This Thanksgiving as I count my many blessings, these are four of the precious ones I'm grateful to have as my children!
Friday, November 23, 2007
Some Special Times
Well there have been some special times amidst all the madness of life lately. Scott taught the boys how to properly hammer in nails as they put together a little bookshelf for the boys room. It's always fun to work with Dad!
Scott also celebrated his 32nd birthday and although it wasn't as eventful as in years past we still celebrated! Scott was excited about Star Wars Legos from Cameron...wait..are those for Cameron or Dad?? He also enjoyed new drumsticks from Kaylie!
Never Too Late for Halloween
Since I was super sick on Halloween I kind of missed out on all the fun activities and cute costumes!! Scott was great at taking photos though so we have some fun ones to share with you. I know it's a bit late to be talking about Halloween but these photos were just too cute that I had to share them!!
Our Cute Halloween Spooks! A Frog, a Monkey, a Snake and a Prairie Girl! Can you tell our family is run by boys? All those animals!!!
Now this is a great alternative when you have a three year old who doesn't want to get his hands all messy in the pumpkin!! Mr. Potato Head Pumpkin Kits! The great news is that you can use them with your potato head collection after Halloween is over!
Now this is a perplexing question....who is this strange kid trick or treating with my children??
Hat Party!
I have the most thoughtful friends ever!! Earlier this month they threw me a 'Hat Party' where friends brought hats, scarves or anything else they thought I might enjoy during my nasty treatment time. We had a great time and it was so encouraging to see all the support and love from everyone. Thanks to all of you that hosted the event and for everyone that came or sent their love and prayers! I'm grateful for each one of you!! Here are some fun photos from that night!
The most exciting hat I received was this great red FRUIT hat!! Isn't it wonderful! Who would have guessed that this great hat was a gift from my silly Dad!!! Thanks Dad!!
Kaylie came along to enjoy the festivities and to help me open the gifts!No More HAIR!!
Well in all the madness of my pneumonia I forgot to mention the absolutely crazy part of this journey....all of my hair fell out last week. It really is strange! My hair just started coming out on day 14 after my treatment. I let it fall out for a few days and finally it got to be too depressing so I had Scott shave my head to a 1/2 inch buzz cut. I think I look a lot like my brother Ryan!!
Between Friday and Sunday my hair didn't do much and then all of a sudden the tiny little 1/2 inch hairs started falling out like crazy. Dallyn thought it was funny because I took one of those sticky lint brushes and rubbed it across my head and you wouldn't believe the hair that came out!! Kaylie and Cameron took turns pulling out my hair...it really just all came out and it didn't hurt..they couldn't believe it. Each morning there were tiny hairs all over my pillow! I'd have to shower for an hour to get all the little hairs off my head..so I finally gave up and just let them fall out.
As of today I only have a few patches of hair left, otherwise I'm totally bald. So I guess its time to get my wig fitted and get used to this life of wearing hats!! Just thought I'd update everyone on my recent excitement **sadness** of losing all my hair. Love, Heidi
Right Before We Cut Off My Hair!
Look at all the hair..and half of my hair had already fallen out!!!
Sunday, November 18, 2007
Crazy!! Week Three
Well I had my second chemo treatment Monday the 12th. I survived that OK, except that I got a cold over the weekend and so I felt awful going into my chemo. Because my blood counts were still reasonable they went ahead and gave me chemo. I had a sore throat, cough and sinus issues going into Monday, which progressed through the week. My nausea wasn't any worse than my first treatment, so that was nice, although with my sinus symptoms I felt worse. I was up coughing Wednesday and Thursday night which was horrible and my cough seemed to get worse. It got to the point that it was hard to talk because I coughed so much.
Then Friday night I had such a scary experience. I was having a hard time with the coughing and Scott and I were just relaxing and watching a movie. I was having a hard time breathing because I was coughing so much. I started becoming short of breath but I tried to relax. The movie ended and as I laid down to go to sleep all of a sudden I started having some sort of panic attack or something. All of a sudden I told Scott I couldn't breathe. There was not enough oxygen in the room. I asked him to open a window or something, I couldn't breathe and it felt like the walls were closing in on me. We went outside and I breathed in the cool air and it was the only way I could breathe. I still had such a hard time getting enough air. I kept trying to open my mouth wider and tilt my head back to get more air. Sounds silly but at the time it was all I could do. This attack lasted about 30 minutes where I couldn't get enough air. It was almost midnight and we called my Oncologist who said I needed to calm down and go to sleep. (Did I mention that I'm shopping for a new oncologist??) Anyhow he thought I was having a panic attack and Scott and I were worried I had something more serious like pneumonia or bronchitis. Anyhow, I eventually was able to breathe better and I went through a restless night of sleep.
I woke up Saturday morning and was really short of breath still, although nothing like the insane attack I'd had the night before. I had the strong feeling that we needed to go to the hospital because I couldn't kick the feeling that something had been really wrong with me the night before. I called another doctor of mine who was more concerned about me and encouraged us to go to the hospital to get a chest x-ray done.
So we spent the next 4 hours in the ER and they discovered that I in fact had pneumonia in the lower lobe of my right lung!! Is that insane or what?? When it rains it POURS! They said it was really good I came in because I caught the infection early..i'm currently on antibiotics. I was really glad they let me come home, they felt that being home away from infections was best for me.
Assuming my chest x-ray comes up clean later this week then I'll continue on course for the chemo. If I heal well from the pneumonia then it will just be another bump in the road.
As far as my heart palpitations, we are still waiting on the results from my heart monitor. In the hospital my heart rate ranged from 80-150. They couldn't figure it out. They did another EKG which came back fine, but they still aren't sure why my heart changes so much. And all I was doing was laying there...so there wasn't any reason for my heartbeat to change so much.
So again, I feel like I can sympathize with what it feels like to get old and get diseases and feel so helpless. I'm so tired of being sick...and I'm only on week 3 of 20 weeks of chemo!! Can you believe it? How will I ever manage? I guess one day at a time.
Anyhow, thanks for all the love, support and prayers.
Love,Heidi
Then Friday night I had such a scary experience. I was having a hard time with the coughing and Scott and I were just relaxing and watching a movie. I was having a hard time breathing because I was coughing so much. I started becoming short of breath but I tried to relax. The movie ended and as I laid down to go to sleep all of a sudden I started having some sort of panic attack or something. All of a sudden I told Scott I couldn't breathe. There was not enough oxygen in the room. I asked him to open a window or something, I couldn't breathe and it felt like the walls were closing in on me. We went outside and I breathed in the cool air and it was the only way I could breathe. I still had such a hard time getting enough air. I kept trying to open my mouth wider and tilt my head back to get more air. Sounds silly but at the time it was all I could do. This attack lasted about 30 minutes where I couldn't get enough air. It was almost midnight and we called my Oncologist who said I needed to calm down and go to sleep. (Did I mention that I'm shopping for a new oncologist??) Anyhow he thought I was having a panic attack and Scott and I were worried I had something more serious like pneumonia or bronchitis. Anyhow, I eventually was able to breathe better and I went through a restless night of sleep.
I woke up Saturday morning and was really short of breath still, although nothing like the insane attack I'd had the night before. I had the strong feeling that we needed to go to the hospital because I couldn't kick the feeling that something had been really wrong with me the night before. I called another doctor of mine who was more concerned about me and encouraged us to go to the hospital to get a chest x-ray done.
So we spent the next 4 hours in the ER and they discovered that I in fact had pneumonia in the lower lobe of my right lung!! Is that insane or what?? When it rains it POURS! They said it was really good I came in because I caught the infection early..i'm currently on antibiotics. I was really glad they let me come home, they felt that being home away from infections was best for me.
Assuming my chest x-ray comes up clean later this week then I'll continue on course for the chemo. If I heal well from the pneumonia then it will just be another bump in the road.
As far as my heart palpitations, we are still waiting on the results from my heart monitor. In the hospital my heart rate ranged from 80-150. They couldn't figure it out. They did another EKG which came back fine, but they still aren't sure why my heart changes so much. And all I was doing was laying there...so there wasn't any reason for my heartbeat to change so much.
So again, I feel like I can sympathize with what it feels like to get old and get diseases and feel so helpless. I'm so tired of being sick...and I'm only on week 3 of 20 weeks of chemo!! Can you believe it? How will I ever manage? I guess one day at a time.
Anyhow, thanks for all the love, support and prayers.
Love,Heidi
Friday, November 9, 2007
Heidi's Chemo Life--Week 2
Well I've made it through week two, which has been much better than week one! Of course because I didn't receive any treatment this week. Monday the 12th I undergo round two of chemo and then I'll be sick again. Here's a few bits of wisdom I learned this week:
- I'm really an 80 year old woman in a 30 year old body! I can't make it up the stairs without losing my breath and having heart palpitations.
- Even though I feel healthy I don't have the energy I used to have to do simple tasks and to take care of my family....super High Energy Heidi has taken a vacation or something??
- I need to be grateful for the little things such as: food tastes good this week as the metallic taste is gone, I don't feel nauseous all the time, my nerves (neuropathy) isn't bothering my hands and feet anymore and I'm not plagued with hot and cold flashes! Never take your health for granted!
Those are my tidbits for this week! Here's my health update about my heart condition for those of you interested. I've been suffering from racing heart this week. It's very SCARY! It's happened multiple times and seems to be associated with over-exertion or climbing the stairs too many times and too fast. Although I had trouble one night where my heart raced all night long and it kept waking me up...HORRIBLE! So, long story short I was tested yesterday for anemia. I'm borderline anemic but not enough to cause heart palpitations. Then I had an EKG which came back normal. However my heart rate (resting) was very high. So they've ordered me a heart monitor of sorts that I'll wear for 24 hours starting Monday. Hopefully it'll track any irregularities in my heart so the cardiologist can figure out whats going on. The Adrimyacin drug I'm on for chemo is 'heart poison' so they have to monitor my heart closely.
Needless to say..I'm really feeling 80 years old...and feeling sympathy for what its like to get old and have problems that you can't control. How hard that must be! I just want to come to the bottom of this heart situation as its really freaking me out.
Well that's all for now! Love and Hugs, Heidi
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