If it's not one thing, it's another.

So I'm feeling better, and things are looking up on my end, so of course I'm hoping for a break in the craziness. But no, the baby had to create all sorts of craziness all on her own. On Monday she woke up with two unexplained black eyes. After deciding to scare us by throwing up, we were told by the pediatrician to go to the ER. Now, first off, my blood counts are low and I'm not supposed to go to the grocery store, let alone the ER. But we all went, waited for an hour, waited again, and then were told that she's fine and maybe she has allergies. (She's cutting her two front top teeth by the way, and is not sleeping too well.) So the next day, she was still cranky and still had those black eyes, so I made an afternoon appointment with the Pedi. Mike took her in, as I still am not supposed to be exposing myself to anything (let alone an office full of sick kids during school vacation week). Mike called me about 45 minutes later and told me that they were transferring her by ambulance to Children's Hospital in Boston. What? I thought she had allergies! So, now I've called my parents to come drive me to Boston, where I found a pretty happy baby (considering) and not a whole lot of answers. We ended up there until midnight just to find out she has a minor virus or something, and is teething. I'm pretty sure we didn't need an ER to tell us that, but at least they did real tests. So for the rest of the week, I've had a sleepy, sore, cranky baby with no appetite, who is now refusing to drink milk or eat anything green. So much for working to change her over to milk this week. So now I'm exhausted, and just hoping that she feels better by Monday. I'm going to need to get out of the house next week, and she just hasn't really been letting me. At least she's healthy, and she seems to be doing better each day. Now if those teeth would just come through we'd be all set!

Better News Than Originally Thought

In better news, my PET scan was actually negative! I found this out from the research nurse on Thursday morning after my doctor's appointment. This is very good. Now all I have to do is stay away from infections. According to my nurses at the oncology lab, my white blood counts are very low. I'm at an extremely high risk of infection. So, I will be sending my mother to the grocery store, and staying home crafting a lot. Hopefully the weather will continue to get warmer so we can spend more time out side. And I can't wait for quarry season. I missed doing much swimming last summer with the baby being so small, so I'm determined to get lots of water time in this year. Well, here's to healing and here's to warm weather! 

Positive thinking leads to Positive outcomes

More good news today from the doctor. My scans show good improvement. My cells are "completely responsive" to the treatment, and the doctor is very happy with how things look. It has been recommended that I stay on my current treatment regimen, the ABVD every other week, and I'm very happy about that. I feel like we have gotten into a nice routine, and it would be frustrating to have to relearn a new weekly routine. I still have some swelling in my neck, but it is to be expected because of how much swelling was there in the beginning. 
In other news, I have gotten my Etsy shop going. I have only a few things posted so far, but I'm posting every day, so there will be more listings coming. Also, I'm working on some new bags that I think are going to be amazing. Here's the link to the store: http://www.etsy.com/shop/Ugllove 

Slow going

I have definitely been more fatigued this round than before. I am constantly needing to nap and rest. But, my support system has been great, and have given me all the time I need to rest up. This past Saturday I had a PET scan for my re-staging. Because of the radioactive injection they give me, they recommend not coming in contact with young children for 10 hours after the test. So, because my daughter would want to hang on me if she saw me, she stayed at Grammy/Grampa camp for the day, and then stayed over night, too. It was a really nice break, and a chance for my husband and I to have a true date night for the first time since the baby was born. (10 months is a long wait!) I feel like being able to sleep in on Sunday really recharged me for the day and reset my system a bit. I felt so good, we all went for a walk up to the park in the nice sunny weather. This morning I had a CT scan and had to drink the terrible liquid before hand. I made the mistake of drinking it on an empty stomach rather than getting up at 5:30 to eat something (you can't eat three hours prior to the scan and my scan was at 9 am). It was a big mistake. It totally upset my stomach. It was all I could do to get it down. Then when I went to eat something at home, instead of making me feel better, it made me completely nauseous. My mom stayed a bit longer with the baby and I went to take a nap. (My mom also reminded me that I have a cabinet full of anti-nausea medicine that I can take - score one for straight thinking mom!) The nap helped, and when I got up I ate a nice lunch and felt much better. After a visit from my best friend and a walk around the yard (another nice day out), I even managed to go to ballet class. I'm convinced the exercise helps break the nausea cycle. I'm so glad that the weather is finally starting to be good enough for daily walking. Tomorrow I have a pulmonary test, and then Wednesday I get my results from my re-staging tests. I'm keeping my fingers crossed to stay on the ABVD and not have to go to BEACCOP (I think I have a letter wrong in that one, forgive me). We'll find out on Wednesday. 

Treatment #4 - Nap Time

So on treatment day, yesterday, I was already tired, but all the meds (mostly the Benadryl and Ativan) just knocked me out. I didn't even do any knitting on my poor grandmother's christmas legwarmer that she's still waiting for. I was super sleepy today as well. I had a hard time getting out of bed, and then I took a two hour nap this afternoon. Thank goodness for family being able to help with the baby, or else she probably would have been getting into trouble when I fell asleep on the couch. But the most annoying thing right now is that there is a stitch sticking out of the scar from my port implant and it won't come out! I had the nurse look at it yesterday and she said she wouldn't pull it out. It catches on clothes and it's just frustrating. Now I have to sit and wait for it to work it's way out on its own. I had a similar problem after my biopsy. That piece took over a month to come out on its own. Arg. Just another glitch in the road. But I guess if my only big annoyance is that I have a bothersome scar issue, I think I'm doing pretty well. 
Next week I have a bunch of testing to re-stage me and determine what my treatment will be continuing on. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for good news.