I've been busy! Busy with work, busy with kids and busy with going to medical appointments. So, let me catch you up.
Day 179 - More physical therapy. I had a physical therapy session with a different therapist, Tracy. She was very nice. She started me with warming up my arm on this pulley system where it stretches my arm up over my head. Then after that we moved to a private room. There I layed on the table and she started to massage the side of my body. Next Tracy moved to my arm. She stretched the cords starting from the arm pit - working down the arm. She followed the cord, which you could see in the crook of the elbow crease. That went on for several minutes. She would pull and twist, giving my cord a good stretch. Following the massage and stretching, I got to do the pulley again for a few more minutes and then I was done. The stretch felt good, but I didn't feel like it did any good. Tracy gave me a few more different stretches to do at home. She also told me how to stretch out the cord. That has been invaluable and is the main reason why my cording isn't has painful. On the way back to work I realized that my 4-Runner has an "oh shit" handle that is perfect for stretching while driving. So I've been stretching in the car too!
Day 180 - Testing & another fill. Today was my follow up PET and CT scan. That meant that I couldn't eat anything 6 hours before the PET scan. The scan was scheduled or 2p. So my last meal was at 8a. Anyone who knows me knows that I can become a monster when I am hungry. I left work at 12p for my first appointment. My first appointment was for my next tissue expander fill. When I got there, the waiting room was FULL. There was barely any chairs left. I sat down for not more than 60 seconds when my name was called. Donovan, Dr. Thaker's MA, called me back. He said that there must be some patients out there who must be upset that I got called back so quickly. I laughed. He told me that they were all waiting for the doctor and since I was only getting a fill with Jason, the PA, I didn't have to wait. Sweet! Score one for Holly. I do like Jason. He's so nice. Donovan was impressed with the fact that I remembered all the computer stuff he had to enter and ask. I answered all his questions before he even said anything... no medication change, pain scale, etc. Then he gave me a gown for me to change into. Jason came in and I asked him how he was doing. He just had surgery to get some stuff done for his achilles tendon. Jason had surgery in April and it wasn't healing correctly, so he got it taken care of. He even showed me a picture of it. Lots of stitches... ew! His wound looked worse than my wound from the mastectomy! In any case, we were going for 100cc's this time, but we stopped at 75. He thought that my skin wasn't responding well enough. He kept poking it to see if the color came back or if it stayed white. Then he moved over to the right boob. When I asked him why he was poking me, he told me that he was seeing how well the skin was responding. He had some concern, but when he poked me again, the skin was doing okay. Glad I stopped at 75... it was getting really really tight. When he was done, I asked him if I could schedule my next fill on Wednesday. He said that's not a problem. The general rule is to fill and then wait three days before the next fill. The reason: the skin stretches and then it needs some time to rest and recover... more like me. I need to recover! Ha! Nevertheless, the next two weeks I need a fill of 85cc's in order to get to my goal! Next week Jason won't be there, so who knows who I will have. Following my fill, it hurt to move. I felt so stretched.
Next on the list was my PET scan. That was scheduled up on the hill. For my tissue expander fill, that was at the Center for Health & Healing. I had to take the tram up. I got there shortly after 1p. I thought maybe if I got there early, I could get in early. Um, no. I read a magazine, some of my book, and even fell asleep. At 2:20p, I finally got called back. If you remember from one of my first posts, the PET scan takes about an hour of prep. First they have to get an IV in my arm. I told the guy that my right arm is awful for veins. So Matt, called IV therapy and then put warm packs on my arm to try and get a vein up and out. He couldn't. So good thing he called IV therapy. The lady came and got a line in me almost right away. In the meantime, they were getting me set up for the CT scan. I told them I couldn't have the IV contrast and that they had ordered the CT scan without contrast. They asked if I could take barium instead. I said sure as long as it wasn't the IV contrast. Then Amy came in! She was the one who did my first CT! I was so excited to see her. She is awesome. She told me that it's so nice to come into a room and see a smiling face. So she took my blood glucose reading and then administered my radioactive glucose. Then I got to wait for an hour. She said that she'd be back later on to give me the barium for the CT scan right after the PET scan. So I read a little more and then fell asleep. It was nice to rest. Then Amy came back in and gave me my wonderful barium drink I sipped it and read. Then finally I could sip no more. I was done otherwise I was going to puke. Then it was time to get my PET scan. It was so easy to just lie there. I was on the table for about 20 minutes. Then the CT scanner dude came in... I was so relaxed and when he talked to me he scared the living daylights out of me. It took a moment to compose myself. He apologized. After that, the scan was about one minute more. Then Amy came back in and she unhooked me... I had a wrap around my arms because I couldn't put my arms over my head. She said that she was in the room with the CT person and she heard me shriek when he came in. She said I was so relaxed. Amy also told me that I drank the right amount of the barium. She was worried that I didn't drink enough because I drank only half, but she said that my scan came out great and my body knew exactly how much it needed. Then it was time to go. I said bye and that I may see her again, as I have radiation scheduled in the upcoming month. She won't be taking care of me because she works in nuclear medicine.
After that it was a trip down the tram again. I was walking through CHH and I heard my name. It was Net, my first chemo nurse. She said that I was looking great and asked how I was doing. Nice to know all these people. It make going to these appointments like coming home in a strange strange way. Then I went and got in my car and spent more than an hour driving home in rush hour traffic.
Day 181 - More physical therapy. Today I had another PT appointment. This time it was with Shereh. She was sweet. I got there and warmed up. Shereh showed me another place to warm up my arm, the hand bike. Then it was time to get massaged and stretched. But before she did that, she measured me to see how far I could move my arm. The first measurement was lifting my arm straight up. At the beginning of the session, it was 120 degrees... an 40 degree increase from the first measurement at the beginning of the week. For the next measurement... lifting my arm up sideways, I measured 74 degrees, an increase from 60 degrees. By the end of the session, the first measurement moved to I believe 160 and the side one to 77 degrees. So the therapy is working.
Last night I couldn't sleep. My boobs were hurting. So around 1.30a I ended up downing three ibuprofen. It worked. My boobs feel great now. They aren't as sore now. Yee haw! I was thinking about it... for those women out there... here's what tissue expanders feel like... imagine yourself wearing a very uncomfortable bra with an underwire. Now imagine you never being able to take off that bra. That's what tissue expanders feel like - just an uncomfy bra.
On a different note, I sold over $100 at a garage sale! I am trying to get rid of all the baby stuff. So I am making some money to buy new toys! Hooray!
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