We're back and alls well

We got back from England on Thursday night. My two weeks there flew by, and while I am always happy to come home, the trip was just too short. We had a great time with Bob's Mom, kids, sister & brother-in-law, nieces, nephews, aunts,uncles cousins and close friends. We spent a lot of time visiting, and it was great to catch up with folks. Even though we were just there at the end of the year, that whole trip was sort of a blur for me. You probably remember, I was just a few weeks out of lung surgery, so I did not have much energy then. And while I am still not running marathons, I am so much better than I was 6 months ago. I was really able to enjoy this trip, and since all the test and scans I had just prior were good, that made it even better.

When I blogged a few weeks ago I had been kind of down because of the Sarcoma Support group I went to and all the patients that were there because they'd had reoccurances. Before I left, I went to see Dr. Saba, my chemo oncologist, just for a follow-up. We had the best talk I think we'd ever had. In the past, our discussions were pretty much just him relaying tests results, treatment plans, pretty detailed clinical stuff. This time we had a chance to talk about how I was feeling emotionally and my concern about reoccurance and the support group. He was very encouraging and positive about how my treament had gone and prognosis. While he can't promise me anything, he made me have a lot less fear about the whole thing. I thought this was really strange and had never thought about things this way- he said, "You really had a tough time with the chemo and that probably means the cancer did too." He seemed to think that meant the chemo really attacked the cancer. Also, as I keep reminding myself, the tumor was "more than 99% " dead when they removed it. Something killed it (either chemo, radiation or both) before it left my body. I guess that means the chances that a live cell escaped and is still out there are not as great. So I am going with this and keeping a positive attitude. Doc Saba also told me to not go to the support group if it was getting me down. I want to go to one more of the meetings and see how it goes. My whole intent was to be able to do something for others, and I am not ready to give up on that yet. So I will go the August meeting and go from there. By the way, July 16 was my surgery anniversary! So it has been a whole year since that nasty tumor has been out of my body. My last chemo day was Sept 20, so I have until Sept 20, 2008, to continue to blame any stupid thing I do (and there are a lot!) on "chemo brain". They say that lasts about a year. After that, the stupid stuff is just me!

Bob and I both still have a little jet lag. We are crashing early and waking up a bit early. Actually, I hope we stay in this mode a bit. We both have some "night owl" tendancies, especially Bob. He usually has a later start to his day, and it is really hard for me to get going when he is not up and moving. Funny though - when we got back from England I told him I was going to really enforce the "last person out of the bed makes it up"rule, and he has gotten up before me every day since we've been back. I think we really both get up because we are hungry. If we sleep till 7am our body thinks its lunchtime, and we are usually starving at breakfast. Each day seems to get a little better, so I think we will be back on schedule by Monday. I am traveling most of this week,so I need to get back into my regular routine.

I will try to keep blogging every couple of weeks. No scans till Sept 17. I go back probably next week to followup on my bloodpressure problem but I think things are going ok with that. Thanks for checking up on me!

A little update

When last I wrote,, I was in a bit of a funk over seeing so many people with sarcoma reoccurance. I am working to get past that although it is always in the back of my mind. I've been concerned because I a few times each day my energy just bottoms out. I think the hard thing is that I don't know what I should assume is because of getting over all the chemo and what I went through last year, or when something is really wrong. I decided to quit guessing and went to see my family doctor last week. All blood levels were good, but my blood pressure is high. I had that problem before cancer, but after chemo and losing a lot of weight, the problem went away and I got off medication. I did get back on BP medicine a couple of days ago and hopefully my energy level will improve. I am still taking some light pain medication. There is supposed to be no connection between this medication and my energy level, but I know when I take it regularly my energy level stays high. Anyway, I am going to cut back on it and get myself off. Most of my pain is related to bursitus (sp) and a little tendonitus, so I thought. When I tried to cut back on the pain medicine I found, there is still a bit of pain associated with all my scar tissue in my leg and still my rib cage from the lung surgery 6 months ago. While I will probably never be pain free (who is?) it should continue to get better. I see Dr. Saba, my chemo doctor next week just for a little check up. Since my scans were good two weeks ago and my bloodwork fine, I am not sure what it is he is really going to do or look at. But I am not anxious about the visit since there should be no suprises. I am just two weeks shy of the day they removed the tumor from my leg. So, since they got it all and no reoccurances so far, I guess I can say I have been "cancer free" for a year! Every day is a blessing.

Bob left for England yesterday, and I will join him there next week. I took him to the airport and drove on to Warner Robins last night so I would be there for my morning appointment. I had dinner with my agents which was nice, but when I got back to my hotel I was so lonely! You know, I am in hotels by myself all the time. Usually I am okay for a couple of nights. After about the third night I am very homesick, but last night was really unusual. I guess I knew Bob was flying, and I could not even call him if I wanted too and no one was at home. I got busy with some work to get my mind off it, but I was really glad when Bob called at 7:15 am this morning to let me know he had gotten to his Mom's okay. He had been traveling about 16 hours from the time we left home, so I know he was tired.

I have a lot of things planned and work to keep my busy during this next week. My friend Jill from Knoxville is coming tonight till tomorrow, and I am going to visit Syd and her family for the 4th of July. The bad news is that I have not been able to see much of Wimbledon this year because I am so busy (and I saw every minute of it last year) but the good news is that I am well enough to be busy and not at home watching TV! That is what DVR's are for!

I will try to update after the Saba appointment and before I leave for England. Have a great 4th of July! I know my will beat last year's hands down!