Save The Drama

Elliot's Feet February 2008- On our way to the beach.

The coffee went really well last Tuesday- so great to see everyone. The food was great and well worth all of the effort put into making it.

I ended up having to get platelets on Wednesday morning. My cbc right after the blood transfusion on Tuesday showed I had only 1,000- not so good. I have a huge bruise on my arm from my shot I got that day. And a huge one of my ankle- not sure what that one is from. Blood normally contains 150,000 to 350,000 per microliter (µl) of platelets. If this value should drop much below 50,000/µl, (I had 1,000) there is a danger of uncontrolled bleeding. This is because of the essential role that platelets have in blood clotting. It really puts this whole needing platelets thing into perspective. I NEED them. They are vital to my survival. Just like blood transfusions are. I've had about five platelet transfusions in the past. They are much shorter than blood transfusions and don't have as many possible side effects. The nurse was starting the transfusion while telling me a story about a guy who had an allergic reaction to the platelets about two weeks ago. This is not supposed to happen. They believe it was from the preservative they mix with the platelets. I get really anxious about transfusions- who am I kidding- I get anxious just walking into the canSer center- and didn't like him telling me this story. I don't need any help being worried thank you very much. I was about done with the first bag and thought I felt a little itchy but tacked it up to being paranoid. The pump beeped signaling the first bag was finished and the nurse came in to shut it off and get the second bag. While she was hanging the bag I looked at the underside of my arm and saw little red dots! It wasn't in my head! I WAS having an allergic reaction. (It makes me nervous just typing this.) The little red bumps turned into an all-over-rash. My arms were covered, my stomach, legs, neck and even around my eyes. They shot me up with benadryl which I totally hate because it makes me feel loopy and out of control- having anxiety and feeling out of control= not a good thing. I called T so he could be there to help calm me down. I was shaking like a leaf. I was worried I wasn't going to be able to get platelets again, I was worried about the next time I have to get platelets- what if this happens.....they did a cbc and my platelet count had gone up to 55,000 so they didn't have to give me the second bag. It felt so good to walk out of there and on my way home. They believe it was from the preservative and are going to check with the blood bank and see if they are doing anything different. I don't even want to think about the next time I need them. That drama was enough to last me ten years. I don't like it when things don't go as planned.

The week with Michael, Heather and Elliot was wonderful. It rained the last two days they were here so we didn't get to do as much as we wanted to- a lot relaxing and just hanging out. They left early Saturday morning which turned out to be a beautiful day. It seems to rain everytime Heather is in town. I can't believe they've come and gone already. Elliot is just the cutest. I could hold her for days. Loved getting to spend time with her. It's going to be so nice living so close to them.

We are leaving for house hunting in IN next Wednesday for a week. I moved my chemo back a week and will start when we return. We have decided to narrow our search down to just the Fishers (northern suburb of Indianapolis) area. We were looking at houses further South which are closer to the hospital and T's work but the area isn't as nice. We still have a few in that area we really like we might see while we are there. Narrowing the search has made it so much easier. Our long-term plan is to buy a house in all the places we get stationed and then rent them out once we move allowing us to build equity for retirement. Everytime I think about moving it makes me anxious. I'm super excited to be close to family and friends but nervous about the change. I'm an anxious person anyway so change is hard. I love Beaufort and the South. I love our house. I'm really going to miss it here. I'm really going to miss all of my friends here.....hopefully we will be back in three years.

I finally got my new laptop last week. It's a little smaller than the one before but is faster. I'm grateful for it. I've been working hard on getting all of my pictures organized. I'm going to do a better job at that this year. I take so many and love doing it. But I want to get them off of my computer and into scrapbook books. I have lots of ideas for minibooks- I want to do one of the neighborhood we live in now, one of my daily routines, one about our move.....keeping the pictures organized is going to be key. I've set up a 2008 folder on my computer and then under that each month. Under each month is another folder containing the pictures of that specific event/thing/day of pictures....it's a work in progress. Might have to tweak it a little.

The guy from the rental company came out today to walk through the house and go over the management agreement. I pray we find great renters- someone who will love and take care of our house. He was really impressed with all the work we have done to it. He kept saying how beautiful it was. Makes me so very proud of T.