Groundhog Day Effects! :)

Remember the movie "Groundhog Day? You know Bill Murray kept reliving the day over and over and over again until he was a changed man I guess and appeared to have a heart and then the spell was broken. Wouldn't it be great sometimes to be able to relive some of our days, the good ones of course over again? If we could pick and choose a day which one would you pick?

I don't think I could really choose a particular day to relive, I've had some very wonderful days in my life and a ton of them before I found out I had breast cancer. Surely I could find one of those and choose it and relive it a few times before moving into the future and the now of treatments and the waiting game of cancer, but to tell you the truth, yesterday was a brilliant day!

My visit with Lisa was great, the weather was beautiful so we got out yesterday for a ride and a little hike down to "Collins Creek" in Heber Springs. Evie, Lisa's daughter and Sullivan, my friend Katie's daughter had tons of fun exploring and climbing around on those rocks and in that cold water. It's only a short hike down to the creek from the parking area and it's such a beautiful place. I would love to have a house right down there! It's quite a popular place it seems because every time I've been there's always people, especially with kids who love to take their shoes off and play in that cold water.

After our little hike and playing in the water we came back to Batesville and ate Chinese. Katie and her husband Shane met us at the Chinese restaurant to pick up Sullivan who had spent the nite with Evie. They had become fast friends and just couldn't be pulled apart on the nite before. My house was alive with the sounds of two precocious girls bouncing all around the house. Charlie, my dog, loved it but he was absolutely worn out as was I. At the end of the day I realized that I'm too old for children on a daily basis but, it was a lovely day and I wouldn't mind reliving that one again.

I changed my mind this afternoon and decided to drive down to Little Rock in the morning. It seems I've developed one of the side effects that I'd rather not talk about but let's just say I wouldn't want to be out on the highway too far from as the English say A LOO! Let's hope the Imodium AD works well by the time I have to leave in the morning. Can't wait to get this appointment over with tomorrow so I'll be back here after that and who knows it may be possible that I will actually know something more about that dang cyst problem! I'm not gonna hold my breath though!

TGIF---Yeah buddy!

It doesn't matter what you do for work if you have the weekend off, TGIF is a time for celebration! I'm celebrating because I've had a good week, felt good, no major aches or pains and still no nausea. I think that's something to write home about or in my case write in this blog!

I'm also excited because my dear friend from Memphis, Lisa and her daughter Evie will be here for the weekend. In fact they should be here within the hour. The last time I saw Lisa was three years ago so we have so much to catch up on. We met in church and we worked in the senior program there together, we had a lot of fun back in the day. Then she met an Englishman, married him and moved to the UK. I guess I must have really envied and missed her a lot because I followed right in her footsteps.

When I got married over there Lisa was my only friend there and it was wonderful to have her there. I used to ride the train up to visit her and it was a great adventure. She returned with her husband Simon, to Memphis though before I did but again it wasn't long before I returned back to the states as well. I moved back to Arkansas though instead of back to Memphis. That was 9 years ago and we've only seen each other a couple times since then. I just know this is going to be a wonderful weekend.

Sunday afternoon I'll be going to Little Rock to spend the nite with another friend, Debbie who I went to school with. I have an appoitment with Pamela Stone the OBGYN Onoclogist Surgeon on Monday morning at 9am and I need to be there by 8:30am. Since it's a little over an hour and half drive it makes sense to go the nite before. Again I find that our friends and family are the most important things in our lives and altough we could survive without them, it would be a very lonely and sad existance and I am so very thankful for all my family and friends.

So yipeee it's Friday, the weekend, let's celebrate! whoooohoooo!!!!!

Hump Day!

Hump day, mmm interesting saying isn't it? So today I'm feeling fine actually and that after the hump day, things will be even better. I have felt a just a little achy thing here and there and that's about it. Maybe that Neulasta shot is worth the money.
Can you believe that shot cost 3800 dollars wholesale? What the heck does it have in there, Debbie said to make sure that the needle had a gold tip when they gave it to me at that price!

I go tomorrow to the vampire to drain my blood for the cbc count. Of course we're so far out here in the sticks at Batesville that they have to send the blood to Little Rock or Jonesboro first. Now really I don't guess Batesville is in the sticks, it just seems so isolated sometimes from everywhere because it's in a hole. It's really a beautiful little town and I shouldn't complain, but hey I want to it makes me feel better so I will!

Now that I got that out of my system, I can go to bed and feel relief! I'm so glad I had this time to share my frustration with you all! I tried yelling at my husband but I forgot I don't have one, I guess that chemo brain has already set in... I need to put that down for further reference. I DON'T HAVE A HUSBAND TO YELL AT..........STOP BEFORE YOU GET LARYNGITIS!

The Green Wig

Ray a volunteer and a cancer survivor.

My friend Katie's mother Barbara is a cancer survivor and when she found out I had breast cancer she asked Katie if she thought I would wear the "green wig". Katie said, Sandra, OH YEAH.. and Katie as well as Barbara told me the story of the lucky green wig. Two other women besides Barbara have worn this wig to treatments and they are all now survivors so it's considered to be a 'lucky green wig'..... so even though I haven't lost my hair yet, I did promise Barbara that I would wear the wig to my treatments and I promised Michelle that I would wear the cap as well. I added a pink ribbon pin that my friend Karen gave me and today I added another ribbon pin that the "hippie" Joanie another friend from work gave me.

Ouch I don't like biopsies!

"Good morning Ms Lyons, I'm Dr. Jones" and I'm gonna hurt you"! Now if I had heard my doctor say that I would have run like hell out of that office but of course he didn't say that so I didn't run. In hind site, I should have! Because let me tell you, if you've never had the experience of having a cervical biopsy, you haven't lived! True it doesn't take too long and the excruciating pain only last for a few minutes but you're still laying there naked, feet in stirrups and it feels like your insides are being pulled out! Men just don't have a clue what we women have to go through, now I know they will argue that they have to have their prostate checked, so what! We have to have that back end part checked too and that's after the cold steel spreads and plucks away on our female parts. Phew! I'm glad that is over and let me get my clothes on and out of this office as fast as my feet will take me!

Having said all that what I found out is that I have to see another oncologist because doc Jones feels it's better for me since the cystic legion on my ovary is questionable and the only way to find out if it's a malignant type legion is by taking out the old ovaries. Of course that can't be done until I finish my chemo treatments but doc Jones says this other doctor can keep an eye on the area and be ready to go with surgery when I am finished with chemo.

Now I know EXACTLY the same thing that I knew before I went to the doctor this morning that the cystic legion could or could not be cancerous but because of my history of cancer, (this recent breast cancer is my history) the type of legion and the blood work that is in the gray area, the best course of action according to doc Jones is to see a oncologist surgeon who specializes in this area. I'll see him Monday morning and don't you know I just can't wait to heist my legs up in those stirrups again!!!!

I'm happy to report that I ate a whopper after my doctor visit this morning! It was sloppy and along with those fries and coke it was just what I ORDERED! Bet you thought I was gonna say what the doctor ordered.. hmmm no he ordered a painful biopsy, I'll take a whopper anyday! LOL Stay tuned more adventures on the way!

Monday Monday!

It was hard to drag myself out of bed this morning, but I did manage to get into work for a little while today although I felt very fuzzy headed and tired. So I came home early and slept all afternoon. I do feel better today, no bad aches or pains just feeling a little tired. All in all a pretty good Monday!

I'll be glad to get tomorrow over with don't ya know going to see that gynecologist. I was only kidding about the 20 pages I had to fill out but there was about 6 of them and a medication sheet. Seems like my life is an open book right now so I hope it's at least a little interesting and amusing.

Time to do something really useful and watch some TV. More another time!

THEM BONES THEM BONES THEM ACHY BONES!

Well it's day 3 after my first chemo treatment and what can I say? The nausea meds are wonderful because I have not been sick or nauseated at all and for that I am very thankful. I can tell you this though, every bone in my body aches, my teeth hurt, throat aches, headaches, ears ache and Tylenol and my heating pad are my best friends right now. These are some of the side effects that I've read could happen with chemo and also with the Neulasta. They do come and go at least from one part of the body to the other so everything doesn't hurt all at once, well so far it hasn't.

Mom went home this afternoon after all the snow melted. She was going to go home yesterday but it started snowing and so instead we went to the Southend Grill for lunch. We celebrated her birthday and mine since we haven't had a chance to do that. It was great to have her here with me for a few days. So now I guess it's time to try and get back to normal and think about going to work tomorrow.

Tuesday I have to see the gynecologist about the cysts on my ovaries and in the meantime fill out this 20 page medical history that I got in the mail from him. I'm glad they sent it to me to do at home I'd be in that office all day if I had to fill those papers out Tuesday. Okay I guess maybe I should do something productive like start on those papers...mmmm maybe I will after a nap!