Tomorrow at Duke

We're off to Duke again tomorrow! It will be our 3rd day this week and the longest of all 3 days. It will be a day full of tests. Most of the tests are needed if I am to begin the clinical trial soon. Hopefully that will really be happening!!! (If my hemoglobin comes up high enough.) But even if not, it sounds like they would still like to have these tests done before starting my treatment.

So my first test on Friday is at 9am. And my last test is at 4pm. I will be doing some tests that I have never done before, and we'll be repeating a CT scan and a bone scan (which I did in early September). Neither of those was TOO bad the first time around...except that I had to lie still for a very long time for the bone scan. Fortunately, I do NOT need to do another MRI!!! Hoooray!!!! :) Thank you, God!!!!

So hopefully Friday won't be too difficult, despite the length of the day. But I don't fully know what to expect. And I do have to have an IV for the bone scan. That will be the first time my port is used. I hope it's not too sore...

Please pray that this all goes well -- and that my hemoglobin levels come up to the needed level!!! THANK YOU!!!! :)

Oh! It will also be the first day that our friend is coming to nanny for the boys. :) My mom will still be here to show her the ropes, but unfortunately I won't be around all day. My mom was originally going to fly home on Saturday (after being here for 1.5 months), but my parents decided yesterday that she should stay a bit longer!!! :) Hooooray!!!! So I guess she'll be here for another week? Amazingly, I'm not even attempting to plan too far in advance right now - so I'm not even sure what the plan is. Things have been pretty crazy for several weeks, so I'm just taking things one week (or one day) at a time.

Oh! And by the way... Kien is all better now, and fortunately no one else has gotten sick. :)

The B Test and The Procedure

Everything went well yesterday! I did take one anti-anxiety pill in the morning -- and between that and the prayers, I did really well! I felt like I should have been far more scared about my b- test than I was (after my really bad experience on Monday). But when Steve signed me in at the lab, he told them I had a bad experience on Monday -- and he asked them to let me lie on a bed and asked for the best person possible. And they delivered!! :) The nurse was great! Steve (who was watching -- and is quite experienced at giving blood) was very impressed with her. And it didn't hurt at all!! Woo hoo!! :) (So why am I doing this port thing??? ;) ) And I added one item to my usual list.... after asking her to not tell me anything and to not say the b-- word, I asked her to NOT do it in my hand!!! OUCH!! Steve has said many times that he wishes he could do this for me. He continues to be my hero through all of this!! (My parents and brother have also said that they wish they could do this for me too.)

Then Steve had to wheel me in a wheel chair over to another building...to the actual hospital, rather than the clinic. A nurse talked through the procedure with us, and we realized that they were planning to give me the same pain meds that I had been given as a patch in the hospital a few days after surgery which had so many bad side effects for me! So fortunately, we got that changed at the last minute!! When it was time, I actually walked into an operating room. (What? Me walk into an operating room? For a voluntary procedure???) It took awhile to get started, because they were waiting for someone to get the new pain meds for me. So I was in there conscious for quite awhile. Then they gave me an IV and I had been talking to them about some concerns... and that's the last thing I remember!!! I don't even remember the IV being a very big deal - and this time, Steve wasn't there to hold my hand! I was just sedated and not given general anesthesia. But I was told I'd be pretty out of it and that it would even cause amnesia. So I wonder if I was truly awake??? I remember NOTHING!!! Soooo great!!!!! :) :) :)

I "woke up" when they were finishing, then they transferred me onto a different bed and wheeled me down the hall. I wasn't fully aware yet...but then I remember being told I was in the recovery room, and then Steve was there too. :) We were there with a nurse for quite awhile, and I was dozing off and on. So now I have some sort of port thing under my skin (a "port-a-cath"). Ick!!! Steve got lessons on changing my bandages, as he's going to have to do it daily for 10 days. yuck! I'm pretty sore in that area now. They gave us discharge instructions, although I was too out of it to fully absorb them myself. Steve told me part of it later, and I realized that I had heard what she said while dozing....and I'm sure I would have thought I was dreaming. She said I shouldn't use email for 24 hours!! HA! She listed off things that I shouldn't do for 24 hours, such as making big decisions, using the home shopping network, email, etc. ha! Driving and herbal tea were both on the list of things to avoid as well.

We got home mid-afternoon. I hadn't been allowed to eat after midnight. But in recovery, I had ginger ale and graham crackers. Then on the way home, I was thirsty...so we got a Dairy Queen Blizzard, which I ate for the rest of the drive. We also ordered a hamburger, but I wasn't hungry for it after the Blizzard. So yes, I ate a cookie dough Blizzard for my combined breakfast / lunch yesterday. Oh well... I deserved it! ;) I was doing well enough by evening that we went to our small group at church (I was feeling well generally, although I was pretty sore -- it would even hurt to do minor things, such as smile).

Thanks so much for all the prayers that helped me make it through this procedure!!!! :) :) Hopefully this will make all future b-- tests and IV's much simpler. We'll find out tomorrow, as I have an IV lined up again...

I Did It!!!!!

I made it through my blood test, my IV, and the "minor surgery" of inserting the port!!! We're now home, and I'm ready to nap. More later...

Thanks sooo much for the prayers!!!!! :)

Encouragement and More About Today

Thanks so much for all the encouragement regarding tomorrow!!! I am quite nervous about it, but it makes me feel so much better to hear from so many friends in the medical field that this is truly for the best. But I'm still nervous.... ugh!!

Kien was sick all day, so I stayed upstairs as much as possible to avoid his germs. I felt so badly hearing him cry and not being able to help! I can't pick him up yet anyway. But this would be very bad timing for me to get sick, and I might be more likely to get sick since I'm still recovering from surgery and recovering from radiation. I do have an appointment for a flu shot next week though.

One fun thing... The medication which I will hopefully be taking as part of the clinical trial may cause sores and pain on my hands and feet. (That's not the fun part.) So they recommended that I get a pedicure before beginning the medication. So I followed the doctor's orders today! ;) And the timing was great, because my friend Jenny had given me a spa gift certificate for my birthday! So I had a nice, fancy, 1-hour pedicure this morning. Steve had to drop me off at the spa and pick me up. I'm not driving at this point, both due to all my medication and due to my arm not working. We realized as we were going out the door that my mom had taken the only car that has 2 car seats (the mini-van) -- and we were left with the SUV with only a seat for Kevin!!! But we had Kien, while my mom was on a preschool field trip with Kevin!!!! UGH!!!! Fortunately, we did have an extra car seat in the house, and Steve learned how to install it at lightning fast speeds...within an hour after Kien got sick! It was a crazy morning...but the pedicure was nice! :)

I also slept MUCH better last night!! I took the anti-anxiety medication again, and that may be why my sleep was improved. I'm also doing much better at getting myself up out of bed without Steve's help, so I don't always have to wake him up if I need to get up in the middle of the night.

On another note... my brother had surgery today! He had knee surgery. It went well, but he found out that he'll need a knee replacement in a few years. Not good. :( My sister-in-law (his wife) just had hip surgery 6 months ago. Kevin also had eye surgery in January! What a crazy year!!!

Thanks for the prayers for tomorrow!!!!

Port Tomorrow!!!

We had to get a bunch of stuff set up at Duke - the first of which was the port insertion. And it turns out that it will now be happening TOMORROW (Wednesday)!!! AAAACCCKKK!!!

I have to be there at 8:30am for an initial blood test. Ugh!! Please pray this one goes smoothly!!

Then at 9:30am, I will be at the hospital for the port insertion. I will be sedated, but not entirely knocked out. UGH!!! They said on the phone that it will take 1.5 hours!!! WHAT??? And then because of the sedation, I have to stay at the hospital for 3 hours for recovery. I also can't eat after midnight tonight.

I'm quite freaked out about this whole thing. Please pray for strength and peace - and that it goes well!!!! THANK YOU!!!!!

Uh oh!

Kien has a stomach bug!! Please pray that I don't get it from him!!!!

Back to Duke and Prayer Requests

We had another appointment at Duke today. It was to begin again with a "b...." test at 1:30pm, then my appt was at 2:30pm. We also signed the papers to agree to the clinical trial today.

The test last week went sooo smoothly! But today was a NIGHTMARE!!!!! I have been aware a couple of times over the past month that a nurse has had trouble finding a you-know-what (sorry, but I just can't "say" these words). One time was actually during surgery. After surgery, my right arm was a huge bruised MESS for a couple weeks!! It was really terrible. So anyway, today was terrible. Steve said the nurse did not do a good job. And she had to do it in my hand!!! EEEEEK!!!! I eventually had to ask to be taken to a bed to lie down for the remainder of the torture session. Ugh! And my hand actually hurt for a good hour after it was all done. Ok, change of subject...

So anyway, as a result... the current plan is now for me to have an IV port put under my skin, above my chest. AAAACCCKKKK!!!! Supposedly this will be done at Duke on Thursday. We will find out more about scheduling tomorrow. They will give me a sedative that will just make me really out of it, but it will not be general anesthesia. Oh my goodness.... I'm really going to need prayers for this!!!!!!

Anyway.... The doctor didn't expect my hemoglobin level to be fully to where it needs to be by today, and it wasn't. It was up a little bit though. But only about 30% of the amount that it needs to climb before I can begin the clinical trial. He said that the treatment I received last week usually wouldn't take effect for a week anyway, so hopefully it will take effect this week. After the IV port, I will have more testing done on Thursday and Friday this week (blood tests, CT scan, bone scan, etc.).

Soooo.... please pray for my hemoglobin level to miraculously rise by Thursday!!!! And please pray for the procedure on Thursday. I am sooooo not looking forward to this.....