Endoscopy and Chemo down for this week!!

I have chemobrain very bad so I know my writing, misspells and grammer reflect this. Please excuse this. It is very embarressing but I know it will get better with time after chemo. :-)

Yesterday I had the endoscopy done. The nurses and doctor were wonderful. I had this procedure done in a different building at Emory. They were very efficient. Again, as soon as I started filling out my paperwork on my physical history the anestheiologist (sp), nurses and the doctor all started questioning me because of my age and condition. They kept saying that I fell into the "special" bucket.

The only problem I had was the nurses did not know how to access my port for my IV. They wanted to start it in my hand. I asked them for the best sticker and into my arm. She was a very sweet nurse but I thought she might be better at chopping lettuce on the salad bar. :-) They always say, "great veins this will be no problem" as they start digging into my vein. I've unfortunately have learned the difference. I felt bad for the nurses when they took me back to surgery. It was unbelievablely cold. I was shaking on the table and the nurses were all saying how cold they were. As I shivered I saw my blood pressure keep going up and I heard one of the nurses say we have to find the doctor and put her out. Her blood pressure is going to get too high to do this procedure! ha. I couldn't wait for the medicine at that point. They stuck it in so fast, I was sitting up on my side and I immediately fell to the bed. The doctor say, "whoa, I didn't know the anesthologist was going so fast and grabbed me! It was the last I knew......

They biopsied my esophagus, just to check and said I had a hiatus hernia. They took pictures of my stomach, small intenstine, and my esophasgus in color. I couldn't believe how clean my body looked on the inside. :-) Weird looking at your body internally like that but glad to see normal tissue rather than erosions or black. So things went pretty well.

They asked if they could use my name as Patient of the Month. They have churches and youth groups who use my name for prayer that month. It was encouraging to know that there would be others who wouldn't know me that would be praying and that the nurse at Emory felt that I was the one who should receive the honor.

Today I went for chemo. My lab appt. was at 7 a.m. and we finally got in around 8 am, which was supposed to be my chemo appt. so of course all my appts. got pushed forward. Once they looked at my body chemistry (what they call all the blood work they do on your body), I just made the cut-off to have chemo. 1200 on your white blood count is the cut-off and my count was 1280......so my NP was walking by and said that she didn't think I would make the next chemo round with my counts still being so low. It would cause delay after delay so..........she ordered the dreaded shot. She said with my age I will definitely get the additional aching and pains for several days as my body is trying to develop more white blood cells.

I want this over but I realized that this might interfere with a tea party that is being done in my honor next Saturday. It was going to be difficult enough to go but I had already told my body that it was going!!! I'm not sure with the additional pain if I'll be able to walk. We'll see it may be just fine. I'm not going to lie. I've tried to avoid it the whole time and now on my last treatment, it isn't an option!!! :-(

Right now, I'm jacked up on alot of steriods, nausea meds, all the chemo, etc. but I'm already feeling weak which I don't do as early in the process so I'm praying that I find relief sooner at the end if it is going to come on so quick! ugh.

I know I can do anything 1 more time. I just pray that the one more time is truly that. It just seems that something else keeps popping up. The great thing about it is that everytime they say that I need to fill out a boatload of information....they look online and say,"oh wow, you already have this taken care of". I tell them that I am the CEO of patients. I don't just stay in one area of the hospital, I just have to visit everyone...all the specialists, nurses, surgical teams...you name it. I walk in and people are waving at me. No matter which building or hospital. If it is Emory....they've seen me. Of course, it is nice for others to recognize you but I never thought it would be at medical facilities.

This morning they sent me to the back for a chemo nurse to open my port and set up all my lines. One of the nurses from the lab stopped me in the hallway and asked why I didn't come to see them. She said they were looking for me and wondered if they had done something wrong. I have no idea why they sent me to another area but I couldn't believe she even noticed. I have had to make Steve straighten up since people know us now. :-) No stealing hand cleaner, barf bags, etc.....they would just give it to him if he asked. ha.

Anyhoo-going to lay down, not feeling so well. Thank you for your prayers as always....we will soon be through the worst part of this journey, I claim in Jesus Name!!

Love to all,
Leah