New baby!

Quick update! I have a new nephew thanks to Michelle and Michael! Born 3 weeks early tonight - Grayson Thomas Rosemore 7lbs 14 oz. Mom and baby doing great. We get to meet him later this week when we go to Birmingham for Thanksgiving. Grayson was born on his sister Erin's 19th birthday today! Aunthood is a wonderful thing!

All is well

I just wanted to check in to tell you things continue to go well. I have not started getting anxious about my Dec 8 and 11 scans yet. I think keeping busy really helps. I feel pretty good. I actually put on a regular bra for a few hours twice this week. You may remember that both my lung surgery incision are right long the line where my bra hits. Since I had both lungs cut on, I have the scars to match on both sides. It was not too terribly uncomfortable wearing a real bra (underwire and all) although I am not up for 12 hours of it yet as the area is still tender. On my right side the surgery was two years abo - almost to the date- and it still can be uncomfortable too but I am making progress.
We had an incredible weekend driving topless (don't get too excited - just top down on the convertible) in our glorious Atlanta weather. We are busy trying to get things done before Thanksgiving vacation since Bob leaves for England just a couple of weeks later. He still busy renovating our bath and poweder room, and it is a very time for me at work trying to wrap up things before year end. Before my last trip to England, I had just learned I was going to have lung surgery again, so that overshadowed our vacation a bit. Hopefully, we won't have that news this time around.
If you have been reading this blog since the beginning, you may remember me mentioning Carol Lynn, another Sarcoma patient I met during chemo. She started chemo just after me and the nurses suggested I talk with her and give her some ideas of what to expect. We became friendly and stay in touch, and have even ridden to the Sarcoma support group together. Carol Lynn had another Sarcoma spot in her leg and had to have it removed recently. I just learned tonight she has an infection and will have to have several weeks of IV anti-biotics and a wound vac to keep her incision tight and heal from the inside out. I went through all this same stuff you probably remember - 4 weeks of IV's four times a day and about 3 months of that crazy wound vac. It is a long process and seems like it goes on forever. Please say a prayer for her! She has a great positive attitude and sense of humor and that will serve her well through all this. Mainly it is an inconvenience - for the patient and the caregivers - husbands in both our cases. I remember during that time I became so dependent on Bob. He was keeping me "plugged in" and managing my IV's and wound vac. Just getting up to go to the bathroom was an ordeal because I had to unplug the wound vac and IV and roll the IV cart with me. The IV flushes so much fluid through you that you are always havnig to go to the bathroom. Af ter it was over and I went out of town on my first business trip I cried till I got past the airport - about 40 miles. I was so dependent upon him that I was really scared to be alone. And this was the same woman who was single and lived by herself till she was 44 years old! Carol Lynn's husband seems like a great guy and was always by her side whenever I would see her at chemo (just like Bob) so she is as lucky as I am. It is just going to be a long 6 weeks for her.

And while we are giving out prayers, my friend Karen is having surgery on her heart valve on Tuesday. Karen was part of my "Department of Transportation' that transported me home from chemo. Please put Karen on your list too. There was hardly a week that went by during 2007 when I did not get something from Karen - a card, baked goods, email and like you, she still is out there checking the blog regularly.

We are off to be with family for Thanksgiving in Birmingham and Uncle Charles and Aunt Jan's and will stay with Michael and Michelle. Although it will be a couple of weeks early, I am really hoping their baby boy will arrive that weekend! I keep kidding them that a real Rosemore would not miss both the Alabama-Auburn game and the SEC championship with Bama playing, so I am betting he will arrive soon.

We have an awful lot to be thankful for this year, so once again, Thanksgiving will be important to us. We hope you have a great holiday and will get back with you after scan on Dec 8 (chest, pelvic and abdomin) and Mri on leg Dec 11.

Doing well, enjoying life

I have not updated in a while, and as usual, that is good news. I am feeling pretty good and working on getting my stamina back. But mainly, I am just working and watching a little tennis and football. Until this week, we have had wet weather and I have used that as an excuse to not go for a walk. No excuses now because it is just beautiful here, and I really need to get my energy level up so I can get back on the tennis court.

My chest CT date changed to Dec 8, and I have my leg MRI on Dec 11. I am really busy at work so hopefully I will not have time to worry about the scans for a while! Bob leaves for England on Dec 13, and I will leave to meet him there for Christmas Dec 21. My new nephew should arrive a couple of weeks before I leave, and I cannot wait to meet him!

Bob is in the process of remodeling our guest bathroom. It is going to be very pretty, and I am very excited. You cannot imagine how much a mess one small room can make. He's promised to have it finished by Thanksgiving, and he is making good progress. In the meantime, there seems to be a fine layer dust in every room in the house, and we have tools, fixtures, and "things" all over the house and that just drives me crazy! I am really ready for this project to be done!

I am still going to my Sarcoma support group each month and enjoying that very much. Until today, I was also on this Sarcoma "list serve" thing from ACOR (American Cancer thing). Mainly information about Sarcoma is funnelled through there and others with Sarcoma email back and forth. Everyone is very helpful, and you can learn about clinical trials, new technology, communicate with people who have your same illness or are sarcoma caregivers, and know what your are going through. There were a few people I emailed "off line" for a while, where our emails were just sent to each other and not to the whole group. Unfortunately, many of these folks are very, very sick. It is always great to read when someone had good scans and is having a good day. There are a lot more emails about really bad days or from caregivers telling us their loved one is in hopsice or has passed away. There are many sad stories, and the ones about children with Sarcoma are especially heartbreaking. Today, I realized this was hurting me too much, and I am not helping anyone at all. It is very painful and scary reading about the state the patients are in. I do my best to send them all my best wishes and prayers and be supportive, but, I need to leave the group for a while. It is so depressing and frightening. I "signed off" the list tonight so I will no longer see the emails each day. I feel guilty for leaving, but it is something I have to do right now for me. I am sure at some point I will sign back on, but I am just not able to do it right now.

Otherwise, life is good, and we are enjoying every minute. I am so lucky to be feeling good and am able to work and spend time with family and friends. Nothing makes me happier!

Breathing deeper and easier

Finally, today I feel much better. I can breath deeper without it hurting and say more than two sentences with having to stop and rest and catch my breath. I really took it easy this weekend only leaving home to run a couple of errands on Saturday. I thought I would feel great as soon as they drained the litre of fluid off my lung Wednesday, but it really took me a few days to bounce back. I think I am there now!

I have not heard anything about lab work on the fluid they drained. If I do not hear anything by Wednesday, I will call. Unless there is something unusual there, I do not see the doctor again until my next scans Dec 1. I do have several more days of antibiotics to take in case there is an infection.

Whew! So now Bob and I are just getting on life. I am hoping to try to hit some tennis balls soon and hope to play on my team this spring. One day at a time!

Procedure OK

I thought I had blogged last night, but either I forgot to save it or the anti-anxiety medicine made me a little loopier than I thought. The procedure went fine and really did not hurt. They deadened the area and with a needle and tube drained out over a liter of fluid which was close to 2 lbs. I actually lost 3 lbs yesterday, most of it lung fluid I have been carrying around for a while. I think my back and chest do feel better, but and I am tired and my breathlessness seems worse. I could breath a little deeper without pain before, and if I hiccup or belch it hurts. We believe the procedure just probably irrated everything. If I still have problems tomorrow I will give the doc a call. At this point, I am just thrilled there were no tumors to be seen. I will have scans in the same areas on Dec 1, and MRI on my leg Dec 11.

Yesterday the whole process seemed to take forever. They took an xray about 20 minutes after they drained my lung. Then I had to wait 2 hours so they could xray again. I assume they were waiting to see if the lung filled back up again. Both xrays looked identical so that was good news, and they let me go home. We were there from 845 till about 230 and were there even longer the day before. But it is over now, and I hope this will help me heal faster!

Hopefully, we will head over to England for Christmas my scans, with Bob probably going a week or so earlier. Michael and Michelle are having a baby boy no later than Dec 10, and I am not going to miss that. I don't get the chance to be an aunt again every day! I will fly over a few days before Christmas.

I will check in with you in a few days and let you know how this lung thing is doing. I am ready for it to be over so I can start playing tennis before it gets too cold!

Good news with a little hiccup

Scans today free of tumors in my chest, abdomin and pelvic are so thta is great news. I do have a lot of fluid in my left lung. It is probably a post surgery infection. I was running fever at night after surgery but this fluid did not show up in xrays when I saw Dr. Miller earlier in the month. I will have a simple procedure in the morning to drain the fluid off. They will not even need to put me to sleep, but they did give me a little anti anxiety medicine to take the edge off. Something about someone putting a needle and chest tube in your lung to drain fluid cause my heart to flutter a little. Sister Cindy has had this done to her before and she and Michael assure me it is not a big deal. The doctor promises I will feel a 1000 times better after. I have been very tired and not comfortable, but I thought was just normal post surgical pain to be expected. I think that is a problem with many of us. We are used to dealing with some amount of discomfort and it is hard to tell when it is something else Now that this has been discovered I am sure they will check me to make sure I am all taken care off. They have given me an antibiotic to take for 2 weeks - Cipro. I think that is what they give for Anthrax too so if we have a problem with that I am covered. They will send the fluid to the lab to make sure they have the right antibiotic to treat me, and to check for cancerous cells. However, no tumors so I am pretty certain it will be an infection.
I had a few spot on my liver but at least one of them I have had for years and it has not changed. This is the first time in a long time they have scanned me with contrast, so they are probably seeing things that have always been there. Both Cindy and Michael have these spots so I think it is just a genetic thing.
I really feel good about all this and am not worried. In fact, I am elated there is no sign of additional tumors, so please don't let this worry you either. I will blog tomorrow after it is over and I am not too loopy.
I had myself scheduled out the rest of the week for a business trip. In fact, I was to leave just after my doctor's appmt and head to Milledgeville for the night and then to the Vidalia area until Friday. I tried to get them to at least schedule the procedure for Thursday, so I could go to Milledgeville today and come back tomorrow but they would not do it. Funny, I feel a lot worse now that I know something is wrong, so I guess I am glad I did not go! I am sure it will be a more fun and productive trip when I get this fluid out of my lung.
All in all, pretty good news with a very minor setback. I should be fine and feeling good on Thursday!

A good week

I just wanted to let you know I made it though my first week back at work okay. I had a few long days, but managed to hold up pretty well and am very glad to be back. I did have a pretty lazy weekend and got a good bit of rest, so I should be ready to go Monday morning. I am trying to not overdue it, which I have a bad habit of doing. I won't travel out of town overnight until next week, so I mainly will have local or day trips which is not too bad. Fortuantely, my car seats are pretty comfortable so driving is usually not too much of a problem for me.

I have scans next Tuesday, Sept 29. They will do a CT on my chest, abdomin and pelvic areas, with contrast, so I have to drink something next Monday night and again on Tuesday morning before the scan. I don't recall doing that before. Also, the CT's I have had in the last couple of years they just looked at my chest, and not pelvic and abdomin. I am not sure what that is all about, but am assuming they just want to be thorough, and I am all for that! I will get a preliminary report from Dr. D'Amato shortly after the scans Tuesday afternoon, and a more in depth report a few days later from radiology. If all is well, I think we will start looking at airline schedules to make plans to go to England for Christmas. I will have two more scans (MRI on leg Dec 11 and CT's again in late November) before our trip, but we really cannot wait till after those to get plane tickets.
Keep your fingers crossed for a good report next week!