Wednesday, March 21, 2007

safe and sound

We are home, happy and tired.

Drove over 1,000km yesterday (with two kids in the backseat, don't forget). We made the decision (with full consensus) to skip dinner and keep driving after crossing the border (our easiest crossing ever, as the border guard proved susceptible to D.'s considerable charms).

We all slept in this morning and my spouse and I have spent the day in a stupor. I was too tired, in fact, to worry too much about my ultrasound results. This was a good thing, as my anxiety had been slowly building all week, and had been at times quite overwhelming.

In the end, my oncologist announced that my tumours appear to have stabilized. He claims to be very happy with this result (although I know that he had initially hoped that my intense reaction to Herceptin meant that there would be progress by now). I am a bit disappointed but mostly I am relieved. After all, I feel pretty good right now; the status quo doesn't feel like a bad thing.

I was so relieved in fact, that I didn't even complain when the nurse doing blood work had to try three times to get the needle into my port or when she left me holding the syringe full of blood to go get some gauze to mop up the blood oozing down my chest. Pain and discomfort, it appears, are relative things.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

The talk on the beach here in Florida is about how strong, fit and terrific you look. It's good to hear your ultrasound results show status quo. In the shape you're in, the continuing therapy will bring good results.

The folks down here in Florida are thinking of you and sooo happy to have seen you looking so well. The kids and husband look and are pretty terrific too. All in all, the future looks up, up, up!

SSW

Sepha said...

Glad you're back from a lovely time in good spirits! (And that no-one completely lost their minds after that long in the car!)

Port-wise, once I'd found the nurses who knew what the %^&* they were doing with it I was very bolshy about who I would and wouldn't let do it. After all, it's supposed to be there to make life easier - not for fun and games. Plus, once I knew it was tricky, I *always* reminded them that it took a 1" not a 3/4" needle to access it so we didn't have to have several goes on that account.

I'm really glad that things have reached a stable place for now and that you're finding some times to enjoy all the great things that are going on.

E
x

deb said...

you do look awesome, despite the thousands of kms! thanks for giving me some time with the Bear. Now onto scrabble... :)