Today we saw Dr. Kane in a follow-up to CAKE visit and to check my “numbers” in my blood (who knew there were digits in my blood!?). She wanted to know all about how I felt after treatment, how the medications were working, etc. After the CAKE, I was sent home with three different medications for nausea and I couldn’t quite figure out why so many and which ones I should take first before resorting to the next one. I was able to ask her about it today and she showed me which ones to take first, second and third. Apparently they all work differently, though they all did help curb my nausea. Also, the past week I’ve only been really nauseous when I’m hungry and usually by then I don’t realize I’m hungry till it’s too late, my stomach’s all wonky and the last thing I want to do is eat anything! She said my stomach’s probably more acidic than usual, due to the CAKE and other medications I’m taking. I normally take 40mg of Nexium for my GERD so she suggested I double that by taking it twice, instead of once, a day. Finally, the docs made two incision sites in order to place my port a couple weeks ago. One of them is smaller than the other and has had some sort of thing sticking out of it for a while now. It looks and feels like a scab but when I tried to remove it, it pulled hard on the skin and wouldn’t let go. So I slapped a band-aid on it and left it alone until I got to Kane today. I asked her about it and she says it looks like one of the sutures used to close the incision is just poking up and out right there. It shouldn’t be a problem but if it gets red or otherwise looking worse, I should go back and have Interventional Radiology take a look at and possibly repair it. Not a big issue though. She said I could just keep a band-aid on it to protect it from my clothing in the meantime. Since it’s up on my neck and visible to the world, I got some cute little Hello Kitty band-aids for it. Might as well be fashionable, eh?!

Now for the good news: As we were shaking hands and saying our goodbyes, Dr. Kane told me I look great. She said, “You look even better than you did before you started treatment! That must mean it’s working!” HORRAY!

Now for the even better news: She told me that I’ll be getting a total of “two cycles” of CAKE. A single “cycle” includes two treatments of CAKE. Therefore, I’ll be getting four treatments. She said the after effects of CAKE get better every time I get it so as long as I tolerate the next two well, we can complete it with a fourth treatment. Then we’ll do a CAT scan to see how much the tumor has shrunk. (Do you see how I didn’t even use the word “if” right there!?) If I do my math right -I’m a preschool teacher so I’m not really required to know much math past the number 10- we’ll do that CAT scan somewhere around early to mid-February. Won’t that be a great birthday present for me!

Now for the most bestest news: We did a routine blood count this afternoon, too, to check on those aforementioned numbers. I’m supposed to get my teeth cleaned at my periodontist’s office on Wednesday and they said as long as my “numbers” are high enough, they can go ahead with the cleaning. So Dr. Kane rushed the results and left me a message with the numbers before we even made it home from her office. She said, “Your blood counts look excellent!” Here they are, in case you were curious (and for my own records to compare to next time):

Normal White blood cell (WBC, leukocyte) count in nonpregnant women: 4,500–11,000/mcL3 Mine is: 7,300!

Normal Hematocrit (HCT) in women: 37%–47% Mine is 43.1%!

Normal Platelet (thrombocyte) count in children and adults: 150,000–400,000 platelets per mm3 Mine is 308,000!

CBC information provided by WebMD

I think that means I got an A! Woo hoo! That’s the best news I’ve had in months!

Now we’re headed to Lindsay’s for a New Years Party to celebrate! Happy 2008 everyone!

Like many others this holiday season, I had a very busy weekend! I really didn’t start feeling human again with very few aches, pains, and other major leftover CAKE symptoms until Sunday. Fortunately, that’s when the parties started.

Sunday night we visited with 20 friends and family for Honey’s birthday at the Rio. It felt wonderful to visit with so many people I cherish in my life for a while. Some of our oldest “internet friends” stopped by as they were in town all the way from Kansas for the holidays! I got to hold the fresh baby! YAY! I drank soda (instead of margaritas), ate fajitas (instead of green chili burritos), and went home early (instead of staying until all hours of the night). But I had a great time and Honey had a fabulous birthday!

On Monday, I cleaned out my purple room and rearranged some of the furniture. I think I overdid it but when it was all done, I got to take a nap in my room! Horray! That was Christmas Eve so in the evening we (me, Honey and dad) went to the in-laws’ for our traditional shrimp dinner. Afterwards, dad slept over at our house and we did our gift exchange and visited a while.

Christmas morning we packed up and trekked through the snowstorm back to the in-laws’ for traditional Christmas morning gift-opening and breakfast. BIG NEWS! My sister-in-law Lindsay got ENGAGED Christmas eve to the wonderful guy she’s been dating for three years! SO EXCITING! The ring is gorgeous and she is a glowing, giddy bride-to-be now! I’m stoked to “Play Wedding Planning” with her!

Other BIG NEWS! Honey and I are going to China in August!!! Some of you may remember how we went to Vancouver last summer to go salmon fishing with a big chunk of Honey’s family (uncle, aunt and cousins). Well, they do a big family trip like that every summer and we get to go on the next one to China!!!! The whole trip is planned out with a tour guide, hotel stays, etc. We don’t have to do a thing but show up and have fun! I am eccstatic and overwhelmed with the blessings of my family.

By noon yesterday, my body was fed up with all the partying and started hurting, despite the pain meds. So we headed home to play with our new toys from Christmas and I spent the rest of the day on the couch. But as I lay on the couch yesterday, listening to Honey outside snowblowing the foot of snow a second time, I suddenly felt a strong sense of pure peace and joy - for the first time in several months. Since Honey and I got married, I’ve regularly felt blessed, content and sheer happiness in our life together, our individual goals and achievements and plans for the future. But things have felt so broken, black and painful since September (getting sick, the miscarriage and unexpectedly losing my mother), I haven’t felt that sense of deep rooted joy for a long time. Until last night. I feel grateful for my health (the healthy part of it, anyway!), my wonderful family (my immediate as well as my in-laws), my brave, strong and handsome husband, my silly and adorable dogs and cats, my warm (though messy) and cozy home, my opportunities for the future and my feeling that my mother is still with me in my heart every day. I am truly blessed.

Today will be spent RESTING some more. I still need to recover my strength from the busy weekend.

I hope everyone had a fantastic holiday weekend and shared good times with family and friends alike!

Click on the image above to see our Christmas card to you!

Click on the link below to hear one of my favorite singers perform a beautiful Christmas song!

Sarah McLachlan performs John Lennon’s Happy Christmas

Sorry. That Christmas Surprise I mentioned yesterday will have to be postponed, as the website from where it is coming has been down all day. go figure. Try again tomorrow.

I’ve felt like crap all day today. Just awful. Got horrible sleep last night with yucky dreams - the kind of sleep where it’s more exhausting to actually sleep than it is to stay awake. Yuck. But I got out a bit today, finally. Dad took me to lunch with Honey at the Waffle House and then to Target for some last minute gift necessities. I think I made up for my lack of people contact for the past two days in 10 minutes at the mad house that is Target today! Yikes!

See ya tomorrow!