I got the results of my latest MRI, and they're fantastic! The scan looks significantly better than my last one. The tumor is picking up less of the dye they inject in me. The part of the tumor that was picking up the dye was the part that was more worrisome, so this is very good! The tumor also has some water in it, which is consistent with tumor necrosis (meaning it's dying!).
As most of you are well aware now, I am moving back to WI on the 17th. I'll be living in Madison with Nate. Mom and Dad are flying out on the 14th to help me pack up and head on out of the Yampa Valley. We'll be in Madison on the 18th.
There are definitely things I'll miss, and a few that I won't, but it's time for me to be closer to family and friends.
I had another MRI on Friday, and for the fourth time in a row, I got ill when they injected the dye into me. Fun times. I'll find out what's going on in my brain on Monday. Hopefully everything is continuing to break down and die right. Unfortunately, I start my next round of chemo on Tuesday. Dr. Uhm decided to double my pills, so now I get lovely nausea and the anti-nausea meds don't seem to get rid of it.
On a good note, my hair is growing back, and you can barely see the bald spots anymore. I don't always have to wear a hat now!
I finished my first big project for my business: 180 wedding invitations for my friends' wedding. That was quite the task, but I was happy to do that for them. I also learned that I will not be working with Paper Source ever again. Check out my business blog for pictures.
Nate came to visit for 6 days! We had several adventures; the first being me driving down to Denver to get him. I swear he is cursed when it comes to airports. Because of runway construction in Denver, his flight was delayed an hour, causing him to miss the connection to Steamboat. *Smacks hand on forehead*....
Now if I had been thinking, I would've packed my bags and we would've stayed at a hotel Wednesday night. However, I thought his bags had to go to Steamboat and that we had to come back. So, we got real familiar with I-70.
On Thursday, we drove back down to Denver for the Rise Against/Rancid concert at Red Rocks. Before the show we ate at a cool Mexican restaurant in Morrison, sat on the rooftop patio. Luckily, the rain held off and the concert was a blast! I was so thankful we had gotten a hotel for Thursday night. There's no way we could've driven back to Steamboat that night.
We drove back through Estes Park, Rocky Mountain National Park, and Grand Lake. RMNP is so beautiful! It was great to see some elk and a moose too.
The never-ending rain in Steamboat foiled our hiking plans :( but we still had fun just hanging out.
On Sunday, we went up to the hot springs. As we were driving up there, a wicked thunderstorm rolled in--lightning and thunder like crazy! Needless to say, we waited in the suburban until the storm rolled through before getting in the springs.
Nate took off Monday morning and actually made it back to Madison without any problems! Yay!
There's too many pictures to upload here, so follow this link to see the rest.
http://www2.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=1204846013/a=123328029_123328029/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish/
Ta ta for now.
Love Always,
Kaitlin
Three years ago, on the Saturday of Memorial Day Weekend, it was just like any other Saturday in college, except that I had to work. After work, I was in the Eau Claire Target and my mom called. Worst phone call of my life. I was too far away to make it to the hospital in time.
Grandma, I love you and I miss you.
Please see my other blog for the St. Croix USVI recap and pictures.
http://sboatspringsadventures.blogspot.com
And I'm ready to go!
I leave for St. Croix tomorrow morning at 4:20 am. My first flight doesn't leave until 6:30 am, but the taxi likes to pick you up nice and early. Nate and I won't meet until 9:00 pm in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and our flight to St. Croix doesn't land until 10:30. Yea, that's right I'm going to be flying all day, 18 hours. My great aunt Carol and uncle Owen will pick us up from the airport and take us to Cottages by the Sea.
I.am.so.excited.
7 days of sleeping, eating, and RELAXING.
S-l-e-e-p. I finally got some sleep. And I only had to get up twice. Hallelujah!
I actually couldn't believe my eyes when I woke up the last time; it was 10:50.
And I could've slept more.
Hopefully this is a sign that the steroids are starting to chill out. I think my body is freaking out, though. I was so jittery all day today, which isn't very helpful when I'm trying to craft. Regardless, I still got some stuff made today that I can put up for sale at the Hayden Marketplace. I didn't get everything done that I wanted to, so I'll have to work on the baby albums and the memory box after work this week.
And in 6 days... I'm going to be sitting on the beach, sipping something with Cruzan Rum in it.
I just got an e-mail this morning that we've been given a free upgrade to a different cottage! So, when you check out that link, we'll actually be staying in Charthouse.
Happy Little Surprise :)
Well the good news is that I talked to Dr. Uhm, and I now have a schedule to start tapering off of these devil drugs. So, on Monday I'll get to knock down the dosage a bit, and I'll be all done hopefully on the 28th. I'm supposed to stay on a small dosage until my next MRI, which I'm hoping to schedule on the 28th. This will give plenty of time for it to get Fed-Exed to Dr. Uhm at the Mayo Clinic, and be all good to go before Nate and I leave for vacation on May 2nd.
Vacation and off of these steroids cannot come soon enough.
Speaking of vacation, this is where we are staying, in the Coco Palm cottage: http://www.caribbeancottages.com/index.html
The cottage is in Frederiksted, which is just right down the hill from my great uncle and aunt, Owen & Carol.
We're so excited to go!
Not much else in news. I've started really advertising for my business, and I will have some of my creations for sale very soon. Check out my business blog ;)
In no particular order...
1) I have never eaten a fast food burger in my life. And after reading Fast Food Nation, I NEVER will. Gag!
2) I throw hissy fits about this brain tumor crap sometimes. I'm getting entirely sick of being stuck in a place all week where the smell makes me nauseated (Don't get me wrong, I am grateful that the Hope Lodge exists and is free to stay in. But, do they have to make it smell so dang bad?!). I am sick of being generally nauseated. I'm just getting crabby in general. But I'm entitled, right? More than anything, I am sick of people taking my blood!!
3) I have to take two Lorazepam (anti-anxiety drugs), lie down, close my eyes, and pretend it's not happening to get my blood drawn. And I'm still a big sissy even then. I hyperventilate in the waiting room, and my face/eyes spasm the whole time I'm sitting in that dang chair. And I have to have this done 4 out of 6 weeks because I'm doing chemo and radiation at the same time. Crap...
4) I like peanut butter and bacon sandwiches. Well normally I do, this radiation bit has me wanting to hurl at the smell of meat. Before you get sick, let me explain. When I was little, my dad, my sister and I didn't like tomatoes or mayo. That makes it kind of hard to eat BLT's! So my dad came up with peanut butter and bacon sandwiches. They all eat some form of BLT now, but I still can't stand tomato or mayo, so... it has to be bacon and super chunky peanut butter :)
5) I officially want to be a vampire. Well, I want to be Bella anyways! The Twilight series sucked me in like a little teenage girl.
6) I have a group of lady friends, most of which I have never met in person. I swear to God they keep me sane sometimes. I love you ladies!
7) I spend an obscene amount of money of plane tickets flying back to WI. However, it's worth it! And I can think of someone else who agrees completely.
8) I sleep with three stuffed animals. And they have names. Pumpkin (cat), Babycakes (cat), and Teddy (teddy bear, obviously). Oh and a blanky. Yes, I am five years old.
9) Tyson and Hormel products make me want to hurl. Yuck!
10) I hate doing the dishes. At times, I have huge stacks of dishes in my sink and on my counter. Sometimes, I wait until almost all of my dishes are dirty before I will even try to load the dishwasher, despite my normal clean freak nature. This is how much I hate doing dishes.
11) I despise smoking. It's a filthy habit and the smoke gives me a headache. I absolutely love that Colorado is smoke-free in bars/restaurants/etc; I wish the whole country would go smoke-free.
12) On that same note, I have never smoked anything in my life (one exception, I took one puff off pipe tobacco. I don't grasp the concept of inhaling though). No cigarettes, no pot, nothing.
13) Is my lucky number. It was my number all through sports in high school.
14) Speaking of high school, I loved wearing spandex for volleyball. It was so much more comfortable and easy to move! I liked them so much I still wore spandex under my shorts and pants for basketball and softball.
15) I really want a peanut butter sandwich right now (without bacon), despite the peanut recall. The radiation really limits which foods will not make me hurl, and right now, that sounds especially tasty.
16) Steroids are the devil. I'm sure most of you have heard me bitch about them on more than one occasion, but they truly are. And the side effects seem to have lasted long after I stopped taking them. They do their job for sure (I had momentary relief of headaches), but the side effects suck. I feel bad for people who have to be on them for longer than a month.
17) I am losing hair my by the handful, and only today I found a spot that is starting to bald. Apparently I have more hair than I thought! But the sensation of it falling out and the fact that it is absolutely everywhere (I'm shedding worse than a golden retriever) is a rather pain in the ass.
18) After brain surgery, I had to stop watching hospital shows for a month. And as soon as I started watching House again, sure enough... they were doing a stereotactic biopsy. Things I could've gone without seeing.
19) I still have to choke back tears when I think about my grandma. It's been almost three years, but I can't help it.
20) I have fleeting thoughts about running away. Not like running away to Colorado to live (wait, I already did that!), but seriously running away to Europe. Not permanently, but just for a couple months. Anyone want to go?
21) I haven't slept normally in months. At first it was the steroids. Now, who the hells knows. Some combination of chemo, radiation, and stress. I want to sleep for more than 8 hours without the help of AmbienCR, which only works some of the time. And I want to sleep for a consecutive amount of hours.
22) I love Harry Potter, and I don't care how geeky it is. I have read the entire series twice, and will probably read a couple of the books again before the sixth movie comes out. I also wish it was real. Eff this, I'm going to Hogwarts!
23) The age I will be in April. Nobody likes you when you're 23.
24) I am obsessed with plucking my eyebrows. Those of you who knew me in middle school should understand this (read: I had a unibrow). I must be traumatized from then, and this is what's fueling my obsession.
25) I cannot wait to go on vacation. Nate and I need a vacation after this radiation vacation.
I stole this from Jessie :)
