Recovering

That is what I am doing…recovering.

Friday I went into school to do just a few things, going to take it easy. I stood in David’s office and felt lightheaded and needed to sit down. I recovered, went down to my classroom and felt the same way off and on. I did not feel great, did not feel like myself. I felt faint of heart. I felt super spacey and unable to focus. I could really only be good for the most mundane tasks.

I finally called Mike and then my heart doctor, Dr. Mignone. They made an appointment for 2:30 that afternoon. This is not how I want to spend my life, coming and going constantly from the doc. Thursday the oncologist, Friday, the cardiologist…whose life is this??? And I feel terrible dragging Mike through it all, I’m such a wimp about driving and really did not trust myself to drive myself up to Cherry HIll.

As it turns out, it was a good thing, of course. I was “dried out”, a little dehydrated. They had me walk 6 minutes back and forth in the hall, which I could do. I got a little extra light headed 2 minutes in, but maintained from that point. Dr. Mignone pulled in a portable ultrasound machine and we got to watch my heart. He said it actually looked stronger already (woo! hoo!) but saw the spot that showed a bit of dehydration. I got to see my liver (that thing is bloody hell huge!) and apologized profusely to it for all I had done to it, all the cancer had done to it and it’s most recent abuse by ablation. It forgave me and we came to an agreement to work together from now on.file:///Users/janetosborn/Downloads/IMG_4172.JPG Dr. Mignone asked, “Do you have a favorite salty treat?” Oh, my….how does one decide? But, “Yes!” is the only answer to that question. Then he took my note book that we have been keeping since late June of last year and added notes to one page. He wrote out the upsides and downsides of each of my heart prescriptions. Two of my prescriptions will now depend on what my weight and blood pressure show each day. I feel like I understand the meds better and what I want from them, and how to regulate them myself. He is an excellent teacher and a fabulous doctor. I think I won the doctor lottery somewhere along the way.

We left and headed to Zippy’s…I was ravenous…for our salty treat! Yum…burger and fries. There was a chance I overdid my salt date, but the scale in the morning showed just what he had wanted it to show…so all is well and it was extremely satisfying.

We got ready as fast as we could and headed out into the sea of Friday night traffic and went to Keffrey and Janelle’s wedding in Tacoma. What a lovely evening and the escape from “sick land” that I needed. And Jennifer Annable took this  picture of us that many of you have already seen on FB…..but just in case. You can see my hair is growing! No chemo since June 9!

We wanted a quiet weekend but ended up quite busy. We bought a gently used 2015 red Toyota Prius Saturday morning. No matter how much you already know what you want and you think you’ll be in and out of there in no time, I think that took 4 hours. But that deed is done. I have a car that will stay dry and get me up to cardio rehab 3 days a week and take me really anywhere I want to go.

Saturday night we got to babysit our little June bug from next door. She will be 2 in October and she is as sweet, cute and smart as they come. She completely entertained us for the evening! Thanks Lizzie and Vince for sharing her with us.

Sunday night the kids, Maggie, Michael and Eva came over and we had pizza with Lizzie, Vince and June, and Lizzie’s grandma; Liz. This was our goodbye for a while pizza dinner with them. They are headed down to Austin for 2-4 months so Vince can help finish up the Austin Bouldering Company’s gym. I’m so happy for Lizzie and June that they get to go, too! We’ll miss you so Lizzie, Vince and June!!!

Jenni Haynes found a sub for me! Hillary, whose husband has worked with Mike in Renton these past few years, is a friend of Jenni, has little kids at home and is just heading back in the classroom and only wants to sub part time and I’ve already met her at one of our pizza parties and she’s great…what more could I ask for! Thank you Jenni for thinking of Hillary and thank you Hillary for taking this on! I am so grateful!

Today is Monday. I’m going to head into school today and get a few more things done. Hopefully today I can do more than just put stuff away! Tomorrow is our official first day with staff and kids don’t come until next Wednesday. I have one week to build up my muster!

Thank you all for your love, support, best wishes and more through this most recent bump in the road. I am optimistic and feeling good.

Have a great week!

With love,

Janet

And since I never got to finish adding my pics from Ireland I'll just add a few from the end of our trip now and then... A few from Dublin...