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Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Day 56: Since I'm Awake

Right now I'm waiting in my hospital bed for my bone marrow biopsy. It's a big day because we will find out whether or not there is still leukemia cells (cancer) inside of me. I'm a bit nervous about this one because I'm NOT at Mercy. Things here at OU are just different. I feel like a number and not a name. lol. Anyways, I already had a full morning starting around midnight. Well last night they had complications with my IV and my options were to either stick out the pain (which I tried....believe me!) or get a new IV stuck somewhere else. I didn't want to get stuck again because since my muscles were non-existent for a few days my muscles, veins, joints....everything has just been raw. So any little pokes or pricks I get hurt like 5x more. And I always thought I had high pain tolerance and each time i got stuck it seemed like i cried like a baby. :(

So anyways, I ended up getting stuck once around midnight and the nurse said the vein she was going after busted and that stick was no good. Then around 4am another nurse came in and put another IV in me and she barely got into the vein. She wanted to get the IV in just enough to get my anti-biotics in me. Which was fine with me because I was scheduled to get a new PICC line in today anyway and I had been living with people sticking me with a needle for blood so why not...just one more day. So anyways, then they let me sleep until about 8am and in came the first of five doctors to talk to me. They asked just general questions, usually the same thing, does your stomach hurt? Are you feeling any pain? Is anything new going on? etc...I had some infection specialist people come in and look at bumps that have been popping up in random spots on my body (legs, head, arms) and they really had nothing to say except that they'll be watching all my tests to make sure no more fungal infections are in me hiding somewhere. With that said, they took me downstairs after all this and I got another echocardiogram to look for any abnormalities there that might have fungal stuff clinging to it. For the most part I'm pretty sure that the fungal infection was growing on my PICC line that they had removed about 6 days ago (maybe 7?).

hmm.....on Monday (yesterday) an Opthamologist came to visit me and did an examination of my eye. I usually HATE anyone messing with my eyes because I already know they're terrible, I know I need to wear glasses, and no I don't like staring into a big orange light when my eyes are dilated. But he came anyway. He was a really nice person so I didn't mind...Luckily, when he came in I already had my glasses on so he didn't have to see how bad my vision really was! lol. After examining, dying and dilating my eyes his conclusion was that I had some abnormalities but it was common in leukemia patients and nothing to worry about and no I don't have any fungal infections latching to my eyeball. He just said to notify a doctor if my vision changes or I notice any significant changes. Well....that's probably a nice $300 bill. :(


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Well today I'm feeling a wee bit better. I'm still coughing and today my sense of smell is off. EVERYTHING smells TERRIBLE to me. They just changed my sheets but they SMELL. I'm sitting here in my room with a mask on because I can't stand the smell of anything! I wanted to throw up when I smelled my mom's coffee and usually I like the smell of coffee in the morning. It's weird. And i'm sure it's effecting my taste too because once again I'm not eating hardly anything b.c by the time I get it, it smells or tastes funny to me.....it's frustrating. My weight is down to about 150-151....which is down 6 more pounds. :( My legs are so skinny now and my arms are too. I worked so hard on having somewhat decent legs and now, i'm back to bones. LOL. Oh well....In other good news, I can finally walk on my own. I started walking again on Saturday when a physical therapist came to visit me and asked if I wanted to try to walk. I said yes but it was pretty brutal. She could tell I was struggling but she said she was glad that I actually got out because a lot of patients are hesitant to start walking again. She showed me leg exercises to do because I had mentioned that I felt like my legs were weak. On Monday I had the same PT lady and when we went for our walk, she said she noticed that I was walking a lot better. She said on Saturday I was walking flat footed and kinda stomping around but on Monday I was walking properly and we walked for a while until I started to get tired. :( Soooo....I guess that means no 5k when I get out, haha!

I'm have a terrible cough to me that my mom is more worried about than I am. I usually cough for a few days after being sick but I guess since I don't have as strong immune system, I can't really go off of what I used to be able to do. which is sad.

Anyways, these biopsy people are taking forever. I'm gonna get off of here try to relax before they come (these kinda hurt if I remember right) and possibly go for a walk with my mom down the hall.

Thank you all for your continuous prayers and good, positive, healthy thoughts. They have definitely helped me recover a little faster and have pushed me through the days I thought I would never get through. It's good to know that I have such a wonderful support system.

have a great Tuesday!

KIm

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