Merry Christmas... Eve!!!

Merry Christmas Eve everyone! I'm trying to write this post on my phone so please bare with me I've only done this on my computer. Autocorrect here we come!

Let's start with yesterday, the day of testing. And I mean day, we were there from 9-5! I should be getting paid for this.. ;) The Pulmonary Function Test was first, which I went to with my mom and she ran into a friend from bonco who talked to us for a minute. Then the male nurse took us back and made me do all these weird breathing tests. I kept laughing at first because it was just awkward and I had to wear the ugliest nose plugs. (Did I mention this was by far the hottest technician of the day??) Anyways my awesome mom
 got some pics of everything. 

Doing the PFT with the weird noseplugs

Then on to the Echocardiogram where the tech put on about four or five stickers on me that hooked up to this machine and then he used that awfully cold gel they use for ultrasounds and did an ultrasound of my heart. This was by far the coolest thing! And from what they both said I have a healthy heart and lungs. (The reason they tested me for that stuff is to make sure I am strong enough for chemo and to have a starting point to see how much damage/if any the chemo will do.) Easy day so far! 

This is an upside down view of the four chambers of my heart

Then my dad met up with us and up to the bone marrow appointment we went! While we were waiting in the waiting room a bunch of people came up and the cutest little girl handed me a blanket and said, "Merry Christmas!" They called it a Christmas blanket and it was seriously the sweetest thing.

My Christmas blanket <3

 Back to the bone marrow, it was a nurse practitioner that did it, and she was really sweet but really tiny. I kept thinking, "YOU'RE gonna stick a needle into my bone? Are you even strong enough?" Well she was! She said she had done at least one of these probably everyday she's worked for the last seven years. She was awesome and numbed me up pretty good, I couldn't feel a thing! My mom, however, didn't do as well. She was trying to videotape it so I could watch everything after and ended up passing out onto the floor! I had my head turned away from her and my dad so I could talk to the doctor so she gave me a play by play. "She's laying on the floor right now." "She just passed out.." Needless to say we had a little laugh about it! The whole procedure was a walk in the park. I'm a little sore today but I think that comes with the territory, it's not horrible pain. 

That's the NP drawing my bone marrow and my mom laying on the floor waking up from passing out!

Then we went to the PET scan and they made us sit in the waiting room for a half an hour before I told my dad to go see what's up. Turns out the lovely receptionists were too busy gossiping to let my doctor know I was there. I won't lie I was not being very nice at that point. Anyways I go back with my doctor finally and she apologized probably four times and then pumped me full of radioactive sugar through an IV, took away my phone, turned the lights off and said okay I'll see you in 75 minutes! Try not to move very much. Um hello best news I've heard all day! Finally a nap!! It was seriously awesome. Then she came and got me put me on this skinny bed with some blankets and strapped me down. The bed moved in and out of this tube for about 25 minutes and then I was free to go home, eat, and of course take another nap. Listen, this cancer stuff is exhausting. Literally, even on days when I don't have to do anything, I am so tired I just want to sleep all day. That's probably my main symptom right now, headaches are pretty frequent, my whole body is so itchy, and the best part.. Night sweats! It's not too bad but I wake up every night so hot and sweaty. ;) haha literally. It generally doesn't take too long to fall back asleep though. And that's it! So if you want to know how I'm doing, I'm still pretty normal. Just little annoying things!

So this morning I had my surgery to remove a lymph node and do a more in depth biopsy so the lab can get an exact idea of what's going on. I was first on the schedule so we got there at about 6 AM and they started drugging me up at about 7 am and off they took me. Before they wheeled me off though the doctor came in to give an overview of the procedure and all of that fun stuff. Just as he was leaving so the anesthesiologists could get started he said, "Hey for your trip this weekend you wouldn't happen to be flying delta would you? I have these free meal tickets that expire at the end of the year. I was going to throw them away but then I remembered that you were about to go on a vacation so I brought them for you just in case." Well turns out I am flying delta and turns out I have the coolest Dr.! He literally brought them just for me! 

This was tonight on our way to Leslie's Xmas Eve party!

I'm so unbelievably thankful for everyone's kind words! It's so humbling and I am so grateful for each and everyone one of you!!!! Xoxox


MERRY CHRISTMAS!