Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Had an appointment with my nurse practitioner at Huntsman (the doctor is out of town) this morning, followed by my Avastin infusion.  Everything looks fine with my lab work and blood pressure.  I was a little worried at first when the nurse practitioner came into the room because she had such a concerned look on her face, but the first comment out of her mouth was her asking how a family member of mine is doing who has been diagnosed with cancer.  I thought that that was very touching!  She said that she has been thinking about this person a lot (I mentioned it to her the last time I saw her in December).   I got to the infusion room about 30 minutes early and when they called me back it took quite a while for the lab to send the Avastin down - almost an hour of waiting in the infusion room before it came.  At one point the nurse called the lab to find out what was going on!  Then the machine that I was hooked up to kept beeping saying that there was a problem with my tubing but they couldn't see anything wrong.  I think it beeped about 4 times on me.

We had a snowstorm come through yesterday and more of it today.  DH was able to stay home with the girls and work from home today so that my mom didn't have to make the drive over to our house. I also decided to take Trax in today so that I wouldn't have to deal with driving in the snow.  Unfortunately I left the house a few minutes later than I wanted to (and I had to go back for my cell phone), so I just barely missed the 7:15 train and had to wait around another 15 minutes in the snow for the next train.  Luckily I gave myself plenty of time this morning though and I still made it to Huntsman a half hour before I needed to be there.  It was pretty crowded on the train with the morning commuters and students taking the train this morning.

On the way home the valets at Huntsman drove me down to the Trax station and then it was a relatively quick ride to my stop.  As soon as I got off the train, DH called and asked where I was.  I told him that I had just gotten off of the train and was on my way home.  The snow was pretty deep in a couple of places and it took me a little longer than normal to make my way through some of it.  Then I turned into our neighborhood and had a hard time navigating around the snow piles.  I couldn't make it to the church parking lot that we usually cut through so I went around the other side of the church than I usually do and apparently I just missed DH and the girls.  I showed up at home and no one was there.  I called DH's cell phone and he said that they had gone out to meet me and apparently we just missed each other by going around opposite sides of the church building!  By the time I met up with them finally the girls were freezing!  Kay had refused to put on her boots and was just in her jacket and neither of them had gloves or hats on.  It took me a while to get them all dry and warmed up when we got back home!

Monday, January 21, 2013

Had my hair cut again today.  The top is gradually getting longer so I'm almost to the point where I will need to decide if I will keep it this length or let it grow out.  It is definitely easier to fix this hair style in the mornings.  The top is long enough now that I have tried curling it a few times with a straightener and curling iron.  It gives it a little more body up on top which I like.  I haven't quite mastered the technique yet but it should get easier the more I do it.

I have had many people come up to me, especially at church, commenting on how they like my hair this length.  I have told some people that I would have never dared to cut my hair this length before my cancer, but I am really liking it now.

Wednesday, January 9, 2013

Sorry it's been a while since I've posted!!  Things have been busy and I guess that is a good thing!  It means that my life is getting busy and back to normal and some days I just don't have time to sit down at the computer and update things!  (I also seem to like putting exclamation points on everything lately!)  I kept meaning to post on my one year anniversary of my surgery and then my one year anniversary of coming home from my surgery (Christmas Day), but I just couldn't find the time to do it.  It is pretty surreal to think about where I was a year ago.  In some ways it seems like a bad dream still.  Sometimes I sit and think, "Did I really go through all of that?"  - even though I definitely have the scars to prove it.  And days like today when I am receiving my next infusion of Avastin.  Another 7 a.m. appointment, but hopefully that gives me enough time to make it back home in time to take the kids to their swim lessons.  Yes, they are off-track again and I was crazy enough to sign them up for swim lessons again!  Even though the outside temperatures haven't been above freezing for the last couple of weeks!  I think it's good to keep them involved in something while they are off-track though so we don't sit around the house all day with them telling me how bored they are.  I also have Luke and Kitty in a soccer clinic that will be Tuesdays and Thursdays and started yesterday.  Swim lessons are Monday, Wednesday and Friday.  

I've been noticing that I have had more and more energy lately.  Our dishwasher broke just after Thanksgiving and we just barely ordered a new one last Saturday so we have been hand washing since then and I have actually had the energy to do it!  I have also been doing some deep cleaning that hasn't been done in a LONG time.  Now if I could just get myself to go to bed at a decent hour, I'd be all set!  (I rarely go to bed before 11 p.m. and I have to get up around 5:50 a.m. to make sure that M&M is up for school - and usually she is not...  Although I do usually go back to sleep for a little bit until the kids get me up or I need to drive Blondie to orchestra class at 8 a.m.)  I even had a crazy couple of nights where I was super in to some family history research I was doing and stayed up until around 2 a.m.  

My hair seems to be getting thicker.  I think I need to get in for a haircut again.  I finally pulled my brush out from hiding and used it for the first time last week.  Up until now I have just been using my fingers to style my hair in the mornings!  I have had numerous people come up to me and tell me that they really like this hairstyle on me.  I am enjoying it too - it is definitely easy to fix in the mornings.    I've also had several people ask me about my highlights - they are natural.  I haven't done anything to my hair color, but it looks like I have some blonde or frosted highlights in my hair (although some of it is starting to turn silver/gray too).