Day 582: I really wish she had a different way of viewing things

MAN, it's been a LONG time....and I'm still alive! :)

Well, since my last post, nothing much has been happening. I'm still going in three times a week to check my blood counts and as of today....my white blood count is a 2.9 (this fluxuates based on how much "infection" or "virus" i have been exposed to), my hemoglobin is an 11.3, my platelets are a 250, and my red is like a 3.2 (i think).

With that being said, I started RUNNING again today and MAN OH MAN was it BRUTAL!! I got up and got ready to face the cold (it was 28 degrees this morning!!!) and in my mind, I thought to myself....okay, so Ill just do a quick mile and then go and get my blood drawn. simple right??

WRONG!!

OMG, I took off running and I thought to myself, okay this is good....5 steps out and I'm feeling real good. 10 steps in....okay, time to slow it down.....20 steps in.....holy crap, what did I get myself into?! lol. So long story short, instead of being a stud (like I usually am) I took turns and walked and jogged the whole mile.....it took me 15 minutes! I should've just walked the entire time. oh well. I'm ready to start my weight lifting program as well. I thought about doing squats or something but.....I didn't. LOL. baby steps right?? lol

During my "run," my lungs were starting to hurt, my back was hurting, and my poor legs were barely hanging in there. Man, am I in for the long haul....especially after my transplant. ugh.

SPEAKING of my transplant...it should be happening in ONE month. I'm doing one more round of chemo, I have to get an intrathecal injection, and see a cardiologist (to make sure my heart is strong enough to go through the transplant. THEN...it's on.

So the doctor said rather than an actual bone marrow transplant (because they couldn't find a good enough match) they're going to do a blood cord transplant....as in taking the new stem cells from a baby's umbilical cord and putting them inside of me hoping that they take to my body and it'll take a much longer time for me to recover. it's going to be a long hard struggle but I think I can handle it. The first blood cord transplant was done in 1988 so it's still fairly new. The survival rate is 60% after it's all said and done. Luckily my doctor grabbed me TWO blood cords, so my chance of survival is 120%! lol, okay i'm lying....still 60%. lol.

Well, that's all I have for now. Tonight I'm going to Taft to help collect money for the wrestling match. I'm pretty excited to do this because I just miss being there...and at work (i'm sure I'll regret  saying that later, lol).

Okay well, until next time....adios! :)

kim

Day 557: Waiting

Whhhhooooaaaaa........it's been 15 days since I updated you all on my health progress. Many of you probably think I'm dead or something....okay, not funny. Lol. Anyways, not much has happened (good right?). The last time I updated it was the nigh before my birthday and I was in the hospital. Well they didn't start chemo until midnight on my bday. I didnt really tell anyone it was my birthday they just kinda noticed it in my file or on my hospital band. Then it spread like wildfire from there. The whole floor got me a cake and sang happy birthday to me (embarrassing) then my brother came down from Germany and they brought me a cake. I just realized I didn't have any cake at all.....hmm.then the next day, my real doctors nurses called me from the cancer center and sang me happy birthday as well.

After 5 long days in the hospital I was fine and didn't run any fevers (I think bc this dose was a whole lot less strong than the first dose.....  Or so my doctor says) or get sick in anyway so I went home. Then on day 9 of chemo I came back to the cancer center and got another small dose of chemo. Which really wasn't that bad. My sister brought me to the cancer center and we slept the whole time. It was lovely.

So that was Monday and then come to find out, I was like deathly low on platelets.....a 5!! holy cow! That was lower than when I first came in 2011! But the weird thing was that I didn't have any signs of it. Like bruising or anything .....it was crazy. I guess my body functions on low stuff  anyways. Lol. Then of course, my hemoglobin was low (7.1....even though i never felt Like it) so I came in on Tuesday and got 2 bags of platelets and one bag of blood....so Tuesday I thought I was done....noooooo. Wednesday I woke up and was tired. Not like sleepy tired but just walking around tired. Like I had to sit everywhere I went. It was bananas. And I kept thinking.....man I just got. Loos yesterday and I was good enough to go walking with Emily and Liz yesterday.....and I went in to get more labs taken and what do you know, my hemoglobin was low AGAIN. A 7.4 this time. So now today is Thursday and here I am getting more blood.....awesome right? Yes! Lol. 

Okay I'm going to watch some tv and get off here. I love you all. :)

Sorry for the lonnnnggg wait. 

Xoxo

Kim

Day 546: My Birthday Is Tomorrow!!

Well, what can I say? Life has been great! I painted furniture (alot of furniture), went shopping, ate out wherever you can think of, all while still having cbc's done three times a week, and now....I'm back in the hospital room. :( :( I knew this day was coming but I guess I didn't expect it to come so quick. I had a bone marrow biopsy this morning at 11 and it was fabulous! My doctor was awesome because she said okay you'll feel a stick and a burn, and.....nothing. Then she said, "okay we're at the bone now" and I was still waiting for the stick. Crazy right?!

So anyways, she had mentioned something about going "in" and both my mom and I were caught up with her words. Then I asked about the transplant and whatever else we had our minds on and she said, "oh, I didn't know you didn't know about what was going on." so I forgave her and I said it was okay. Then she leaves and sends in her nurse who i had no idea who it was to apologize and it just made me uncomfortable and I started crying?? It was weird anyway. So then we go home and my mom washes the blankets and stuff and gets ready to go. I moved around a little and did as much as I could getting my clothes and shower stuff together. Having a bone marrow biopsy hurts....so anyways, tomorrow is my birthday, October 4th, and I have my brother flying in from Germany at 2pm tomorrow and I'm excited! I wish he came a little later but oh well. So it should be good. I'm just ready to get out and go out to eat with my family....except my dad who is still working away in south Dakota.

Well, I'm sleepy so I'm gonn turn on the tv and go to sleep! :)

Have a good (fun) night tonight......

Xoxo

Kim

Day 539: Don't Call Me Sir, Call Me Survivor...

Well not much has been happening around here. Sunday, we met my sister for brunch at Hefner Grill and then we went to Big Lots! and Pets Mart and walked around. We ended up buying my cat (Einstein) a cow costume but it was too small when we put it on him. It was quite funny though and gave us a few laughs. Then my sister had to go to work and my mom and I went to Kohls, Dollar Tree, and Jo-Ann Fabrics. We then my roomie cooked for us and it was great! She cooked like some sort of taco salad thing she found on pinterest. It was a good night and we went to sleep early.

Monday, we woke up early to get to the OU medical center lab. We left around 8:15am and stopped at 7-11 and got us some snacks to keep myself up. I was so tired. Then we got there and I felt good about everything. About my WBC, my HBC, my platelets, everything. And of course, I was right. I feel great but I'm still wishy washy about my HBC. I know when it's below 7 and when I need blood but I'm still on the edge about when it's a 7.7 and a 8.5. I know that's a huge jump but it's true. I feel good either way. But anyways, my HBC was 8.6, my platelets were a 51 (!), and my WBC was a 1.9! I mean, yay!! My counts are finally coming up on their own, FINALLY!! So then after they said, Kim you can leave! I was like, okay, let's go! and got up and ran out. lol.

After we left we went to subway to eat and then we went home and I crashed. I slept all day! Meanwhile, I guess my mom cleaned out the car. Who would've known. lol. That's pretty much it, it's been pretty slow around here...oh and today we did nothing but sit around and rot. lol.

Well, that's all I got for today.

Hope everyone has a great day! :)

Kim

Day 536: life is good

Its been a great last few days. We had an early start out of here (around 830) on wednesday to go to my oncologist appt. I asked for sleeping pills and some sort of muscle relaxer....They gave me some hydrocodone (?) and some sort of sleeping pill ( not ambien) that seems to work well. Then we went to target and I managed to walk through that place. It was rough and I couldn't stop bc I knew I would  start cramping in my legs so I kept it moving. Except when I got to the checkout line, my legs were really cramping and I gave my mom my card and went to the food area and got myself a drink. Then we went to Sams Club and I didn't quite make it through there without a wheel chair thing. But that's okay. Then we went to hideaway pizza and got us some lunch. And it was customer appreciation week!! So it said we got to spin the wheel after we fill out a card and finish ordering, my mom was like ahhhh, I just got water! When I went up there and this guy of course before me goes and wins a visor. Hahahaha! There were other things like a koozie, tye dye shirt, etc. so I spun it and I got the only 100% off entire meal! Yay! So I tipped the guy $5....then we came home and we rayed in the rest of the night.

Thursday all day I slept most of the day. Then at 230 my mom took me to my first cross country meet.....I was super excited about going because it was my first one. But it took forever!! We didn't get finished around 7 and got back to the bus stop around 740. It was certainly a long time. Then we met my sister at buffalo wild wings ordered to go and went home and ate it. It was a g good night.

Then Friday we started early and went to the lab in the hospital and turns out, I needed platelets on Wednesday but since I got my labs done at the cancer center (only bc I had a doctors appt) they never relayed me the message. So I got it and blood yesterday. I forgot to ask my white blood counts so I won't have those up and running until Monday. I slept most of the time while I was there and wanted to sleep afterwards but then we went to michael's afterwards and I bought some pinterest things I could do. Then later that night I decided I wanted oranges and other random Walmart things so we left around 8 and came home around 9. Then stayed up until 11 and went to sleep....

Not too exciting but that's all I got and as exciting as it gets.
Love you all,
Kim

Day 532: Yes, I Thought Right.....

Yayyyyyyyyyyyy!!!! 

I'm out of the hospital. I technically got out last Friday after a bag of blood and platelets. They were hesitant on blood but I was at a 7.3 on the hemoglobin scale and an 11 on the platelet scale. So after we got out we took a trip to the mall to find me some shoes and Bridget bought a lot of OU stuff for us. Then we didn't stay very long bc we were hungry! Well, I was anyway. Lol. So we went into Elephant Bar Restaurant, one of my favorite places to go ever, and we had some good lettuce wraps and of course our entrees....which, I'm not used to eating very much as it is so this was a push for me! 

After we finished our yummy meals, we ran into Emily at home and I was exhausted. Then, I didn't even to try to think about my ambien....which is horrible because I was up half the night but didn't get anything accomplished. Maybe I'll wait a a little longer to stay off of them to pull their act together.....okay maybe not. Lol. 

Saturday came by and since I was up and thinking and it seemed like I knew what I was suppose to be doing, i woke up my mom and we agreed that at 545 my mom told me she would take me grocery shopping at 630. So she went into the living room with my sister and laid down on the couch. Then once I was ready I went in and it was freezing!! I sat down and I said omg, I'm an ice cube! Poor me. I played a little with Eins and eventually went back to my room. Come 9:00 am, I hear both my sister & my mom up and walking. Eventually, we make it to big Walmart on expressway. It was so cold AND they didn't have anything so I could roll around with except......well, nothing. Then we spotted a lady and attacked her like an overweight pigeon. We got her off her chair and off we went. We spent about an hour shopping, came home and my mom and my sister whipped us (Emily & I) up some spam and potatoes. It was sooo good. Then my mom and sister went somewhere and then Emily went to her moms and I was at home all by myself. I took a shower and felt a little better. Then we went to the fair and I had to rent a wheelchair but no problem-o! We stayed for a while and ate some food, looked around, and stayed away from the carnival rides (bc of students). We were leaving at 9 and people were just coming in! I was like omg, go home people!! Lol. 

Sunday was a lazy day at home. I didn't do anything at all. 

Monday, I was asked by my student Austein if I wanted to go to the fair with him. So he worked out all the details. However, before that, I had a blood drawl deal and it was pretty clean. My hemoglobin was at a 8.4 and my white counts were up to a 0.9. :) I'll take it!! My platelets were at 11 so they gave me a unit of platelets. Thank goodness because those rides at the fair were brutal on your body. 

So it's Tuesday now and I'm tired but I want to get out and do something. Hmmm,......idk yet but all I know is that I'm sick of laying here doing nothing. I'm sure my mom feels the same.

Well that's all for now! Xoxo

Kim

Day 527: or so I thought.....

So of course, the doctors were like we're gonna watch you're counts and go from there. Booo!! But since they stopped all that iv antibiotics stuff my white counts went up!!

So after that I took my every other day shower and put on my new clothes and luckily right as I got in the shower the cleaning lady asked if I wanted to shower or anything....perfect! My mom was downstairs and shopping in the gift shop area. Meanwhile, I was in and out and quickly got dressed. And it was going to be a productive day.

Yesterday, I thought I was going home, today, and yeah I was excited to be home but for a while, but I somewhat knew they wouldn't let me go. Except, for a split second when I heard a nurse say, you got a new patient but i got a discharge? Now? Then i realized, it wasn't me......:( it Was this lady who is diagonal from me. When she was told, she was so upset bc she thought it would be Friday....and she was upset bc she needed her pain pills to sleep & since she only had 2.5 hours to get to lawton, they had to drive like maniacs. And of course 15 minutes later, they would go home and complain about everything to anyone who would listen.

So then my mom goes outside to put all her stuff away and she got distracted and was on the phone....then my sister came in and brought some food from a random burrito and pizza. Mmmmmm.....like the ones you crave at 3am at a convenience store. Yum! Anyways, so then we all were sitting here staring at each other and I said I was waiting on her....she said I was waiting on mom.....and my mom said, I'm drinking water. Lol. So off we went ( bc we didn't tell anyone where we were going) and we got to the car and we were off! I sat in the back and I got a coke with limes. My mom got food and my sister was driving us around. She then drove us down the new I-40 and then drove at the fair. We knew it was closed and all but we still went anyway. It was neat bc I'm gonna be there on Saturday/Sunday. So after about an hour we we're gone, and  we made it back.

Okay.....my sister just got here with chilis!! I'm about to put these two bowls down!!

Have a good night!!

Kim