HP again

On Friday I went in and Dr. Silva put in a seroma catheter to drain the fluid I seem to build up continuously. I now have a Jackson Pratt drain, again. It was/is interesting.

That evening my students had a performance of our play, Gary Grinkle's Battle with Wrinkles and Other Troubles in Mudgeville. There was lots of drama! I guess that is the name of the game with middle school girls and has to be expected. We had a broken hand and lost a narrator among other exciting developments.

Today Chris and I went to the UTMB graduation. My nephew Jason became a M.D. today, as did a lot of Chris' friends. Chris was a part of this class and had to postpone graduation for me and the whole cancer thing... It was a nice ceremony and a number of us (family) were able to be there. Patrick took all 9 of us out to eat afterwards. It was nice to just sit and chat with Lauren, Patrick, Jason, Nate, Donna, Michael and Carolyn.

Que seroma sera

Lucky me. My seroma (fluid under my mastectomy scar) is building up again. I have an appointment with Dr. Silva on Friday AND this time she wants to put in a drain. She has been using a syringe each time, but this "drain" is an implanted thing that drains continuously. I guess it is kind of like the JP drains I had before. I'm not looking forward to that. I guess this is the solution, maybe it will finally heal the "pocket" closed.

My chest hurts. It has become a superficial pain, like a bad sunburn. Hard to wear anything. Nothing is soft enough.

Got in to Central (my closed due to hurricane school) and got my stuff today! Yay. It is hard to do one's job without one's tools. I now have my resource books, art supplies, and many of my pertinent files. I had to leave the costumes, puppet theatre, files with scripts... Hopefully I will get back in again at some point. Only 6.5 days of school left this year!

Funny Bunnies

Here, let me give you a kiss....

It is hard to believe that eight months ago the bunny on the right, Coinin, would have been biting the one on the left, Haas. This is the only good thing to have come from Hurricane Ike. The two bunnies finally bonded and are good friends.

Haas: I'm King of the World!!!

Coinin: Yeah, whatever, I can still bite your butt if I want to....

I don't think we ever wrote about the flood we had here about a month ago. We had about 6" of rain in an hour. Our street backed up with water in some places up to my knees. The water in the middle of our street was about one foot deep. My little white Honda Civic got 6-7" of water in it. It cost $250 to get it cleaned. Seats and carpet had to come out to keep it from molding under the carpet and inside the seats. It was a mess. It also caused all the window tinting to bubble up from the humidity and it had to be peeled off. I had to drive it without it being cleaned for two weeks. It smelled like a sewer. Which is, of course where the water came from. It was high tide when the storm hit. Luckily there was no water in our blue Honda CR-V.

Last day of Radiation Therapy

Here is Selena and her Radiation Therapists: Kwame (L) and Mary (R).

They were really kind to her.

Long Weekend!!!

I moved back in with Chris (you know, my husband?) last night! Yay.

Yesterday, went shopping for groceries. Boring, life stuff. Tried to hold off on the pain pills. I have been taking them every 6 hours, and the skin looks lots better, so I tried. Turns out I still need 'em. I had to take off the binding yesterday evening for a couple of hours 'cause I was so uncomfortable. I got Chris to bind me up before I went to sleep... My chest is reminding me that I need some more now!

My students' performances and "tour" have been rescheduled for this coming week and things are crazy at work. I FINALLY have an appointment to get in to Central (my old, now closed due to hurricane damage, school) to get my belongings on Tuesday. Yay. Too bad I was forced to teach without those things this whole time. I don't know how much I can get, but I only have a few hours and it took a couple of years to cart in everything!

This is getting old...

Called Dr. Silva and had my seroma drained again today. 121 cc's of fluid! I was then wrapped, again. Although it hurts I think I can stand it. Dr. Silva said that if it builds up again she may need to implant a drain. I will do my best to keep pressure on it and hope that it finally heals the way it is supposed to. She gave me a prescription for more pain pills AND a script for some topical cream that may make it so I don't need to take the pain pills so often. I like the idea of that.

Chris is slowly getting better.

We had a rehearsal after school for the play my kids are doing, Gary Grinkle's Battle with Wrinkles and other Troubles in Mudgeville, and half the cast was missing! We are touring it to three elementary schools on Thursday and then performing for our school on Friday. It is AMAZING how diva-esque some of these kids have become.

Weekend? What weekend?

As is usual for us lately, Chris and I have slept the weekend away. He's sick (getting better) and I'm sick (getting better) but it equals lots of sleeping. It is said that one's body heals during sleep... Since I moved into the other room to avoid getting whatever he's got, I've seen him about 3 times this weekend... We did watch some TV together last night, and I can swear that it was him who waved at me from the doorway late this morning. Hopefully we can move in together soon...

Skin is getting better, but since I haven't been binding, I'm building up the seroma again. I'll have to call Dr. Silva on Monday. She has been great about squeezing me in to her schedule for a quick draining. I think my skin may be able to take being bound again afterwards.

13 days left of school, and I still don't officially have a job for next year yet. I was called to a meeting to discuss scheduling for next year, so I anticipate being there. It is just not confirmed, which makes me a little stressed.

He's home!

Chris was discharged from the hospital on Wednesday afternoon. He is at home now. The cough and trouble breathing are still problems, but he is MUCH better.

My chest is getting better. The skin is less raw, although it looks hideous - all blotchy, crusty, and red. It also hurts less. I still haven't been able to wear binding or prosthesis and have been taking my Ibuprofen and narco regularly. I have been dressing in "flowy tops" and hoping that nobody notices... I don't want to freak the kids at school out.

Update to the update..

Chris is doing better. They still want to keep him, so he'll be in the hospital again tonight. He actually asked for something to read, that shows how much better he feels. I have got to go back to work tomorrow, so I'll just have to have him call me.

Bless Brandon Dinklage, my teaching partner(heck, he does all the work), for holding down the fort

Chris status update.

Chris is feeling better. When I left him he was doing pretty well. I anticipate him coming home tomorrow.

He had gone to Urgent care on Saturday, feeling like he had the flu. They diagnosed him with an upper respiratory infection and sent him home. I thought it was odd.. no meds?

All day Sunday he had high temperatures. Despite taking acetaminophen on a regular schedule, his temp was not going down. I talked to Mum and she suggested strongly that I take him in to be seen again. He was dehydrated, his temperature had come down to 101.5, he had a bad headache and muscle aches, and he was delirious. They admitted him. He was placed in ICU because that was the only bed available - not 'cause he was that sick. They have repeatedly tested him for Flu and he has come back negative each time. He has been receiving Levaquin (antibiotic) and fluids intravenously. The xrayed him and saw pneumonia. He is also nauseous and coughing productively.

Today he started to feel better. He still has a headache, but his pain level is less. He is more alert and communicative. A regular room became available and he was moved. Yes, I have been wearing a mask, to lessen the chances of my getting whatever it is he has.

I am doing OK. I have been wearing my softest tank tops, with no prosthesis or binding. The skin around my site is red, inflamed and scary looking. Yes, it hurts. I have been on regular schedule of ibuprofen, hydrocodone, and sunburn spray with something-cane. Taking a shower is a really special feeling... I will try and contact my doc tomorrow so she can follow me. I REALLY don't need to develop an infection.

MUM notes:update

Just a brief note to tell you that Chris is in the hospital with pneumonia, and no they don't think it is swine flu although he has a high fever and severe cough, diarrhea and nausea. He was admitted last night and is being transferred from ICU to a regular room today. Selena is at his side so I thought I'd put in a brief note from Florida. D

Report on last week.

I had a PFT (pulmonary function test) on Thursday and it has been determined that I do not have "standard asthma." They wanted the lab to do another test where they make me cough, but the orders got messed up. I will have to reschedule the cough test. To recap: I have frequent lung infections, you could call it chronic bronchitis, and now that they have ruled out cancer, and standard asthma, they want to see if I have "cough induced asthma" (at least I think that's what the doctor called it.)

I also saw the occupational therapist this week and she says my range of motion is normal - that's good! She wants to massage my arm (to help with the healing/numbness) and my site to prevent hardening. She really can't do much with my site because of the condition of my skin. I did some exercises and she massaged my arm. She also gave me a new foam pad to put under my binding, the idea being to put more pressure and keep the seroma from building up. It doesn't seem to put as much pressure in the right place as the foam "prosthetic" I've been using... Anyway, I can't bind right now because of the skin issues. I guess I'll just have to keep an eye on the seroma.

Thanks to my husband, Chris, for the special trip he made to buy me sunburn spray. He has the flu, and was starting to feel really crummy... Yes, he should not have gone out. No, It's not Swine flu. It has since gotten worse. I have moved into my Mum's room so I have less chance of catching it. Because I am so hopped up on pain meds, Michael, my wonderful brother in law, drove a 3 hour round trip to take Chris to the Urgent Care clinic (that's how we know it's not swine flu)- thank you!!!!

What a day!

Today was a big day.

• Went out to eat after my show with some friends/coworkers. This is big because I really haven't cultivated many friends here in Galveston, so I'd say that this was a first in over a year.
• My students' one act: Gary Grinkle's Battle with Wrinkles and other Troubles in Mudgeville performed this evening. They got most of the lines, and people could hear part of it... The important thing is it was done. The kids had fun.
• I had to take off my "saran wrap" on my site because I took a shower and it filled up with water. In taking it off I also took off two large patches of skin. Figuring out how to dress the wounds so I could go to school was interesting, and took a while. Yes, it hurts like...well, like someone just ripped off two large patches of skin! I ended up missing the whole morning. If we hadn't had a show today, I would have called in sick.
• The air conditioning is out in the house and it's 88 degrees in here!
• I had a migraine this morning and had to take some headache drugs for the first time in months. Remarkable how few migraines I have now that I'm not menstruating.
• Chris is getting sick. We hope it is just a cold and not the swine flu.

Draining day...

The day was "draining" in more than one way.

Brandon, the Weiss teacher I share my/his classroom with, took the day to shop for our show. His 6th graders were riled up! It's Monday, they just finished TAKS and their teacher is not there. Any kind of change makes them crazy. THEN I had to find someone to cover my class 'cause I had to go get my seroma drained. THEN a number of our cast members didn't show for rehearsal, and we open on Friday.

Health wise: Dr. Silva drained 55cc's from my seroma. She hopes that now that radiation is over it will heal and stop building fluid. It was also - and this may be too much information- red. She said that perhaps since the seroma is smaller, she "nicked" the chest wall with the needle and that caused a little bleeding. Terri, the nurse, tried this fancy stuff that is like medical saran wrap to place over my burn. It seems to help. We also put a little numbing cream on it before she "saran wrapped" me. Anyway, I am bound again, to put pressure on the seroma and try and get the "flap" to heal down. Right now it doesn't hurt so much, so maybe the plastic wrap is a good idea. Terri sent me home with extra, so I can replace it. Supposedly the magic number is 10. The skin/burn issues should resolve within 10 days after completing radiation. I wanted a topical solution to the pain because I am just tired of taking pain meds... So I put the ointment on and then was plasticised. This means that for the few days I leave this sheet on, any ointment won't work. So I'm back to the narco. Dr. Silva also wants me to start back on the 800mg Ibuprophen.

So I'm done...mostly

Had the last radiation treatment on Thursday. Now I'm a graduate. It was weird that I'm lying on the table, Kwame and Mary (the technicians) watch on camera from another room, and I start crying. I can't figure out exactly why, and I'm not embarrassed so I just go with it. I have only had 3 crying spells over this adventure and this was one... I figure I should , pun intended, flow with it. I am entitled, I know. So I snap a picture with Kwame and Mary and the machine, red eyes and all and leave. The cute little old Hispanic lady at the parking garage - I had chatted with her every day - was concerned and wouldn't raise the arm until she gave me some words of reassurance. It was cute 'cause she doesn't really speak English well, and I never let on that I speak Spanish, but I cried the whole time. Why exactly? Relief? Sadness? Loss? Self pity? Sense of achievement? Success? Frustration? Hormones? Stress? Stress relief? I could go on... Don't know.

On Friday I had a bit of good news: Brandon Dinklage, the teacher with whom I am sharing a room, and who didn't get RIFd, has accepted a job elsewhere. Now, I have not been officially un-RIFd, but the Director of Fine Arts told Brandon to tell me... Looks as though I have employment for next year! I'll have to press for "official" this week.

This coming week we have a big one. The Central/Weis theatre departments are doing Gary Grinkle's Battle with Wrinkles and other Troubles in Mudgeville at the GISD Fine Arts GALA on Friday. Our Cinco de Mayo celebration is on Tuesday and despite having put together a team and explained that I had no time to do this, I think tomorrow I'll be putting together a last minute show. I also have occupational therapy on the 6th and pulmanology tests and consult on the 7th... I am still sooooooooo tired all the time and crash as soon as I get home, so lets see how it goes. Here is my mindset: I'll do what I can do and try not to stress. There are other people who can pick up the slack this time.