Movin' On Up

I have just been switched to the VIP Room (room 25 because my nurses love me so much :_) Actually, the reason being that my former neighbor was very loud and his large and extended family just gathered outside my room in the elevator area partying away, not heeding the polite requests to move their shindig to the patio. So I'm in a really nice room now, one that had been remodeled, has a nicer view and is very "feng shui" - which I call anything that feels and looks good.

It's right next to the family room too which is convenient for my kids who are over there playing Pictionary right now. I can even hear them talking about it with my door open. If you're looking for me you'll just pass the nurses' station and head straight back.

My eyes have been closed all day and even now I type blindly - Mike will tell me how many errors I made on this blog before he corrects it for me and sends it out. I think I'm doing well, but who knows? The consensus seems to be that my eyes had been so severely dried out by the chemo that I got scratches on my corneas... these feel like razor blades int he eyes and I sent out prayer requests like crazy this morning. It improved in that as long as I keep my eyes closed it's not too bad, and when I open them it stings. I'm just going to have to wait patiently on the Lord for this one -- and He'll hear my cry.

Please pray for my mucositis - something that happens as a result of the chemo. It causes swelling and pain in my mouth, but I don't have blisters thank God. I am entering the low period and these thing are to be expected. I just forgot about it. God is good at erasing our memory of bad things so we don't feel apprehensive and can trust Him more easily, doing the hard things in life that we normally wouldn't choose.

I will be getting 2 units of blood this evening as I'm dipping lower on the hemoglobin. Oh and a crazy thing happened today where my blood pressure dropped really low... each day my doctors were giving me potassium because it was normal and they wanted to make sure it stayed normal, but then it was too high this a.m. 5.5 (vs. 5.1 which is high normal). It can affect your heart so they were very nervous even though I had no heart arrhythmia. So they wanted to inject Lasix - a diuretic that helps remove the excess potassium. I initially tried to refuse it, seeing that it would probably lower my low blood pressure and and figured if I just stopped taking potassium I could pee it out naturally and solve the problem. Well, the doctor felt it was too dangerous to be left to chance and gave it to me anyway. Guess what? My blood pressure dropped dangerously low, like 72/57 or something like that, and I felt horrible. They filled me with quick saline bags and had to do it a couple times, plus run my IV saline full strength and double speed. Seems to have improved, but boy, did I know my body in this case.

So I hope that this post is not too whiny for you, just giving you the low down on my difficult day, so you can pray specifically. We're still waiting for an ophthalmologist who come with her equipment, but we feel we know what the problem is now and just have to wait it out, maybe getting some numbing eye drops instead of pain medication.

God bless you folks and I can't wait to have visitors when I feel better again in my very own VIP room. I'll let you know when that is or you can call first. If I don't answer, it's because I'm too tired, so wait to hear back from me.

Let me know if you were able to go the Avacado Festival to register for the bone marrow registry - a great opportunity this weekend! Feel free to leave comments.


But rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed.
-- 1 Peter 4:13