Hi! I'm Alive and Well!

Hey, hey, hey! I'm feeling good and doing fine ... now. I Ativaned up before my last chemo, took a bar of Dove green tea and cucumber to sniff, and I had no anticipatory nausea this time. My recovery from the last chemo was actually a really good one, but it was still frustrating to not be myself while my family was all together for the holiday. I was also sad that I did not partake in the traditional spiked eggnog drinking. I only wanted to for sentimental reasons. At the time, the thought of alcohol turned my stomach. I keep reminding myself that this is only one Christmas, one snowboarding season, six short months in the grand scheme of my long, healthy life. I felt better for Christmas Eve and Christmas day at least. Yeah, Turn Around Tuesday!

I got a lot of booty this holiday including a portable hard drive, a real salad bowl, socks, earings to stand out next to my bald head (I never wore them before), hand towels, CF cards, gloves, Crocks, Dustbuster, sheets, and last but not least Dance Dance Revolution. I am by no means a video gamer, but this one is different. For those of you who don't know about this game, while a song is playing, you step on arrows on a pad when the TV screen tells you to. You get points and grades based on your accuracy and timing. There are oodles of songs and various levels of difficulty. Dennis got two pads so we can compete against each other. Not that I care about that. I just think it's more fun when someone is doing it with you like any workout. And that was the reasoning behind it. It's our home gym. I tell you, a half hour of DDR and I am sweating as if I was jogging on a treadmill, only it's much more fun and painless.

Oh, it was a hoot watching each other try to "dance"! In the beginning, we were all stiff looking and consistently off balance. But we got better. I totally want to have DDR tournaments this winter with friends.

I am still sticking myself with the Lovenox blood thinner and taking Coumadin on top of it until my INR number is between 2 and 3. Then, my blood is thin enough and I can stop the Lovenox. I'm hoping that is real soon for two reasons. I have to go in every two or three days to have blood taken for the INR test. No fun watching them struggle to hit veins. Second, the Lovenox is freaking expensive - even with insurance. I guess I will be on Coumadin until I can be done with the port in five more treatments. My right arm is still swollen, but the doctors say it may take weeks for the excess fluid to drain away from the arm. The doctors also "recommend" that I don't snowboard while on the blood thinners due to the whole internal bleeding thing if I happen to take a good spill or if someone else rams into me. While neither of these things generally happen to me, they are possible I suppose. I could just snowboard with bodyguards.

Not much is going to change between now and my next onc visit January 4th, I hope. Then we will discuss the rest of my treatment and she'll take a look at my arm to see if it is really making progress. If I fail to post before 2008, Happy New Year! Here's to a healthy 2008 for everyone! - Candace