August 20 - Part II

Almost there, almost there, almost there............

I've been sitting around for the past 45 minutes waiting for the VN. She called me at 4:30 and said she'd be here at 7:00. I told her that was fine and set my alarm for 6:45. (I had a really bad night of sleep again last night so I've been doing nothing but napping since I got home from the baseball game.) It's now 7:54 and she's still not here. Whatever. As soon as I'm done with my current feeding, I'm heading back to bed.

Today was half a day of work, half a day at a baseball game. Ahhhhh.

----------Okay, I just paused in writing this because the VN FINALLY showed up. I actually liked her personality-wise but on top of being an hour late, she's a smoker too which was a huge turn off.  She has no idea what is causing the speckling on my torso. She's never heard of anyone being allergic to Jevity. She called the on-call doctor. He doesn't know what could be causing it either. I haven't switched laundry detergents. I'm not using massive quantities of surgical tape. Although, now that I'm thinking about it, last Friday when I showered, I noticed that there was some kind of blue dye very lightly painted across my torso. I imagine it was some kind of anti bacterial stuff they put on me for the surgery. I wonder if I was allergic to that? Meanwhile, since it doesn't itch or hurt, the VN said to just wait and see if it gets better or worse. I told her about the spasming thing and she agrees that it might be my stomach contracting in hunger. She said I'm probably noticing the tube jumping because of the bumpers they put in under the tube base. She said she had never seen the bumpers before and it must be something new that they're doing. She told me that I should try bumping my feedings so that I'm drinking a can and a half at a time, 4x a day instead of 1 can, 6x a day. She said I might be able to train my stomach to not spasm as often. I thought that sounded like a good idea so I will implement tomorrow. I also showed her that there's still some bleeding and leakage around the PEG site. She pointed out that there looks like there's a tear in the incision on one side. She said to keep washing it every day and maybe change out my dressing twice a day instead of once a day to make sure it's staying dry and it will heal faster.

And now back to our regularly scheduled program. The baseball game was fun. It was gorgeous outside and it's always good to mingle with the coworkers in a social setting. Boss guy bought me a beer. Both H and Jer also wanted to buy me a beer but let me tell you, that one beer was more than enough. I have no tolerance any more at my vastly reduced weight! Cheap date! Cheap date!

I got to hear the scoop on Kunkel's adventure with Wheel of Fortune. She goes back to Syracuse on Thursday next week for the second round of auditions. I am SO excited for her. I told her to win me a jacuzzi or something. It was at that point that Maynard said I must have watched Wheel of Fortune many years ago because they no longer have it where you win money that you then spend in the day's showcase. You pretty much only win money nowadays although they throw in trips and cars once in a while too. I'll have to see what day/time this show is on and check out the new format before Kunkel makes it on there!

I finally got to meet Brian's wife, Colleen, and I got to hold baby Thomas! Woo hoo! Cutest kid ever! Loved him! Meanwhile, Thomas was having a blast with Maynard. There's nothing sweeter than watching a grown man get all goofy in order to make a toddler laugh. That Maynard is a total cutie as well!

I sat next to boss guy's wife and gave her the latest cancer scoop. Boss guy had just mentioned that morning that she reads my blog and gives him the highlights when they're turning in for the night. I got a little embarrassed. I don't know why. I guess when I started this blog I pictured that it was me having a conversation with a handful of my friends (JBB, Sammy, T, Sandi, etc.) and I still continue to think of it that way. Meanwhile, according to the stats page on here there's at least 30 people reading it on a regular basis and sometimes that number jumps to over 50. It feels weird knowing that there's a slew of people out there reading my goofball ramblings and I start wondering if I should be editing myself a little more closely so that I don't come across sounding like a total spaz. The answer to that, of course, is nah. My boss guys favorite saying? "It is what it is". Or in this case, I am who I am. :-)

I spent over an hour last night writing out 25+ thank you notes. When I first sat down to do it, I was procrastinating a little because it's one of those pesky chores that you just kind of have to get done. As soon as I started writing though, I ended up enjoying myself thoroughly. I personalized each and every one of them. There are so many people in my life who have done so much for me over the past year and to be able to sit down and simply tell a bunch of them how loved and appreciated they are, well, it felt really, really good.

And I'd like to do a few callouts on here too. My coworker, Chris S., came through already by sending me some ASL books all the way from North Carolina on top of the local contact he gave me as well as some websites and classes to research. What an absolute sweetheart! I've decided that even if I end up keeping my voicebox and am able to talk again eventually, I still want to learn ASL. I think it would be a really handy thing to know. Thomas, who by the way is only 18 months old, actually knows some ASL. I guess they teach him some signs in his day care which according to his mom comes in super handy when your kid isn't talking yet. So he says please, thank you, more, all done, and a few other things in sign. It was amazing to see!

Toby sent me a link the other day about some new potential breakthroughs in the 'cure for cancer' race that continues on. He's always sending me links to upbeat articles and basically just keeping hope going strong. I totally love him for that.

Andy continues to check in regularly from Idaho via text. He's always got some tips or a simple 'hang in there' message for me that feels like a verbal hug every time I hear from him. Or else he's cracking jokes that make me sputter and laugh. I was told today that when he and his wife play backgammon and someone starts rolling way too many doubles when taking their men off the board, they say "hey, stop Quinning me!". Yep, they verbed my name. I decided that was an excellent bucket item list and that every one should have that goal, to have their name used as a verb.

And to Judy, thank you so much for the gladiolas. They look beautiful on my kitchen table and make me smile every morning when I see them.

And JBB, keep checking in with your twisted sense of humor, girlie. Every time I see your e-mail address pop up in my in-box I get excited because I know I'm about to have a good laugh. And I totally love my F&#ck Cancer sweatshirt. It's washed and ready for me to wear into surgery on Thursday! I be styling!

And T, I love my sunflower stuff. And Kit, thanks for continuing to quietly check in from time to time and letting me know you're there if I need you. And both El and ElRay, thanks for your cheerleading, it really does help. And Sam, I'm glad you're just as big a dork as I am in this situation. Solidarity sista. And Sush, it was great to hear from you and thanks for keeping me in your thoughts. And Sandi, thanks for letting me dress you up for your golf tournaments, it's a great distraction. And Dr. Karen, the Punch blog is awesome, and I can't wait to read yours. And Karen L, so sweet of you to offer to be my person and thanks for the random thinking of you texts, they always brighten my day.

I'm sure there's a bunch of other peeps that I should call out but I'm starting to fall asleep at the keyboard. Think it's time to hit the hay. ~34 hours and counting down..............