Happy Four Chuly!

Monday was a little crazy.  We started off with a draining appointment with the psychologist.  I am not complaining about the draining part, that seems inevitable when it comes to those things.  She talked us through some stuff, cried through some stuff and gave some much needed advice.  Then it was across town to get stitches out; whoops we used dissolvable stitches, you didn't need to come in.  UGH!  At least it was the middle of our 3 appointments.  So we dorked around in the city, bought a hard drive and dropped it off at the Video Transfer Center so they could load a bunch of old home movies from Keith's family.  That was a project Keith kept meaning to do himself (for years), but it wasn't happening, so we got it happening by throwing a bit of $$ at it.  The results are WONDERFUL!  We should have done it years ago!  Then off for some Thai for lunch before going to get chemo into my brain.  Chemo was uneventful.

Tuesday we didn't have too much planned- a quick interview with a new cleaning person and then off to Cavallo Point for our luxurious little trip (a lovely gift from some parents at my school).  The interview with the new cleaning person went beautifully!  She seems like an absolute DREAM!  She said everything right and just seems like a genuine person I'd like to deal with.  Cavallo Point was beautiful and luxurious and very treatful.  It's a former military installation that's been totally redone and converted to a nice hotel complex at a beautiful spot right near the base of the Golden Gate Bridge, on the Marin side.  I took several long soaks in a giant bathtub in our room.  We walked the grounds and scoped out where to watch the SF fireworks show.  I was feeling pretty tired from the chemo but not too terribly affected.  Lots of naps while Keith plinked on his ukelele.  Later, we walked back down to the water's edge to watch the fireworks (spectacular!).  We were freezing by the end of it but warmed up nicely on the hike uphill to our room.  I'm more wobbly and my legs are weaker so I've been using hiking poles most of the time.  It's hard to know if the weakness/balance issue is from growing tumors, or a side effect of the previous radiation treatments, or it could be a side effect of my pain meds, and most definitely the steroids have something to do with it.  Also probably related to my meds is my continuing urinary issues.  I'm rockin' the poise pads these days (which is not fun but way better than a catheter and a leg bag).  Again, that could be due to meds, or due to tumors....we just don't know.  And frankly, there ain't much to be done about it at this point anyway.  Oh, and also speaking of steroids, my face is GIANT now (again, urgh!).  My reflection freaks me out.  Thank goodness Keith loves me anyway.  I hate being on steroids!!

My sister Meg arrived on Thursday night for a 5 day visit.  She's staying overnights at the cottage that my mom rented in Orinda (about 20 minutes from here).  It's great to have her around- she just made us a huge batch of mac-n-cheese for our freezer.  MMMmmmmmmm........

Back to the cleaning person, we liked her so much that we signed on to her roster and had our first clean yesterday.  She did a great job and we're both happy to have found someone we like and who is kind and a darn good cleaner to boot.  It's one less thing to be stressing about.

Next up: Monday I have an appointment with a symptom management doctor who comes highly recommended.  We're hoping he can evaluate my drug list and maybe make some adjustments so I'm more comfortable with less side effects.  I'm always a little nervous for a new doctor, but I think this will be a good addition to my team.