Impending start

Well we are down the point were I can start counting hours, not days until the start of Chemo on Monday morning. It has been a whirlwind of the last few days, so let me try and get you caught up.

Still sporting the Mr. Clean look, and getting lots of compliments! Thursday was good, only took Ibuprofen (have to switch to Tylenol this weekend, as Ibuprofen can lower your platlet count) for the pain from the Medi-port insertion and managed to have a pretty functional day at work. This was the one day this week that I didn't have any appointments, procedures or anything, so was an oddball day. Top that off with no evening activities and it was different, yet a much needed calm before the storm. Thursday evening, we had a great steak and potato dinner courtesy of the Bednarek's, have to make sure we the recipe for that peppercorn sauce it was fabulous! Thursday night was another night of fitful sleep, that's two nights in a row that I have slept like crap, think it's due to the medi-port.

Friday was up and getting things done for work before heading down to Fairfax Hospital for the Pulmonary Function test. Because one of the drugs that I will receive (Bleomycin) has a very known side effect of diminishing lung fuction, they wanted a baseline of pulmonary capabilities. It was a funky test, and reminded me of trying to teach students diving, as there is always a percentage who want to breath through their nose! LOL So this was all through mouth breathing, and the test went well. I will repeat this at the end of treatment to determine how the Bleomycin has affect my lungs (possibly another data point during treatment as well, will see how things go). Meet some friends at Sweetwater for a couple beers that afternoon and then came home. Marnie had been out with her girl friend for a drink too and we arrived home to a friend who just stopped by to say HI.. how cool was that?! Marnie was off to a Girl Scout PJ party with the girls and our neighbor came over to see my new look and ended up staying for a while. Diana and I just sat around talking and drinking for a while that evening and had a fabulous time.

For some reason Ashley was having bad dreams and ended up in bed with us Friday night, woke a couple hours later around midnight and got her into her own bed, but was awake. So not wanting to wake Marnie up, I went down to the trusty ole recliner and watched TV for a little bit, turned it off and got the best night sleep I've had in a couple days. Should have probably been sleeping in the recliner the last couple nights since they put the medi-port in!! Not only does it keep me from rolling over on my shoulder, but keeps my chest slightly elevated and that seems just right. Will be sacking out in the recliner again in just a bit! LOL

So after a great nights sleep was feeling my oats and with the weather cooperating, we decided to take advantage of the warm spring day and rode the motorcycles out to have breakfast this morning. Felt the vibrations in my shoulder, and am sore now from it, but dang it was great to be back on the bike! We split up after breakfast, as Marn & Ashley went to do cookie booth sales for Ashley's Girl Scout troop, Shannon and I went to try and get a new visor for her helmet (no luck!) but then enjoyed a longer ride home. Then it was over to Herndon High for softball skills for Shannon (thanks Courtney for taking her!) and I came along a bit later for a brief coaches meeting, ended up staying and working with some of the pitchers.

We headed home collected Marnie & Ashley and then headed down to Alli's Birthday Party in Manassas. Ok so was a bit sore from riding and working with the girls pitching, but got into the SUV, was moving the seat belt and it slipped from my hand coming smack across my shoulder full force! Let's just say that I won't repeat the words that poured from my lips! Quickly hit the bottle of ibuprofen and by the time we got to Alli's they were starting to kick in. Poor Greg forgot about my shoulder and gave me a good thump as a welcome that had me grabbing the counter for support! The ever ingenous ladies made up a name tag for me that said, "Don't hug me here!" or something like that, if you look closely in the pictures on FB, you can see it! LOL We had a good time hanging out, some great food, friends, drinks and then back home to get every one to bed. Got most of the clocks reset just a few moments ago (did you adjust your clocks? spring forward one hour!) and now I think it's time to succumb to the bliss of sleep!

Thank you all for the continuing thoughts and prayers, not looking forward to Monday, but will be good to finally get started. The meals, the visits, the thoughts, the calls, the notes, everything that you are all doing, it is just so great to have so much support from so many different people, across all aspects of our lives. We are truly blessed and thank you for everything!