Sinuses of Doom

Remember that fever I had a few weeks ago? I should have seen my doctor or at least called my nurse practitioner then, but did I? Nooooo! Nurses make very bad patients. "I'll be fine", I said. "See, the Tylenol is working", I said. "It's just my sinus crap", I said. "Maybe I'm dehydrated?" I said. After a week and a half of a bouncing low grade fever, Bobby finally convinced me to call the Nurse Practitioner at Hopkins. "You probably have a sinus infection. See your PCP today and call us back to let us know what he says." Telling your PCP's secretary that your Oncologist at Hopkins wants you to be seen Thursday instead of next Tuesday is like having the keys to the kingdom gates. I went over that afternoon and he took a peek. He barely had to glance in there and pronounced me infected. Armed with antibiotics and Nasal spray I headed out into the world. After the full course, I got better but just couldn't shake all the gook in there. He said to call if I wasn't better, so I did. Antibiotic #2 is now on board and both offices want to hear from me this week.

But I'm still retching this stuff.

I feel like I should at least get a cute little baby for all this morning sickness I have. (I don't mean that God, really I don't) Just about every time I roll over at night, I have that lovely sinus drain that I try to choke out. When I do get up, I can look forward to puking after a bit when my stomach realizes it's full of gook swallowed in my sleep. No appetite. I have a horrid taste in my mouth. Once it became apparent I was wasting his good cooking, Bobby served less. Now we don't even eat dinner. We have snacks. And when I do feel like I can eat something, it's only half a PBJ or some crackers and cheese to nibble or last night it was half a can of refried beans. Believe it or not that worked for me. Bobby's been trying to entice me with ideas without pushing and has come up with some good food for me - like the beans. And the nausea is all the time. I mostly forget I'm being treated for cancer. My drug for nausea during my 5 days of chemo each month is amazing. (I may have mentioned this before?) I look at this bout of nausea and go "geez I wish this would go away" and "I'm so tired of this crap". But I know it's peanuts in comparison to the real damage people on IV drugs deal with. And speaking of chemo . . .

This mess is postponing my last chemo treatment. The whole chemo/immuno suppressed thing hasn't been a big deal to me because they've always told me my counts were fine. I try not to micro manage. I don't want to micro manage. But because of the infection the CRNP (Certified Registered Nurse Practitioner) for my Oncologist says my counts took a dip with the infection. "The lower end of normal. It is better to wait a week and be prudent then to get you in trouble with your counts dropping." (quoted from her email.) I just hope this week's labwork is good so I can take it next week. I was hoping to celebrate July 4 as my Independence Day. But that's okay. Better to skip the fireworks than be sicker.

The scariest thing is, it may not be my sinuses. The symptoms I am having: nausea, vomiting, diarrhea (I forgot to mention that), decreased appetite . . . could be because I stopped my steroids. My adrenal glands may not be fully functional on their own. If that is true, I have to take some. Much as I hate to, it's nothing to sneeze at. I will insist on a blood level first though. I really don't want to go back down that road.

So until I know differently I take my pills, drink my liquids, eat what I can . . .

. . . and call them in the morning.

I Reveal Myself

This little bit of fun has you answer some questions and it makes a mosaic of your answers (after searching through pictures on flickr). Here's mine, with the original photo names underneath:
1. My name 2. Favorite food 3. High School
4.Favorite color 5. Celebrity crush 6. Favorite drink
7. Dream vacation 8. Dessert 9. What do you want to be when you grow up?
10. What do you love the most? 11. Single word to describe you 12. Flickr name



1. Cinnamon Bonnie, 2. Summer on the Chesapeake, and the Living is Good, 3. Transit time tunnel, 4. Fly me to the Mooooon..., 5. Big Mike, 6. pb choco banana smoothie, 7. Bad Yeti!, 8. Los burros, 9. Pink Motel, 10. Getting to know you, getting to feel free and easy..., 11. My Most Treasured Possession, 12. t-shirt

The links at the bottom are to credit the original photographers.
Piracy is only amusing if you are poking fun of Jack Sparrow.

Sayonara Steroids

On May 29 here's how the conversation went.

Nurse Practitioner: "How much Decadron are you on now?"
Bonnie: "2 mg every other day"
Nurse Practitioner: "So when was your last dose?"
Bonnie: "Yesterday"
Nurse Practitioner: "So . . . that's it, you're done. Yesterday was your last dose."
Bonnie: "Yessssss!"
Nurse Practitioner: "Happy Dance! Happy Dance! Happy Dance! C'mon! Happy Dance!" (At which time she begins to jump up and down, gleefully clapping her hands and trying to grasp mine.)

Healthcare sure has changed since my day.

There was a catch (isn't there always). If I had certain symptoms, blah blah blah, it would be a bad sign and I should call. The only thing I developed was this weekend I had copious amounts of sinus drainage and a fever for two days. So, since I've had none of the scary symptoms and I've been off the stuff for two and a half weeks I think I'm good to go. "Off the stuff" geez, I sound like an addict. But really, my body was addicted to the artificial hormones. I tapered off for a while, then every other day to "kick start the Adrenal Glands" then went Cold Turkey.

Do I need a Twelve Step Program?

A Sad Day

Earlier today I started a blog entry about how excited I was to announce I had been off of steroids for a week and felt it safe to put it in writing. I also asked for continued prayers for the child of my friend. Brie and her Mom had been living at The Johns Hopkins Children's Center for more than 2 months, seeking a miracle for her Severe Aplastic Anemia. I decided to put the only picture I had of her always smiling face here. I was cropping it a bit when our electricity went out and was still out when I arrived at my usual Thursday night Sit-n-Knit at Mr.Mikes. My knitting friend's faces said it all.

Brie was a sweet girl. This picture is from 2 years ago at a K1P2 Yarn Swap - she got my yarn and I got hers.

Thank You God for lending her to us.