Blah, blah, blog...

A little bit of everything as we get ready to head to chemo:

*Today is the last full blown Chemo!! Rock 'n Roll!

*Last night we experienced the first sweet potato poo... not pretty.

*Michele's garden is rocking!

*Alex was officially five months old yesterday. I am increasingly disconcerted by her progression... I need to take more pictures.

*Otto a king of Bavaria, started every morning by shooting a peasant. To oblige him, his subjects would secretly give him a pistol loaded with blanks; a person dressed as a peasant would drop to the ground at the sound of the gun.

*Alex has started to prefer to sleep on her side. It is adorable.

Needing to see the light at the end of the tunnel

This week has been a bit rough mentally for me. I think it is because physically things are going well- just fatigue which I am used to. The mental thing has been getting me down. Specifically, how I do not feel like Michele....I say this because of more than just my hair loss. I don't feel mentally as sharp as I used to- chemo brain. I feel overweight- read that the average weight gain is 13 pounds through chemo. I also feel like I am going through early menopause- chemo pretty much forces that and in 5-15% under the age of 40 actually do go through menopause as a result of chemo. I look in the mirror and it is as if someone else is looking back at me....

I am realistic enough to realize how ridiculous I am being. I mean, my tumor is gone. But maybe because the fear is gone I am able to have my pity party. So I just need to focus on the next step because today is the last chemo!! And I am super excited about that.

We met with the Breast Surgeon yesterday. Dr. Beth Kimball was the doctor that did my biopsy in December and called me with the diagnosis on December 26th. She was pleased that the tumor was gone and explained that I would have a lumpectomy to go in and take out the clip that was inserted in January as a tumor locater. She also recommended a sentinel node biopsy. I have never shown any evidence of having cancer in my lymph nodes but because of the type of cancer- Invasive Ductal, Progesterone positive, HER2 positive, 4 cm Tumor, and high risk grade- they want to rule out that the cancer did not spread. To do this biopsy, they inject radioactive dye at the tumor location and it then gets absorbed into the nearest lymph node. The lymph node that absorbs the dye will be the node that would be the most likely one where the cancer would have spread. They will take this node out and verify that no cancer is present. So in summary, that is the surgery. It is planned for June 24th. Dr. Kimball mentioned how well I took the news about the cancer back in December- it seems like a blur when I think about that time but I told her thanks for the complement and the support she gave at the time. Really I couldn't be here without all the support I have received. Thanks. And onto the next phase....

Rolling right along...

Day two of sweet potatoes went quite well... I think she has become disenchanted with rice cereal now that she has tasted real food. She ate like a champ again and was super happy. She was a little upset because I wasn't getting it in her mouth fast enough... and then laughing, mouth agape, sending the sticky orange mess flying all over. She's a trip.

Today her Aunt Robin will be watching her during the dinner hour while we are meeting with Michele's surgeon... we'll see if she has the courage to tackle the sweet potato feeding.

Sweet... potatoes!!

What's that I taste? Oh yeah, it's something other than formula!

Alex ate solid-ish food for the first time tonight... sweet potatoes. She seemed to dig it right from the beginning, although as always her tongue was a bit of an impediment. She lapped up half a jar and would have likely taken more were we inclined to clean up a bigger mess than we already had.

It will be sweet potatoes for the next few days to ensure there is no allergic reaction and then on to carrots and peas (3-4 days each time) before she dives in to the baby heaven that is fruit.

We'll keep you informed as to the progress... below is a link to a video of the very first bite should you be interested.

Sweet... potatoes!

Too tired

This weekend we had great weather to accomplish some things on our to do list. I planted some perennials, spread some mulch and weeded the garden. Wes and I then tackled trimming the bushes along our driveway- it is pretty much the on-going project of 2008. We also cut down some trees along the garage. It was exhausting and we have the tired muscles and small cuts as evidence.

Yesterday we took a trip to Adrian to visit Pop. He looks great and feels pretty good. We are all super happy- hopefully he continues to take it easy. Alex enjoyed hanging out with the grandparents. Tammi, Scott and Kaden stopped by while we were there so Alex got some loving from her aunt. We thought she would zonk out on the way back to Ann Arbor because she had so much excitement in A-town....boy were we wrong. She slept for 20 minutes and then woke up. She then screamed the evening away - both from sadness and joy. Wes and I were happy to put her to bed last night at 8...she slept until 6am today and then fell back asleep until 8am. So she was tired. Today we are going to try sweet potatoes if her mood permits.

Chemo 2.11

Dichotomy.

The great thing about having gone to chemo so many times at this point is that there are no surprises. We know what to expect and there is very little anxiety or worry involved.

The crappy thing is that it has all become so routine that we sleepwalk through it. Less nervous energy. Less joking around. Yesterday Michele slept through most of her treatment and I read. I guess after everything that has happened over the last year we should be happy for a little bit of boring.

Pretty standard chemo day. Wait, wait, wait. Drugs, lunch, drugs, drugs. The clinic was a little slow, probably due to the holiday coming up, so it was pretty quiet. The only excitement started when someone brought in homemade banana pudding... the place went nuts. Michele had some and enjoyed it

Other than that, same old process. We had a nurse that we haven't had before (I think we might have run through the whole staff at this point) and she was great. We cruised through it pretty quick and headed home to play with Alex.

Next week we meet with the surgeon on Thursday and then have an Oncologist appointment and the last full-blown chemo on Friday. Michele is ready to both figure out the surgery schedule and be done with chemo so it is a big week.

Rock 'n roll!

Back at home...

My dad went home yesterday and is feeling good. I think he's happy to have an excuse to sit around and avoid yard work on this long weekend.

I don't say it nearly enough, so I'll take advantage of the anonymity provided by this blog to say that he is a great guy and I love him. Take it easy Pop.