Our midnight post is indicative of our return home from the chemo party. We heard they had a great happy hour on the 10th floor, so we had to go check it out, we got kicked out b/c we had been there since 3ish. I guess there were others in need of chemo too?

Chemo went pretty smoothly, besides the fact we almost didn't get in b/c when they took my vitals, I had 102.4 fever!! 101.5 is the go to the Emergency Room("Center") rule. That is crazy high for me, I think the highest I have had so far is 101.8? We were so bummed and begged to be let in. The nurse paged my doc and he said go ahead, he thought it was just tumor fever, YEAH!!!!! I hardly got any sleep b/c all the anxiety, finally they fed me some Phenergan for my nausea and I crashed for a while. This chemo regimen will be administered every 2 weeks, with no "off" week in between. My pain has let up an incredible amount today. I am meeting with the pain management team next week to try and figure it out once and for all. I may go on the fentanyl(sp) patch, which feeds you a constant dose of pain meds throughout the day and night. I am hoping that once I get a few chemo days under my belt, my pain will disappear like last time. I hate to write these specific hopeful things on my blog b/c I almost always jinx myself!

Thanks for all of you keeping up with me when I was not holding up my end of the bargain. I have truly never been so down in the dumps for so long consecutively in my life and I NEVER want to go there again! I hope to start getting out of the house more and for the record, I ate 1 & 1/2 of a chicken tender last night and 1 graham cracker! Joel was so proud of me, he has been freaking out b/c I won't eat. I lost 30 pounds since April and it was still dropping before my last stay in the hospital. While in the hospital, they decided to pump me full of fluids and saline and I gained 20 pounds in 7 days!! That has been so uncomfortable for me b/c it's all fluid and I am very swollen, YUCK! The doc prescribed me a diuretic for it b/c he thought that was an excessive amount too.

I hope you have enjoyed the long recap, you know I am bad off if I can't even keep up with my blogging! :)

Alright, alright alright!!! Just got home from chemo #1 on the new cocktail. I am falling asleep as I type. Details later, I can feel the chemo working

Still re-couping in bed. All of these meds are hilarious, the junk that runs through my head everyday is unbelievable. I keep waking myself up by either talking to myself or an imaginary someone else in my sleep. The other night I woke Joel up from a deep sleep b/c I had reached over and smacked him hard across the chest. I told him to get over it b/c in my dream he deserved it! :)

Overall, I truly am feeling better. If I could just stay awake, during the course of typing this email, I have fallen asleep around 8-10 times. Don't worry, I am still not out on the streets yet, YET!

My poor bed was very neglected too, not being slept in for 7 days. So, I made sure I caught up on beauty sleep all day today. Then the rain started, what a wonderful nap day I had today. I am still tired, I kept falling asleep taking my evening doses of all my meds. Joel was cracking up at me, he kept looking over at me and I was out cold sitting straight up, completely overwhelmed with the number of pills I had to ingest. So, after my supervised pill taking, I am now off to bed and I am only lacking a couple of "bedtime" doses. I have started taking Lunesta now and I like it better than the Ambien, at least I haven't had to crawl back and forth to bed in the middle of the night after a trip to the bathroom! This blog is just a plethora of information for you guys, huh? Sometimes you are just going to get more info than you bargained for, sorry!

We finally got home today around 6. I am wiped out. It is so WONDERFUL to be home, I cannot begin to tell you! My pups, my cat, my pillow, my bed, peace and quiet!!!

Tomorrow, we are going to go buy one of those senile plastic drug dispensers, I can't believe how many drugs they have sent me home with! Thanks for all of the support, details later if I feel up to it. I may just put this one behind me and forget it ever happened! I have never had to stay in the hospital for so long and I think the next time someone tries to send me, there will be lots of kicking and screaming.

Kelly is still in the hospital ,but doing much better. The main focus of the stay has been to eliminate any infection and getting her pain under control. Kelly has been in quite a bit of pain since the surgery and has needed some relief. While the hospital is no fun (especially for 6 days), hopefully we have accomplished some things that will make her start to feel like a real person. The last month has been hard on her.

The doc wants to watch her for another 24 to 48 hours to make sure we have the right combination of drugs before she will get to come home.

Thank you once again for all the great support we have out there. I'll let Kelly fill you in on the rest.

Joel

Kelly asked that I post an update. She was supposed to begin chemo Monday, but was sent to the ER from her doctor’s appointment. They believe she has a blood infection of some kind. So…she’s now been admitted into the hospital and is awaiting word on the blood culture (which they say takes 48 hours). Stay tuned for more updates.

 

Please keep up the good thoughts and prayers.

 

Tomorrow is my first day on the new chemo regimen. I have a blood draw at 11:30, Dr. Appt. at 1:30 and chemo at 3:00. I haven't been able to find all the details about this new chemo and how long it will last, but both the Gemzar and the Cisplatin can be administered simultaneously, so I don't have to wait around to do one at a time. I hope they get all my meds right and that I get the fancy new building again tomorrow, I am really going to have to turn on the tears if they try and stick me in the old chemo rooms! I hope that the chemo shuts off this pain like it did last time, I am sick and tired of being sick and tired! Wish me luck tomorrow, I hope I am well enough to report only good news when I get home, it may be too late, so details may have to follow on Tuesday. I am off to take another nap so I can wake up in time to watch Big Brother!!

I am glad to report today was a good "no pain" day. I did spend most of the day in bed, sitting up or lying down, but I was pain free, which was great! I actually got up and took a shower and Joel and I left the house to run an errand. I finally got to drive for the first time in 4 weeks, it was only a couple of miles, but it was very nice to be behind the wheel again. I am very much the city driver and Joel is the epitome of the country driver, so we usually have issues when we are in the car together. I was glad to have the reigns back. On our outing, we stopped at Black Eyed Pea for some comfort food and I was able to eat 1/2 a roll and a few bites of mac & cheese, seemed to go down okay, I hope it stays there! I am off to bed soon, I had a big day today and I am banking on more consecutive pain free days!

Thanks for all of the kind and encouraging emails and comments, trust me, they are helping!
Love,
Kelly

Last weekend was so-so, more so bad than so good, but oh well. Monday, I went in for another Procrit shot, I think they are starting to help out a little. I had an okay day today, we got new pain killers that seem to have less side effects on me. I have so many drugs on my list and I can't stomach them all, especially since I am not eating anything. Turns out the "CR" in the new Ambien CR stands for Crack Rock! That stuff makes me crazy high and hallucinate, I had to slide against the hall to get to the bathroom when I woke up in the middle of the night, I ended up crawling back to bed. So, I cannot refill the regular Ambien b/c of the timing of the filling of the CR, so I tried Valium, which seemed to be working for a few days, but my doc is worried about it being addictive. So, last night I tried a Lunesta, hate those commercials, and it did nothing for me! At least the new painkillers don't make me sweat like a crazy person and I am able to manage some sleep at night. I have to write down every dose of every pill I take and each day fills up a page in my notebook, the new painkiller is every 3-4 hours, so that's a lot of pills each day with just that one drug. Sorry, I have been a slow blogger, but over the last few days, I have not left my bedroom to come downstairs for anything. The pain is manageable, but the loopiness of the drugs and the no appetite are keeping me down, plus all the anemia stuff doesn't help. Today the doc told Joel to get my pain under control and take the painkillers as soon as I need them, regardless of the time. Once we can get my pain under control, then my energy will build back up along with my appetite and everything should fall back into place. It worked today, so we are going to stick with that plan and see how it goes. My incision is healing nicely, it's just my innards that are bothering me.

Today was a little better. Joel and I found a good drug combo that helped me sleep last night. I actually got 5 consecutive hours of sleep, I felt like a new person today! Of course I was wide awake at 5:00 this morning, I napped later in the day but I still feel a lot better after getting almost a full night's sleep. Hopefully, the drug combo will work for me again tonight.

Sorry, I have been slacking on my blog, I have really been miserable lately and barely coherent between all the drugs I am on. Joel has been a Saint through all of this, I am no fun to be around when I feel this lousy, trust me!

Thursday night was no bueno either. I had a horrible day on Friday and Joel and I went in to the ER Friday evening around 5:30, along with all of the other cancer patients in the greater Houston area! It was packed, Joel and I were huddled up on one of the couches in the hall and we finally got called back at around 8ish. There were no rooms, so I was literally in a bed in the middle of the hall along with about 5 other hall-dwellers! It was ridiculously loud and bright, I was more comfortable on the couch in the waiting room. After an EKG, several x-rays and a CAT scan, they couldn't find anything wrong with me. My hemoglobin was already up to 9.9, which is very good for the road to chemo. They saw pockets of fluid on the CT, but they were consistent with the surgery I didn't have. So, they pumped me full of pain meds, some IV fluids and antibiotics and sent me home with an antibiotic. We didn't leave the ER until 7:30 Saturday morning, it was sooo much fun!

Since we have been home, I have just been sleeping like crazy and having random hours here and there of lucidity. The pain was intolerable for a few days there and just moving from the bed to the bathroom was a chore. Yesterday, I got up around mid afternoon and Joel and I went couch shopping for a few hours. Good thing about furniture shopping is that you can stop and take a break every 5 feet if you need to, there is always something comfy to sit on! Last night, I finally got the nerve to roll onto the side of my liver and half my scar to try and sleep. It used to be my only sleeping position, it went well and I got more sleep than I have in a long time. I didn't get up and going until 3ish this afternoon. My nights are spent sweating and tossing and turning and usually around 8 in the morning I am able to move past it and fall asleep. It is a very weird schedule, but oh well! It's not like I am missing much around here with all of this rain, our back yard is a lake again and the dogs are not too happy with us!

I hope everyone has a good 4th of July celebration!