I confess, ” I am a SLACKER”

I wonder is there is a blog anonymous club?

Well, I am physically and mentally much better than “expectations” but sleep is not as consistent as it was 2 weeks ago and I need 8 hrs a night !

In theory, I am hitting bottom, which means zero white blood cells and very low platelets. I am close, but all other markers are normal range so I have this cool energy still. If I repeat, I apologize, but I told the Doctor yesterday that I think I have more energy and strength than expected because my Red blood cells are strong and carrying oxygen through me. He ” smiled”. Hmmm… maybe my 2nd career should be a blood cancer doctor. HA

KISS- remember this acronym? We all have the opportunity to make up our own reality, so I am going with it.

Over the past 2 days, my 3 sons, continue to blow me away with their love, humor, intelligence and simply incredible loving personalities. 💕 ❤️

Yesterday was a bit slow after only 3-4 sleep, but after Dr. appt, my sister, Connee, went to Red Lobster, and got me king snow crab legs for lunch and then off to the post office to pick up a package. Super surprised to find a bunch of packages – Yeeha! Better than Christmas.

Hawaii treats from Karen, amazing mixture of goodies from Kym- by the way, queasy pops do work and I am going to tell Mayo nurse team about those today. Mandi sent a warm fuzzy box that included a Hilarious book!!!!!Just filled with random wacky life observations from random people. Everyone needs this one:

Furiously Happy by Jenny Lawson. It has a raccoon standing on the cover and looks like the one from Guardian of the Galaxy.

AND a Wonder Woman coffee mug! I got a text from Alisia last week and I noticed it in the background of her kitchen… I replied ” I need one of those” in jest…and WaLa it arrived! ( Ask and you shall receive. XO ). Girl power!

Stay tuned for Day 8. I actually have a theme for today.

Have a fabulous day and LOVE u ALL

I probably need to shed more light on this daily count up schedule. When they perform a stem cell transplant the mission is to quite simply kill off almost all of my white blood cells and plasma cells, yet keep a small amount of red blood cells to keep moving oxygen around my body while I recover. So on -1 day, I got a Chemo IV – one time- no pain- no big deal.

The next day, Day Zero, I go back in for hours and in between hydration IV’s, They infused 4.9 million of my very own stem cells back into me. This is the “transplant”! Miraculously, easy, no pain. Literally, I was listening to music and sending emails and texts to friends and clients through out the day.

Ok, here is how the analogy my Doctor told me goes:

If you are 5 miles down river from a dam and the river is flowing full, this is day 1. Now Day 2, they close the dam completely, but there is still 5 miles of water to roll down stream. Each day following, the water level drops and by day 5 or 6 the water dries up.

So as the Chemo drug absorbs, so does its job to kill off cancer cells, then it will just dissipate and be gone; so do my blood labs go down. The goal is to get a few markers in my bone marrow plasma as close to zero as possible!

Then the miracle of a combination of the human body, the biological medical advances and the Mayo Clinic team come together with my body and mind power to start re-producing all of my new, cancer free stem cells.

Ok, back to the River analogy.

Day +6 through Day+10 usually is the toughest. River is dry, dam is closed. But the good news is that Day 6 or Day 7, they Re-open the dam and the flood gates start to release the water. Slowly, the river water trickles its way down stream and starts to wet the dry soil. Each day the water level rises and by Day 10 or 11 river is running wild.

This time is called “engraftment ” when the stem cells are multiplying by the thousands and then millions every day, and new life is brought back into the weary bones. It takes time but the goal is to build back up to a certain level by Day 21. ( I asked on Day-1, what is the best “release date ” on record is and a nurse told me they had a marathon runner get out on Day 18).

Of course, that is now my Target release date 😀 but I am not a marathon runner, like Beyke, so I might need an extra day or two.

Enough of the that!

Fun stuff today- after a quick appointment this morning, we did some exploring in Rochester and found the Soldiers Memorial Park, went on a shopping hunt for silly things like : lavender oil diffuser, because the older house we rented smells like a barn?!?And MN has this incredible potato chip dip called ” Top the Tator”, which I forgot about after leaving MN 15 years ago.

OMG- it is so fricking simple good, I will probably gain 5 pounds now that I found it.

And since we got Netflix working yesterday we were able to start working on Bob Leon’s UK TV binge list. Coupling could not have been a better one to start with!! I knew I would relate to your humour…. just gotta keep piling through them to get to your favorite ” the false leg?”

And a shout out to Pepperman’s region for all of the Warm Fuzzies sent today! I can’t wait to see you all in July and get to know you even better.

Sweet dreams😴

I was expecting “ day 6” to be a crummy day but such a surprise!  We showed up a but early for appt. and the team of nurses pop in and out and a great new Dr😊 visit with side conversations about how COLD Mn is.  He is from NE. Via Kuwait.   Connee, my sister, tries very hard to get him excited to visit Duluth, which only has about 2 months of summer. She’s a northshore diehard.  Yes- it is spectacular for those 60 days!

Bottom line, after 30 minutes, FREE again!

We took the dogs to a dog park… I sat in the car.. then stopped at the house to drop them off and a huge box arrived with great selection of gifts and cards from my Cintas central region family💕 great coloring books, soduko book will definitely be a 2 person tag team project, popcorn and truffle sea salt – YUM- for all the binge tv/ movie watching. And a Huge gorgeous throw blanket.  It is my lucky week 🍀

then we went to a matinee movie to see Black Panther.  Loved it!  And I do love their popcorn too.  No problem with appetite.  ( which was the trams biggest concern, so my first day ICE freeze obviously saved my taste buds.

Juli

 

 

 

Yesterday was a fun day! We got through the checkup, quick and easy, and Jim found a cute picture of the rock star, Pink, with her fabulous shaved hair-mohawk do.

So off we went to go for the first round. We found Joseph, at one of the Mayo salons, who was a hoot and went for it. Connee saved a blonde ponytail for me and we jammed a bit to keep the mood going. I will have to post a pic, but Since I can’t use make up or hair product, at least for a while, it just doesn’t have the same impact! Life is good!

Sean and I are now have another common ground, to share ❤️ inside joke 😀

Alex and Heather came to visit us because we had several internet connection issues and he is the “guru” ! Sure enough between the 3 of us, we got internet to work, Netflix. Is now working and we can seriously start our TV show binging…

Thanks a ton for the technical and humorous assistance! Love u guys!

Woke up to a beautiful sunny day and off to Mayo Clinic for a check up. Nothing new happening yet, which is good and the way it should be, so after 30 minutes of chatting and tests, we were out again.

My sister Connee made her way to Rochester, from Duluth, MN. Her shift begins this weekend, as Jim will head back to Denver for a week. I asked her to stop at Ikea to buy me a cool chair for my daily R&R and of course she never hesitated and picked it and installed it for me! I LUV the Startford 😴. Perfect for an nappy.

Thanks to Bob, Karen,Kym,Alisia, and Nicola, and Paula for more entertainment and pics today! Who knew how funny jibjab videos could be?

Sweet dreams…

Today was uneventful, which is exactly what we needed.  I started the testing and pre-cert appointments, on March 7, so it has been a whirlwind of a week.  Slept great last night, now that the anticipation to get going was over.  From now on I  go in every day for an appointment at 10:30 that should last for about an hour and then if labs are good, I get to go home!   If labs show a decrease they may keep me in for a few hours for observation, which is totally cool with me too.  Why not?  They take amazing care of me when I am there and a change of scenery is always good too.

And today was just a 30 minute check out, so we had a really nice day relaxing and walking the dogs and enjoying some sunshine. AND March Madness started so a lot of Basketball games all day.

The highlights that made us laugh a lot today were the funny Pinterest cake pictures that Nicola texted us – WOW – I never knew I could laugh out loud about a sheep cake?  And Kym cracked us up with her “monkeys stealing hubcaps from a car”  MINE –  MINE – a funny little kid memory.  And Jill is ready and willing to be my “filter” if needed and I expect, fully to call you tomorrow to chat about..???  ( this is the joke about chemo drugs and steroids – there is such a crazy cocktail given to counteract the side effects, there is no guarantee that all the words will make sense?  House – Mouse…whatever )  should be filtered out of me in a couple days…but it is funny to me, anyways.

My BFF, Audrey, from the Flemings world, left me to go to CA, but she sent me the coolest socks and bath bombs, so I forgive you for moving now.  So when you put them on, the bottoms are screen printed with a message to deliver wine to me!  I do not need to get out of bed? awesome.  In April, I am going to wear them a lot and Jim is going to need to pay attention to bring the re-fills. XO

Kudos to Bob for sending me some fun favorite movies for entertainment!  XO

And I forgot to mention that the other day, I impulse bought some Mai Tai flip flops from DSW because of the Mai Tai mat picture that Karen sold in Hawaii…so now she owes us a vacation tour this fall so I can wear them there!

Sweet dreams and mucho gracias for all the warm fuzzies ~~~

I have to share some fun tidbits from the rest of this day that left me with some great memories.

Polly sent me pictures of her cats, Ollie and Wally and I am now officially Aunt Carol, so I am part of the Letofsky family 😘

My sister Cindi was hard at work in Co getting her garden shed set up and texted pics. I found out today that I cannot garden or play in the dirt for at least 6 months, so Jim will have to handle it. She may have to come visit our new house and help set it up.

They weighed me when I started and then dripped drugs and saline into me for 9 hours. And I had to weigh the same + or – .9 lbs. to leave, so you can only imagine how many times I had to use the bano! But I slid under at a net gain of only .5 FREEDOM !!

On Monday I had a surgery to put in this tube or port into my upper chest that tunnels into my heart so all of the labs and drips can get right where they need to go. Fine…. but the only limitation I was told by the cashier was to not lift anything heavier than a gallon of milk, or 5 lbs. I got it! Do things right and the tube is good. Half way through the day, I decide I should do some yoga stretches over my head, felt good, relaxing and an hour later the port was not happy. Ugh! Nurse Kim has to give me an ice pack and a 5 lb. sandbag, literally, to put pressure on it so the blood will clot. 1/2 hr of that and then she had to put on a clamp and push down hard for 2 minutes on the incision. Done and good. And then I had to explain to the Dir of the unit, Brenda that no one told me not to do 🧘‍♀️ yoga, so they need to clarify restrictions and we all laughed. That was the worst part of the day. So silly…

My sister, Connee was off and on texting me cute animal gibs or videos and I don’t know where she finds them but I laugh every time. She is coming to hang with me next. I texted her and said we could work on her second job of making these videos for extra money while we were hanging out and recovering. She has such a dirty mind, she replies back that porn videos are probably illegal in MN but she could maybe pull off enticing some old men.. you can’t even imagine how damn funny that was!!! I instantly replied with ” no I meant the cute bunny and lizard videos”. OMG- I love you!

And the last hysterical moment at the end of the transfusion… wait for this…

Kim Jeschke shoots me the funniest, crazy jibjab bday video ever via text and Jim and I are watching it when the nurse staff come back in with a Congratulations Official Certificate to celebrate my new Birthday! What an incredible moment of connection because Kym’s bday is today too. Always love when there is a “jinx” connection.

Sweet dreams and I can’t even tell you how much I appreciate the fun stuff!

Got to the clinic at 5:30 am today and signed in and was greeted with Happy Birthday!  Which I have been hearing for a week, since March 10 is the day, not here anymore.  Today is my new birthday and I get to share it with Kym J.!  ( we need to plan a b-day weekend party next year somewhere warm and fun; maybe Alisia can tour guide us around in Vegas??)

So I have this great private room for the day, with a fabulous view from the 9th floor, a couch, music, laptop, and all the other goodies that come with a day at the spa…opps I mean the Mayo Clinic.  I have about 5 nurses at my beckon call or the red button on the bed.  They continually add new things to the IV drips and they have all been good, except the Lasix that really does make you pee like a race horse.  For all of those that know a little about race horses, this is a common drug for them.  Interesting how drugs cross over from humans to animals isn’t it?

I added a few pictures at the bottom of the blogs for fun and more coming once I figure out the editing portion of this site.

I keep thinking about the adventurous choices Jim and I made over the past years and raising our family.  We have 3 boys, Michael, Sean and Andrew.  When Sean was getting close to high school grad day and not sure about the college change, Michael and I came up with a surprise grad present to go sky diving! I called my sister Connee, who is always up for crazy stuff, and she signed on too.  Since Jim is very afraid of heights and Andrew was too young to go, they had to sign on as spectators only.  Right after graduation ended, we loaded Sean into a car and drove up to Boulder and told him he was going with us!  of course he was psyched and we had some of the funniest things happen but we all survived , thank goodness.  And yes, that is me with the troll hair 🙂  We never know when our time is going to up, so this was another one of those choices made to live in moment and hope it turns out for the better.

That is my journey now and I am committed to making the best of it for me, as well as all of you that are attached to our family in some way.  Love you!

ok – nurse needs to do stuff – gotta run…..

 

I didn’t get a lot of sleep last night but I was ready to go today. I have been waiting and working towards this date for a year, so it is time to get on with it.

Early this morning I sent my Dr. from CO, a text with a Picture of me skiing a couple weeks ago and told him I was heading off to chemo and then my plan was to get strong enough to ski another time in May, before they close for the season. I do not normally text his cell but I felt it was important to thank him for his support. He immediately replied with a thanks for the update and would see me soon! How COOL is that?

And so many friends sending texts throughout the day checking in WOW! You all have NO idea how many warm fuzzies I had when I was hooked up for the chemo drop, eating ice for a straight hour ! Which is not easy, but the nurse called me an “over achiever”, so it was my high point of the appointment. I brought my own popsicles and they said no one has ever done that before. I was pretty proud of myself at that point for doing the research. ( Freezing your mouth while getting a chemo drip is supposed to help with some crummy side effects). Do you think 15 years at Cintas has taught me a few things? Ha ha

So, I was in and out in 2 hours. Seriously, thanks to Carolyn and Polly for the laughs and Lori and Nicola for chatting via text during the treatment. It was a huge and needed distraction- XO

And my hubby, Jim, is amazing and there by my side every moment. I know he is struggling with it but he has it figured out. It is just another part of this puzzle.

Back at it tomorrow at 5:30 am- sweet dreams to all of you: zzzzzzzz

This whole transplant process is based on a calendar of days. The “conditioning” before the transplant are negative days ( -2, -1) and conditioning is the word for chemo therapy. I only have to do 1 time for a couple hours.

Then tomorrow I get my stem cells back in, which we “harvested” or took out, last summer and froze for future use😀. This is day Zero. Or my second birthday, is what I am calling it.

How lucky am I? Now I can celebrate my birthday twice in the same week!!

After tomorrow or day Zero, the real count down begins… +1, +2, etc to 18-21 days before I can go home to Denver. The best part of being here in MN is that the Mayo Clinic does all of this as out-patient!! So I get to go to my rental house and cozy with my dogs and family while I start rebuilding my blood cells and immune system.

Treatment at 1:00. So I have a few more hours to play before the real work kicks in 😛