A Stressful Day

Today was a pretty stressful day for me. Although I was pretty preoccupied at work, there still wasn't an hour that went by where I didn't constantly think about the results of my CT scan. I left work at 3pm for my appointment and first met with my nurse practioner. I was so happy to see her since it had been before Xmas since I last saw her. We chatted for about 30 minutes about her trip to Mexico and about me getting married. She didn't even know I had had a CT scan yesterday so she didn't have the results, but promised to go check them out before coming back in with my doctor.

My doctor walked in a few minutes later and asked whether I had any news about my company and the merger. Too funny, all I could think of was the results and here she is asking me about whether my job was safe. I told her I wouldn't know until next week, but promised to tell her next time. She then proceeded to tell me that my scan looked good, no changes. I of course was happy to hear that, especially with the concerning fevers I've been having the past two weeks. She is also very happy with the results and the fact that this treatment has been keeping my disease stable for so long. She is a little puzzled about the fevers however, so I'm supposed to go back to see the infectious disease specialists to rule out any possible infection going on. I also got a little scolding when they found out that I was no longer taking Bactrim (an antibiotic used to prevent a type of pneumonia). My BMT doctor had taken me off of it a while back, but I guess he never communicated this to them and they weren't too happy about it. Being on prednisone can make you more susceptible to pneumonia, so patients are always required to take it while on any steroid.

I'll be back in two weeks as usual for another round of treatment, but I won't have to see my doctor again for a month. Since my scan looked good and my counts were excellent they figure I can see them once a month for now.

I felt well enough to go to tap class tonight. I'm pretty sure I was running a slight fever towards the beginning of the class, but after taking some Tylenol and once we got moving around I forgot all about it. I'm so happy to be able to get back to doing something I really enjoy again!

Back To Tapping!

This past Wednesday I went back to my tap class! Our instructor used to teach at AMT (American Musical Theater) in San Jose, but now he has moved to DanCyn in Los Gatos. There will be about 4-5 of us attending regularly, which is great because we're all tight knit group and we're all around the same skill level. It's amazing to think that some of us have been tapping around 20 years!! I'm so happy to have this opportunity again, it's a great stress reliever from the long work hours and a distraction from my treatments.

Work continues to be busy. One of our team members left for a better opportunity this past Friday and I will be taking over her tasks. Right now I'm very overwhelmed with everything, but hopefully things will be a little more steady soon. The latest news on the merger is that the close date will probably be the end of the month. I will most likely know if I still have a job the first week of February. Meanwhile, I'm continuing to interview with some companies.

This Tuesday is my CT scan, so it's a big day for me. I always get very anxious the days before and after the scan. Fortunately, I will get the results on Wednesday so I don't have to be in the unknown for too long. I've been having fevers pretty much everyday so I'm a little concerned. Today we went out to dinner with a friend and I felt miserable through the dinner because I had a high fever. I get really sad when I get a fever, because it's a reminder that my disease is still with me, even though most of the time I live a pretty regular life. Things have been going so well the past few months (although very stressful), that I always fear some bad news coming. Fortunately, I have many distractions that keep me from thinking of this all the time.

Our friend Dave, who was our witness at our wedding, made a video of our ceremony with his new camera. I haven't figured out yet how to put it on here so you all can see it, but it will be coming soon!!

Work, Chemo, and Fevers

This week has been crazy at work. We're working on a project that has kept us very occupied. On Monday I managed to work about 12 hours and Tuesday 14 hours!! I'm amazed that my body was able to handle that many hours. Yesterday was a chemo day, so I did get to leave a little earlier. I think from now until the merger with Oracle is official I will be working a lot.

Yesterday I went in for my lab draws in the morning (6:30am) since I was at work until 9pm the night before. In the afternoon I met with my oncologist and then had chemo. I had a routine chest x-ray done...the results were "unchanged." Because you can't tell too much from an x-ray, my doctor wants me to have another CT done before I see her in two weeks. I'll have a CT of my chest, abdomen, and pelvis. This way they can evaluate the fungal infection in my lungs and also the mass that was in my liver.

I had been having some low grade fevers the past few days and then yesterday after chemo I spiked a high fever. The entire night I had a high grade fever and so I had to work from home today. I just hope to feel better for the weekend.

Our House

This year has been off to a crazy start. Last weekend it was getting married and today we are official home owners! The judge finally approved/signed the necessary documents and we submitted our down payment this morning. There is no escrow because of the bankruptcy situation so the house is now officially ours. Last night a notary person came over to go over all the paperwork and it took about 20 minutes to sign all the documents!! I think the stack of papers was about half of my weight! I couldn't be happier that we were able to keep the house, it has so much meaning to me. We have a lot of evenings and weekends of fix up work coming up!

Oh another thing...yesterday we had our HR holiday party with a gift exchange. Most people ended up with gift cards to Target or Starbucks, which was nice, however I got the best gift of all...a 5lb box of See's Candies!!!!! Yummy!!!

A New Year

Happy New Year to everyone! I hope 2006 brings you all good health and happiness. Although 2005 was a difficult year for me in terms of treatments and set-backs (GVHD, shingles, fungal infection), I'm so grateful to my doctor's and the support of my friends and family who are the reason I'm here today. I'm looking forward to continuing my treatment this year and hopefully eventually getting my donor lymphocyte infusion.

As most years, Chris and I had nothing planned for New Year's. Friday morning that all changed a little bit. I went to coffee with some of my TNT friends (we get together every once in a while to catch up) and as always, we talked about everything that has been going on in our lives. We somehow ended up talking about when Chris and I were going to get married. They thought it would be a good idea to jump in the car right then and there and go to Vegas. Funny.

Well, three hours later, Chris, Pebbles, and I were on the road on our way to Vegas. It took about 9 hours to get down there. We checked into the Golden Nugget at around 1am and were extremely exhausted. New Year's Eve we went to the Strip and visited most of the hotels and shopping malls. We were still pretty exhausted from the day before so we went back to the hotel for a little rest and to get my Neupogen shot. Yes, Chris finally was able to give me my shot! After that we headed back to the Strip to meet up with our friend Dave and his friends. We chatted, played a little Keno, drank a little, and then went outside for the countdown. I had a watered down Long Island Iced Tea, which was more than enough for me (things were already spinning and I was seeing double). New Year's Day we woke up early, had breakfast, and headed off to "A Little White Chapel" (where Michael Jordan and Britney Spears got married). After a very brief and cheesy ceremony, we were finally married! Our friend Dave was kind enough to be our witness and photographer. A few minutes later we were back in the car for our 11 hour drive home (traffic and weather were terrible). We stopped by Harris Ranch for a delicious dinner and got home around 11pm. Although this was never how I inteded my wedding to be, I'm more than happy that we finally went through with it. Just one more thing to make 2006
special!