See What Happens When You Get a Little Cocky...

So, yep, home sick today. That is, home sick following my drive to Cedar Rapids to check my temperature with my doctor, get my basement-like white count checked, and receive an IV of antibiotics. Stupid fall cold. I also was injected with a medicine they thought they may have to use anyway which is supposed to get my white cell count up again. Fabulous, because I think my white cells have taken a little vacation... I'm going back tomorrow for IV #2 and my doctor thought all of that plus my oral antibiotic would nip it in the bud and keep me on track for my treatments next Tuesday and Wednesday. He seemed pretty matter of fact about everything, like he expected this anyway. That'll teach me to get cocky...

Carpe diem - Trela

Checking in, Part 3

One more full week until my next treatment, and other than the suspicious strands of hair in my brush I'm suffering no ill effects. Part of me almost wishes it would just all fall out already so I don't have to keep playing the, "is this normal, or is it chemo?" game. We have Open House at school on Tuesday and I'm really tempted to just see my fabulous hairstylist before that so I don't have to worry if this last run through with the brush will be the end of it. Trying wigs on this Saturday was a humbling experience, not because I'm nervous about the baldness, but because even on my BEST day, my hair never looked as good as any of the wigs. I'm convinced that's how people are going to be able to tell it's not real! It just looks too good! Ah, to have such problems.

Other than that, I'm a little more tired than normal, although since I'm also adjusting to the back to school routine, it's tough to tell if that's really abnormal or not. My students have been relatively good thus far, though the stack of grading waiting me Monday is a bit intimidating. I'm sure it will be fine...

Mom and Dad are here this weekend to fix whatever else in my house seems broken, rearrange the kids' clothes, dig up my front garden and help Eric with continued front porch renovations. If only my house could always be this clean...

Carpe diem - Trela

Home again, home again

At 4 am the prospect of going to work seemed like a pretty good idea. Of course, Eric and my dad had already let me know the night before that it wasn't in fact such a brilliant theory, so I'd already called in for the day. By 6 am their superior intellect became obvious and I crawled back onto the couch for extensive 9/11 coverage. After getting the kids ready to head to Grammie's for the day I've alternated between recordings of "Mystery" and snoozing. There was one brief moment in which, while driving to my mailbox (hey, it was raining), I contemplated the word "tacos" and mathematically determined I could in fact make it to Chipotle and home before Eric got home. The nearest Chipotle is in Rochester.

Honestly other than minor flare ups in apparent insanity and nausea I'm doing ok. The only reason I'm not at work today is because (well, other than the fact I might try to comandeer a school bus for a northernly trip) of the dizziness which comes and goes rather abruptly and makes the sudden urgency of finding a chair highly annoying. Tough to teach and grapple for a hand hold. Hopefully tomorrow. I actually miss the kiddos.

Thanks for all the well-wishing. I'm hangin' in there. Carpe diem. - Trela

Sleep is good

Well, 2 days down, 20 to go.

Today was the second and final day of the first batch of treatments. Now we wait 19 days for the next round. 4 rounds total of this schedule and then it's going to be once weekly for three weeks with a week off. That course too will be repeated 4x.

The first day wasn't too bad, but Trela's feeling pretty ill tonight. They gave her some anti-nausea/sleeping meds, and so she's out like a light, which is I think better than being awake and sick.

In other news, many of you have heard by now, big changes are on the way. Dr. Eichelberger in Jesup has been presented with a wonderful opportunity to advance professionally in Des Moines, and has asked me to come in and buy his practice. It is a wonderful opportunity for me, and the best part is I'll still be able to continue my practice in Waterloo.

The only bad thing about the situation is the timing. Dr. Eichelberger is going to be be helping a doc in Des Moines with health problems and they need someone ASAP, so the timetable on this transition is pretty tight. If everything goes as planned, I'll be starting some of the time on the 18th of September, and then it would be full speed ahead on October 2 with the handoff taking place at that time.

So, I have been and will be pretty busy for a while. Don't be too hard on me we don't get too much posted her for a while.

ERic

C Day

Phew! Sorry about the lack of posts recently -- the last few weeks have been a whirlwind!

We're finally all set to begin chemotherapy tomorrow. After several weeks looking at treatment in Waterloo we've actually decided to pursue opportunities in Cedar Rapids, about 50 minutes away. There were several reasons for the change, but it basically came down to bedside manner and the fact that my new doctor actually knows my doctor at Mayo. I feel more comfortable with the time he and his facility have taken to work with our situation, and I'm confident we're making a better decision. This clinic is actually affiliated with Mayo, also, and it is the one my Mayo doctor had originally mentioned having cooperated with before. If only we'd listened earlier...

In preparation for the treatment I had a ventricular scan done locally today in order to make sure my heart was in good enough shape for treatment. Apparently one of the chemo drugs can cause heart damage, so another scan will be done after a few treatments to make sure everything is progressing ok. Heart checked out fine in their preliminary results, so we're all set to start tomorrow morning with an initial session reaching upwards of eight hours. I'll be treated tomorrow and Thursday, then have two clear weeks before starting again on week three.

Eric and I have been staying busy working on electrical for our porch, finishing the flooring, and working full time! School is going very well for me so far and I think I found a good sub today in the event I need to miss more days than we're planning on. My building has been incredibly supportive which is part of the reason I'm so determined to keep working -- it's nice having an extra thirty or forty people out there rooting for me. I was very upfront with the kids and after the initial round of questions they've learned to just roll with it. Haven't we all?

Carpe diem. - Trela

This fog is so thick, you'd think it was red tape.

I love bureaucracy. As happy as we are with the patient care at Mayo, the communication lines are a different story. First, our plan was to get an appointment at Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in NYC, but things got complicated. From what I understand, it is Mayo's policy to send records only after 2 (TWO) requests. Of course we did not know this, so only requested that it be sent a mere one time. Then, by the time we figured that out, getting an appointment at Sloan would have taken us 2 weeks into our scheduled chemo treatments, and of course, Sloan doesn't want to look at her unless she has not yet started treatment.

Yesterday was supposed to be the day we found out the when's, why's and wherefore's about the chemo from the local treatment center, but for some reason after waiting over an hour, they had no records from Mayo either. Nor did the local plastic surgeon with whom Trela has an appointment tomorrow.

At any rate, the confusion has left us weary. Luckily, Trela's mother Fran is in town to take some of the pressure off, and we're able to keep our heads above water.

As long as the next months aren't as confusing as today has been.

Carpe Diem.

Decisions, decisions

Just a quick update -- my biopsy results were normal as predicted by our cryptic phone message Friday afternoon. My next appointment will be Monday, August 21st with my local oncologist. Presumably that will set my chemo schedule, but we have a potential of meeting with doctors at Sloan Kettering in New York, reportedly the best with my particular kind of cancer. In order to meet with them I can't begin any treatments, so our decision on whether or not to meet with them is still a bit up in the air. Ideally they'd be willing to just look over my file and give us input, but who knows if that's something they'll do or not. I just hate to delay treatment another two weeks. We'll update you when we know more! Carpe diem - Trela

A busy week

Wednesday we went to Mayo for a "routine" appointment, the initial exam and consult with the radiation oncologist, and an expansion. I think our stress levels would have been a lot different had the appointments been in the other order, because the expansion seems to have caused some redness and irritiation of the skin over the left breast. Since it is possible for angiosarcoma to present as a redness of the skin, we had to go back the next day for a biopsy.

Late Friday we got a message cryptically stating that we shouldn't worry over the weekend, but to call next week for detailed results from the biopsy. Good news I think, but sometimes HIPPA is very annoying.

So Friday was our 5th anniversary, and it just so happened that Kevin Cosner was at the Field of Dreams with his band and then a showing of the movie. Thinking that sounded like fun, we headed there immediately after work. Unfortunately for us, it seems that many other people had the same idea, and we arrived just moments too late to ride the shuttle from Beckman High. One of the parking attendants directed us to additional parking near the Field, so away we went. Faulty information. On the positive note, we did hear Cosner's band performing from the road while we sat for 40 minutes awaiting the bad news.

Instead of the movie, we decided to re-create our first date, so we went to Dubuque to House of China. We got a bottle of wine afterward and headed home, but were too tired to open it after the long day.

For now, we have an appointment in a week to get started with the chemotherapy. Trela starts school this week with some in-services, so she'll have a few days of work in before the chemo starts.

Carpe Diem.

Just Checking In

Hi all! Nothing new to report but thought I would check in to keep the readers happy. I'm probably at 80% Trela-power these days, by 8pm or so I'm pretty tired, but I've been able to do a few things during the day. Extensive gardening is still out, but I can do a bit at a time and feel like I've accomplished something. I haven't driven since surgery but my little Volvo seems relieved that I'm not putting many miles on it these days! A little bit of Tylenol sees me through the day and I'm very happy to be off of the more intensive pain killers which seemed to have had an amnesiatic (is that a word?) effect on me. I definitely think I had surgery last week... lost about 9 days in there somewhere.

Anyway, above is the aforementioned "Superdawg" which my oncologist and I bonded while discussing (why I felt more comfortable with a man because he had seen giant hot dogs on the roof of a building is still unclear...). A great friend of mine from early elementary school sent me a magnet of the place. Thanks, Marianne! Made me grin.

Thanks for the continuous comments, emails, and cards! It's like Christmas all of the time! - Carpe diem - Trela

Let Her Eat Cake

No great surprises at Mayo yesterday... we met with my oncologist who reviewed the surgical report with us. No new information, nothing better, nothing worse, so we're pretty much where we were before the meeting. We are definitely going to be doing chemotherapy (Doc keeps using the word "preventative" before the word chemo and I LOVE that sound.), probably starting right around the time I head back to work. That should be fun. (Adam, insert sarcasm lights around that sentence.)

We'll be meeting with a radiation oncologist on the 9th to determine if radiation is even something we'll be pursuing, and the chemo schedule will probably be set up based on that.

Regardless, it will be about a six month chemo deal and we'll need to bid my lovely locks farewell. Pantene has a new program (Pantene Beautiful Lengths)that requires only 8 inches instead of the 10 inches required by Locks of Love, so I'm going to look into that before my treatment starts. Plus, though I love the cause for Locks of Love, Pantene's program works with a company that makes wigs for women who've lost hair due to cancer treatment... seems a bit more appropriate.

Spirits are still good, appetite is returning to normal, my pain level is really excellent (which is good since I've got about a day and a half of pain meds left), and other than it being bloody hot outside everything else is well! My appointment this week (since apparently I'm meeting a subconscious goal to head to Minnesota at least once a week) is purely cosmetic to check in with my plastic surgeon. As long as there are no infections that should be a piece of cake... which I'll be eating on Monday to celebrate #31 (yikes!). Should be an interesting year. Carpe diem - Trela

Membership Has Its Privileges

When I told one of my friends I had cancer he, a rather classy guy and cancer survivor himself (who will probably read that say, "rather?" and be mildly offended), welcomed me to the club.

And then he promptly told me to get over it.

I think it was the best non-in person slap in the face he could have delivered, and it was of course exactly what I needed. One of his other thoughts, though, reminded me of all of the privileges that cancer carries with it. This involved a brief discussion of the fun and games derived from counting the sad little puppy dog faces one receives in a day when delivering the news to various people we encountered. I don't think he meant it as a challenge, but I tried it out on the couch salesperson first. Puppy Count? Trela: 1, SofaMart, nada

Anyway, here sits my comfy new privilege, my oasis in the chaos, my place to relax, rejuvenate, and recover. And to remember the poor girl's puppy dog face when she tried to figure out if there was a way to rush our order...

If you have been in our house you know we needed new furniture to seat actual adults in our family room anyway, so this couch was simply a matter of time. Bold, red, and GIGANTIC may not have been a cancer-free choice of mine, but currently it's my favorite symbol of recovery. Membership does have it's privileges... especially when it comes with stain guard.

We're headed to Mayo today for my first post-surgical meeting with my oncologist up there. I'm feeling pretty well (woke up with my arm above my head and NOT a lot of pain, so that's a good sign) so far. We're anticipating finding out more about my treatment schedule while we're there today. All for now! Carpe diem - Trela

Still Sleepy

Well, things other than narcotic induced slumber are good here. I think the most memorable quote of the week went something like, "Percocet makes me nauseous. Could I have some please." So, it seems as though it does a good job on the pain.

There is a drain tube that needs to come out, it is looking like that time has come, so we'll be heading north on Wed. to have that removed, then again on Friday for a follow up consult with the oncologist. Hopefully once the drain tube is out the pain will go away enough to cut back to some less potent drugs.

Other than that not much here is new.

Until next time.

Being Sleepy Makes Me Tired

Either daytime television is boring and tiresome, or a massive, invisible weight has been affixed to my eyelids. Certianly I cannot blame all this sleep on a few little white powdery pills, or small incisions. Had great hopes to finally finish reading several wonderful books I started this summer, including the Yorkshire Detective, recommended by my Dad, which is in sore need of my attention, but unfortunately it and several other potentially riviting paperbacks have lain abandoned on the pillow where Eric normally sleeps.

Hopefully I'll be able to divert my attention from the awful daytime TV somtime soon, because otherwise I feel my brain will turn into a pile of mush similar to the applesauce, which has been my favorite meal for the last few days.

Thanks to all of you who haven't been too scared to call me, and to the rest of you, please don't feel that you can't call. If I am asleep, I won't hear the phone and you won't bother me in the slightest.

Extra special thanks to my in-laws for taking care of the children today so I didn't have to deal with them, and also to their aunt Kathy, for providing endless amusement, even though Cavanaugh seemed to scream a lot today. Love my kids, but it sure was nice to hear them scream and know I didn't have to get up today.


------- (change of author)

On another topic, Trela's wounds from round 1 have been healing nicely. Ironically, the two places that have hurt her the most are the busted lower lip (it really looks like someone punched her in the mouth... it wasn't me, I swear!) and the base of her heel on her right foot... Don't ask me how that happened either.

Anyway, as the title implies, she HAS been sleeping a lot, but that's good, and I've noticed a great deal of improvement over the last several days, her actual wounds have been healing nicely, and it looks like we'll have to go back to get the drain out early if things continue as they are now.

While we are in the mood to be thanking in-laws, I have to give special thanks to Trela's dad, Terry. He's made so many trips to Iowa, Rochester, Chicago, Moo Roo (mmMMMmmMMM, Ice Cream) and been at every appointment, amd her mom, Fran, who has been here whenever she's not in the air. We can't forget to mention her other in-laws, my dad, who was also in Rochester, but made it home in time to mow our lawn, and put a window and door on our new porch/room, (with some prior help from Tom, Fritz, and of course John.

With all the flowers, food, and support, it is a bit overwhelming at times. About the only time superwoman here gets a bit misty is when she thinks of how great all the support has been... Thanks.

Round One to Trela

Things continue to progress nicely. Trela is feeling better this morning, she has gotten up and walked around, though that did make her dizzy. The staff has informed us that we can go whenever she is ready, and the discharge has been ordered. Oddly, morphine did not help much with the pain, but she took some percocet and that helped a lot.

We have a couple scrips for the pain waiting for us in the pharmacy and unless something unforseen happens in the next few hours, we'll be heading home this afternoon. Hopefully the trip home will not be too difficult for her.

We know this is going to be a long battle, but at this point we are very optimistic and appreciative of everyone's support to this point. I'll post again when we get home.

Back from surgery

Well, she's finally back. Sounds like everything went well, and though Trela is still very tired and a bit groggy from the meds, she is doing very well.

The reconstruction went well, and though she'll continue to need weekly follow up over the next couple months, all that needs to happen now on that front is for healing and streching to occur, in that order.

Sounds like the'll continue to poke, prod, and move her around for the next couple days, but they'll either release he tomorrow or Friday.

Thanks for all the great comments we've recieved both in this blog and the notes, cards, calls, and e-mails we've gotten. Every time we get one it's like opening a little Christmas present and we really appreciate all of them, even if we haven't responded yet, keep 'em coming!

Early good news

I just finished talking to the surgeon. The first procedure is complete. Dr. Degnim removed the tumor and three lymph nodes. Everything wentsmoothly and Trela is doing fine. In order to make sure that they removed all the cancer, they do pathology tests on the removed tissue immediately. The 3 lymph nodes were all cancer free according to the early tests, and she was able to remove the entire tumor and achive clear tumor free margins.

The tumor had not spread to the underlying muscle, also good news, though it was close to the skin, so they had to take a little more skin than they had planned on.

By now I'm sure that reconstruction (the placement of the expander under the skin has begun, and it is about a 90 minute procedure, then 1-2 hours of recovery time.

More to come...

And So We Wait

Another long day is on tap. The plastic surgeon has vacation scheduled starting this afternoon, so as he was kind enough to squeeze us in, we got to be the first ones on the surgical slate today. Our report time was 5:45AM. Registration and surgical prep took until a little after 8, and the procedures should take until around 12:15 or so. (Hopefully the plastic surgeon won't be in too big a hurry to get to his vacation.)

As a side note, I love modern technology as I'm sitting here in the waiting room on laptop blogging. It sure makes information dissemination easier.

I'll post some more later once we get an update.

The Journey

They say life is a journey, not a destination, so instead of a daily summary, I'm going to post a blow by blow account of the day's activities, so we can all walk this road together.

6:00 AM Trela, Eric, and Terry slowly drag themselves out of bed, after a flurry of suds begin the relatively easy drive to Rochester. Trela takes this opportunity to snuggle with Cavanaugh's Pink Puppy and Kile's blankey, and take a nap. (I wish I had a picture.)

9:00 AM We arrived for the appointments. First on the list was Nurse Practitioner, Lori. As with all of the practitioners here at Mayo, Lori had an outstanding couch side manner. She answered almost all of our questions, and put out an APB on answers to questions she didn't know.

(Imagine the voice of Jack Bauer)

The following takes place between the hours of 10 AM and 11 AM

Time for the surgeon and her entourage. Dr. Degnim, a nurse, a student, and her resident stopped by for a group recon mission. After a brief exam and a succinct conversation, we decided on a simple mastectomy with a sentinel node biopsy. The belief is that it is unlikely that there is nodal involvement, but thoroughness is the mantra at this clinic.

The following takes place between the hours of 11 AM and 4 PM

Next up is the oncology crew. Dr. Okuno is preceded by his fellowship student, who does yet another exam. This is probably the best appointment of the day because we got so many answers. Trela was immediately comfortable with Dr. Okuno as he had lived in Chicago and knew the location of Super Dawg. (I can think of other reasons to trust a physician, but I try to steer clear of Trela's logic.) During this eventful appointment, we charted our course for the next several months. More or less.

First as many of you already know, the surgery is the main intervention, however Dr. Okuno recommended a preventive course of chemo, which we also expected. The chemo will likely be administered as a combination 2 different drug regimens 5x weekly for 3 weeks with one week off. That 4 week cycle will be repeated 4x with each drug as I understand. We're not certain of these timetables, our brains have somewhat filled up by this point.

Also, while we expected the mastectomy, we weren't quite prepared for the next 2 hours. After a phone consultation with the radiation oncologist (at some point radiation may be part of the treatment, that is still unclear) we learned it would be advisable to begin reconstruction at the same time as the mastectomy.

After a quick meeting with Dr. Williams who we had consulted with 2 weeks ago, we were shuttled over to the plastic surgeon, weighed, measured, and photographed for posterity. No lunch for us today!

That sentinel node scan to find the location for biopsy took up the next 90 minutes and after the 5th gown of the day was changed back to street clothes, we went directly to pre-admission at the business office, followed by an Anne Rice experience to count some white blood cells before surgery.

4PM and we are ready for a nap!

On the bright side, after a phone call to the Hotel de Grammie, we were informed that potty training efforts are showing signs of success. (Signs of success in potty training are pretty visible) **authors note: Trela strongly objects to the imagery of the previous statement, as well as any grammietical or punktuation arrors kontaied with in.

115 degrees. Fortunately the technical genius waited until late in the 8th inning to show us the temperature on the field... fortunately our seats remained feet, then inches away from sunlight for nearly the entire game. Seeing Pujols homer in an otherwise relatively uneventful game didn't hurt either. (I know, I know, I'm a complete traitor to my Northwest side Chicago roots. If it helps I still can't stand to watch the Cards play the Cubs...)

We're getting ready to leave for Rochester early tomorrow morning for my series of appointments beginning at 9am. I feel as if perhaps I should be more nervous, but I've been so overwhelmed by support recently it's really carrying me through. I wanted to make sure to tell you how much I appreciate all of the comments left on this blog -- especially by people who don't really know me at all (ok, my sister's friends rock, that much is clear). Fewer of my friends have posted anything but I know that's because they're too busy calling me to see what I need, to remind me they are there practically at my beck and call. It's been hard for me to ask for help, but I'm getting better!

My co-workers and I spent a great evening making 12 gourmet meals through Everyone's a Chef -- such a great gesture that we'll continue to reap the benefits of! (everyonesachef.com, by the way... they're in Cedar Falls). Your thoughtfulness humbles me.

On that note, I'm off to finish packing and get some sleep before tomorrow. Eric will post sometime Wednesday I'd imagine. I'm going to be too busy concentrating on kicking this thing in it's ugly little tail. Carpe diem. - Trela

Appointments scheduled.

Well, after a few days of waiting the appointments at Mayo have been scheduled for the 18th of July. At this point it looks like we will be meeting with 3 specialists, Dr. Williams, who is a breast specialist, Dr. Okuno, the oncologist, and Dr. Degnim, the surgeon. It looks like if all goes as planned the surgery will take place on the Wednesday the 19th.

We'll know much more about the plan for chemotherapy and radiation treatments after the appointment on the 18th. Until then we'll be going on a scheduled trip to St. Louis to visit Bob and Judy and take in a Cardinals game with Chris and Leisa.

GO CARDS!!!