Come On!!!

After receiving the AMAZING and drastic results we were so hopefully wishing for, wanting and NEEDING from my CT scan last week, you would think I would be out and about, living it up, partying like a rock star and celebrating the good news.  Well, I can't say partying like a rock star was on our agenda... starting over MLK weekend and slowly working it's way to last week I became sick as a dog.  I'll elaborate on that in a sec, but we did manage to make it down to the 956 to visit my family and make up for the trip we canceled during the Christmas break.  First of all, you can't beat the direct, less than an hour SWA flight from Austin to Harlingen!  Always a restroom in sight!  I tell ya, the things I have to worry about these days... (eye roll)!  Anyway, it was great seeing my family and a few of our family friends (although I pretty much consider them family) while we were down there... the rest of the time I spent sleeping.  Not quite the lively, event filled weekend we normally have down there, but all I could focus on was sleep.  It might have been a combination of not letting myself fully recover from chemo the week before, being exhausted from traveling or maybe from this pesky "cold" that was brewing (again, we'll get to that later).  I would have loved to have spent more time on the island, but my exhaustion kept me happy as a clam sitting on my parents back porch... I had palm trees near by (I don't know why I find the rustling of palm tree leaves in the wind so relaxing), pelicans diving for fish in the Harbor and flocks of ducks flying overhead.  It was peaceful, relaxing and just nice to get out of town.  Since the beginning of December (and now that I think about it, back to November when I was traveling back and forth to San Antonio during the week for the study trial), I've had to cancel or bail on any and all of my weekend plans.  Which sucks!  I think that was so frustrating over the last month or so... feeling like crap and not even knowing if this cocktail is working.  It's amazing how much of a mental/emotional toll cancer can play on you.  BUT we got good results, so at least I now know that this cocktail is not only working, but it's kicking some ass!  AND I know I need to just hang in there and hopefully reschedule all the things I was supposed to do when I start feeling better.  So I feel pretty lucky to have felt good enough to make it to the Valley this last weekend.  Although I'm still in shock that I made it to Arturo's and didn't have one of their famous and oh so delicious margaritas!  UGH!!!  DAMN YOU CANCER (insert: fist pumping in the air)!!!  

As for this "cold" I started coming down with... I started out thinking it was the usual allergies.  Well, then came the fever.  That wasn't a good sign!  So when I went in for my infusion last week, several "samples" were taken to rule out any kind of infection.  Blood samples, urine sample and... well... ummm... and...  a stool sample.

COME ON!!!

It makes me cringe just thinking about it... a stool sample!  UGH!  The things I've had to do since being diagnosed!!!  Seriously?!  A stool sample?!  And get this... as Chemo Nurse Andrea was explaining "the procedure" on how to collect the stool sample, she must have noticed the look of utter disgust on my face (if you're disgusted reading this, imagine how I felt)... so Chemo Nurse Andrea then willingly volunteers to collect the sample for me.  She told me to just leave the "specimen" in the urine hat and let her know when I was done.  WHAT?!?  Who is this woman?!?  My new favorite nurse, that's who (sorry Jeffrey RN).  But really, there was no way I would have or could have let someone else do that.  Seriously!  Disgusting!  So yes, for the first time in my life I had to collect a stool sample.  Not necessarily what I was wanting to cross off of my "things to do in life list."  Well, what do you know, the stool sample came back positive for something called Clostridium Difficile, also known as C Diff.  My interpretation of what that is... an infection in my digestive system possibly caused by one of the drugs I've been taking which killed the good bacteria in my digestive system, leaving the bad bacteria to take over.  Symptoms include diarrhea & flu like symptoms.  Well, that explains a lot!!  This just adds another pill to take for the next 10 days and hopefully won't interfere with my weekly infusions.  And yes, this is all on top of the head cold I'm battling.  When it rains it pours!  

BUT... 

The cocktail is working!!  Woohoo!!!  

And yes, I do apologize for this week's blog entry topic.  As much as I'd rather be blogging about something fun and exciting, this is after all a blog about my ups and downs with cancer and EVERYTHING that comes with it.  Besides...

Stool Happens!!!