Results are in!

Benign - both the bone scan and the biopsy. Now I can have a fun weekend (with my itchy steri strips)!

The trials and tribulations of my life!

This morning I couldn't connect to the internet. It wasn't me - it was a statewide problem... Needless to say I am behind on my day already. And aggravated.

One little bitty biopsy and here I am exhausted again. Yesterday by about 4 pm I was completely tired out. You would think its only a little biopsy… A tiny little incision… I haven’t seen it but they said it would be about 1/4”. Anyhow, I am as tired now as I was months ago. Maybe its ‘old fart-itis’.

For some reason, I completely blanked out in my mind the incredible idiots I have seen recently on the road. On the way to Lahey the other day, there was a moron (clearly not a rocket scientist) who was stopping on the main road to let people take left turns in front of him when they had the top sign and he had right of way. You aren’t supposed to stop in the middle of the road!.

I just figured out that so far this year I have been to Lahey more times this year, 58 trips so far, than last year, a paltry 55 visits. That actually is 113 visits in just over a year. Or one approximately every 3 days or so. BLAH! I am not sure I like those numbers. Well this coming week I only have three appointments and two are on the same day. Then hopefully, I won’t have to go back until the end of the month… or 3 weeks later! Wouldn’t that be nice?

We have been enjoying some nice spring weather – 50’s and rain… The cat had a very enjoyable day yesterday.

I wish they would make up their minds!

So to back up a little, on Friday when I had my bad mammogram, the radiologist suggested a scintographic (I think that's who you spell it but even the tech I asked didn't know how to) mammogram where they inject dye and then do six five minute scans. However my surgeon nixed that and said biopsy to be sure. Then on Tuesday when I went to my therapist she suggested as a stress relief that I take half an ativan so to be less stressed.

Yesterday I get to my lovely biopsy all stressed out, even with my half an ativan. (I was driving there and couldn't remember if I had taken my regular pills because I am a half wit when stressed). Anyhow, I check in, wait around, get changed, wait around, finally a nurse comes and gets me and we go sit in a little room where she reviews the procedure with me and has me sign the release. Then the doctor doing the procedure comes in and says "I just looked at all your films and have talked to the radiologist and surgeon and told them I am not sure why we are doing a biopsy and not a scintographic mammogram or MRI. And the surgeon and radiologist agree we could skip the biopsy and do the other tests instead if you want." WHAT? So now after leaving me all stressed out for days and telling me I have something you are saying I can just know I have something and let you guys look at it some more. I said I wanted the biopsy at that point. All the other tests would do is confirm there is a something but not tell us what it is, which is the whole point of a biopsy. Oh, and when I mentioned I had taken half an ativan they weren't sure I should have been driving....

Finally, they did do the biopsy but the doctor said she was fairly sure it would prove to be scar tissue. I need a pathology report saying that to be fairly sure on anything these days. She also did tell me my bone scan was clear. The biopsy itself wasn't bad. A lot less painful than some of the other stuff I have been through and it actually only took about 10 minutes. Anyhow, all this changing their minds is stressful.

After I came home, I did a little work and watched 27 Dresses with the cat on my lap and drank herbal tea. It is a definite chick flick but I do recommend it.

Today I am a little sore but okay. I slept pretty well as well. Now we just wait for the results. Grrr... So my stress level is down a little bit but at least I didn't go camping with a bear like my sister in law did!

Waiting is hell

But yesterday I was in the waiting room from hell. First of all I procrastinated a tiny bit and was running a little late (but avoided all school bus delays even though I turned around after starting to come back home and make sure the stove was off) and arrived at the parking garage to find a line of cars backed up three deep at the entrance in both lanes. Apparently, it was backed up the entire length of the garage! That definitely was not a good start. It took quite a while to get into the damn garage and find a space, far away from the morons who don't realize there is someone behind them and start to turn into the space on the right, now maybe that one on the left, but wait, that one over there looks better. And never mind using turn indicators or looking in the rear view mirror. Finally I park and walk rather quickly down to the nuclear medicine department.

I check in and was given another lovely bracelet to add to my collection and told to have a seat. Its not a large waiting room - maybe 20 seats. There were a couple of women who were together a few couples, one woman in a wheel chair and a small family which consisted of husband and wife and grandfather AND a 3 year old who was not being supervised or disciplined in any way for playing light saber with a rolled up piece of paper and running in and out of the waiting room, out into the hall, out of sight of the parents, who were ignoring him. The grandfather did tell him to leave the lady in the wheel chair alone but otherwise they didn't say anything to him. To get his mother's attention, who was deep in conversation with her husband, he would yell "Mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom" about ten times and then she would would say "What?" and then would tell the child "do you want to go home?" Home is probably where this child should have been. Running around a hospital, especially in the area full of radioactive materials is probably not a very good thing. It was very stressful to sit there and be light sabered. (Don't get me wrong, I like kids. I don't like bad parenting.)

Shortly after I was rescued from the waiting room by this nice technician who couldn't find a vein for my injection so she had to start an IV in the back of my hand. The back of the hand for IV's is relatively painful but it wasn't there long. I was told to return in 3 hours. To fill this interlude, first I called a friend who works there and was unable to make contact. Then I called my therapist and found I could be fit in an hour later. To fill that hour, I made a very important trip to Kohl's buy one get one free sandal sale. Nothing like new shoes to make you feel better. (Walter does sometimes call me Imelda so I might as well live up to my name.) I got to wear my new gold sparkly ones later in the day to put me in a good mood.

Then after a session with my therapist and a salad for lunch I was ready for the rest of my adventure. I went back to the same lovely waiting room but luckily the bad parenting family was gone so it was rather peaceful. Another technician came and got me and I had the scan. Basically you lie down on your back and they scan you from head to toe in six sections, for about three minutes per section. They started with my head and moved down my body. Every time I almost feel asleep, the table would move to the next section and wake me up. However it was rather restful. Now I just wait for results. I am not sure when I will get them - probably on Monday.

Speaking of restful, it was nice to hear Senator Kennedy had a successful surgery and that he was up and walking around a day after. What I don't understand is that they stated he had a restful night in the hospital. Excuse me? I have never had a restful night in the hospital in my life! They are always in and out for something. My support group thought perhaps he had an armed guard at the door to prevent anyone from taking his vitals in the middle of the night or something.

Now today is the big adventure - squishing and needles. Probably followed by steri strips. I am so excited I can't wait! I hope to be home by mid day. I am moderately stressed. Well, now not moderately, possibly very stressed or even severely stressed. I also have prescriptions for this. It was recommended I take half a pill before going. I think I will do so. Then the waiting begins. This afternoon after I return I will watch "27 Dresses" to make me feel better. I might do some work from home but am not sure. It will depend how I feel. Oh, and I have a phone interview for a good job this evening.

Needless to say, while I sit here and type I am PROCRASTINATING (wouldn't you be?). I still have to eat breakfast, take a shower, send a couple emails for work, and leave here in an hour and 10 minutes. Perhaps I should get moving????

Two giant snapping turtles and counting

Yes I have seen two of these ugly things recently. Last week while driving to Lahey (where else do I go), there was one on the side of the road (protected by orange traffic cones) which is a short cut along some wetlands. His shell was at least a foot long!

Then yesterday, I went out on the bike path near us after work and there was a slightly smaller one on the side of the bike path. His shell was probably 10" long. I took his picture with my cell phone (and if I can ever figure out how to get it from my phone to my computer I might even post it). He was probably crossing from the wetlands on one side to the other. (However now I know not to ever go swimming in the little pond!!!!) The weird thing was when I went back that way about 20 minutes later he was gone. So he either walked really fast for a turtle and crossed the bike path or turned around really quickly and went back down into the wetlands. About 15 years ago, I saw one on the bike path in about the same area. You don't see them often.

Yesterday my phone rang at 10 of 8 in the morning. Who calls that early? Well it was a friend who had the day off and wanted to go for a walk so we did. It was a nice way to start the day.Then I did remember to run my errands and pick up my prescriptions before going to work.

Today is scheduled nap day, I mean bone scan day. Last year I took a nap during my bone scan so I will probably do the same this year. I have to be there at 9 for the injection, which means leaving here at 820 and trying to avoid all the school buses. Then I am going sandal shopping and to run some errands and maybe meet a friend for lunch before going back for my scan at 1245. An all day adventure at Lahey. I hope to be home by 2 so I can get some work done before my support group.


I was offered the option of taking the Ted Kennedy approach to medical issues and going sailing today but unfortunately I will have to opt for my current schedule.

But now I feel really stupid

Saturday I went to the library. Upon checking out, I was informed I still had one overdue book. They gave me the name and author and I went home to look. I started in all the obvious places - the living room, under and next to my bed and quickly moved on to taking all my books out of my bookcase. I spent an hour looking and basically gave up. I decided either I must have sold it to the used paperback book store we went to a few weeks ago or that I left it in the hotel when we went away.

Sunday morning I discovered the book sitting in the middle of the coffee table in the living room. Its the only book on the coffee table and there really isn't that much other junk. I obviously am just really stupid sometimes.

Otherwise, I had a nice day - once I got over my stupidity. We went out for a long walk and had breakfast at the diner. I had an egg beater omelette with toast and only a little bit of cheese. We ran some errands and then I went to a bridal shower - imagine that - me at a social event! I hadn't seen some people in quite some time. It was very nice, good food, and I also met a bunch of new people.

We had an invasion this weekend. On Saturday I went to take a shower and found TEN ants in the bath tub - yuck! Yesterday I only had to kill off four before showering. (I have adapted to killing ants. Anything else, I pick up and move out side. Ants I do not consider to be worthy of the move. They get terminated.) We put out a bunch of ant traps (no they are not organic or anything but they will prevent us from a major infestation) and got some spray for outside. If this doesn't work , we need to pay the exterminator many hundreds of dollars for them to come regularly to get them under control. Too bad the cat won't chase them down for us. He got rid of the mice that way!

One side effect of all this stress is insomnia. I have been up since 3. I couldn't get back to sleep. I am sure I will end up crabby as a result.

Today I will go for a walk, pick up prescriptions, go to work, and that's about it. Possibly some house cleaning but don't count on it.

Today I feel a little smarter

No I didn't say a little less stressed, just a little smarter. See I did some research. I found out what a stereotactic core biopsy is and I had some people confirm what it was like. Basically you lie on a table face down with your breast in a hole. The table is raised and they squish it like for a mammogram and stick needles into you. On a scale of 1-10 for fun and enjoyment, I'll put this at about a -35. In my experience the needles they use to deaden the area are more painful than anything else. Also, this involves needles of which I am not too fond. Any bets as to if I will end up with steri strips as well? The itchy little buggers!

I also reread my own blog from last year (since I have chemo brain and can't remember anything) and learned that the bone scan is very boring and a good time for a nap. I will plan my nap schedule accordingly.

Another event which made me feel oh so smart was that yesterday the phone rang and the woman on the on the other end was from a summer camp looking for Mary who needed camp for her 5 year old. She was very embarrassed. I had called the camp as part of one of my part time jobs which is why she had my number. Anyhow, it makes me feel so much better after getting all confused with children on summer program wait lists that we had last week at work.

Yesterday I also did all kinds of things. I met friends for coffee, went to the farm stand, the bank, the library, and two consignment stores where I got a deal on four tops and a pair of earrings. Retail therapy has been proven to relieve stress.

Today, Walter and I have a plan. We are going for a walk and out for breakfast and then to run some errands. Then I am going to a bridal shower. I am working at keeping myself very busy. When busy I cannot dwell and stress. When bored, I do dwell and stress. Off to my busy day!