Update 10/27

Whew. I'm wiped. I think yesterday I overdid it. I went for a long walk in the morning and then another medium sized walk after lunch. After that second walk, I could feel like maybe I had expended more energy thatn I really shouldl have. Oh well. Now I know. I think that I thought recovery from surgery would be more rapid or somewhat akin to what I experienced in chemo where I recovered so quickly from the treatments and could pretty much still do things. However, I'm finding that it's more like three steps forward and two steps back some days. One thing that Karen haCompounding all of this is that my allergies are acting up like CRAZY!!! and they were so bad last nigh. Oy. Benadryl, benadryl...Seriously, I haven't had a flare up this bad in years. My sister actually started reacting a couple of days before I got it. I guess those santa anaz are kicking up some particles in the la basin that are really bothering me. I'm looking forward to the wind dying down, literally.

Today, my sister drove me to the desert to my oncologist's office so that I could get the infusion of herceptin. This is a bio-therapy, not a chemo-therapy. Nonetheless, it is a drug that is infused by iv and the whole rocess takes about two hours start to finish. The good news is that my red count has come up a bit so hpefully that means either the shot is helpin gme to jump start making my own red blood cells or maybe my own bone marrow is just doing it. I do have some pain in my hips and tailbone so maby it's due to that, but it's also likely due to my need to sit and lie down more frequently than stand or walk. My allergies were not as bad this afternoon here in the desert as they had been in LA and it was just enough to take the edge off, but its still yukky.
It felt great to come to get the herceptin infushed, which is nice. I also made an appointment with my plastic surgeron to check my drains on Tuesday to see if they are ready to be removed. I think that they will be. My first "fill" appointment is on November 7th and we'll see how I respond to that.
A fun surprise at the office was that Karen Pendleton showed up in the infusion room. She just happened to be there at the office to see Dr. Luke and she was in the process of calling me to see if she could share the great news of my pathology report with Dr. Luke when he told her that I was in the back. So, she came and surprised me. It was really cool timing, too since my sister had just gone out to run a couple of errands so I was just sitting there with the drip going. So, Karen and I visited while I was "dripping" and my sister showed up shortly after I was finished, so it worked out great. We ate a sandwich and then headed for home. We were both tired at that point.
This afternoon, I managed to catch up on the DVR episodes of Lost that I missed (I really like that show) and it was kind of nice to veg out in front of the tv for a little bit. I was really feeling out of it so I crawled in to bed and it felt sooo good. It was nice to be in my own bed again. Jenni (my sister) went out to get us dinner and we've just finished eating. Pasta and some chicken from Marios mm-mm. My allergies were still driving me nuts despite the benadryl. I've taken claritin before and it just doesn't work for me. If anyone has any suggestions, I'm open to ideas on this....
So, tonight we'll go to bed early and leave for LA again sometime in the late morning (in enough time that I can crash when I get there if need be).
Love to you all.
Under construction...
Julie