He's back

Yea! Bob got back on Wednesday afternoon, and boy am I glad. We left Friday morning to go to a meeting I had and did not get home till Sunday. He has barely unpacked. I left this morning for Nashville and will be here till Wednesday. My hotel bed will be the 6th different one I've slept in since Jan 7. Life is back to normal thank heavens. Actually it is a little more hectic than normal right now and will slow down after this. I will probably just be gone 2 or 3 nights a month after this week.

I actually got my hair "cut" last week. They really just cleaned me up a bit -- trimmed around my ears and shaved the back of my neck a bit. My hair is still barely 1/2 long but it is coming back. I did wear my wig at the St. Simon's meeting, but left if at home for Nashville. It is just to distracting and when I have a hot flash I want to rip it off.

I finished another book over the weekend -- The Kite Runner and am just about through with The Memory Keeper's Daughter. I bought Love In the Time of Coholea tonight just in case I finshed my other book and needed something to read in the hotel. I am so excited to be "hooked" reading again.

I do have one doctors appointment this week on Friday. I have to see a retina specialist because I went to the optometrist for my contact lens check they thought they saw something that needed more examination -- maybe caused from chemo. I am not sure what to expect from this. Frankly, I put the appointment off for a few months because dealing with my lung situation was a lot more critical. Now I have a slew of appointments to do all the routing maintenance I did not do last year (lack OBGYN, mammogram, dermatologist). Now even the routine doc appointments get me a little anxious just cause you never know. But I know I cannot live my life in fear.

When I get back on Wednesday I am going to work on starting to cut back on my sleeping pills and try to get off them. I am sure it will take me a while since I am a lousy sleeper anyway.
But it is time to get a bit drug free. And since I start physical therapy next week and will be able to start exercising some maybe I will wear myself out enough to get some decent sleep. I know I will sleep a lot better now that Bob is back!

On a roll!

I had an MRI on my leg on Friday and all is well, thank heavens. Doc O has started to call me "Nine Lives" because of the results of my lung surgery. He asked if I had bought a lottery ticket that day, because I was so lucky. I think I've already hit the "jackpot" in so many ways that I do not need the ticket. Now he is going to order my chest CT's instead of Dr. Saba so I do not go back until mid April. He told me soon Dr. Saba (my chemo doctor) is not going to be treating sarcoma patients anymore so he (Doc O) would order all my scans etc. Hopefully I will never meet the new sarcoma oncologist! I am going to start physical therapy soon so maybe I can be on a tennis court in a few months.

I made it through my meetings in Boston okay. They were long days, and I did have trouble sitting up in the hard chairs (even healthy folks did) all day. I was pretty tired at the end of the day and did not participate in many of the nighttime festivities because I wanted to be rested for the next day. The meeting was a good one, and I am so glad I went. I arrived just ahead of snow in Boston and got back on Thursday just after all the snow was gone in Atlanta. I am lucky. By the way, I was one of 14 people who do my job who won our national sales trip. Bob and I will get to go to the Ritz Carleton in Amelia Island in March or so. Not bad for someone who was laid up in bed for most of the year. I am a lot of great support all the way around!

Cindy and Syd came on Friday, and along with Mitzi we had a girl's night dinner out and they all stayed at my house. We all got a little anxious about the weather because of all the snow we were getting so they headed home earlier than expected on Saturday. I went to Susan and Karl's for dinner and came home and watched the Australian Open till the wee hours of the morning. I have not been sleeping that well the last few days (except for the night Syd, Cindy and Mitzi were here) but I am sure I will get over that when Bob comes home on Wednesday. I cannot wait. He is really enjoying being in England with family and will be home on Wednesday. We leave Friday for a weekend meeting at St. Simon's Island that will be fun. The Monday (a week from tomorrow) I leave for another meeting in Nashville for a couple of days. Things will get back to normal after that.

I am so happy and relieved that my MRI came back ok. I was pretty anxious about that but it all turned out great. I am counting my blessings for sure. I will be back with you in a few days!

Keeping busy

I am overwhelmed by the emails I have gotten from so many of you and shocked that so many are still checking up on me and reading the blog. You cannot imagine how lucky I feel to have so many loving and supportive friends and family.

I am managing okay this week without Bob. Friends and neighbors have been keeping me busy. I have hardly had dinner alone at home this week, and I am so appreciative for the company. I have been to bed early and still waking up really early and all hours of the night. I am not sure how much is jet lag or just missing Bob not being here. I still get tired really easily, but I just rest -- not even nap -- for an hour or so I usually bounce back for a bit.

I leave for Boston at noon tomorrow. I am a bit anxious about being able to sit in a meeting in a straight chair for a couple of days but I am going to try my best. They are really good about taking breaks every hour so that should help. The big decision now is whether to wear the wig or not. Its not that it hurts but I do start having hot flashes and I just want to rip it off. And sometime it is just annoying. People I have been around this week keep telling me I can get away without it, but I just don't know. If only my hair were a half an inch longer! Anyway, I have a knit hat I can wear that is pretty comfortable and defintely have to wear that some of the time. Often my head just gets really cold so I need it. I will take the wig with me and just have to figure it out when I get there. I will certainly not be wearing it on the plane.

I will probably not have time to blog again until after my MRI on Friday. I see the doctor (Doc O) right after so I ususally get the results then and there. I will report back then.

Have a good week!

Back in the USA

I made it to England and back safe and sound. The only problem was the vacation went by too fast! The actual travel portion was much easier than I anticipated. Delta and their wheelchair service made it very easy for me to get though security, customs etc and get to the gate. We were traveling Business Class so my seat was fairly comfortable -- for an airplane anyway. Since our flight left at 7:30pm they fed us shortly after we took off. By the end of the meal, I read my book for a while and then got a little sleep. We had 100 mph tail winds and arrived early, so it was a quick 7.5 hour flight. Unfortunately, the return trip was 9.5 hours and a very long day!

It was so great to see Bob's family and friends. We were entertained royally (ok - no Queen Elizabeth or Prince Charles, but royal enough), and I am just so glad we got to go. I have to admit, there was a time period, before we knew the great results of my lung surgery, that I was not sure when I would ever be well enough to go over there and see everyone, so this trip was especially important to both of us. Bob is still there and is not coming home for a couple of weeks. We could not the get schedule such that we could see his kids while I was there as they live 250 miles or so from his mother, so he will see them next week for a few days as he travels back to London for the return trip home. However, his daughter Becky surprised us with a visit on New Year's Day and was able to spend a few days with us. That was a great treat, and I really appreciate her coming. She and Anna (Bob's niece) may even come over and visit us this summer for a couple of weeks.

We mainly just visited and ate. We were always getting fed! I took it pretty easy and was not very active. The time change and jet lag really gets to me and this time is seemed just as I was adjusting, it was time to come home. They all took great care of me and would hardly let me lift a finger. My pain has gotten a lot better (depending on how I am sitting) but I still get tired easily. I do pretty well on a sofa or soft chair, but can't sit on a straight chair (kitchen, dining type chair) very long. I had my share of tea (and I do not mean "sweet tea) and my afternoon sherry. Nanny, Bob's Mom, has this incredible fireplace that is very cozy and puts out a lot of heat. Late in the evening, I would shower and put my robe on ,and we'd all sit around the fire and sip either a glass of sherry or Bailey's Irish Creme and talk or watch telly (that is "English" for TV). It was a great way to end the day. I'll bet Bob and Nanny are doing that right now as I write you.

It is always hard for me to leave there and this trip was especially hard. It just seemed to take so long for us to be able to go there, that it was hard to leave so soon. And it was really hard for me to leave Bob. I got so dependent on him for everything this year, and I was almost scared to leave. I know I have told you many times I am not a very weepy girl -- of course that has changed a lot this year. Tuesday night when I was eating in the hotel by myself (so I could get an early flight home on Wednesday) I just burst into tears waiting for my food. I was facing a window, so no one could really see me which was a good thing! I felt like such a baby. Also, Tuesday was the first day I'd ever seen my leg wound. Bob has been taking care of it, but I had to learn how to do it. Since it is in the back of my upper thigh, I have to back up to a mirror to bandage it. It was really pretty shocking for me to see it, knowing what all I had been through and that was hard. So it was an emotional day all the way around. But I made it though and after a very long day, got home last night about 6:30pm. I was asleep by 9pm (since my body thought it was about 2am) and wide awake this morning at 4am. I worked at home today and will go into the office tomorrow early and then make a couple of agency visits. I am hoping I will still be messed up enough to go to bed early and get up and get to the office about 7am. My body will adjust by Sunday or so, just in time to go to Boston for a meeting for a few days.

I am back at work full force and have a crazy schedule for the next couple of weeks. Before the end of the month I have 3 out of town meetings -- Boston, St. Simon's Island, and Nashville. I am a little nervous about my fatigue but I will just do what I can do. The Boston meeting starts Monday at 5pm. I am going up Sunday, so it won't be so hectic and I can rest before it gets started Monday night. It ends Wednesday at 4pm but I am going to stay an extra night and come home Thursday morning. I am just really afraid about the long days, and my company is great to let me go up early and stay late so I don't wear myself out.

My sister Cindy is coming the day I get back, and she will go with me to have the MRI on my leg on the 18th. I am a bit nervous about the scan even though I feel certain it will be good news. I did not want to schedule it while Bob was away but with my crazy travel schedule this month, I had no other choice. I am so glad Cindy will go with me. Syd will come over on Friday and they will keep me company for the weekend.

I mentioned earlier that I read on the plane. You have no idea what a bit deal that is. In the last year while I was sick, I only read one book. I did not even listen to one on tape or CD either. And I am an avid reader. The chemo or just my state of mind would not let me focus long enough to even think about reading, but now I just do anything I can to find time to read. I read The Other Boelyn Girl most of the trip and picked up another by the same author at the airport on the way home. I read most of the 9.5 hours home and am about 3/4ths finished. So tonight I will read a little and crash early, I hope.

The last time I even thought about ending the blog, they found the spots on my lungs. So I am not going to think about ending it yet. At some point, you will get tired of reading and I will get too busy (I hope) to write and it will just fade away. Or not. I don't really know if anyone is reading it now, but it is good therapy for me, so I will just continue on for awhile.

I hope you all had as wonderful a new year as we did. Thank you all for helping me get through 2007. 2008 is going to be great!