Discharged at Last!

Today I finally got discharged at 3pm - yippee!

Chemotherapy Today

So today I finally received the first chemotherapy treatment. It is very intimidating when they bring out all these black bags with POISON warnings! The bags also say "Keep out of reach of children...."

The treatment takes about 2 hours, is done via IV through the line put into my right arm for the next 6 months. The chemo will be every 2 weeks for the next 6 months. I didn't start to feel bad until about 2 hrs after the treatment, when I felt like I had a really bad flu. There was not too much nausea because they gave me a lot of painkillers and anti-nausea meds through the IV. I did manage to sleep through most of the night.

More lovely flowers etc!

Yet MORE flowers and cards and even BROWNIES arrived at the hospital this week - thanks everyone for your terrific support!

Weekend Passes!

This Saturday and Sunday I scored day passes away from the hospital! So we brought some of the flower stash from the hospital home. We mainly puttered around the house. The cats were very happy to see Mommy but now sure of all the weird hospital smells. Our good friends Debbie and Ottmar cooked us a fabulous BBQ on Sunday evening...

A diagnosis at last

Today the final diagnosis was arrived at: Hodgkin's lymphoma (stage 2, because of the big lumpy mass in my chest). This will require 6-8 months of chemotherapy (the ABVD protocol, the cutting edge regime with a 90% cure rate given my circumstances, i.e., relatively young, no other organs involved, no lumps below the diaphragm, intact healthy bone marrow, generally good health, minimal pre-diagnosis weight loss). The chemotherapy treatments are every 14 days. Following chemotherapy, I will receive a course of radiation treatment just on the lump in my chest. I am on medical leave from work until the end of the year; Tim has caregiver's leave as needed to help me with the chemotherapy.

I cannot begin to tell people how amazing the support I have received from family, friends, colleagues and students has been. It has helped keep my spirits up, and helped Tim enormously in a difficult time. I thank everyone for their thoughts, prayers, flowers, chocolates, trashy magazines, and love. Love and thanks to everyone...

Heart Problems Fixed

The next few days were filled with tests trying to determine what was the best way to get the fluid out from around my heart. Normally the heart is in a sac (the pericardium) which has a few tablespoons of an oily fluid so it beats smoothly - so about 1 millimeter of fluid around the sac. My heart had 2.7 centimeters of fluid around it, greatly constricting its ability to beat normally. An echocardiogram showed, however, that the heart muscles and valves did not have permanent damage. So, since a large biopsy of a lymph node was required to know which exact sort of lymphoma I had, and since all the enlarged lymph nodes under my collarbones were inaccessible surgically without great risk of permanent nerve damage, the decision was made to place a cardiac drain into my chest. This would also allow the surgeon to take a large biopsy sample from the 10 centimeter lymph node lump which was pressing on my heart and causing most of the trouble. On Monday the 19th they got a good sample and placed the drain into the pericardial space; on Wednesday they removed the drain. (The nurses did this as cardiac surgeons "only put in drains; we don't take them out" - very funny!). Tim watched as they pulled the 10 inches of tubing from my chest - possibly a bad decision in hindsight. I was very sore and used quite a bit of morphine but could breath better almost immediately after they put in the drain. Eventually, over 48 hours 540 mls of fluid drained out from around my heart....

One never looks glamorous in the hospital...

An unexpected turn of events

Well, life took a very unexpetced turn for us today. I've been feeling ill for a while - since about December. It started with an innocent looking rash on my leg, which was treated but didn't respond. In January blood tests showed my hemoglobin to be low, so this lack of iron in the blood (and thus lack of oxygen-carrying capacity) explained my growing fatigue, but it was difficult to pinpoint a cause. Blood tests, a gastroscopy (to rule out ulcers and gluten-intolerance) and a colonoscopy (to rule out polyps) turned up nothing. On many tests I looked in excellent health, yet by February my breathing was getting much worse (shortness of breath is another side-effet of anemia). In late February my massage therapist noticed an enlarged lymph node. My GP and I watched it for a few weeks, and she thought it might be getting bigger so she sent me for a biopsy. Although lymphoma is of course a cause of lymph-node enlargement, it was still incredibly upsetting to get the diagnosis of lymphoma - and we did not know which kind. More worying, the CT scan of my chest showed a moderate to severe amount of fluid around my heart. This required immediate inpatient admission. We got to the ER at 8pm, and by midnight I was admitted to the oncology ward of the Royal Brisbane & Women's hospital, the third largest hospital in Australia and a leader in cancer research. Almost immediately, flowers and the odd stuffed penguin began to pour in....

More Wildlife!

I love it that there are always animals around the house. The water dragons out the back are always curious about the laundry room. Tim was amazed at how well this bearded dragon blended in on the front lawn. The rainbow lorikeets love to sit in pairs in the trees. The pale-headed rosellas really love to eat the figs in our fig tree!

Cockatoos Never Fail to Impress!

I never tire of feeding the cockatoos. They love eating the seeds off the balcony, and the cats love watching them! Our record number of cockatoos in the yard now stands at 35...

Zamboni Finally Comes Home from his Treatment!

Zamboni finally came home today after his three weeks at the vet, being treated with radioactive iodine for his thyroid cancer. He sniffed the whole house but didn't seem too fazed by the new surroundings. He was very OK with Denali, who followed him around all afternoon. He is adjusting perfectly to the new house! It is GREAT to have him home again!

Friends for Brunch

Today we had our neighbors from The Gap Paul and Ann over for brunch. Nancy made eggs benedict, and Ann brought a lovely bouquet of flowers. Both Ann and Paul really liked the new house.

Identifying the Plants Around Our House

Later today our friend and plant expert Mike Humphreys came over to help us identify all the different plants and trees in our backyard. He also made suggestions for what trees and flowering shrubs we should plant to attract birds. The pretty plant above, unfortunately, is a weed.

Celebration Dinner

Tonight we went out to dinner to celebrate Tim finishing his thesis, and (very belatedly) Nancy's birthday. We went to our favorite restaurant, Tukka. I had the duck and Tim had the red coral trout - delicious!

Rainbow Lorikeets

We get a lot of rainbow lorikeets in the backyard. They sometimes even try to compete with the cockatoos for the birdseed we put out.

Nights at the New House

Tonight we had a visit from the possum that the previous owners said sometimes sleeps on the porch. He was pretty unafraid, and stayed on the porch rafters for quite a while. The thin strip of what looks like plastic (and what I thought was plastic) Tim actually discovered was a shed snakeskin, probably from a tree snake or small crapet python.

Beautiful Skies

The night sky at the new house is really pretty. Here you see a nearly full moon over the eucalyptus trees in the backyard. We see lots of stars and hear LOTS of interesting bird and animal sounds at night, particularly bats and owls.