Thursday, February 18, 2010

back to life..back to reality

That song has been playing in my head all week as I headed back to work Tuesday after being home in isolation until the week before. I did manage a getaway snowboarding weekend with D and some friends for Valentine's day and it felt so good to be around people again. I do think I pushed it a bit too hard though and I didn't meet my goal of going down a slope by myself but I did make it up a ski lift( even though I fell flat on my face getting off) I do count that as achieving one goal.

Now that I'm back in the office I'm pleasantly swamped with work for the next couple of weeks to keep me busy. I still struggle daily with being able to concentrate and focus but hopefully it will get better. I am finding I have few delayed side effects from the treatment that just started yesterday. My salivary glands are swollen a bit and my tear ducts are burning and itchy. Talked with my doctor today and she recommended chewing gum and using eye drops and things should go back to normal. I still am having trouble sleeping through the night so D wants me to find a doc that can help me with that and my blood pressure that has been running a bit high.

My Doctor discussed my lab/scan results with me last friday and in layman's terms I'm considered about 98-99% cancer free. The test they use to see my cancer level was at 7 which I have no idea what that is out of just that that number is tiny *smile* She rattled off a lot of other numbers but I admit that I am not the best at remembering all the medical data. She also explained that they don't like to say one is really "cancer free" until a second year after a clean body scan.... I understand the precaution, so I will wait and just celebrate the fact that I am done treatment for now and go back in about 2 1/2 months for a check up to make sure the cancer is going away.
Thank you for all the continued prayers!

Sunday, February 7, 2010

Treatment and the aftermath

Sorry that I haven't posted recently. It's been a busy week and I am still slightly radioactive so I was taking a break from electronics.
Here's my week in recap.

Monday had to go to Washington Hospital Center instead of Georgetown for some insurance reason to take a pregnancy test( they have to check before they treat you) and then get my 1st of 2 Thyrogen injections. It's a drug that they give you so that I didn't have to stop taking my thyroid medication. This was great because I have already once forgotten to take my medication and it was a horrible day esp. for D after I kept falling asleep on him. Anyway, after sending me to the wrong place twice and waiting over an hour everything was done.

Tuesday we went back to Washington Hospital Center for my second Thyrogen injection and it went much smoother this time. Then off to Georgetown for the salivary gland study and to receive my tracer dose of radioiodine. Georgetown is a teaching hospital so if it's not too much trouble and won't cost me anything I participate in studies when asked. I've participated in 3 studies so far all relating to the study of thyroid cancer. This latest one was studying how many people have trouble with their salivary glands after receiving treatment. Thankfully thanks to sour candies I haven't had any trouble.

Wednesday was back to Georgetown for my full body scan which D got to watch. You basically lie down on a long table and they have this about 18" x 24" whiteboard looking thing and bring it down to about 2 inches from my nose and then you lay there for 45 minutes completely still while it goes down your entire body. They then look at the scan and can see where the cancer is by looking at where the radioiodine was absorbed. They then decide what size dosage of the full medication I need to receive. While they were figuring that out we had some time to kill so we went and bought juice to take into the room with me so I could have something other than water. They had told me not to eat before the scan so at this point I still haven't eaten and am starving even for the horrible low iodine diet.(I did lose a total of 10.5 pounds on the diet so it wasn't all bad.) Then we decided that D would just drop me off because I was going to receive my treatment and have to stay in the hospital room. So I went to the area where my lead lined room was and they put me in a lounge area to fill out a bunch of paperwork and the after about 2 hours of that I am finally in my hospital room which is covered totally covered in plastic,even the floor. They bring my treatment dose in a lead lined tube and even I have to wear plastic gloves to touch it before I swallow the 2 pills. Then they mostly left me to myself in my room. I had to drink fluids non-stop, suck on soar candies, shower a lot, flush 3 times and wash my hands obsessively. I was told that I could finally eat at about 5pm but was at the mercy of the hospital to feed me. At about 5:30 the nurse called my room to see if I wanted anything and I asked about dinner. She said they hadn't come yet..but found out later it had but they didn't see it left outside my room so it had gotten cold. The radioactivity monitor guy found it and went to heat it up for me but dropped it in the process. He felt bad so he went in search of food that I could eat while I was praying that they could bring me another meal...thankfully they finally did and I was so happy to eat a naked Salisbury steak, some steamed squash and pineapple. The rest of the night I read magazines, did some crossword puzzles and watched TV. I still don't know how to play Soduku.

In the morning they came and tested my radioactivity level and it was below the acceptable level for release so they started the paperwork for me to go home. About an hour and a half later and not receiving and breakfast I took my last shower and put on my street clothes and then waited for them to tell me where to go. D showed up right on time but then we had to wait to track down my nurse to release me. Once that was done we left and I sat in the 3rd row of our SUV so as to be as far away from D as possible.

I had been dreaming about food ever since the diet started so I knew that the first thing I wanted after getting out of the hospital was yummy cheesy pizza(that was my lunch idea , I wanted Outback if I was released at dinner time)..and man was it good along with a big carton of milk that D knew I had been missing.

So now I've been home since Thursday afternoon sleeping in our guest room and using our guest bathroom exclusively. D has been awesome making me food as I eat on my paper plates and with plastic ware. One of our friend was also nice enough to bring us some homemade chicken cacciatore and we enjoyed that a lot.
I go back to the hospital on Wednesday for my second body scan and then should be ready to go back to work on Thursday. I look forward to things going back to normal.
I find myself pretty bored not being able to bake or anything but am getting through. I feel bad for D being stuck here with me because of the huge snow we had so I'm just trying to keep myself busy until next week.

I am so thankful for God bringing me through this treatment. It went much better than I had expected and although it was hard it was easier and less scary then I had expected. I am so thankful for D and my friends and family who have been praying for me and checking on me. It's so great to feel so loved :)