Let the "Games" Begin!

Some good news today - for whatever it's worth -but last night and Sunday night too, I finally managed to get five solid hours of sleep logged in! Yippy skippy and can I have an Amen?

I have a follow-up doctor's appointment scheduled in Pittsburgh for next Tuesday - the normal check-up type thing after having had major surgery and right now, have just a small problem regarding that deal. None of my kids -by the looks of things -are going to be available to take me down to Pittsburgh that day!

Although I am driving again now, I am a bit leery of driving down there -traveling that far -by myself. Why? Mainly because I have a lot of difficulty staying awake while driving -even on relatively short jaunts -like 40 miles trips, one way -to Dubois or State College and I'm wondering if I can actually manage to drive 130 miles, one way, alone. Kind of irritates me to feel this way because prior to the diagnosis seven years ago of the cancer then, I never gave a second thought to hopping in my car and heading out to wherever I wanted to go, whenever I had the time and money available to do that too. I remember back when the kids were small, loading all three of them and just about everything but the kitchen sink too, in the little Chevy Chevette I had at that time and we took off, traveling west, first to Cedar Point Park in Ohio and from there, on to the home of my ex-husband's parents -the kids grandparents -on the western side of Illinois, and we left Cedar Point in the evening, I drove all night to get to the grandparents, home (including driving through Chicago) and once at Grandma and Grandpa's house, we drove then to their camp along the Mississippi where I finally crashed and slept for about 3-4 hours, while the kids rode in Grandpa's boat on the river and my son, got to celebrate his 8th birthday there, fishing with Grandpa. When we left to return home, I made that trip in about 12-13 hours, driving along with only a couple short stops for fast food and beverages or potty break and never batted an eye about having done that either. Travel then just didn't bother me the way it does today and I had no sleep issues of any type then to deal with though. I guess that's what made the biggest difference then to now.

So, we're trying now to figure out who I can maybe get to ride down to Pittsburgh with me -preferably someone who can drive that far without falling asleep and someone unafraid too of driving in city traffic as well. (Around here, not that many people are accustomed to how to drive in city/rush hour type of traffic so it is something of a consideration there, ya know.)

Today, since I actually felt like I had a bit more energy built up -two nights of decent sleep will do a lot for a person -while Mandy took Kurtis for his regular "Play Therapy" appointment as well as her appointment to see her own counselor too and then, from there to Altoona where the little guy had an appointment today then with the allergist, it was just Maya and me and her TSS, Amanda here for the rest of the morning.

I got a nice hot shower before the TSS left early this afternoon and then, feeling even better -being sweet smelling, squeaky clean and sanitary will do a lot for a body, ya know -I decided to tackle cleaning the kitchen floor and got that swept and all mopped up and clean then too. Always nice to be able to walk through the house and know it's just a bit cleaner than it was before!

But all that stuff kind of takes a back seat now too because of two phone calls I received and one I made!

Late this morning I got a call from the Cancer Center in Clearfield and the nurse (Missy) -who I have known for several years now since I was a patient there before with the oncologist who used to be at that hospital and Missy informed me that their office had just received information from my surgeon in Pittsburgh advising them that I was to be scheduled in the near future there for follow-up chemotherapy.

After talking a bit with Missy, giving her a bit more information and such, she said she was going to turn the information over to the scheduler in their office and someone would be calling me later today then to set up appointments for me. Before hanging up with her though, I mentioned to her about having received a "Script" for an ultrasound on the thyroid -which had arrived while I was in the hospital and I didn't discover it till last week one day while going through the pile of mail I'd received while in the hospital -and I asked her if maybe I should call the imaging department and schedule an ultrasound as soon as possible. She said she thought that would be an excellent idea as she felt both the surgeon in Pittsburgh (who had ordered the ultrasound) as well as the doctor at the Cancer Center there would both want that report on their desk as soon as possible.

So, I called the ultrasound department, told the scheduler there what I needed and she informed me she'd just had a cancellation for an 11:30 a.m. appointment there TOMORROW if I wanted to take that slot. And yes indeed, that I did. So now tomorrow, off I go to Clearfield to begin the testing process on the thyroid so they can determine what -if anything drastic -is awry with that little part of my body and system.

And about ten minutes later, I received another phone call from the scheduler at the Cancer Center who informed me that now they had me written in for an 8:30 a.m. appointment there on Wednesday, September 8th, for blood work, followed by a check-up/discussion with the oncologist there and after that, she had me scheduled then for my first chemo treatment on this go-round to be at 9:30 a.m. that same day!

Phew! Kind of makes one's head spin at first -once I got over the shock of having any type of appointment scheduled for me as early in the day at 8:30 a.m. Normally, I try to schedule all appointments to be no earlier in the day than 11 or 11:30 a.m. simply because of my screwy sleep patterns, ya know!

So that's the big news from my household for today. I'm not really excited about the chemo stuff on one hand but yet, I am anticipating it as the beginning of putting something else, hopefully, to an end. That being, having the chemo go on a "search and destroy" mission in my system to track down any little old cancer cells that may have escaped and are traveling around now in me, looking for a new place to land and build another home, ya know.

That's the way I look at it anyway. I have no idea as yet what type of chemo I'll be getting -how strong a dosage, for how long a period of time either. The last time I had chemo, I had a few minor issues at the very beginning of each treatment with some nausea but nothing drastic and with both chemo treatments I had seven years ago, I never experienced any hair loss other than a few strands here and there, but nothing severe. So I'm hoping I will be fortunate enough to have a similar experience to that this time around too.

I'm gonna have to call my cousin now too and find out if she's been scheduled to begin her chemo treatments too as yet. We both had surgery about a week apart and we both have to have chemo beginning at about the same time span too.

Definitely will give my cousin Nancy and I a lot of common ground to cover and discuss over the coming months about that subject, won't it? She, like me, has a very positive attitude in place about all this and we're both looking forward to a very positive outcome for each of us too!

So, with all that in mind, that's why I said "Let the "Games" Begin" as we both venture forward to start destroying bad cells and building new and healthy ones in their place!

Peace, my friends.