Hi Everyone,
I am happy to report I am not writing this from the hospital. We’ve made some good progress on teasing out why things have gone awry. As predicted, having my doctor out of town meant being my own advocate times 100 to get the care I needed. Thank God for Katharine Lord, PA extraordinaire and Dr. Fain from Tx Oncology. They got me in today to see what they could figure out and facilitated blood work as well as getting in touch with the doctor that was covering for my doctor. Without boring you with the details it took 5 different people including me and two days to finally get in front of the covering doctor late this afternoon.
Here’s what I learned today: I was having an allergic reaction to the antibiotic I’ve been on for the past month. Today I have switched my antibiotic regime to 2 other drugs and my infusion schedule changed from 3 thirty minute doses every 8 hours to one 1.5 hour dose at 7am and one 2 hours dose (2 different meds) at 6:30 pm. Very doable. This schedule will continue until Nov 15 and hopefully not longer. We did another CT scan yesterday and it was determined I don’t need to get a drain put back in. The infection is in my liver but a small part is outside the liver under my lung. Hopefully this area will resolve over time with the drug treatment. This is currently causing my pain when I breathe in.
My white blood counts are very low (these are your fighter cells) due to the antibiotic so I have to avoid sick people and wash my hands a lot.
I actually feel a lot better today than I have over the past 5 days. I started off my morning by wearing my new roller blades. They were a gift from Charles and the kids for my birthday. Rolling around during the morning routine was really fun and a great way to start the day!
Despite my birthday being sort of a shitty one on many levels, feeling crummy, having a CT scan and chasing down doctors, it was also sprinkled with the most wonderful gifts from so many of you in the form of cards and gifts in the mail, flowers, gifts left on my doorstep, texts, emails, phone calls and visits. To those of you that sang happy birthday to me over the phone, and all of you know who you are, thank you, it’s the very best! Being remembered in any way is an absolute gift. I was in a sea of love from so many people and trust me when I say it was overwhelming in the best possible way. I have wonderful people in my life and I always have and that is the best possible form of riches I can think of.
I got flowers from three people and they all gave me sunflowers which I think is pretty amazing. Sara Beem was one of those friends that sent me sunflowers and she also sent me the meaning of this type of flower which I never knew, thanks Sara! :
The sunflower has been adopted as as a symbol of happiness, strength, a love of the sun and sunlight. It is said to always turn its face to the sun and is considered by some to be a symbol of faith. Some believe that the sunflower represents a constant search for light, or enlightenment. The Chinese believe sunflowers symbolize long life and good luck.
Shine on everyone
Nite Nite,
xoxo Hilary
A few Halloween shots:
Cheetah
Phin and Kenneth ???
Sonny and Cher
