Florida recap

We've been home from Florida for almost a week, and I'm just now getting around to posting about it. So without further adieu...here's Pompano!


Our Spirit Air flight was delayed 3 hours. But by the time we boarded, we were still in good spirits! Get it? Ahh...stick around, the jokes get much worse.

Finally in Pompano, it was time for some pool-side action next to the tiki bar. And wouldn't ya know...we were just in time for karaoke.

Alas, there was no karaoke action for this girl. But an early night in was followed by an eggceptional brunch with Mom, Monica and Clint.  

Brunch brought with it a torrential down pour...kinda a bummer when you're at an ocean-front resort. So we headed into Lauderdale for the Museum of Discovery and Science where I tried my hand at the Cyber Knife.

That's right. Even while on vacation I'm still kickin' cancer's ass.

The next day we went north, into lion country. Actually, it was West Palm Beach. But we were at Lion Country Safari. Pictured here: Jordon being very brave for coming into the lorikeet aviary with us.  

Pictured here: Me with a vicious attack lorikeet

See that giraffe over Mom's right shoulder? Once it realized we were out of lettuce, it wasn' sticking around for the photo-op.

And our last day was spent at Butterfly World. Time really few by.

  Can't get enough of my Florida adventure? Check out the full album HERE.

I went to Florida and all I got were these lousy cankles

I got home late Tuesday night (okay it was actually very early Wednesday morning) from a quick trip to Pompano Beach, Fl. Aunt Cecilia has had a place down there for about 10 years, so I was about a decade overdue for a visit to this sleepy little ocean front town that finds itself half way between West Palm Beach and Ft. Lauderdale. There were 15 of us from the Suraci clan down there spread out between 3 condos. Mom and I shared an ocean front room on the 7th floor (the penthouse... kinda) and the view was awesome (so was the room).

But more on that in another post. This post is about my souvenir from the trip. Enter... Exhibit A.

These little piggies are not going to market.

It might be a little difficult to tell from this photo, but typically you can actually tell where my lower leg stops and foot begins. What you're looking at here is a common side effect of Taxotere called edema. Unfortunately, I didn't notice it until we were on our way through security to board a flight back to VA. A quick check of the internet proved to be less than helpful. Search results produced everything from This is very common, just be sure to keep your feet elevated and also be sure to get up and walk around once an hour to OMG you have a blood clot and you'll probably die of an aneurysm if you get on a plane. A call to the on-call doctor (why does this stuff always happen after business hours) - I'm going to refer to him as Dr. Jerkface - wasn't much help either. 

Fortunately, the flight home was an uneventful one and I made a call to my real doctor first thing the next morning. She had me come in for an appointment - just as a precaution - then sent me over to the hospital for a sonogram (another precaution). While edema is quite common and usually goes away on its own, its symptoms are also similar to that of a blood clot. Increased risk of blood clots includes things like flying, having cancer, and receiving chemotherapy. And treatment consists of blood thinners. 

Good news... no blood clots! 

Edema is sometimes treated with waterpills. But apparently those come with their own side effects and potential complications. So for now... fat feet it is!

 

 

Dog days o' summer

I'm pretty sure when I ran home at lunch today to pick up the dogs for the groomer's (and by ran, I mean walked from my air conditioned office to my air conditioned car as quickly as my tired, anemic ass would carry me), they were both trying to give me the middle finger for 1) interrupting their eight hour nap, and 2) making them go outside in the midst of a DC heatwave. Well joke's on you guys... you don't even have middle fingers! And your thumbs are on your elbows... which is just weird. So off to the groomer's they went!

Kelley at Gone to the Dogs does a great job. Can't get enough Moxie cuteness? Get your Moxie fix HERE.

Charlie, the eternal hipster, is too cool and ironic for Facebook.

Apart from today's adventure in canine hygiene, this week has been a exercise in doing as little as possible. And I do believe I've succeeded. I'm gonna blame that on the heat. And the chemo. See also: tired. See also: anemic.

I'm starting to get an idea of what the docs are talking about when they say the effects of chemo are cumulative. The fatigue hit me a lot faster - and stayed a little longer - on Three than it did with One or Two. With the first two treatments, days 4 and 5 were probably my laziest. This time it was days 2 through 5. Day 6 was a full day back to work again (I learned my lesson from One and have not been going back to work on Day 5) and today, Day 7, I finally feel normal.

I've also noticed that each treatment cycle has come with unique side effects (the acne and the nosebleeds were really annoying) in addition to the old faithfuls (dry mouth / metallic taste, heartburn, muscle ache / fatigue, hot flashes, runny nose, and tingling hands). Fortunately all of these have been pretty tolerable/manageable. And! The GI ugginess has been pretty minimal. Though, if number Three were to have a theme, GI ugginess* may be it. As Monday's delicious Chipotle lunch made a not-so-delicious reappearance later that evening and other meals for the last few days seem to be taking their leave rather expeditiously. That's lady-like, right?

In other news: it's time to feed those well-groomed dogs. Have a great evening!



*word credit to Alyssa

Dibs!

I made an important observation over the weekend. (Which actually sums up the whole of my accomplishments over the last three days. Well, that, and one load of laundry. Chemo #3 really kicked my but.) And the observation is this: My birthday falls on a Saturday this year. But not just any Saturday. The Saturday immediately following the Mayan Apocalypse.

Now I know this end-of-times conspiracy theory has been debunked for months, but it still sounds like an excellent theme with which to celebrate turning 32. So mark your calendar (yes five months in advance, I know how busy schedules get between Thanksgiving and New Years) for Saturday December 22nd 2012. Because this is your first official invitation to an I Survived 2012 Party!

Chemo Day #3: Half Way There

This one's for you, Kristen!

Today's chemotherapy anthem is brought to you by New Jersey's finest... Mr. Jon Bon Jovi. 'Cause today we are half way there! 

Chemo #3 of 6 if officially under my belt - or in my veins to be precise - so it's a downhill count down from here. Big thanks to Andi for spending the day with me and to Rob for bringing us lunch!

What? You go for mani/pedis and to see Magic Mike with your girlfriends? Hangin' out at the infusion center. That's Andi and I roll.

This is Rob's "I'm so excited to be eating a salad" face.

Mmm....lotsa leafy green stuff and protein. Take that, hemoglobin!

And... Dave and Ginni will be hosting a cookout this Saturday - both in honor of my hitting the half way mark AND in honor of the good fireworks they have left over from the fourth. So if you're in the Spotsyltucky Spotylvania neck o' the woods this weekend, hit me up for the details. 

Kicking ass and taking names

I've had two appointments in last two days. One with kinda crappy news and the other with really good news. Let's start with the crappy, shall we?

Yesterday I had my regular pre-chemo check up, complete with blood work. The docs perform a CBC before each treatment to make sure I'm still healthy enough to be poisoned. This test looks at white blood cells (for fighting off infection), and red blood cells and hemoglobin (for oxygenating all the important stuff). Normal limits for hemoglobin are 12.0 to 15.0 g/dL. So I did not get a gold star yesterday when mine was only 9.9. But it did explain why the hill I walk to my car from my office each day seems to have gotten steeper over the last few days. It also means I'll need to increase my red meats and other iron-rich foods. I'll also talk to the infusion nurses tomorrow about supplements and other things I can do to increase my counts. If not, and if my counts falls anywhere below 9.0, a transfusion may be in my future. Let's hope not. Fingers crossed!

And now for the good news!

Mom went with me to my check up with the surgical oncologist and she could not feel the mass (the surgeon that is, not Mom)! In fact, she had to look back at her notes from before chemo started to see where it was. And even then, she still couldn't feel anything wonky in the Evil Twin. What was (just a mere 6 weeks and 2 chemo treatments ago) a 3x3x2 cm tumor, is now running away with its tail between its legs. Wait. Do tumors have tails? Probably not. But the point is I am kicking cancer's ass! So now breast-conserving surgery is back on the table after I've finished chemo. I'll follow up with the surgeon again as I get closer to Chemo #6 and will decide then if a lumpectomy  (and possibly radiation) is the best course. Or if a mastectomy (potentially bilateral) with reconstruction to cut down (no pun intended) on the risk of recurrence is still the best plan.

Until then... can I get a HELL YEAH for kicking cancer's ass?

RESOURCES

I've created a page for many of the resources I've come across and enjoyed in the last 12 weeks, but can't figure out how to get it show up. So while I'm working on that, I can at least give you all the link to the brilliant page I've created. Here you go!

Click HERE for some fantastic resources!

  

http://thebigccansuckit.blogspot.com/p/resources.html

Independence Day: Parts One and Deux

Happy Idependance Day from People of Walmart

What's better than one Fourth of July celebration? Two Fourth of July celebrations, of course! Well that's what we're calling this weekend's get-together with the Cantrells, anyway. Because Happy 7th of July is just a weird thing to say. So let's start at the end and work our way back to the beginning, shall we?

Rob put on an awesome pyrotechnics display

Complete with golden shower. Seriously. Who's in charge of naming fireworks? 'Cause I want that person's job.

And a good time was had by all. But mostly by Steph (with her sassy new 'do) and her daughter Aubry.

Speaking of weird things to say? As someone who's been rockin' the Chemo Babe look for three weeks now, I've already had a handful of encounters I most likely would not have had BC (before cancer). On a late night McFlurry run, there was the unsolicited hug from a complete stranger who had lost his wife to the big "C". At a sketchy gas station stop in Leesburg, there was the conversation with an Indian (with a dot, not a feather) gentleman about why I'd shaved my head. The irony of this conversation: his head was wrapped in a scarf and mine was not. And then there was the conversation this weekend with the gentleman who listed for me everyone he'd ever known who'd died from cancer. Including his dog. An Irish Setter, in case you were wondering.

So here's the deal. A cancer diagnosis comes with far more than anyone could ever possibly be prepared for. Sure, there are the tests, the treatments, the good, and the crap days. But sometimes you're also the simultaneous spokesperson and sounding board for anyone who's ever known anyone who's been diagnosed. Fellow blogger puts it best here in her post Bald Like Me.

I love hearing and reading other stories of surviving and thriving. And have no problem with sharing my story. All of the akward questions: ask away! (If I don't know the answer, I'll make up something really convincing.) And your high school best friend's mom's cousin just hit her five year in the clear mark? Awesome! Would I like to email her sometime? Heck yea, bring it on! But the story about your dog's cancerous spine tumor the size of a grapefruit? Perhaps we could hold off on that story. Just for now.

UPDATE (17 July '12): Ann of But doctor...I hate pink! adds some great points on the subject here in Things People Say to Breast Cancer Patients

UPDATE x 2 (20 July '12): Last night I had a really pleasant encounter with a fellow cancer ass-kicker (that sounds so much more fun than warrior or survivor, doesn't it?) at Target. She finished Taxotere and Carboplatin in May, will continue Herceptin until December, and had a lumpectomy in June. And she looked freaking amazing! The funny thing... we were both in the hair accessories aisle.

Wow, so that got way of track. Didn't it? Back to the festivities!

Fourth of July proper was right in our very own backyard. And by backyard, I mean Lake Montclair.

It started with a valient soccer ball rescue.

Then we set up camp on the 15th hole. Did I mention we have a lake and a golf course. And three beaches. But who's counting?

We share our spot on the 15th hole with a lively group of Mormons who come out each year for the fireworks. In exchange, they share their popsicles. Neither of which are pictured here.



Rob (also not a Mormon) is ready for some fireworks.

And look! There they are!

There they are, again!



And again! A 4 minute walk to watch 20 minutes of fireworks? This is where our property owners fee pays for itself.


So what's on tap for this week? A check up with the surgical oncologist this Wednesday. It's been two months since last we met, so it's time to check in and see how well treatment is going. And then Chemo #3 on Thursday. And you know what that means? Half way there! After Thursday, I'll be three down and three to go.

Have a great week!

My dance card is filling up

Usually chemo isn't much to look forward to. It's actually kind of a long, boring day. But I've had such good company  for the first two, that it really hasn't been all that bad. And the next three are shaping up to be no exception as I get to spend #3 with Andi, #4 with Michelle, and #5 with Alyssa. Thanks for being my chemo dates!

And thank you to everyone else for all of your very kind, very thoughtful offers of support! True to my social worker nature, I've found so many awesome resources that make receiving treatment just that much easier.

Want to get involved? Click HERE!

Take them a meal

 Long gone are the days of the covered dish (the suburban response to any birth, death, illness, or other life event), but when you're experiencing a life event - good or bad - sometimes cooking dinner is last thing you want to think about. This site is a great and simple way for friends and loved ones to rally and help out. 

So for everyone who has said Let me know if you need anything or Let us know if there's anything we can do, here's your chance. 

Click HERE for my meal calendar 

Or go to www.takethemameal.com, enter my last name (WARRICK) and password (1222).