A Day of Appointments

Today went pretty well! We did not have to go to the main waiting area like we did on Tuesday so that was awesome. We got in and were back in the room right on schedule. I met with Dr. Kaplan who will  be my surgeon for the surgical biopsy and port placement. He was very nice but definitely an interesting character, as I think most doctors are. Like most of my appointments we went over whats been going on, where the bumps are, who in my fam has had cancer, what medicine am I on, do I drink, do I smoke, all those fun things. The nurses said they had a pool on if I played soccer or field hockey haha. I was like ummmm I did play soccer, thanks for thinking I look like I still play a sport for somewhere, I'll take that haha. The nurse we had, Robin, we also had on Tuesday with Dr. Wiedl. She is very nice and I really liked her manner so hopefully we will see her often. So from that appointment Dr. Kaplan decided he wanted to try and take most of the lymphnode/tumor, Belial, out. *Side not, we have named my tumor after the mutated killer evil siamese twin from the 80's horror film, Basketcase. If you have free time you should watch it, its absolutely hiiiiighlarious.* So yay Belial will be gone on Monday. Monday they will take as much of Belial out as they can and will also do a port placement. The port will help me during chemo so I will not have to get poked in the arm every time I go in for Chemo, especially since I have small veins which usually means multiple pricks.So every time I need to get treatment or blood drawn or basically anything they would usually have to do through my arms, will just go through the port. 

Belial from Basketcase

Its hard to see but that's my Belial
They're both so evil!! 

After that appointment we headed upstairs for my bone marrow biopsy. I saw my friend Genneh as soon as we walked into that clinic which was very nice. I had some blood work done and then was given some meds to make me relax, although I honestly was feeling fine, not nervous at all. We waited a little bit and then went back for the fun. My parents stayed in the room with me to help distract me through it. Although, I had read in a girl's blog who went through the same stuff I am going through now, that her dad passed out during the bone marrow biopsy ha, so we made sure my parents stayed okay. One of my mom's best friends, Yvonne, was my nurse which was great. She was with us the whole time and made sure I was okay and knew what was going on. I had an IV of fentanyl which is a make you loopy drug which it did, I was just like whaaatevvs after getting that ha. They then shot me with some stuff to get the area numb ( I know I am awesome with my medical terms haha). Then they started pulling the bone marrow. I didnt think it was painful but it also was not comfortable. It was a lot of preassure and there were a few times I was like woooow there thats not comfortable ha but it was nothing unbareable. We just talked about Boradway shows the whole time and before I knew it it was over. Yvonne told me her son, Morgan, who shares my love for Broadway shows, wanted her to remind me of a quote from Newsies (one of my fav shows), "Courage cannot erase our fear. Courage is when we face our fear."

When it was over I just had to lay on an ice pack for 30 minutes and then we were all done!! I definitely was still out of it afterwards. I felt like I was high or something, was walking very slow and stopping to look at everything haha. When I finally got home I went straight to bed and slept for 4 hours. So I will probably not be going to bed anytime too soon haha. I am still pretty sore and sitting in certain positions is not very comfortable. Hopefully by tomorrow all will be well! Tomorrow I have the Echo Cardiogram out at the stony point MCV location, I am excited to get to see how that building is. Still no word on the PETscan, hopefully tomorrow we will get the results. I will update tomorrow after that appointment. 

I forgot to mention in yesterday's post that I met with my trainer last night and we went over some low resistance exercises I can do at home during chemo with resistance bands and weights. I think I am going to buy a Bosu Ball as well to have at home in the event I cant go to the gym due to germs and stuff. Bosu balls are awesome and what I use for a lot of my workouts now. I am going to meet with her one more time, next week, before chemo starts and we'll go over low resistance workouts with the bosu ball so I'll know what to do. We also discussed a walking plan and then when this is all over we'll get back to marathon training. Hopefully these exercises will keep me in somewhat shape and keep my muscles and bones strong. 

Okalie Dokalie thats all I've got for today. Again, thank you all so very much for all of your love and support!! It makes this journey so much easier.