor. It's gross and makes me want to barf from the fake flavor. It also leaves a gross sweet taste in my mouth. Yeah it helps in the long run, but that sickly sweet taste is so gross. I'm constantly popping gum or candy or Ice Breaker Sours.
Thats my update for now.
Hope everyone has a great 4th of July!

hot hot hot

2007-06-26T13:01:00.000-04:00

Man it's hot and humid outside. yuck!! These are the days I much prefer to stay home with the a/c goin an nappin! But alas, I'm at work. Which actually though is a good thing. Keeps the money comin in. So far no horrible effects from the chemo. Was feelin a little queasy yesterday. Had some soup for dinner and a lowfat chocolate shake that ma made. yummy! and thanks ma! She's the best!
Took a Zofran this morning as i was still feelin a little off. So far so good though. Major issue is that i'm just really sleepy. I'd go home early today but I'm the only one in my dept thats here, so guess I'll stay. It's a quiet day here anyways.
Oh Kelly, no more fights to report at least so far haha. Although I did think a couple was talking about me on the train this morning, but i let it go and just looked at them then looked down and shut my eyes lol.
BTW on hot summer sunny days, it's kind of hard to stay out of the sun in a city that you have to walk everywhere. So I put on my 50SPF sunblock (however i hear rumors that anything over 30 is really redundant). Guess I'll have to go get a big floppy hat and start wearing it.
Hair is still falling out. Seems like a lot more now. Any bets on when I'll just shear it off?? Too bad, I like my hair. I did switch to a 2 in1 shampoo conditioner. Suave I think, and it's a thickening one too lol. My hair did feel nice and soft and looked a tiny bit thicker or just wishful thinking ha! But it does smell good!
The rest of this week will be pretty full. My friend Mike is coming into town and we have a bunch of shows lined up. So far 4 shows, wed, thur, fri and Sat and my friend Andrews cabaret on Sunday. Should all be good and fun, and Andrew, probably raunchy haha! Hopefully won't tucker myself out!!
Well, off to enjoy my salad and then get back to work.
ciao

quickie

2007-06-23T11:46:00.000-04:00

This is just a short one. A quickie if you will :)
Wow the steroids really kicked in lastnight. I was awake until 5am. Usually I can read a book and maybe 20-pages in i can fall asleep. Nope not lastnight. I read about 130 and finally was slightly sleepy enough to fall asleep but then still up around 9am. Kind of sucks as I like my sleep. I enjoy it. Oh sad. But now I'm up for the day. Maybe I'll be sleepy later and take a nap.
The tingling has gone down yay. But i have a slight headache. Took a Zofran for nausea lastnight as I felt a little off. But those dissolve under your tongue fake berry things are enough to make you want to puke lol. I feel ok now and since it's been well of 8 hous since i took it I like i'm good.
Well off to get some brunch!!

chemo again and Snap-On altercations

2007-06-22T21:13:00.001-04:00

I got my chemo today!! And a special shout out to Kelly who's been deported today yay! hope it went well!
I have to say I'm unlucky to go to chemo with two great nurses Geri and Priscella (sorry if spelled that wrong!). They are very fun and sassy. Much better then sittin some place with nurses who don't want to talk to patients and as someone told, "act like they have sticks up there butts!" lol
Chemo went well. Accessing the port kind of hurt today. Guess I either didn't put enough lidocain on it or it wore off by the time i got there. Or they lied and it really doesn't numb it lol. But i survived. Not horrible, just not pleasant.
After chemo mom and I went and to a Japanese restaurant suggested by Priscella. It was very tasty. We just made it 30 minutes before they closed from lunch to get ready for dinner. Still not used to restaurants just closing at 3 to reopen later for dinner. I'm sure if I lived in Italy or Spain or I guess Japan I'd think nothing of it, but in NY it's a little odd. We both got chicken terriyaki bento boxes, very yummy and a lunch special and cheap! yay! then off we went and saw Evan Almighty. i thought it was very cute and enjoyable. I really liked it, though i hear it got bad reviews. Sure there was a meaning behind it, save our national parklands, work together love each other yadda yadda, but i liked it. and i just really enjoy Morgan Freeman in general but especially as God. Also, I'm really enjoying Steve Carell. I'm not a big fan of The Office but his movies I like!
After the movie we came back to Astoria. Ooooh and I came close to gettin in a fight (slight exaggeration) with some latina on the train lol! There was a guy sittin there and I noticed he had Snap-On racing hat and a Snap-On tshirt. I leaned in to my mom and said he's king of like a logo for Snap-On (or for those who don't know Snap-On is a company that produces tools and I like parts for the automotive industry that "snap"together at least that's what I believe after seeing them be talked about and used on American Chopper once.) Anyways this guy turned to his girl friend and said I hate it when people talk about you, so i said under my breath that its' a lot of logo for Snap-On, then the girl, got all attitude in her and said "WHAT?" So i just looked at her and said I was just talking about Snap-On. Then she got all deflated and sais "oh" then went about takin to her other friend.
we got back in Astoria and went to a small pizzeria, shared some slices. Not really on my lowfat diet though. and now we are home just flickin through the tv. so thats about all. No plans for the weekend. Just gonna chill!

Back to the Lab

2007-06-19T17:34:00.000-04:00

Met with the surgeon today who plucked out my gallbladder last week. He said everything looks good. The odd pain i have to the left of everything, it related to one of the incisions and should go away with no worries. So if it were up to him I can go back to chemo. He did say it was good to get the thing out when i did, it was inflamed and fell well between chemo dates so I should only miss one treatment. So since we were near my oncologist office, we walked over there and his receptionist just stuck me on the list in front of other people. I said i could just leave him a message but she put me on the schedule and I got to see him. The verdict is, as long as my liver enzyme function tests come back fine I can get my chemotherapy treatment on Friday. So I went down to the chemo lab and scheduled with them for 11am. Normally it's at 1 but apparenlty only one nurse will be there (normally there's two, it's a small lab in the bldg of the dr's practice) so get me in early before people and out earlier so she can go home lol. Normally takes about 2 1/2-3 hours of being actually hooked up and drippin.
So wished and hopes for good liver enzyme numbers and can finally get back on track.
The rest of the day was eatin some overlly spicey mexican food (my mom even said stuff was spicey and she likes spicey!) then went to a bookstore and got some goodies. Oh i have to be on a lowfat diet for 6 weeks (drs orders ugh) so I got a cookbook a light crockpot cooking book. looks good and easy! We like that! then went home. Long day especially since its hot outside. Not really sure how hot but it was supposed to be around 92 and high humidity. It's definetly humid out there and hot but in the city at least on the east side near the river was nice and breezy. But Queens is hot and nasty lol. So happy to be home as my side was hurting, and now we are back in the nice air conditioning yay!!!
so there ya go!

p.s. here's an interesting article about a chip thats been created that can help cancer treatment
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20070619/cancer_chipbreakthrough_070619/20070619?hub=TopStories

Out and About

2007-06-17T17:51:00.000-04:00

I made it outside for a little while today. Mom and I walked down to the dinner, down the street and around the corner. Then across to the drug store and back. Nice little outing, but man it's hot outside today, but a breeze blowin.
Watching a very weird movie called Dead Gilr, an independent film. Very odd.
Feelin better day by day but still not sure why i hurt on my left side. I'll have to check that will the doc on my checkup on tuesday. I mean, the gallbladder was in the upper right and got really no pain there at all. Two incisions to the right don't hurt either. The one in my belly button is ok and the one above aches a little but then a couple inches to the left of those is what oddly feels like was strechted and torn muscle. I don't get it, just wish it would heal up. Wanna get back to chemo so i can stop wonderin what the lymph systems doing while I had to skip a treatment.
those are my thoughts and remblings for today.
ciao

My Story

2007-06-15T13:38:00.001-04:00

So I figured I probably should share my story kind of from the beginning on here. I have it on myspace.com but not here, so if you're interested here goes.....
At the end of February I switched to a new doctor. When i went for the physical I wasn't actually feeling well, had a bad congested cough. So my physical ended up turning into a regular office visit with a diagnosis of bronchitis and asthma. I also told him that I often had a recurring dry cough but seemed seasonal mostly in April and November but lasting a couple months at a time. He gave me some antibiotics and sent me on my way, making another appt for the physical. I finished the drugs, went for the physical and felt ok. But a couple days later the cough felt like it was coming back. So i went back in to him (meanwhile he had done bloodwork and it all appeared normal) he took a listen, no bronchitis, but sent me for a chest xray because of the history of cough. Also I had a bump (swollen lymphnode) on the left front of my neck which i had gone to a previous dr and told and nothin showed up in the thyroid and it only bothered me when i lifted my arms over my head so she just wrote it off as nothing). anyways the xray showed a mass behind my breastbone, so he called my work office and told me and said go get a CTscan. I dragged my friend with me, drank down that nasty nasty concoction of barium yuckiness and had the scan. When my doc got the results, again called me at work, to tell me that there's a mass in my breastbone, he suspects lymphoma and now i need to call an oncologist and he gave me the number. so I broke down at work, cryin at my desk. Probably scaring people. They tried to calm me, but inside my head, i was just like go away leave me alone, let me have my breakdown! Not that i could actually verbalize that through my sobbing lol. Anywho, i called my mom and she flew up from Mississippi and went with me to the oncologist. We never thought to get a 2nd opinion. It happened so fast and just felt comfortable and confident in the onc that it just never occured to us or at least to me. Everything through march went quite quickly. I had blood tests which all looked pretty normal. I then had a biopsy of the lymphnode in my neck. it was fairly large so they just took it out, ran there tests and on march 27th said i have classical Hodgkins Disease nodular sclerosing type 2A (A because i had no symptoms) The 2 because i had areas in two places above the diaghram that showed the cancer. I had two enlarged nodes in my chest, one behind my thrachea and one in front, two on the left side of my neck (of which one was taken out for the biopsy) and a small one on the right side of my neck.These are all the areas that the PETscan lit up.
So my first chemo was on april 13th. it went fine. That night went out to eat at Uno's i think it was and bought new furniture from jennifer Convertables for my apartment. Which was a good thing as now i'm out on the chair sleeperbed.
I have chemo every 15 days. The 2nd chemo went fine, a little more difficult finding a spot to go in. Also had to get neupogen shot. that was fine till the bone pain hit (ouch!) knocked me out for a day, right in the middle of moving rooms in my apt.Thanks god for my ma as she basically moved most stuff. the third chemo didn't go so hot. got through one back of the DTIC but it took forever, couldn't find a good position of my arm to get the drip going fast enough, then when tryinig to push through the adremyiacin (i'm sure I spelled that wrong, its the A of the ABVD)the cannula looked like it was going to pop out, then we just couldn't get it to drip at all and since I had passed a gallstone earlier that week the liver enzymes were raised. So the doc said stop and come back on monday to try. Came back and tried again, got the other back of DTIC (the D of ABVD) when to do the pushes again and was fine until the nurse tried to get a blood return and nothin would come. she was in the vein but the vein just decided it didn't want to cooperate. So that next friday I had mediport put in. That was crazy. They only sedated me for that i could feel the doctor pushing and it would hurt every now and then adn i'd ask for more drugs and still feel it. The last 10minutes of the surgery i just broke down and cried, a catharsis really, and kept crying for about 10-20 more minutes. But all with the port is fine now. Except no one excpet chemo nurses want to touch it lol,fear of clots and infection which is fine. the 4th chemo went well, used the port and all was good. I just ended up trying to pass more gallstones on a tuesday for 3hours and thursday for 12 hours, so my onc got me in with a good surgeon and that monday (this past monday) got the gallbladder taken out. Hopefully i'll be all healed up so I can get chemo on June 22nd!
so thats my story. I'm healin up everyday, able to get up easier and move around easier, but I'll probably be chillin on monday and tuesday of next week at home too.
so there ya go, thats the news thats fit to print....enjoy!!!

still just chillin

2007-06-14T23:24:00.000-04:00

So here I am still just chillin on the sofabed. My butt is fallin asleep from all the sitting. I try to get up and move around but after a while it hurts too much so back to sitting/laying I go. I've realized the Percoset just kind of knocks me out if I have any bit of tired in me.Thats kind of nice though.
It's funny how different my taste is tv is from my mom. she loves the murder mysteries, i love cooking adn reality cooking stuff. So right now Murder She Wrote is on. I don't really enjoy it but my ma likes it and since she's kind of waitin on me hand and foot right now, I'll be nice and let her watch some tv that she wants too.
I have alittle fever happening. 99.8 was the highest it's been. I'm hoping it goes back down tomorrow otherwise gotta call the doc or the nurses and see what they say i should do. And for too much info, i'm really gassy. they said I would be because they fill you up with air during surgery to see the insides better. But sheesh man today it crazy.
My friend Josh dropped by today which was nice. Nice to see him. He showed us pics of his puppy with his back paw all bandaged up from the escalator incident. Poor guy, the wrapping was so much larger then his actual leg. But apparently he's doin well so yay!
We'll feelin a little groggy guess I'll be signin off....

Music music music music

2007-06-13T19:29:00.000-04:00

well to copy one of my friends blog ms chemopalooza, i just added a playlist too. So, if you hear music it could be my playlist. Mine is just made up of songs I just thought of to add that I liked. some meaningful in lyric some just fun.
I'm feelin better today yay!! My mom noticed too cause i'm gettin more attitude and not sleeping as much hah! So just a quick little blog for this evening. Oh and if you're on a lowfat diet and are craving brownies, try and find No Pudge Fudge Brownie mix. Those are some darn tasty brownies. And if you can't find it in your stores here's their link http://www.nopudge.com/

Stand up and deliver!

2007-06-13T12:07:00.000-04:00

Yay I am able to sit up and get out of bed on my own now!!! yay!!! Still causes pain but ya now, what should i expect since to get the gallbladder out they had to put holes through the ab muscle. But this way my mom doesn't have to keep helping me at odd hours to use the bathroom or whatnot. lol
Givin a little shout out to my friend Josh and his puppy Tlaloc ( not sure if i spelled it right, but it means god of rain). Poor little guy, the puppy not josh hah, got his paw caught in an escalator. ouch!!! but he's ok, they rushed him to the pet ER and got all cleaned up and stitched up. poor little pup.
I know i keep just changin subjects, but thats kinda the way i do things. They pop in my head and i right them so i don't forget about them. See i already forgot what i was gonna type lol
Ohhh the Percoset i think is a wierd little drug. Dulls the pain which is nice but makes my head feel wierd. Kinda spinny. but i guess i'd rather deal with that then all the pain!
Hopefully I'll be all healed up by Friday the 22nd and can resume chemo! Funny to actually want to get back to toxic drugs being pumped into your body but i want the hodgkins cured and need the chemo for that. But on a plus side getting the gallbladder out i don't have to worry about passing or trying to pass stones anymore. whew thats some painful stuff and i'm not sorry to see it go!
So while I'm recouping from the surgery, i'm just watching alot of tv. There's alot of nothing on during the daytime. And very few good movies even on the on demand channels. I love Food Network, but even i have my limits lol.
Guess thats all for now, later gators

Gallbladder no more

2007-06-12T13:48:00.000-04:00

Well yesterday, June 11, 2007, I had my gallbladder removed. Had to get it removed because i kept trying to pass gallstones. Every time i would try to pass one, which was very painful, my liver enzymes would go up. Once they went up I'm not really able to get my chemo because it's processed through the liver and if the liver isn't functioning properly then the chemo toxins don't get excreted properly. Thus it was decided (and since i had two attacks within 3 days) that the gallbladder would come out. I was able to be seen by one of the top surgeons (according to my onc) between his surgeries. Then his coordinator fit me into his surgical schedule the next day. I had to be there at 5:30 am, ugh that's early. i think the surgery actually took place around 7:30. the anesthesiologist was very nice and explained everything that she would do, including telling me that i would have a breathing tube inserted (which during my biopsy they never told me but must have happened as i felt the same sore throat and weird sore right corner of my lip). Walked into the operating room, hopped up on the table, they tied me down, i think i made some joke. They liked my personality, then i don't remember anything after that other then trying to wake up post surgery. I was sooooo tired from getting up early i had a hard time staying awake.
Now i'm just in pain. Four little holes across my abdomen plus a missing organ. Not so fun. Got some pain killers. they don't kill it just kind of make it not so bad. Oxycodone (generic of Percoset) And now I'm off to sleep, tired of watching some 80's murder mystery tv movie with Pierce Brosnan lol.

Howdy All to my new blogsite!

2007-06-10T17:01:00.000-04:00

Just wanted to say Hi and welcome to my new blogsite. I've been posting my blogs on MySpace and will continue to do so but wanted a place a little more accessible to my peeps and fam that aren't on Myspace. I'll post some of my original posts of my journeys through finding out I have Hodgkins Disease a lymphoma cancer, and beyond.
So welcome one and all. Leave comments if you wish as long as they're not degrading or mean and we shall get along just fine!
san