Friday August 10th Update

Hi All -

Well, I'm just about ready to go play out in traffic. I am feeling a little (ok, completely overwhelmed) with all the medical stuff again. The breathing issue have continued to persist and after seeing the doctor yesterday, I am scheduled for ANOTHER CT scan of the chest, a stress test (my poor heart) and an echocardiogram. Many of you will remember the CT scan routine from all my cancer doctoring. Yep, get to go on the funky steriods again, be all jacked up and then get injected with the 'hot' iodine stuff that makes you feel like you wet your pants.

Struggling to keep a positive attitude and momentum here...actually hard to do much of anything when it's hard to breathe. And this stupid humidity isn't helping at all...I am ready to move to Alaska. Actually, I hear the guy/girl ratio is hugely in favor of women up there so it might not be all bad...

I am glad it's Friday and I can relax for the weekend. Monday is the CT scan and stress test. So hopefully they will find something conclusive. It's nice (at times) when the tests come back normal but when something is wrong, it would be nice for them to actually find something that they can diagnose and treat. I am not a patient patient...and God is definitely trying my patience recently. Give me strength...

Keep your fingers crossed...send some prayers and good vibes!

Love,

Heidi

Wednesday, August 8th Update

Hi All -

Sorry, it's been a while since last blog update. So much stuff is going on... And to top it off, I ended up in Urgent Care yesterday with a anxiety attack that spiraled into an asthma attack. I swear I can't win for losing these days! After four hours, two EKG's, a chest x-ray and three tubes of blood they calmed me down, got me breathing and sent me home. Tomorrow I have to follow up with my PCP and have an ECG and stress test. My poor heart...broken, battered and bruised... OK, it's not that bad but I really am sick of being sick...really!

Anyway, the house projects are coming along well. Painters are at the house today...the loft, ceiling, and one wall downstairs are being painted (after about a million plaster holes, gouges and nail pops were fixed). I had some electrical work done....I had a suspicious outlet that didn't work. Come to find out, the wires in the wall had shorted out and melted off of the outlet. Nice...a little house fire to warm us up in the already sweltering 90+ temps. Neighbors would love me for that one!

Patio door is ordered, new sofa will be here on Saturday, new recliner will be here in a month and then I just need to order new kitchen appliances. I can't wait for all this stuff to be done...my house will be very cozy this winter!

I am off to Atlanta for a business trip on August 21. I am really looking forward to the trip and then the week after I'm off to back home for my 3-month check-up back home. I have seven appointments on August 31st...will be whirlwind day...hopefully everything comes out well! I just need some good luck these days!! =)

Got in a nice fishing trip out on Lake Michigan for my birthday. Caught a big coho Salmon and ate it for dinner that same nice. Yummy...and it was gorgeous calm day out on the lake so I couldn't have asked for much more! Plus, I was relinquished control to drive the boat all day...and I managed to circumvent hitting the tub boat that was in the harbor that snuck up on me. Long story...more for another blog day!

Talk soon,
Love,
Heidi

Friday, July 27th Update

Hi All -

Had a very uneventful trip back to Central Wisconsin last night. Got home a little after 6PM. My Dad had surgery yesterday on his knee and I was very happy to find him sitting at the kitchen table gnawing on some fried chicken. You know all is well and good in the world if Dad is eating! Dad tore his medial meniscus a few months ago actually while I was home having my final surgeries on my leg and hip and just was getting around to getting it repaired. The doctor said in addition to the tear he fixed, he cleaned out a lot of extra "stuff" that was in the knee joint....a little bone grinding, a little cartilage cleaning, a little stitching up! Mom and I kept him well doped on pain meds last night and today, and he's actually doing really good! When I got home from my doctor's appointment today, I caught him trying to sneak out to his truck so he could go drive to the local greasy spoon to get some food. Thank God I caught him before he tried to navigate down the porch steps by himself...he's so sneaky. He was in a pair of shorts and a t-shirts and I asked him where his wallet is...he showed my his pack of cigarettes and how he'd stuff a $50 in there. I rounded him up and sent him back in the house...Mom would have killed me if I let him go....seriously!

So, since he was hungry, I went to work in the kitchen! Iron Chef, eat your heart out...I whipped up the best cheesy bacon scrambled eggs and put them on some big slices of sourdough toast slathered with butter and jelly. I tried to put a few slices of fried tomatoes on there, but I got shot down on that one. I sat down with Dad while he ate and we had the funniest conversation about how he heard on some science TV show that margarine is only one molecule away from being plastic. We were laughing hysterically about what would happen if that one molecule needed to make plastic somehow exists in it's pure form in your intestine and that upon the two substances meeting, a chemical reaction took place and turn it your food into a huge mass of plastic in your intestines. Where we come up with stuff I don't know...but I do realize that my thought process and sense of humor definitely prove I am my parents' child!

Anyway, back to me... =) I went to my doctor's appointment today. Dr. Schnitt is really cool! He's young and very thorough and very personable. We sat and chatted about my melanoma for a while before the examination and I was surprised to hear that in the last week there they've had about seven cases of melanoma on young women come through. IS THIS THE NEW EPIDEMIC? Jeesh!

Anyway, Dr. Schnitt was very pleased with the progress on my calf. He said that was healing beautifully and that I could expect it to turn a little more red/pink before it starts to fade but the scar with be flat and smooth in about 6 months or so. Then we moved to the hip... =( He puts on rubber gloves (they were purple, like Johnny Depp wore in the remake of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory...creepy!) and asked the assistant for a set of something. I didn't understand exactly what he said...and then she walked back in with this pack of sterilized equipment that he ripped open. Immediately, I see a scalpel in there...I thought aw, crap, here we go. But he went for the long-nosed tweezers and started gently pulling off the dead skin, scabs and some tissue and started probing around. Thank god that the top layer of skin is still pretty much numb because I was watching and it SHOULD HAVE hurt. After cleaning things out, he started poking and feeling around a little....this wasn't pleasant. Something definitely was 'in there'...

Diagnosis is that I have stitch granulomas in the underneath layer of skin from the surgery. He went into this in-depth discussion about different tensile strengths of stitch material and how long each takes to dissolve. The stuff used on me in the lower layer of skin was 90+ days...which I haven't hit that mark yet. As the body heals (my body heals more quickly than average) before the stitches dissolves, the body makes little protective pockets around these "foreign bodies" and tries to push those up and out of the top layer of skin. These are the ruptures that I have been experiencing. Opening me back up will not help in the healing process...actually would probably hinder it. I will have to deal with these granulomas coming to the surface until there are completely healed. Gross! I'm going to start calling my hip Mt. Vesuvius...

There may be a point when I may actually see some residual stitch material coming up through the skin which he said I can pull up and trim (um yah, and then vomit all over myself). He also told me that more exercise will help bring them to the surface sooner...so EXERCISE...yay, I'll be back on the bike as soon as I get home! Plus, crucial to the healing process is massage. And I got another dissertation on the properties of collagen in the skin and how massage helps the collagen molecules to "line up correctly" while the body is healing. So I wonder if I could get a "prescription" for massages for my hip and calf? Medically necessary therapy, I think...yes!!

I also got a shot of steroids in my shoulder. You may remember, I had a suspicious mole removed there back in May but it turned out not to be cancerous. It left this big bump of a keloid scar that was all pink and gross. The shot of steroids will flatten the bump and help the scar to heal more normally. Ouch...that hurt like a bee-yotch...but it's nice to know small children won't cry anymore if they see my bare shoulders.

He and Dr. Gottlieb will follow up with me again at the end of August when I come back up for my three-month check. Then I will have my CT scans and blood work along with appts with plastics, oncology and pulmonary. Jesus, you'd think I was 80 and dying with all the specialists I have... And I'm NOT even a hypochrondiac...I just have had really crappy medical luck lately.

Tomorrow as some of you know is my 35th birthday! Not sure how I'm going to be celebrating, but I might go out tonight for drinks with some old friends. I heard a rumor that Hub City Days are happening right now so we might have to go catch the festivities! I betcha at a minimum, there will be cheese and beer there along with a really horrible live band and people in dirty softball/baseball uniforms. Some things never change... =) Except for the special Culver's Frozen Custard flavor which changes daily and I was incredibly bummed to see was Double Marshmallow Oreo today. Bleeeccck! Who comes up with these crappy flavors. What happened to caramel cashew Milk Dud wafflecone...ah, now that would be frozen custard perfection!! I gotta get on the hotline to headquarters with that one!

Alright, have to go... Dad needs some pain meds and then I have to get him down for a nap. Mom should be home soon and I'm hoping she's got birthday cake in tow. Gonna go put some ice on my sore hip and shoulder and watch traffic and trains go by on the porch! Live in a small town...gotta love it...or at least be amused by it.

Love,
Heidi

Monday, July 23rd Update

Hi All -

Well, this last weekend certainly was fun! My younger cousin Andrew from Wisconsin came down to stay with me for the weekend. Little did I know that this really was his first trip to a big city in the 33 years he's been on this Earth... So, we did it up right!

We took the Metra train downtown (first time he'd been on a train) and then took the trolley (first time he'd been on a trolley) down to Navy Pier. We went past the Sears Tower (he'd never seen a skyscraper in person) and the Hancock building and some of the other Loop attractions. We spent a lot of time at Navy Pier...first thing we did was take a ride on the HUGE Ferris Wheel so Andy could get a good view of the city. It was in the mid 70's and sunny so the view was perfection to say the least! We ate and drank (Andy never had a Mai Tai...are you sensing a cental theme here??) and people-watched for hours and hours! When we got back to the 'burbs we went for sushi (aw, come on, you know the kid never ate raw fish, ate with chopsticks, drank Chinese beer or had tofu...) and he loved it. I think over the course of the whole weekend, we made a list of about 17 things he had never done before in his life. Actually, I was happy that I could be the one to show him a ton of fun things and share his excitement in it all.

Sunday we chilled, went to see Transformers. Yah, I almost cried at the end...it was touching. I love Bumble Bee. Andy and I hit Buffalo Wild Wings for some late night ribs, wings and chips and headed home. Andy headed home this AM around 7AM and made it safely home! I hope he comes back to visit soon!!

This week will be a crazy one. I have to go back home to get my incision on my hip checked out. It's not healing quite like it should be and the doctor may have to go in and open it up, clean it out and stitch it back together. I just want it healed... Also, Dad's having surgery on his knee on Thursday so we are hoping that goes smoothly as well. I should be back in Chi-town hopefully Monday, but no later than Tuesday. Let's hope by next week, we've got only good news to share!

Love,

Heidi