Hangin in there!

Hi! I had my staples out and it hurt like crazy even with the baby Emla cream I put on! Thank goodness Will was with me and we probably made the nurse gag;) he sat right next to me and forehead to forehead we made it thru. Why doesn't someone come up with a better way to close incisions? Staples are so barbaric! Physical therapy is hard; I've never been good about exercising and this is no different. Almost everyday as I'm going to bed ( at 830;)) I think shoot, I forgot again! Ah well,I'm walking pretty well, short distances with the cane. Most importantly, I'm still here to celebrate our 7th anniversary! Woohoo! Hard to believe, thank God for my boy!

Back to work for me! i didn't really have enough time to get sick of watching tv :) but feeling like i need to get off my butt so, back to interpreting and keeping busy:)
I have an appointment with the orthopedist tomorrow, i think they will take out my 35 staples and give me the ok to graduate to a cane (which i did last week;)) I'm interested in seeing the X-rays tomorrow tho, just to make sure everything's in it's right place.
Thanks everyone for the flowers, cannoli, cheesecake, thai food, etc! you sure know the way to a girl's heart! Next up:ditching the cane! woohoo!! :)

Home at last:)

It's true, they let me out this morning with a crit of 33 and the ability to limp around pretty well on my own. Sitting in my dad's big recliner at home with 3 dogs camped out and big tv on criminal minds- heaven!

Stuck in hospital:(

Surgery to replace the rod in my femur went well, but was complicated by my veins being damaged by chemotherapy. They struggled to get an IV in me, then gave me a spinal block, then tried for an hour to get a central line in, finally ended up putting a line in my left thigh, in case I needed blood or medicine, etc. good thing because I lost 700ml(?) of blood during the surgery and so far have had 2 pints transfused through that line. I'm up and walking with the walker already, it doesn't hurt to walk but the incisions in my knee and hip are sore. I wanna go home! But I hafta wait until my hematocrit is above 30, so more blood transfusions today and hopefully ready for home tmw. The surgery took almost 6 hours, much longer than expected because the bone wasn't just fractured but shattered, and the rod was in pieces. They had a hard time removing all the pieces and put in a bone graft to encourage the fracture to heal faster. Now I have much larger incisions in my hip than last year; taking hardware out is more difficult than putting it in I guess! Thanks so much to everyone for your emails and texts and visits:) special thanks to my sisters for their help in taking care of the dogs and kiddos:) and me! Xoxo Ps I have a private room and Will has been able to stay overnight with me. He's lovely and patient and I couldn't ask for better support. I think Benny wren taught him all his nursing skills:)

Surgery, take 2

hi! After a cat scan of my leg and hip yesterday, we went to see dr tyler today and she scheduled me for surgery on monday.  the small fracture i got walking the beach last november has apparently deformed the surrounding bone enough that it caused the titanium rod to bend until it broke. its broken. inside my body. unbelievable.  so the reason I've been having increasing pain in my hip is because of the fracture in my hip and the rod scraping against the muscle and tissue. it makes so much sense based on the kind of pain i have, it's almost like it has teeth and it decides to bite me when my hip is in certain positions. anyway, I'm not happy that i have to have surgery again, with a 4-6 week recovery period, again. but i am happy that i can have it done so soon, to get it out of the way so we can enjoy our summer plans. and to reduce the pain!!

The surgery is removal of the current rod, pin in my hip and pin in my knee. then do it all over again, place a new rod in my femur, add some extra bone growth stimulator magic, a new pin in my knee and a new, heavier duty pin in my hip. in the pic, you might be able to see that the head of the rod is separated from the body of the rod below the pin.


So, I had to sub out all my work for the next couple weeks, people were awesome and covered for me:) so I'll work monday morning, then hafta be at
Highland at 2:45pm for surgery at 4:45pm. I'lll be in for 2 days or so; last time, we asked for a private room, they hooked me up with a german roommate who was also demented and awake, yelling all night long. The second night i got a private room, slept much better. Lesson learned: will cry til they give me my own room this time.  Also planning to ask for a spinal block. Last time, they didn't realize how much pain medicine i normally take and so didn't give me enough extra for when i woke up.  Unhappy situation. Spinal block sounds much more friendly. Anyway, please send happy vibes and gummy bears on Monday. Will let you know how it all works out...:)

$&@!?&$

Waaaaaaah. The pain in my hip is from the rod that was put in my femur last August. It's broken, bent by the force of walking on it with the fracture. How in the world does titanium break? No idea, I'm still baffled myself. I had an appt with the ortho onco people yesterday, and at first felt like they were going to tell me it was muscular, and needed physical therapy, I was so hoping for that. Then, they called in dr rozier, a big dog, and he put 2 X-rays side by side; one current and the other from right after surgery last year. I could only see a slight difference, but his expert eyes saw more and he felt strongly that the rod had bent and was probably broken. CT scan this am confirmed his suspicions and I'm on crutches, wheelchair to avoid putting any weight on it. It's pretty much impossible, and so painful. I can't believe I hafta have surgery again. Fuck. Have an appt tmw to discuss surgery. I'm assuming ASAP. Why couldn't this happen in the winter when I would just miss work?! I don't wanna change any of my plans for the summer, none of the trips we have planned, I refuse! I'll ride in the rv and sit in my wheelchair if I hafta. Col, you'll help me go potty and shower won't you?! Fuuuuuuuck.

Xeloda is workin!

News from PET scan is awesome, the oral chemo med Xeloda is doing its job and getting my spots under control:) my onc very happily told me last week that several of the spots that were hyper metabolic last scan are much less so, or completely gone leaving just a scar behind. Now that's not to say the cancer is gone, it's just kicked back to a lower gear for now while it figures out a way past the xeloda. With a little luck, I'll be able to stay on this med for awhile, it'll keep working and the side effects will stay manageable. Right now it's just desert dry hands and feet, lovely and scaly and ugly ripped off nasty lookin toenails. I've considered saying I'm a ballerina or a marathon runner to explain them- so much sexier than cancer! I'll have PET scans every 3 months to make sure it's still working. Even the lesions on my liver, the ones that worry me the most, are responding well. Yahoo! I'm struggling with my hip the last few weeks. At first I thought it was my knee, then the rod in my femur, finally pinpointed the pain to my hip and then it kinda radiates from there. I can hear the screw or pin or whatever it is clicking and sometimes it reaches out and grabs me and the pain is intense- takes my breath away. But then it goes away and I'm fine...weird. Have dr appt with orthopedic onc on Wednesday, so I'm looking forward to finding out exactly what's wrong and how soon can they fix it cuz its no fun hobbling around. Makes me feel old!! Anyway, send some good thoughts on Wednesday if you think of it, I'm hoping it's muscular and I just need some physical therapy or something easy...no surgery. Thanks!