Home Sweet Home!

So, my amazing husband sprung me from room 5901 at CMC today around 12:30.  Then he filled the script for 100 (yes, ONE HUNDRED) Percoset.  Life is good. I am not kidding.  I got home to meet the red-haired boy off the bus and he wasn't too grossed out at my freakish scars. As a consolation prize for his Mom getting cancer, his Dad is distracting him by getting him a dirt bike. He carries a picture of it in his pocket . . .go figure.  And, I only lost 4 lbs! Crud! 

On a more medical note, we met with both the radiation and medical oncologists as well as the dental team (trust me, it's a long story) and set up appts with all kinds of people for next week. The most important one is the CT scan of the liver that is scheduled for Tuesday (I am also getting my stitches out that day) 

The plan is pretty much as we expected, radiation for 6-8 weeks (5 days a week) beginning around the first week of July.  Chemo five days a week during week 1 and week 5 of radiation.  Normally the biggest side effect of radiation is fatigue and folks worry about the chemo a lot more.  Except . . . when they are radiating your head . . .all kinds of fun stuff in there that you need and side effects that are not fun. 1) your teeth are permanently compromised, hence the dental consult . . .they will pull anything upfront that they think is likely to give you a problem within the next 5 years . . .they don't THINK I have to have anything out but I have to have a new set of x-rays anyway. 2) radiating your throat is sort of like burning it a little every day for 30 or 40 days in a row and that means that you can't swallow . . .or eat . . .so before we start the whole adventure they will do yet another surgery to insert a feeding tube into my stomach. Yes, I know totally GROSS!  That means I can't sit in the pool all summer AND again, that I won't even get a cool weight loss program out of this because they will just be pouring the calories straight into my gut.  Small price to pay for what they now say is the very good possibility of complete cure.  Yippee!  

Thanks so much for all the notes, calls etc.  They mean everything!  Thanks too to Cathy and others for setting up the food drop off! Amazing! I may need to adjust the schedule a little when my Mom the caterer is here.  All she wants to do is cook for me :)  That's all for today. I will try to vary my posts between  "the Percoset has totally kicked in" and "the Percoset has worn off." Bet you can tell the difference . . . .

One last HUGE request.  In a horribly ironic and just wrong turn of events, my Uncle Tommy's wife Chris was diagnosed this week with a super aggressive form of lung cancer. Completely crazy for my family to be going through this with 2 people at the same time! Tom is just 9 years older than me and I grew up with him more like a brother than an uncle. You may remember that he escorted my grandmother at my wedding and said the blessing. He and Chris have been married just a little over a year and he waited 52 years to find her.  She is a citizen of Holland and her health insurance coverage is there, so yesterday they put her on a plane back there to get treatment--without him-- because he has to wrap up some things with their home, jobs, dogs etc  before he can go.  Your prayers and warm wishes have meant so much to me so please do me a big favor and add Tom and Chris to your list as well!!  Thanks so much!  I will post again soon.