Monday, April 16, 2007 7:15 PM, CDT

Hello,
Started Round 4 today so I’m on my way and hoping to see more positive results. I’ve got the fanny pack on so I’m styling!! My red blood counts are still a little low so I had to have the Procrit shot, which does kind of hurt. I tried to fake cry for my nurse Faith but I don’t think she believed me. AND, I totally could not find my EMLA cream this morning. You should have seen me running around the house like a crazy person. The stick didn’t hurt too badly at all but I’ll make sure I find my EMLA before the next round!
The neuropathy is back and it hurts. I think that might be the worst of the side effects because my fingers hurt even as I’m typing this. Of course, wait a few days and I’ll tell you the exhaustion and the nausea are the worst! J
We had a great time up in Maine. As I said, it’s great to get out of the house and just hang out as a family. There were only a few tense moments --I mean I don’t pretend to live on Walton’s Mountain. There were five of us in a car and in a hotel suite for 48 straight hours. Use your imagination!! J
While we were up there, we watched the new version of Charlotte’s Web. I love that story. No matter how many times I read the book as a young girl or watched the cartoon version, I always cried at the end when Charlotte dies. And I found myself crying again as a 38 year old woman who knows how the story ends. It’s a nice, nice story. Charlotte is the friend you hope you have and the friend you should strive to be. The story is all about friendship and keeping the promises you make as a friend. It’s timeless. I recommend you all see it—young and old.
Okay, enough of my Gene Shalit moment. We also ate at our favorite restaurant in Freeport: Gritty McDuff’s. It’s a brew pub (but totally family style—we’re not that bad!). They brew their own beer and I had the chance to drink their Best Bitter, which just might be my favorite beer.
Speaking of some of my favorite things, I also had the chance to grab a chocolate coconut doughnut at the Dunkin’ Donuts in Freeport. It’s my favorite doughnut (although there aren’t many I don’t like!!) and I can only find it in Freeport, ME and Hanover, MA. So it was a treat.
I also want to share an amusing story from last Tuesday’s visit in the ER. Maybe you won’t think it’s funny. Maybe it’s better told in person and maybe it’s a “you had to be there” story but here goes:
As you probably know, I went to the ER last Tuesday night with pain in my right rib cage. When we first spoke with the ER doctor, Dr. Morrison, he wanted to rule out a blood clot. We asked him what test would do that. When he told us it would be a CT scan, we informed him that I had a CT scan done only 36 hours before right there at UMass.
Dr. Morrison asked the radiologist on call to review the CT scan to see if there was anything apparent on the scan. The radiologist was busy doing a procedure and therefore the reason we sat so long in the ER. By the time he read it (at about 10:20pm), he informed Dr. Morrison that there was some sort of bubble right in the area of my pain.
However, the radiologist couldn’t totally rule out a blood clot based on the scan. So, that’s when I was signed up for the second scan. By the time the second scan was ready to read, the UMass radiologists were off-duty and a third party radiologist was reading the scan.
Can you imagine what that poor man thought when he pulled up the scan of my extensively diseased lungs??? Can’t you just hear him, “what the heck??” He asked Dr. Morrison, “What exactly am I looking for?” I mean really what the heck wasn’t he looking at???!! The radiologist wanted to make sure it was a known diagnosis!! Does this poor woman know how sick she is????
All he had to look at was the small bubble in the right lung to rule out a blood clot but found himself, I’m sure, distracted with tumors and lymph nodes and cavitating lesions.
As I said, maybe it was because Dr. Morrison came and told us this story at midnight. Maybe it’s because this entire journey has thus far been so bizarre-O. I hope you could get a laugh out of it because it gives me quite a giggle!
We don’t have too may plans for April vacation. I have declared that tomorrow is the day I take back the house. The kids are going to get up, have some breakfast and clean their rooms. Katie’s isn’t too, too bad. However, we haven’t seen Steven’s floor since about October and Lauren’s room constantly looks as if she’s taken the band back to the room to party because it is constantly trashed. We will clean our rooms (because mine isn’t so perfect either!!) until we’re done. I hope the project doesn’t spill over into Wednesday. But if it does, I’m fine with that. I’m sick of the clutter and we can make the best of a rainy day!
Have a good one.
Love,
Kim