For those starting chemo in June

Mary, be careful out there. I bought a card for my laptop at Best Buy in order for the wireless system to activate. So far, it has not worked anywhere. I use AOL when traveling. It will be rough for Tim the Tool Man driving a truck with a bad shoulder. You may have to take the wheel. Trucker Mary, come in. 10-4.

Nancy, thoughts and prayers are with you. All WILL go well.

Mary, have you left yet?

Looks like PJ, Renee, and I will have to keep the home fires going. We will leave the light on for you.

Nancy, we're praying it goes just great. keeping you in my thoughts.

Mary, have a good and safe trip.

Me, well, my cabinets are in and beautiful. My cooktop, well, that's a whole nother story and not a pretty one. Friday's either gonna be a great day because most of the kitchen is done or I'm gonna be one cranky person.

Janie, how about we just bask in the heat for, say, another couple months?

Hey to Renee, too.

Hasta,
Paula

Bumping this up not to get lost in the shuffle while the girls are gone.

Hope everyone is doing fine and/or having a good time.

I got them and downloaded them but cannot open them. There was something about looking at MIME to find out how to open them. It clicked on it and got several items. I read a couple and still don't know. I chose several options on my computer and none worked except some than printed out the pictures in text.

Yippee, Janie! I think it's great that you can "forget" about a checkup. My hair came in pretty quickly this time at first, but it's really slowed down.

I'll try and resend those pictures. Are you on a PC? Maybe I have to do something different to send to a PC.

Or, maybe I'll just wait til the whole thing is done (we're talking a few weeks at least).... Be more dramatic. We're still tussling sort of over a few design decisions. But my husband is being very good about it. Even tho everyone hates one of his ideas. He's bending to the will of the masses....

I was back to work today after being off 6 days. What a draag. I could really get used to being a stay-at-homer if only the money were right.

Later,

Paula

Hey PJ,

From what I understood, Nancy was going to have her surgery and recoup in Billings. I don't know how long she was going to be there. Mary was going to be on the road with hubby until one left or killed the other....she approximated a few hours to a few weeks. I am doing fine, back in the full swing of things. I see the neuro guy in September and have my breasts tuned up in October.

Renee, jump in any time.

Hooray Mary is back!!!!!!

We missed you too lady. Oh, so near and yet so far! I am only about 60 miles from Atlanta. Do you know which side of Atlanta you were on? If going to Macon, probably my side. At first I thought you meant Madison, GA, a small town 30 minutes from here. Then I thought no Janie, they would not travel that far to take something from Madison, GA to Macon, DUH! There is one thing worse than being in that big rig in the mountains....being in front of it going downhill! When I used to go home, it was awful traveling at night over the narrow, winding, steep roads. They opened up the interstate over those mountains from Asheville to TN, and now it is smooth sailing. I have craved bacon lately too, except with toast and eggs over light. I also have wanted cornbread in the worse way. I made a pone one night and ate most of it. That is why I am dieting today. Now, if Nancy Lee would check in....safe and sound. Later ladies,

Janie, We took a load from Chicago(del monte) to Monroe to the Walmart distribution center. The closest good size truck stop to stay at was near Madison as the load from Chi. couldn't be dropped off until the next afternoon. Just wanted to clear that all up. Mary

Mary!!!!!!! I work in Monroe! Been to that Walmart several times. I also work in Loganville about 10 miles on down 78. You probably saw the signs to Athens. I wish you had my numbers! What days were you there again?

PJ, yes it is good to be doing "normal" stuff again.

Hi--I'm back home--it hurts too much to hold my arm up to type and I'm pretty lousy at typing with one hand. I'll give a few details when I heal up a little more. Thanks for the concern. I'm fine. Life is Good--Smiles--NancyLee

Welcome home Nancy,

Hope you heal quickly.

Mary, I cannot believe you were just under my nose and I did not know it.

Paula, how's the project going?

OK----Surgery went well--Same surgeon as last time. He's great--It looks like it's going to end up looking just like the other side--Yay!! I have no complaints in that area. I requested the same anesthesiologist that I had last time because he tried so hard to make it so that I wasn't pukey after surgery and I thought he might be able to be successful this time. Well, I actually got the same Dr. and he came in before surgery and told me that he was going to put this little patch on me like they use to stop smoking only instead of putting nicotine in--it puts measured doses of anti-puke stuff. OK--I've had lots of surgeries and I always end up ralphing all over the recovery room and for hours after in my own room--THIS TIME--I woke up not one ounce queasy--and I didn't get sick one tiny bit. I even was able to eat real food a few hours after I'd gotten back to my room. It was amazing. I had to wear that patch for 3 days after my surgery. It was behind my ear and the size of a dime. Now my biggest question is if this worked so well for me--did they have this technology when I was taking chemo and had to take all those decadron capsules and zofran by the handful?? Why couldn't we have used these little patches for like the day before and two days after chemo and not have had to take all those stupid pills? It makes a person wonder. So the next morning after surgery, I awoke covered in blood. My JP drain was malfunctioning. So the nurse changed the bulb on the end and that turned out not to be the problem. It wouldn't keep suction and would just fill with air and the hole where the tubing came out would gleek blood all over me. So the doctor said that we'd just have to pull the drain out and I'd have to just have these bandages over the hole and let it drain that way!!! This has been a NOT fun 2 weeks. They let me out of the hospital the next afternoon on the condition that I stay in Billings that night. The nurse put a gauze pad over the hole and an ABD bandage over that and tegaderm to cover the whole mess to keep germs out. She gave me a bunch of bandages and tegaderm (which I told her I was pretty sensitive to)and sprung me. That night we had to go to the walk-in clinic because it had bled so much that I had to change the bandages a gazillion times and I ran out of tegaderm. They sent us to the ER because they don't stock "that kind of stuff". At the ER my nurse from earlier in the day came down from the surgical floor and brought some supplies. She told me that if it kept needing to be changed so many times to come back in the morning. Well, that night I was up a lot and by morning my skin was just raw from pulling all those tegaderms off. We went back to the ER on Saturday morning and the doctors there decided that my skin was breaking down to such a degree that it was going to send bacteria into the wound and I'd be in big trouble. My WBC is very low again to top things off so I have to be careful of infection. So they gave me bunch of this netting that they put on burn victims. It's like a net tube top and I put the gauze over the wound, the ABD pad over the gauze and pull the netting up over all of it and I don't have to have anything stuck to my skin. It really works out nice. It's not as sterile as the tegaderm covering, but I'm really careful about using gloves and antibacterial wash before I touch any of the stuff. Finally, today for the first time it has slowed down to where I've only had to change it 5 times all day. I went to work at the daycare this afternoon. It was nice to see all my kids again. I went back to Billings a week ago today and my surgeon said that I was healing up nicely--he told me that I could take the steristrips off my incision in another week--to not lift anything over 5 lbs for another 3 weeks and to not drive for another 2 weeks. So I soaked those stupid steristrips in the shower this morning and pealed them off. Now I've just got that glue to contend with. It feels much better. Those steristips pull on your skin. And I can't drive anyway because my jeep is still in the body shop up at Billings getting repaired from my accident. My friend, Cindy, came out and got me and took me to work today and then brought me back home after work. That's 40 extra miles for her. SIGH. I also saw my Oncologist when I was there last week and he told me that I'm still NED and don't have to see him for 6 months. That's February of 2007. SWEET. I worked a little bit getting my preschool room ready and it's shaping up. My brother is going to come down from Plentywood tomorrow and steal me for a few days. That will be nice. I can't wait to give my Mom a big hug. It's still the weirdest thing being the only one living in this great big farm house. Well, I'd better get some sleep. It's great to be back. Hope you all had a great middle of the week day. Life is Good Smiles NancyLee

P.J. Hubby is in Austin, I'll call and get him over to "fix" that frig for good. Glad you are doing good Nancy. Hey Janie and Rene. Hugs, Mary

P.J. you will need more than towels.... Hey, if you come to St. Louie let me know. I am only about an hour plus traffic away. Do you get the Southwest ding? Man some mornings airfare is $39.00 Mary