Surgery Date

I got the call yesterday--my swap out surgery is on October 15th. I can't wait. Not that I am looking forward to surgery, but I am looking forward to feeling normal again. I am also glad these expanders will be gone. I have been very uncomfortable the past few weeks. Not in pain, just uncomfortable. There is a pressure on my ribs. It makes it hard to find a comfortable position, hard to sleep too. I have been stretching, and sitting in funny positions when no one is around to try and help it. This then leads to my back hurting. But it is almost over!! At least this part anyway.

Had my appt with my cardiologist yesterday. (That still sounds wrong anytime I think of it!). Did the ultrasound first. The lady that does that is so sweet. The first couple of times she was telling me about her sister that had had breast cancer 5 years ago, and how she was doing. Well, yesterday she informed me that the cancer has metastasized in her sister. This is so sad to hear. It can still be overcome, and her sister is bound and determined to beat this. But it really sucks to hear that anyone has to go through any of this again. She has a blog also. Please check it out, and keep her in your thoughts and prayers.

As for my appt--things were fine. The leaky valve is leaking a little less. My ejection fraction number (EF#) is 58. It was 62, but as long as it doesn't go down more than 10 points, it's ok. More than 10 points and you have to stop the herceptin for it to come back up. The EF measures your hearts pumping rate. This and the leak are things she believes will resolve themselves when I am finished with the herceptin.

Well, insurance totaled John's truck. This really sucks. Luckily we have great family and friends that have cars/trucks that he can use right now. That way we don't feel pressured to get something right this second. When you do that you end up-paying to much, getting something and hating it, or getting a piece of garbage. He is in New Hampshire this weekend for...(say it all together now..)..races. Soon he starts the outage and will be working 7/12's. Which cuts down on looking time. I am so grateful that he didn't get hurt, especially since he doesn't wear a seat belt.

The girls and I went to the high school game last night. It was cold!! They were performing at halftime with the HS cheerleaders. They did great. I video taped it, I will have to play around with it and see if I can get closer up on it. If it looks ok-I will try to post it here. I hate to do this, but we left as soon as they were done. I had been sitting out there since about 6 (they were in the school) it was about 9 when they finished. I was freezing!! I am such a wimp when it comes to being cold. I also have a cold, and didn't want that getting worse. When we left the score was 7-7.

The girls have their Homecoming game tonight. It is a night game, their game should be around 6. Hopefully we will be done around 7:30. I really don't want to be getting cold again!

Oh--I almost forgot about the PS appt. You know me, I never say boo--I just accept things and move on basically. Well, I got to the office a few minutes early for my 12:30 appt. This lady walks in behind me, and they inform her that her appt isn't until 2:30. She does this "oh really--I left work, I thought it was now, hmmmmm". They said they would squeeze her in. Then...they take her back first!! I couldn't believe it. Me, on time---her, 2 hours early. Me, waiting---her,going straight back!!! I didn't get called back til 12:45. I know that isn't a long time, but it is the principal of it! When I went back I told the nurse I wasn't happy with that. Yes, she left work to get there, but I do have other things to do too!!! The nurse that runs things came in to apologize, and gave me some chocolate for my troubles. Then I am waiting in there til 1:20 before the dr comes in. The "squeeze in" appt took 45 minutes!! The nurse came in and apologized again and brought me a small bottle of water. Thank goodness, I was starving. I didn't eat lunch, I didn't figure I would be in there that long! My appt took some time between the fill and talking over all the surgery stuff! I didn't get out of there until 2:20! By this time I was getting a terrible headache from not eating. All I wanted to do was get home before the girls (and we had a busy night ahead of us) and eat something. I would take alternate routes knowing that certain routes had construction and would run into more construction!! And people that could not do the speed limit! At one point I was behind someone doing 35 in a 55--and of course I couldn't get around them! AAARRRGHG!!! It felt like I was never going to get home! Obviously I finally did. Oh-- and the nurse apologized on the way out. She said she did make the wrong call on that one, that she didn't think that appt would last anywhere near that long.

On a lighter note--someone from the YSC board posted about this website. Perpetual Kid. You HAVE to check this out. They have some funny stuff on there! They even have a punching bag with a slot to add someones face to it!! It is probably like a kid's punching bag, but I may have to get it. I have really needed a punching bag lately--I think it would be an awesome stress reliever!!

Off to write a note for cheerleading. One month and we will be done with that too!! Yeah!!

Great Start

Well it was a Friday--but not the 13th. Although you wouldn't have know that from the luck John had yesterday morning.

He has to leave for work at around 4:15 am (Yikes!!). Well, around 8 I got a phone call from him saying that he had been in an accident. He is fine thankfully! We are waiting on the fate of the truck however. Not sure if insurance will fix it or total it.

Apparently it was a construction area, and someone in the left hand lane-a few cars ahead of John-stopped for no reason. He only knows this b/c the semi driver had seen it. The car in front of John then stopped. He knew there was no way he was going to stop in time, so he looked to his right, didn't notice anything and tried to swing into the right hand lane. Well, there was a semi there. He thinks he hit the trailer. There was no damage to the semi. John thinks he may have bounced off the trailer and back into the car in front of him. Luckily no one was hurt. The semi driver stayed to talk with the police then headed out--he had no damage to report. The car in front had some damage. And of course John got a ticket b/c he assholed the guy in front. Oh, and the person who caused all of this by stopping in the middle of the road??? Gone. That's right. Whether they realized they caused an accident or not, I don't know, but they left. Real nice huh??

I also am wondering--what on earth do the ins. agents do??? We have never had a claim before, so are totally unsure on how to handle it. We went to the ins office (which was closed for lunch--so we had to wait around an hour--that's small town for you, not even something to tell you when they would be back) and of course the agent isn't there. I have never seen him there. Not that I am in there a ton, but the few times I have stopped in, never there. I realize at most offices, the secretary does a lot of the tedious work. John explains to her what happened and she proceeds to dial the main office or whatever, and hands the phone to John!! We could have done this at home! He is on the phone for 20- 30 minutes answering their questions. Now she did say they would have a lot of questions and it is easier just to have him talk to them direct. So as we go to leave John mentions that if he has any questions, he guesses he could give her a call. She tells him that the main office takes it from here on out! Which is fine, but again leads me back to my original question, what on earth do the ins agents do?? If any of you are ins agents out there, please leave a comment in reply to this.

Well, off to the girls game. They had said it was going to be 77 today. They lied!

Quick Update..

I had another PS appt today. We did the last fill on the right--I have one more on the left to go. (Remember, we couldn't fill the first time b/c of fluid). We are looking at early Oct. for the swap out date. YEAH!!!! It is an outpatient procedure, and on a scale of 1-10 the pain will probably be about a 3-so not bad. The restrictions will be the same as last time though. There will be internal stitches holding the implant in place, and we don't want them to pop! It will be so nice, no awesome, to get this step done!! I haven't had a "normal" body since January. Yes, with the expanders I have bumps that look decent under loose shirts. But they are odd shaped, and a little lumpy, so wearing tighter shirts really isn't an option right now. And with getting the surgery done the first part of Oct. my lifting restrictions should be up right around Thanksgiving. Which would be good, we all know how crazy it gets after that!! It will be a year in Oct since all of this has started, it will be nice to be basically done, and start working on putting this behind me.

I will fill in more details at a later time, for those interested. Right now we need to eat.

Can I Tell You....

I really like going to the High School football games. Last night was an absolutely beautiful night out too. It did get a little chilly in the end, but you couldn't ask for better football weather. It didn't look too good during most of the game, Dwight scored early, but in the last couple of minutes they pulled it off and won the game! Same as last week. 7-6.

Did not sleep well at all again last night. Didn't want to take the Ativan as I had taken it for two nights and wanted to see what happened. Well, I fell asleep for about a half hour, then woke up and had a hard time sleeping the rest of the night. This really sucks! If I get woke up because of hot flashes or anything, it takes me FOREVER to fall back asleep. And the worst is when I just dose off and get woke up. I am going to have to break down and call the dr. I need another dr appt like I need a hole in my head! But I do need to sleep. I can get quiet cranky if I am tired.

Poor Scrappy. I'm not sure what is wrong with him. He has been itching at his eyes and they now look real nasty. He has also been licking/chewing his feet, and just doesn't seem like himself. I have an appt for him Tuesday. Hopefully he doesn't go crazy before then. The girls had Alivia spending the night last night, and Scrappy bit her! I still can't believe it!! I mean I know it is true, but is so unlike him. He didn't break the skin, which is good. At least I don't think he did. Alivia says he didn't, but the bite is on her butt and she wouldn't let me see it.

The girls have a game today, then we are off to help Susie and B move into their new house. John is up there now. Of course by the time we get there-it will probably be done!

I did get in to clean out the pool yesterday. It actually ended up being pretty nice out. With all these leaves falling I will have to get in there again tomorrow. So tough!!

Back to school...

Again. The girls had a full day of school last Thursday, then Friday off because the power was off. Those storms that rolled through were wicked! And such a wide area was affected. I drove into it coming home from my ps appt. I actually pulled off the road for a minute, but decided being parked by big trees could be a bigger mistake! All in all we were lucky. We only lost power for maybe 15 minutes, no tree limbs down or other damage. The sirens did go off. John went to get Haley from gymnastics, and Jenna and I stepped outside to see what it looked like. In front there were some clouds swirling around--very creepy. In back there were some swirling a bit, and there was what looked like the eye of a tornado. I tried to get picks--don't think they turned out real well though. We had the crawl space ready to get into, luckily we never needed it.

Saturday the girls had a game in Momence. It felt like the longest game ever!! The weather was a little goofy--rain/sun/rain/sun.... That night we went to the high school game in Wilmington. It was a good game. Reed Custer won 7-6.

Tuesday was off to see the onc and get the Herceptin. Always fun! I told him about the hot flashes--he prescribed Effexor. I tried this, it makes my mouth taste like shit--like on chemo--and makes me very queasy--again, like on chemo. I think I will take my chances with the hot flashes--I can't stand feeling queasy all the time. I do need something for sleep though. I have been taking the Ativan the last two nights and have passed out. And slept all night. I will have to talk with Dr. C about this again. One of his suggestions to try before meds was walking, well I am walking 3 miles 2-3 times a week. I am going from the time I get up, til the time I try to go to sleep. Before all this crap, I could have a much more relaxed day and still sleep all night with no problem.

It is 79 right now. I am hoping the sun stays out for awhile so I can get the pool cleaned out without freezing.

Tonight we have the high school game--the JR Comets will be introduced between JV and Varsity games. Then they have a game tomorrow.

Enjoy your last official weekend of summer!! I know I plan to!

Where to begin...

Okay...Okay... I know, it's catch up time again.

I left off the last entry saying that John was up to something with the Kenny Chesney tickets--he had gotten us section 101 row 2 tickets! Great seats! I took a lot of pictures, and some actually didn't turn out too bad. Ann, Cindy, and Melissa went with. We had a great time. We really need to have girls nights out more often. The tailgating before was fun also--time to just relax! We didn't sit down for Pat Green, none of us had really heard of him--and we were on a mission to get drinks. Sugarland was good, Kenny ROCKED (can you say that about a country singer?)!! While still tailgating...we had made a trip to the wonderful out houses. On the way back, I noticed someone bent over my car, using the trunk for a table. As we walked up I asked "Why are you writing on my trunk??" Well then I realized it was a police officer, not that that makes it ok. His reply was that he wasn't "writing" on my trunk, but if I wanted him to move, he would. So of course I said "yes". That is why that pad has a cardboard back--so you can hold it in your hand and write. Oh well---back to the partying!! I haven't really drank in awhile. Made up for it a little that night. But surprisingly I didn't feel bad the next day. Relax....Ann drove to her house, and Cindy drove from there. I must admit too, that I tried to use the cancer card to get backstage. Didn't work unfortunately. It has to be good for something though right?

Jenny and Susie did their walk that weekend too. It was hotter than hell!! And I guess on the last night they had to evacuate their tents because of a storm. Most of the walk wasn't in Chicago, most people were surprised at that. Susie ended up with heat rash and Jenny had several toes bandaged due to blisters. Jenny (God love her..) when people would complain about the walk, she would say..."It's better than having your boobs chopped off!" Or something similar. I would imagine that shut everyone up!! I still think it was incredibly awesome of them to do this in my honor.

This past weekend we went to Great America. I didn't book a room ahead of time, thinking that if we got all the park done in one day we wouldn't need a room. Note to self....next time just book the room and use it, even if just going home the next morning. We did find a room, it just would have been nice to be able to go directly there, instead of driving around looking. Friday night the "Plain White T's" had a free concert. We did have to go get wristbands first thing though. Then we were tied up from about 4:30 to 8:30 with the concert. It was pretty good. Wonderful weather that day--not too bad of lines either. Saturday was gloomy. We wanted to hit Superman first, but the line was already pretty long, so we hit other roller coasters and pretty much got right on. Batman, Deja Vu, V2, Raging Bull, And Iron Wolf (I skipped that one--never liked it--even when it was Shock Wave--jostles you around too much). We also hit one of our favorite rides--The Giant Drop. Awesome!!! Then we went back and stood in line for Superman. Almost 2 hours later we got on the ride. WOW!! It ..... is........AWESOME!!!! Would love to go at a slow time to ride over and over--or maybe even get the front car. I had gone online and got the tickets--$15 off each---plus buy 3 get 1 free. For the tickets for the second day, they were $20 each. Saturday was a little chilly too. It did start raining about 3:30, so we headed on home. I was wiped!

Haley has now decided that she is going to be a vegetarian. She is just not eating meat. Animal by products are still ok. I have to say I am impressed (and proud). While at Great America, she could have easily given in, or decided she wasn't starting until Monday. Food choices were slim there. She did ok though, she had cheese fries the first day. The second day she shared Mucho Nachos with John, and picked off the meat.

The girls are of to school in the morning. They need it I think. They are nit picking at each other constantly. I am thinking Friday I may enjoy some nice quiet time in the pool. If something comes up Friday, then I will plan it for Monday. I have a dr appt. tomorrow--so that is out.

Ok--off to bed. We aren't used to this school schedule, we will all be hurting I think!!!

Okay, Okay...

I know it has been quite awhile since I have posted. I really have not felt like sitting at the computer lately. And I also hate writing with people looking over my shoulder. Since it is summer--it is a lot harder to write without someone interrupting or reading over my shoulder.

Had another Herceptin Tuesday. Yesterday I would have sworn that they gave me the wrong stuff. My stomach was very queasy. The timing was the same too. Must have been a coincidence though. Today I feel great.

I had my 5th fill. The last 2 times have not hurt/been uncomfortable at all. The expanders are square, so I am oddly shaped if I wear a tighter shirt. They extend under my armpit more than they normally would. I also have a corner sticking out on the right side.

We went to the Harry Potter party to get the new book. It is a good book, I think she tied things up well. I was a little upset at a few things that happened, but what can you do? It will make an excellent movie. Now I plan to go back and read the whole series over.

Took the girls to the American Idol concert Tuesday. They had fun. Half those kids are mediocre (they are better than me obviously--but I don't' think they are good enough to be on tour). The rest were good. Gina is from Naperville, so this was her "home town" stop, her boyfriend came on stage and proposed. It was pretty cool.

Cheerleading has started again. We are running most nights and half the weekend. There have been some REAL hot practices too. My neighbor Ann and I have been walking the track during practice. Although, this week I missed. I think I may have possibly over done it last week. Between the walking, playing around in the pool and general running around, I was not feeling too great. It is amazing how wore out I can get. Kind of pisses me off actually. I have heard some people say that weren't back to normal for 1-3 years. That just seems so long!!

Tomorrow is the Kenny Chesney concert. John is up to something with this. I had to sell my seats--so the obvious assumption would be he got better seats. I have no clue where they are though. It is a girls night out to celebrate my birthday. Five years or so ago I decided I wanted to go to Mexico to celebrate my 40th birthday. Well, with all that has been going on this year, it obviously wasn't the best time to go. Then I heard that KC would be in town on my birthday weekend and decided that would be the best way to celebrate. John is at races with his dad, so.. girls night out. SIL Ann, Melissa and Cindy are going with me. It will be a blast! I bought a cheap cowboy hat at Target to wear over my bandanna!

Well, I am off to get the girls in bed and enjoy a quiet evening!!