Erika's Treatment Update -- Week 39

Hi everyone!

Hope you all had a good weekend. We were up at Tahoe for the weekend and just got back tonight. Here's a quick summary of our weekend and how I've doing since my last visit to Stanford...

• Chris and I drove up on Saturday morning and arrived in Tahoe in the afternoon (it was beautiful weather up there). We were exhausted from the day before and driving so we simply took a nap, made dinner, and played some board games with my sister, dad, and aunt. Sunday we woke up early and went to Diamond Peak for what we thought would be a full day of skiing. After going up on the lift I noticed it was very hard for me to breathe (due to the elevation and my red blood count being low) so we had to take many breaks going down the runs. After lunch I was way too exhausted and out of breath to continue (and the snow was very slushy) so we decided to call it a day. I think that's the first time I haven't been able to ski a complete day which was pretty upsetting. I think until my red blood count is back to normal it's better for me to stay away from high elevation areas. Also when we got back to the timeshare I noticed that my ski boot had put too much pressure on my calf where my biopsy was and it opened up the wound enough to bleed and cause pain, which meant that we wouldn't be able to ski the next day as intially planned. We still managed to make the best of the rest of the day though and took Pebbles down to the lake shore where she played with a whole bunch of dogs ten times her size and swam in the lake for about a minute. The lake was freezing cold as you can imagine so she shivered the whole ride back to the condo. Monday morning we slept in, had lunch, and took off for home. We had to drop my sister off at Sonoma State first so it was quite a lengthy drive. Overall we had a great weekend and it was nice to relax and get out of the Bay Area for a few days.
• As far as my mysterious rash is concerned, it has gotten much better and the spots look more like bruises that are in the process of healing. The dermatologist that I saw at Stanford last week didn't feel comfortable having me wait two weeks to come back for a follow-up so most likely I'll see her early this week instead. Besides the low energy level and shortness of breath that I experienced in Tahoe I have been feeling generally good. I've had no fevers for almost two weeks now (knock-on-wood) and no side effects with the last round of chemo. I even went into the LLS office last Thursday to volunteer for two hours and are going back in this Wednesday to help out again.

Thank you to all for the birthday wishes via email, cards, and e-cards!! It was a great day, one of the best birthday's I've had!