Monday, June 23, 2008

So Far, a Good Day

The side effects haven't kicked in yet for today. Got my lab results this morning. My white blood count stayed at 2.0. I thought it would have dropped since my fatigue level was pretty high on Friday. (Spent a couple of hours at the park Thursday afternoon, and it literally wore me out.)

My temp this morning was 97.9 and my blood pressure was 108/46. The machine might be slightly out of wack. Who knows. It is now after 7 pm, and my fatigue is starting to inch up, along with a headache starting to form. Other than that, I am doing pretty good. The swelling in my right leg is going down, but will probably increase this weekend, since I will be in TX. Hopefully, it won't be as bad as the last time

This evening, I played both Phase 10 and Rummy 500 at the same time. Each game, I played with a different person.

I leave this Wednesday morning for TX. I am looking forward to it. Yesterday, I got to hear one of my favorite preachers and this coming Sunday, I get to hear my other favorite preacher preach. I think that is cool.

Tomorrow, I will go see my brother at school and pack for TX.

I recieved a phone call this afternoon, from a school in North Carolina. I now have a phone interview this Thursday morning at 9am CST/10am EST, while I am in TX. Will see what comes from the interview.

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

New Size

My clothes have been getting big on me. There has been room in my capris, shorts, jeans, etc. I went to Fashion Bug this morning, and tried on some clothes. I have officially dropped a whole size. Yeah!!! When I loose about another fifty pounds, then I will be able to drop another size.

I can tell I have lost weight, and then other times, it doesn't seem like I have lost weight. I am just going to keep doing what I have been doing, and trying to increase my level of activity.

Monday, June 16, 2008

June Onc Visit

Today, was my monthly visit in seeing my onc. I get weighed every time I see him. In the past month, I had lost another 6 pounds. That puts me at a total of 42 pounds since last summer. I would like to have lost a total of 50 pounds by the time school starts at the end of August. That gives me two months to loose 8 more pounds.

My white blood count went from 2.3 to 2.0 I go up and down all the time. A lot of things are low, but still okay. My temperature is finally normal. This morning it was 98.5 degrees.

Wednesday, July 9, I am schedules for my next CT Scan. The appointment time is for 11:20 am. I am having it done at the hospital, since I want them to use my port for the IV. I will see my onc again the following week, on the 16th. That is when I will get the results of the scans. I am praying that I am still NED. Time to go play Boggle.

Saturday, June 14, 2008

Almost 3 Hour Rain Delay

I organized a small group to go to the Indians game last night. The Padres are in town for the weekend. The Padres are my second favorite team. Why would they be my second favorite team, because they have Brian Giles and Jody Gerut, two of my favorite players. (I also like Omar Vizquel and Grady Seizemore.) There were eight of us who went to the game. Rain was being predicted.

Padres didn't score in the top half of the first inning. Bottom of the first, Grady comes up for his first at-bat. Grady hits a home run, his 15th of the season. The score is now 1-0. Two outs later, Ryan Garko is up to bat, and it starts to rain. The tarp comes out, and the it pours like crazy. There was thunder and lightning. I eventually get into one of the hallways, where it was dry. The rain did slow down to a drizzle, but picked back up again. There were 8 in our group, and six of them left sometime around 9 pm. One other person and myself stayed. The game finally resumed at 10 pm, 2 hours and 43 minutes after the game was stopped for rain. My friend and I stayed for two more innings and another hour. Before we left, we saw Kelly Shoppach hit a 2 run home run, and the score was then 3-9. This was Kelly's second home run in two nights. Because of Victor going on the DL, Kelly is now the everyday catcher. I like Kelly and think he is a pretty good player.

I understand why they were reluctant to call the game due to rain. Between last night and the end of the month is Interleague play. That means, this is the only time they will play these different teams all summer. That makes it very difficult to make up any rain called games. If they couldn't do a double-header then they just wouldn't be able to make it up. It would've been different it they were an American League team they play 2-3 different series throughout the season.

We left about 11 pm and got back to my house about 11:45 pm. I was really tired. My fatigue level was up pretty high. I went upstairs to my room about midnight after talking to my mom for a few minutes. I end up watching the rest of the game and did not go to bed til about 1:15 am. Grady hit another home run, his third 2 HR game this season. We won, with the final score being 9-5.

There are no pics to post, because I didn't take any. I am going to another game next month. That is 3 Indians games in one season. I have been to two games in a season before, but not in three in a season.

Monday, June 09, 2008

Low Grade Fever

Since Wednesday of last week, I have had a temp ranging between 99.0-99.6. That varies throughout the day. Don't know why I've gone so long with a low grade fever. Having a fever is a side effect of the Interferon. A fever is also a sign of an infection. My blood pressure was 99/72 on Friday, but it was back up to where it normally is, this morning.

I was told by the nurse to keep take my temp throughout the weekend. If I had a fever and the chills to my call my onc. She was a bit worried that I might have a port infection. That wouldn't be good. If that happened, my port would be taken out. I do not have a port infection. I did take my temp a couple of times Friday night, took it Saturday, and took the thermometer to church yesterday. Yes, I did. I took my temp during the sermon and twice in Sunday School. I didn't take it again the rest of the day.

Last week, my white blood count went up from 2.0 to 2.2. Blood was drawn on Friday, and my white blood count went up again, this time to 2.3. I wasn't expecting it to go up, but to go down instead.

Monday, June 02, 2008

Catch-22

In yesterday's post, I talked about my right leg swelling up and my knee hurting. The swelling is due to the heat and rise in temperature. I called my surgeon this morning, to see what can I do besides wearing my stocking and keeping my leg elevated. Basically nothing, besides making sure I am drinking enough fluids.

I am supposed to keep it elevated. I can do that when I am at home, but I am not at home all day every day. I worked today, can't really sit with my leg elevated. I need to be going for walks for excercise in helping me to loose weight. I might work this summer. See how I am in a catch-22? Plus, I am going to TX for a few days at the end of the month. I am not looking forward to see how the TX heat plays havoc with the lymphodema. I am looking forward to my trip to TX.

My white blood count is up from 2.0 to 2.2. Even though it is low, it is still in the normal range. Will see what happens this summer.

Sunday, June 01, 2008

Swelling and Pain

The temps have been warming up. I woke up in the middle of the night with some pain in my right leg. I wasn't sure what it was and where it was, so I decided to spend the rest of the night with my leg elevated, while sleeping. My leg is elevated a good deal of the night anyway. I woke up this morning, and I couldn't believe how swollen my leg was my the knee up. I did this massage exercise, and elevated my leg with two pillows under my thigh while doing my devotions. I took two pillows to church, so I could sit with my leg elevated. Some point, there was some pain in my knee area. I even wore my stocking today, and I usually don't wear it on the weekend. This is the first time since last year's surgeries, I have had a problem like this. I will talk to the nurses tomorrow and might see if I can get into see my surgeon on Wednesday morning. I have part it to the Lord. Please pray.