It's been a long week.....

April 7, 2013, Sunday:



It has now been 11 days since my chemo. 

This past Friday I went in to give blood for my glucose fasting test and they stuck me and took the blood.  I had a concern about the wound where my portacath was installed.  It was swollen and red and oozing body fluids.  It appeared to be infected.  They had a nurse look at it then she pulled in a Dr. other than mine (she was working in Leland on Friday), to take a look at it.  He was concerned and asked if I was neutropenia.  Hunh?  He was wondering if my white blood cell count was down.  He ordered a blood test to check for that and set up an appointment with Dr. Bebb who installed the portacath.  I went straight to Dr. Bebb;s office and was seen by a P.A. because Dr. Bebb was not in the office.  The P.A., Laura was very concerned and thought they might need to take the portacath out.  After some discussion we decided to have me take an antibiotic for 10 days.  She drew a big circle around the wound and told me that if it got red out to the line I was to call the office immediately.  That night it seemed to get a little worse but by morning the heat had gone out of it and appeared much better.  Tomorrow I will go back for them to take another look at it but I think it is o.k.

Even though the side effects were not as bad as the first time, it took me about 1 week to begin feeling better.  I am experiencing insomnia, bleeding gums when I brush my teeth (although it has stopped for now) and nose bleed when I blow my nose.  Nothing drastic.  Just a little blood on the tissue.

Wayne and I went down to  Myrtle Beach for a few days and on Saturday we walked 2 miles on the beach and today we walked 4 miles doing 15 minute miles.  I was not breathing hard the least bit!!    To go from breathlessness from picking up a laundry basket to walking that kind of distance with no problem is nothing short of a miracle!  It was a beautiful 2 days at the beach. 

Thank you Jesus!