The Last Week.

Working at the Cottage.

Last Weekend, Kyle and I went to the cottage Friday and returned on Monday. While there we took our summer chrome 20" wheels off the truck and put our all seasons. Kyle gave me the cordless drill to make the job easier and he lifted the wheels on to the truck for me (I didn't do it all myself) this time.

Anyway, while seating the nuts on the third wheel, is was complaining to Kyle about the drill reaching tight, and the torque spinning the drill. He told me to put my hand on the battery to stop it. I ques I misunderstood him and tried stopping it with my forehead. I now have a lovely bump and bruise. It was not as bad as I could have been, because I got ice on it pretty quick and kept in on most of the night. Yesterday, Mandy wanted to know why I had black bruises along the bridges of my nose. Seems the bruises drained to those spots,and all my scrubbing didn't do any good.

Blood Numbers

Yesterday I went for blood work and to see the oncologist.

here are my updated numbers

LKC (white) Nov 13 - 4.8 Oct. 23 -5.7 October 2-6.0 Sept 11-5.5
ERC (red) Nov 13 - 3.92 Oct. 23-4.44 October 2-4.51 Sept 11-4.60
HB (hemoglobin) Nov 13 - 110 Oct. 23-123 October 2-123 Sept 11-128
PLT (platelets) Nov 13 -326 Oct. 23-320 October 2-259 Sept 11-272
Neut# Nov 13 -.73 Oct. 23-3.9 October 2-4.4 Sept 11-3.6

We saw Dr. Zalewski but with my 1:20 pm appointment, we were not called in until after 2:30 and Kelly told us they were still seeing the mornings appointments. We did not get out of there until after 3:00pm. While there the doctor told me that the next appointment would be a long one, so I figured may 4 or 5 hours. My appointment was for 9:45 am and we went in on time. We walked out of there at 4:45 pm (7 hours).

Anyway, I got my first infusion of Herceptin today. It will continue for about 1 year (every three weeks).

I also received my first of 4 infusions of Taxil (paclitaxel). This is one of the reasons we were there so long. The infusion took over 3 hours. This is because of the possibility of side effects, They infuse it very, very slowly. And then they monitor your vitals (blood pressure and temperature) every 15 minutes.

Blood pressure is taken using that torture device that squeezes your arm to while in an inch of your life, such fun, and then to add insult to injury, the machine would not operate properly on battery, and kept having to repeat the test each time.

~inez