Chemo Today

This morning I went in to get my labs drawn and went to Stanford mall while I waited for the results (crazy idea). My white count was finally back to normal so I was able to get my dose of chemo today. What I found kind of interesting is that my hemoglobin has been normal (it even went up a little) without having Procrit for about a month. One less shot a week is always nice!

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas. Chris and I went over to his aunt's house for Christmas eve and enjoyed some delicious potato soup and treats. It was nice to hang out and play with her two kitties. Yesterday we went over to Chris' mom's house. We also had a delicious dinner, which consisted of steak, creamed spinach, glazed carrots, potatoes, and topped off with homemade peppermint ice cream...yum! No turkey so far this year so I'm VERY happy!

I'll be back at work tomorrow and through the rest of the week. I'm supposed to work Friday 12/30, but depending on my workload during the week I may take the day off. No plans for us for New Years, except for a Shark's game.

No word on the house yet. The court date was this past Thursday, but because of the holidays we probably won't hear anything until tomorrow. We figure that no news is good news.

Chemo Delayed

Today I went in to see my oncologist and to get treatment. Unfortunately, it turns out that my white count was too low to get chemo. Because my white count was borderline last time, it most likely is taking a little longer than usual to recuperate. That also explains why I was having the mouth pain that I didn't have previously with this chemo. I'm actually very lucky that with such a low white count I haven't gotten sick since everyone at work seems to be sick nowadays. For now, I'll return to Stanford on Monday for labs and to see if I can chemo that day, if not I may have to wait until next Wednesday. I will also now be getting 7 days of Neupogen shots instead of 5 days in order to try and prevent my white count from getting too low in the future.

No update on the house as of yet. Tomorrow is the court date where the judge will either approve or decline our offer. We're keeping our fingers crossed that everything turns out in our favor and we will be in escrow very soon.

Both Chris and I have this Friday and next Monday off, however we don't have any major plans for the holidays. I wish you all a wonderful Christmas!!

Mouth Pain and Fatigue

The last week has been really difficult. I've been fortunate in the past to not have many side effects with this chemo, however this time has been a little different. Friday I started having a lot of mouth pain. Anytime I ate/drank something it hurt A LOT (especially chocolate, which as you all know I can't live without). It reminded me of when I've had mucusitis from transplant (not as severe) and GVHD. Fortunately the pain seems to have subsided today. Another thing I've been battling is extreme fatigue. My red count has been normal and I'm not tapering on my prednisone dosage anymore so I'm not quite sure why this is happening. It could be just the fact that I've been working more than I intended to and the weekends aren't enough for my body to recover.

This past Friday Chris and I went to see Memoirs of a Geisha at the Metreon in SF. I didn't have high hopes for the movie since the book is one of my favorites and I know the movie is never anywhere near as good as the book. I thought the movie was okay, probably wouldn't care to see it again. Saturday night my dad made a Mexican feast as an early xmas and new years celebration since he will be out of town until January. Sunday we spent the day at home moving things around and cleaning up. This week is a busy one, I have a cookie exchange at work on Thursday and our department holiday party on Saturday evening. It always amazes me how busy and stressful the holiday season can be...

Back On Schedule

It looks as though I'm back on schedule with my chemo treatments. Yesterday after work I went in for my lab draws and this afternoon I left work early for my oncologist appointment and chemo. Aside from my white count and potassium being on the low side, everything else seemed normal. My shingles have fully healed, although I still have a lot of itching and some pain in the areas of the lesions. So as usual, I will have next week off and then I'll be back for chemo on the Dec 21st. I will also see the infectious disease specialist that day to follow up on my fungal infection. No fevers in about two weeks though :)

I'm still continuing to work as much as possible. Last week I was able to put in 40 hours and so far this week I'm heading in that direction also. I was going to work from home tomorrow, but if I'm feeling okay in the morning I think I will go in instead. Speaking of jobs, if any of you know any companies that are hiring HR people please let me know. Unfortunately, with the Oracle acquisition that is taking place I most likely won't have a job in the near future and desperately need to find something. Now that Chris and I are in the process of purchasing my dad's house I can't afford to not have a steady income. I'm working on updating my resume and will probably start distributing it and posting on job sites by the end of the week.

As far as the home buying process...it appears that we have secured a reasonable loan. We found a good mortgage broker that was able to take into consideration our good credit and not use the fact that we haven't paid rent in the past 24 months against us. We have some final paperwork to sign and then that should be taken care of. Tentatively there's a court date scheduled for Dec 22nd. That is when the judge will make the final decision on whether our offer will be accepted. If the offer is accepted at that point we will be in escrow. It looks as though escrow will close between Dec 31-Jan 2. We're hoping for earlier due to tax purposes.

That's all the news for this week...thank you so much to the TNT Run team for the poster board with all the pictures, thoughtful sayings, and the cute card!! Randy brought it over to me this weekend along with some Yahoo goodies...thanks Randy!!

Working and Home Buying

I've already started receiving some emails and phone calls in regards to me not updating my blog in a little while. Thank you for the thoughts! There actually hasn't been much going on, which is why I didn't update it.

This week I've been spending most of my time at work. This will be my first week of working 40 hours! It's definitely taking a toll on me, I'm so exhausted. I try to watch some TV after dinner and never seem to make it past 30 minutes without falling asleep. Chris and I haven't been able to carpool at all this week, so the long commute has also made it very difficult.

Some of you have been aware of our living situation for some time now. My dad had to file for bankruptcy in October and the court was going to reposses the house. We ended up renting a condo back in August just in case we had to move out without much notice. Chris and I considered purchasing the house since it has a lot of meaning to me and it's in a location that we've always wanted to live in. Unfortunately, everything seemed to go against us...the price, me not having an income, etc... It has been very stressful the past few months not knowing what was going to happen or where we were going to live. After I returned to work however, we started considering purchasing the home and looking to see if this was at all possible. About two weeks ago we made the decision to go ahead and purchase. Nothing is definite yet, the court still has to approve the sale and we still have to go through escrow, but we're keeping our fingers crossed that all goes well. Tonight we will be giving back the keys to the condo that we've been renting. Although this will be very stressful financially, I think we've been through enough difficult times in the last few years where I think we can handle it. There's also a lot of repairs and work that needs to be done on the house, but again we're willing to take on the challenge.

No doctor appointments for me this week. This seems so strange since I spent the last couple of weeks practically living at Stanford. Next Tuesday I'm scheduled to have my labs drawn and Wednesday I will see my oncologist and have chemo. I should also find out more detail about my last scan on that day.