Tuesday: Results for Abdominal MRI, ultrasound,bone scan-Iron Infusion- Furniture/school shopping

Another marathon day has started, I really am thankful for all the endurance, experience in scheduling,planning that my triathlon training has given me.

Workouts:
Woke up at 4:30( if I eat a lot I sleep less), and decided to go to the 5:45 AM spinning class which I used to teach. To my delight my favorite instructor Maria was teaching yey ! Had a great time.


Logged into work for a short time to catch up with a couple of issues still on my plate.

Received a call from the oncologists nurse ( brrr.. don't you just hate seeing the caller id of the hospital on the phone after you have done a diagnostic test) cause I figured out that if everything is cool.. they might not even bother calling you, only if something is a 'oh oh' they call you.(not 100% correct but in the majority of cases you get a nice little card saying that your yearly pap is normal, whereas if there is a problem you get a phone call right ? )

Anyways the results were GOOD ! ( see ! there was no need to panic)

Bonescan:
My skeleton is nice and strong except something I might have done to my left ankle at one point(in their terms healing trauma versus arthritis)

Pelvic Ultrasound:
all cool to go, nothing wrong !

Abdominal MRI:
aha ! this is why they had to call me. It appears that I have a small hemangioma in the liver.

Me : Oh ok.. what does that mean is that bad ?????
Nurse: that means that you do not do anything about it, nopes nothing related to your BC you just have to notify your PCP about it.

Phewww...

Later I found out that one of my friends E had it and also my mom has one too.

So far I have passed all the tests with flying colors ( well except my iron absorption level which my PCP had said was common among female endurance athletes)

Rewarded myself for passing these tests with a Tall Decaf Soy Latte from Starbucks on the way to getting my iron-infusion.

Arrived at MD Anderson outpatient chemo center with my mom. Not that I have seen any other facilities but it still looked pretty impressive,clean. The personnel were special,they must have a special character test that they are put to before being assigned to the chemo unit.

As always I walked in with my Playmate little cooler (apples,bananas, 1/2 sub, yogurt, almonds, walnuts) I do not go anywhere without it.

Setup is 4 patients per chemo room. Chemo rooms are seperated by partitions that are glass on the top so you see the heads of other people in the other room but do not hear anything. Everyone has their own little tv and a recliner.They served us lunch ( sandwich, chips, drink .. cookies)And we also were offered freshly baked cookies.. warm Cindy my nurse gave me a warm blanket
Oh boy they do know how to pamper people here.

Only 1 guest per patient is allowed, so the visitors can rotate waiting in the family room. (bummer there goes M's idea of a Chemo party !)

First they did a 15 minute IV with some iron to see whether I was reacting, when I passed that they flushed it with saline IV then gave me 2 Tylenols orally, and Benadryl IV ( I did not totally understand why they gave these, Cindy said it was to minimize/prevent side effects ?? )

I was chatting incessently, asked my mom who came with me to take a picture of me. I bet the nurse could not wait until the Benadryl kicked in so I would shut up.

We had the same birthdate (November 18) with the girl K who was in the next chair !She was going through a rough time with pain management. We talked about the support groups which I really believe in, and she promised to contact the social worker about the Mind,Body Spirit group at MD Anderson, I hope she keeps her promise she was a really nice lady I would like to see her again sometime.

They started the main Iron IV which is going to take 4 hours(rusty red colored stuff.. asked whether it was a biological material or chemical, meaning whether it was harvested from donated blood or not ) Cindy said it was chemical, just Iron. Asked whether I should be expecting anything after this such as change in the pee color (you know when you are a triathlete when you always check the color of your ..) she laughed and said no. Some people might experience some aches but that was the minority. No limitations on activities either.

Just as the Benadryl started to kick in M came, she should be thankful cause that slowed me down to a normal persons communication state. We chatted for about an hour that was nice.

After she left I tried to nap, on and off.. could not read or watch tv, all the others in the room had left already.

At the end of the 4 hours, the Benadryl had worn off and my IV finished yey ! I was able to drive felt good.

Continued the furniture shopping with my mom and settled on 2 burgundy wing chairs from Kanes which had the best price/performance ratio. Completed the shopping with a small coffee table from Bombay at the mall.

Picked up my younger daughter from the Y where I ran into one of my Breast Friends Evelyn !

Went to Wallmart to do some school shopping.

Came home and literally crashed after getting dinner set (could not even clean it up)! I think although the Benadryls drowsy effect had worn off after 4 hours it still made me extremely tired. At the last 2 hours I was actually running on fumes, just as I do at the end of the run of an IM event.

Well Tuesday was the last day (if nothing else comes up) of medical tests/diagnostics, so from now on I just wait until the 31st. I should make use of this time in a good way to prepare for surgery and getting strong physically and mentally.

Tomorrow evening the bobbies are having a bracelet Making Party for me at Lisa P's house ! This is soo cool.