Hey There ... It’s Me, Kathy

A hospital stay, continuing chemo, expenses

How are you dealing with all the snow? We sure don’t need any more. Keep your fingers crossed that the sun will melt a lot of it. Remember, spring is just around the corner.

My neighbour plowed my yard a lot this week, and James and Wayne came over and cleaned the yard on other days. Thank you, guys.

My shoulder is doing okay, it hurts once in a while but that’s okay. I had my chemo this week, and everything went well. The port worked great.

A couple days later my fever went to high, and if I didn’t go to the hospital, I knew the nurses would have had a fit. And I didn’t want to wake up dead, so I called Wayne and off we went. It wasn’t a long wait, but there were a lot of people there.

They took x-rays of my lungs, and it took lots of tries with the needle to get the blood out of my arm, and then also out of my port. I sat in a room for a couple of hours before they found me a stretcher in the hall, so I got to spend the night in the hall.

My fever went down, they gave me five bags of antibiotics and more in pill form to take home. It was a new experience.

Then they took bed and all and put me in the room where they put casts on. Well, I was in there about 15 minutes when they came and wheeled me back out in the hall where I had been before. Luckily no one took my parking place – I don’t know where they would have put me. One thing is for sure, the next time I go to the hospital, I’m bringing my toothbrush and hairbrush. In the morning my hair looked like I was trying to start dread locks. My bladder infection is the only thing so far they could find. It takes up to five days for the other tests to show if there is anything in the blood.

I didn’t make it to the flea market this week. I woke up and I was feeling so dizzy, I had to roll over and go back to sleep.

For some reason people are thinking that I don’t have to have chemo any more. Well I do – every 21 days for as long as my heart and body can stand it. It’s one of the things that are keeping me alive, so as long as the doctor says I can take it, I will.

My only wish with all I’ve been through was that I could get reconstruction. To me I will never feel sexy again, or attractive enough to meet someone who will find me attractive. Everyone is different, some people say they couldn’t care less if they had a new one or not. When you are stage two or under you can get reconstruction, but once you go over that, you cannot get reconstruction and I am stage four. There is no stage five, so I went from stage two to stage four when the cancer moved into my bones. When the cancer comes back, you are moved up to stage four. Oh well, I will just have to put up with this 10-pound lump of silicon in a boob-shaped wrapper forever.

The false boob is heavy… you can always feel in there, and after wearing it for an hour or so, it falls down and then I’m lopsided.

They came out with stick-on ones, but oh my, when you go to take them off, half your skin comes with it. It hurts like crazy to get off, and on a hot day if you are active it will fall off by itself. No such thing as cleavage any more. I got a new one a while ago and after I’d been wearing it for a few months, the fitting lady told me I was wearing it sideways.

You have to buy special bras to fit the false boob into, and you guessed it – because it’s medical they are very expensive. There is no such thing as a breast cancer clothing line at Walmart – nope just at the drug store. But there is a new specialty shop just outside of town. Women a like buy me two new bras a year and every second year, they buy me a new boob (which run anywhere from $400 to $600). I don’t know what I’d do with out them. Thank you, Bonnie.

Weight wise ... oops, I’ll try harder next week.

Happy birthday this week Steven ... hope you had a great day.

Yes, Debbie, the jam was great.

Well, have a great week all, and don’t forget, try a little kindness.