Today I went to Bergan Mercy’s Cancer center and had my 7th dose of Doxil. I had a few hiccups and was there twice the amount of time I thought I would be because of those hiccups (not literal hiccups…that is a side effect of some chemotherapies…my father-in-law had that side effect when he was on chemo the day after the infusion – although it sounds easy – I am sure it is annoying!). I am home and feeling jazzed thanks to the IV steroids. Although I didn’t officially have a doctor’s visit today, I handed his nurse a bunch of questions and she brought him up the infusion center to talk to me briefly. It does him good to get out of the basement sometimes! The biggest take away was that I am on this blood thinner, Eliquis, for 3-6 months. Sigh. My script said 30 days, but alas, that was misleading. I don’t want to throw a serious pulmonary embolism or have a stroke, so I will live with it. He would like for me to talk to my sarcoma specialist at the Mayo Clinic about whether I should stop chemo for awhile and do hormone therapy. I am curious to see what he says. I have a video conference set up with him on October 7th, so we will see. I was originally set to do 6 rounds only on Doxil, so we shall see. I will send him my recent history and my questions ahead of time so we can get down to the nitty gritty online. I am also going to talk to him about doing genetic testing of my tumors. This will let me know what mutations I have present and it allows (usually clinical trials) more pin-pointed meds to be used. Just another tool to have in the tool box.
Big news for Lily….her school has gone to GREEN…which is 100% in school. Granted, there is about 20% of her school whom has elected to go virtual 100% of the time…so the numbers aren’t overly high. She goes to school 4 days a week with Wednesday used as a cleaning day at the school building and the teachers catching up with the virtual students. She does much better in person learning, so I am happy for her. She is continually one of the last students out of the building each day after school, so I know she is happy to see friends again. After the wedding they will go to 5 days a week during quarter 2. Semi-normal life.
Huge news for Rich! He has signed a new lease to expand our current Play It Again Sports store and to create a close, but separate area for batting cages and other sporting areas. He has purchased two high end golf and sport simulators that will be in the store as well for timed rentals. As all this is going on, we will be repainting the store to adhere to the new color scheme Winmark (our parent company) has introduced. It is not my favorite, but at least it will be done per their specs. We have wanted to do this expansion for 4 years and it finally fell into place this fall. Can’t wait to show you the finished product!
News on Joe and Michelle in Kansas City…..they are doing well! They are both back to work. Joe has done all the countless firefighting and EMT certifications over the last 6-8 months and has been applying to fire departments near and wide. It is hard when you don’t have any experience yet and they are only hiring a small number. He does have a ride along tomorrow and I hope that goes well. He would really like to get hired on somewhere soon. Real estate doesn’t give Joe the steady income he would like to contribute to his family. I have chatted with both Joe and Michelle and it sounds like things are falling into place for the wedding so I am so excited to just plant myself in front of Michelle and have her put me to work on the Friday before the wedding…..and Saturday, the day of. I can’t wait to see Joe’s face when he sees Michelle in her wedding gown. He is going to be blown away! Yes, I am packing my tiny purse full of tissues and mascara.
Tim is doing great! He finally got to meet a friend of mine from here….someone I used to do kickboxing with….and now Tim does kickboxing with. Tim and Emma ( I totally adore her) are both such nice people with a lot in common…kickboxing, love of dogs, Nebraska, ME….so I am glad they finally met. Tim is working hard on a grad class dealing with sports nutrition (he took a lot of these kinds of classes at UNL). He will finish the class the week before the wedding so will have that weekend off of classwork! Of course, he will start the next class on Monday…so no rest for the weary! Tim seems to be getting into the routine of studying , working, and working out….I suppose I should add eating in there. Having the gym open is allowing him to meet a lot of new people that he will see almost daily, so that is really helpful. I know he misses the clients in Lincoln something fierce. We have a great UFC card this weekend so I can’t wait to text him about it!
Special shouts out to Lois & Jim Doyle, Michelle Krueger, Todd & Deb Banchor, and Susan Ferguson for the cards this week. For my LMS warrior queen friends that I have been in contact with a lot as of late: Liz, Hollie, Vickie, Marie, Vickie (yes there are a couple of them), and Winnie. I cover three countries in that short list. Special thanks to Mei-Ling who sent Tallinn some treats which he will love me forever for giving him….when Mei-ling should really be getting that love since she sent them. He knows I had treatment today and is stuck to my side. Tallinn has his 3 favorite balls with him at my feet as offerings of shared love from him. We will be having some snuggle time tonight before bed to make us both feel better. One more shout out – to my sister-in-law, Heather Messina. Happy birthday! Looking forward to giving you a belated birthday hug in 3 weeks in Kansas City!
Messina Musings 