Oncology appointment today

We got to see my oncologist today. She had seen in the report from my surgeon that my dad had died and was very tender and nice, offering her condolences and stuff. I was touched by her compassion and humanity.

The funniest part of the visit was getting the results of my tumour markers. When I had my Pamidronate infusion changed for the port, the nurse I talked to said that the tumour marker blood draw (which was to be done later that week) would be included in the blood done on Pamidronate day. On that day, the nurse had no orders for the tumour markers, went back to check, and came back and said that we were doing some. So they did do a tumour marker test that day; the trouble is, it was the wrong test. I was tested for CA125 (an ovarian cancer test) instead of CA15-3 (my test). At least the CA125 came back normal, meaning I have no ovarian problems. That's good, because I have no ovaries :)

So, umm, we're going to re-do the tumour marker test this next week. I hope that we end up getting the right test done this time. :) I can call and ask for the results a week after the test; if they're ok, then the nurse will call me back with them and otherwise I'll hear from my oncologist herself.

In other news, the FISH test from the last biopsy came back negative meaning that my cancer is Her2neu negative. This is actually good news, because if the FISH test showed that I was Her2 positive then the cancer would be more aggressive.

The doctor found the thickening in the latest lumpectomy scar and said she hadn't had enough experience with that scar to know whether or not that there was a real thickening. She called my surgeon and they've decided that he's going to do a follow-up biopsy. My oncologist left a message on my answering machine saying that my surgeon's office would call and set up a different kind of biopsy - I assume that this means that I'll get a core biopsy instead of the fine needle one that he did before that gave no meaningful results.

I asked her what would happen if there was a recurrence in the breast and she said that the whole treatment would change. We could do a mastectomy - some recommend it, and some don't. I think that she also implied that I'd be off of the Femara and onto something else. Hopefully we won't have to make that kind of decision.

My oncologist is scheduling a CT scan of my entire chest, abdomen, and pelvic areas as well as a bone scan. We hope to have these done before I see my oncologist again in two months. We'll also re-do my tumour markers in a month.

Oh - one final thing..... I asked about the bruising over the catheter from the port-a-cath after curling. She said that I'm not to be doing any kind of really vigorous activity because that catheter can move. So if I want to curl in bonspiels, I need to skip (call) the games - something I've tried very hard not to do. And it means that I definitely can't paddle regularly on a dragonboat team. I think I'm ok to continue bellydancing and stuff as well as most of my other activities.

Overall it was a very productive 20 minutes. I really do like my oncologist and I'm so glad that I have her as my primary oncologist.

Curling all day

We curled all day in a bonspiel; we ended up coming in second in our draw which was awesome! We all curled pretty well and the last game was so close that it could have gone either way. Needless to say, we're very tired. We did win 1L of maple syrup each plus another random prize so we came away ok. Hopefully I will be well-rested enough for my bellydance recital tomorrow.

Anti-depressants have made a HUGE difference in my life and I wish I'd found them earlier. I'll write more about that tomorrow, though, as I need sleep.

Feeling better

I went to my Spirituality and Healing group today and I'm very glad that I did. The person who'd been taking notes during sharing wasn't there and I was very comfortable in the group. I felt fully supported and embraced by everyone, which was a nice feeling. I'll be going more regularly now, I think. I've missed this group.

I also managed to curl today - yay! I was worried that my new port would give me problems but aside from having to sweep on one side only, I felt fine. The port area is healing up nicely, too :)

My doctor's office has called my oncologist to see if she can set up a biopsy of the thickened scar tissue quickly. Since my surgeon is out of town it sort of makes sense to try and do this through the cancer center. I don't know how quickly they'll get around to scheduling it but that's ok. I see my oncologist in three weeks anyways so if nothing is scheduled beforehand I can talk to her then.

What will I do in January? And how will I get rid of this pain?

Ian and I were talking today about my activities. This fall, I was bellydancing twice a week, curling twice a week, going to Well-fit twice a week, and swimming once a week. That was a lot! I ended up not able to do that much and stopped swimming early on. I missed quite a lot of Well-fit, bellydancing, and curling this fall as well. With the pain up and me feeling overwhelmed, I need to cut my activities even more from January - April.

I am going to quit Well-fit and Monday will be my last. This is partly because of the time it takes, but also because I really like to be pushed at the gym and when I get pushed I end up exhausted or with sternal pain. It's also $150+parking for three months which I could put to better use.

If I take any bellydancing, it'll just be one choreography or one drum class and no more. There's no way that I can do two classes.

I'm going to try and go to curling twice a week since I've paid for the two leagues until April. But if the pain gets to be too much I'll cut one of the nights out. It's tough to figure out which night I'd give up. I love the people and we have a lot of close relationships on Fridays, but the curling is better - and I'll get better - on Thursdays.

I saw my family doctor today as a followup to the new pain meds. They weren't working well so he's started me on the next dose of the fentanyl patch. If that takes care of the pain, then I can start playing with the dosages to try and reduce the amount of oxycontin I'm taking. Hopefully this will work.

Ian's birthday

Ian's birthday is today and after curling we went to AM Africa for dinner with 7 other people. The food took quite a while to come out but it was delicious once it arrived. We ordered an all-meat platter and an all-vegetable platter and quite frankly, I prefer the vegetable platter. The meat tasted like gamey meat (with bones) and the different meat types didn't really taste different from each other. The vegetable dishes were definitely different - they had some interesting flavours and textures.

It was nice to spend time with everyone. We had quite a bit of time to talk before the food came out and that wasn't so bad :)

Busy and overwhelmed

On the days that I'm not sleeping all day, I feel like I'm crazy busy. I feel like I'm rushing from place to place with barely any time to just stop and breathe and I think that's starting to get to me.

Take today, for example. I got up, sorted some laundry, went for lunch with a friend, bought a mirror for the sewing room, worked on the belt thingy for bellydance, sorted more laundry, went to bellydance, and then curled. I didn't watch any tv or surf the internet or do email or anything that I would normally do for downtime, because there was none.

I can tell that I'm getting stressed, too. I lost my car key at bellydance; thank goodness the building manager brought it to class. I forgot to take my street (non-bellydance) clothes to change into after curling. I lost one of my favourite pairs of non-curling socks at curling - I know I put them in my locker but I couldn't find them. I think that maybe the kids who have their stuff spread out all over the floor in front of my locker covered up my socks. Sigh. I'm just not doing a good job of keeping it together, you know? And that's a sign that I'm overwhelmed and need a break.

When I got home from curling I had (am having?) a big meltdown because I'm just feeling so overwhelmed and rushed and pressured and stressed.

Please don't get me wrong; I love doing every single thing I do, on its own (and I really do need to spend more time with my friends), but I feel like I'm doing WAY too much. I don't know where to cut back right now, but I think that I will be missing one or more physical activities next week.

It turns out, by the way, that the group wanted changes to the belt thing - I was going to make a different style completely based on discussions with the group, but we've decided to order crocheted sequin scarves instead. Sigh.

Fun after curling

We went curling tonight for the first Friday night of the season. We like Friday night curling because it's very relaxed; most people are newish or beginner curlers so there's not a lot of pressure to curl really well. This means that we can try things we might not normally try and we can practice our technique.

More importantly, we have a lot of friends who curl on Friday nights. There are three other couples that we like to spend time with outside of curling, and they all curl on Fridays with us. This makes the games and overall atmosphere upbeat and fun. After curling, we usually go for dinner with some or all of these couples.

Tonight we'd thought we wouldn't go out for dinner as we have a lot to do tonight and tomorrow, but we ended up going to The Keg with them anyways. We haven't been out with these people in a long time and I've missed them. We all had a great time talking and eating yummy food :)

My curling is so much better

I went to the curling workshop tonight. It's the first time I've been on the ice since April; as I'm sure you can imagine, getting used to the ice takes some time :) Interestingly, since last April I've been able to improve my balance quite a lot with bellydancing and working out. At Well-fit, where I work out, I do some exercises on one leg or else while standing on those half-dome thingies while doing arm work. For example, I do ball wall squats, where I lean against an exercise ball against a wall and squat on one leg so that that knee is at 90 degrees. Yes, that's as difficult as it sounds.

Anyways, having better balance has definitely paid off as far as curling goes. I'm much more secure on the ice. For the first time ever, I'm able to slide out of the hack without holding on to any rocks! That's a huuuuuge accomplishment for me. This isn't to say that my rock delivery is perfect; I do have a lot of areas that need attention, as I found out tonight. They videotaped me and others and then later critiqued the delivery. It was very useful.

When we got home, there was a call from the person who organizes the Christmas in Ancaster show. I tried calling back but no one was home. I'd sent in my application way late (they were still accepting them) and I was put on a waiting list because there were already some jewelry people. I'm hoping that since the organizer called I might be in the show. Cross your fingers for me! It's not a cheap show - $165 for me - but I'm hoping that means that it would be a success for me. Here's hoping.....

One of those days

I've definitely overdone it over the last few days, and I'm paying for it now. We had to get up really early for our annual doctor's appointments in Mississauga. My doctor finished the disability forms; in the spot where it said "return to work plan" he put "n/a" and he listed my condition as "guarded" everywhere. Which I think means "not stable", which we already knew I was. Still, to see it in writing was hard.

Then the two of us were tired and that, coupled with the fact that the juggling festival starts tomorrow, means that we were both cranky. Ian got a big nap in the afternoon, but my nap was much smaller. It wasn't long enough, I'm afraid.

The Femara makes me clumsy, and when I'm tired I can be very clumsy. Well, I'm tired and so I fell at curling. I didn't hurt myself, but I did fall again. Sigh. I almost fell a second time, too, but managed to stay on my feet.

We were supposed to go for dinner and to watch the Brier on tv, but Ian's mom called us and asked if we could come to Mississauga again. So here we are. I guess I felt rushed or something when we were getting ready and I forgot tons of stuff - my pills, my undergarments (I realized this on the way out of town and we stopped at Sears), and the makeup I'd bought earlier today. I felt so stupid; I can't even pack to go away for a couple of days without forgetting crucial items.

So I've had a meltdown and now I'm looking forward to going to bed. I'm very excited about the bead show tomorrow; I'm still going and my friend is still coming with me. It just takes some additional planning, but it'll be fun.

An unexpected day

I had planned to sleep in today because we were up late yesterday, and we expected to be up late today. However, the roof people were there and were trying to get the ice dams broken. We've had a lot of snow fall lately and there were some ginormous icicles out there! Anyways, they showed up stomping around at about 9am which woke me up. There was no sleeping through that noise!

I sent out some earrings that someone had bought (thanks!) and posted some more earrings on my etsy store. I also reviewed and approved the proof for my business cards; they will be printed by Friday. Yay! I talked to a few people about the problems with the young women's group as well. The issue will be discussed at a meeting tomorrow. I hope there's some resolution there.

After my Well-fit, we had planned to go to the Brier. Unfortunately, Ian's dad isn't feeling well and so Ian's mom asked if we would come to Mississauga, which we did. This means that we weren't able to go to the Brier tonight, which is unfortunate. Oh well - I got to go last night, anyways, and we can watch it on tv. I might be able to go ather year.

I don't think we've got any big plans tomorrow; I have to do some cleaning as we've got a couple of people staying with us over the weekend.

OH!!!! This weekend is the UW juggling festival. The show will be on Saturday night at Hagey Hall at 7pm. Tickets are $5 at the door. Apparently the show is supposed to be really good this year :)

Second long day

I started off today with my Spirituality and Healing group. We are going to be looking at The Secret, which is really just the spiritual law of attraction (if you want something to happen, visualize it happening and it will come to you). It isn't an awful idea, because it makes people more positive, but I do have some reservations about it. If I draw positive things, then I also draw negative things to me; so did I draw the cancer? How about the recurrence? Or the metastasis? Hmmmmm. Still, I do have a belief that since you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar, so I'm more likely to get what I want if I'm positive. So I'll stay positive and hope that things go my way.

BTW, we watched the first part of The Secret DVD in the group. It's very dramatic and hyped. Clearly, they are not marketing to me. The whole thing is not marketing to me, because, well, I don't like the idea that it's been covered up for ages and all of that. Also, they focus on material things (money! houses! great jobs!) and that just seems so crass. If you're going to look into this, I'd recommend that you read the book instead.

I also talked to our facilitator about the problems with the young women's group. She took me to talk to the executive director and will be discussing the problem at a meeting on Thursday. I'm very glad that she's on my side; I have a great deal of respect for her, and I'm glad that this is in her capable hands. I'm looking forward to seeing what happens.

Later on, we went to the Brier. It's in Hamilton this year, which is about an hour's drive from our place. To get to Copps Coliseum (the arena), we went through this cool mall. We walked through one part that had clearly had stores in it before, but which was completely boarded up with community-made murals. That reminded me of downtown malls in Edmonton; there's something I like about a mall like that. There's so much old promise and hope there. I wonder what used to be there, and what things used to be like when the stores were open. I got a glimpse of a store name - Marvela - and I wondered what it was. Had Ian not been with me, I would have taken a long, long time to walk that hallway, because I would have stopped to imagine all sorts of histories for it.

There is something very powerful about being at a sporting event that is one of the best in its class featuring the best in the country (or the world). I imagine people feel like that at the Olympics, too. Being in the same area as athletes, and close enough to see them clearly, is exhilarating. Once I got over that, I enjoyed the games. None of them were very close, but they were good.

We will be going back to see tomorrow night's draw. They have a souvenir shop; if any of you are interested in getting a vest, down jacket, windbreaker, golf shirt, or fleece hoodie (all branded with the Brier logo, of course), please let me know. Each are maybe $15-20 more than you might pay in a reasonably good sports store. The women's vest was $60; the women's down jacket was $150. I don't really remember the colours. There are also small souvenirs like glasses and stuff. If you want something small, please let me know.

A long day

It's been a long day to start off a long week. I met with some other people who go to the young women's support group as well. There's something missing in the group these days; it isn't the same as it used to be, and we did some brainstorming about what could be done to solve this problem. I'll talk to someone tomorrow about who we need to present these ideas to.

Then I took my business cards in to be printed (I should have them by Friday), had well-fit, which is getting to be a harder workout, and I had bellydancing. I also managed to tidy up the house a bit and make a few pairs of earrings that I'll post tomorrow. Now I'm up waiting for Ian to come home; he's at the Brier with a friend. I didn't go because I didn't want to miss bellydancing class.

I may have also purchased a dress today. I'm not supposed to be buying anything, and so I won't commit to having bought a dress. If I had bought a dress, it would have been black jersey with ivory curved lines on it (in a random pattern), with a deep V neckline, 3/4 length sleeves, ruching around the mid-section, and an a-line skirt to the knee. It would have looked fabulous on me, although it would have needed some hemming.

More sales!

I've had another sale (with possible commission) and another pending sale....this is so unbelievable! It feels like you all were just waiting for me to start selling the stuff I make :) Of course I'm thrilled - I'm honoured that all of you are supporting me in this business.

We spent quite a bit of time putting together a business card today. Ian has been very helpful (even when I get frustrated with new software that doesn't behave like I think it should), and I'll take it to be printed tomorrow. That way I can include a few with every order so that people can give them to their friends.

This week is going to be busy - we'll be traveling to Hamilton for a few nights to see Brier draws and the Waterloo Juggling festival is this weekend. We have one person staying with us, so we'll have to actually clean the house. This is not a bad thing, but cleaning gets in the way of creating :)

Superbowl Sunday

After curling, we went to a friend's house for their Superbowl party. They have it every year. There weren't as many people there this year as last year, which was kind of nice. We only got to see the last half or so of the game, so we missed the half-time show. That's too bad, because I like Prince.

The thing that sucks in Canada about the Superbowl is that we get a Canadian feed - the US feed is shuffled through the Canadian station, and so we get mostly Canadian commercials. That means that we don't get to see many cool new US commercials - we get to see not cool Canadian commercials :(. Sigh. I know, I can go to YouTube's Superbowl page or whatever to see them tonight or tomorrow, but it's not the same.

I have to get up ridiculously early (for me) tomorrow again because I'm seeing the genetic counselor at 9am. There are some new genetic tests they can do since the last time I had the testing done, and so I'd like to get them done. I don't think it'll change my life any if I test positive for a mutation, but I'd like to know if I do have one that they know about. And if I test positive, then my sisters have the option of getting tested, too.

On a completely unrelated note, I've been following this blog of a young woman who had some kind metastatic colorectal cancer. She had been admitted to hospital on January 13 and she died this morning. Her husband has been blogging her final days while he watched her in hospital (they have both been blogging there for the last 8 months or so as well). It's very sad and very touching - the blog is here, but don't read it unless you are ready to cry. I hope that Ian will also blog for me when I can't do it myself.

Appointment with the oncologist

I saw the oncologist this morning. She said that it takes Femara at least three months to start working, and of course I've been taking the Femara for exactly that long. She felt that we should give the Femara a real chance to work. So we're going to wait two more months while taking the Femara and see what happens. We're not going to do any scans on my left femur because even if there were something there, that wouldn't change the decision to wait two months to see what happens.

She seems to think that the pain I have is flare-up pain; that the biopsies combined with the treatments have made the tumours in my sternum inflamed, and that the pain should lessen soon. She said that it's very normal to have flare-up pain when Femara starts to work, and that she's heard of women having flare-up pain for three months.

If I still have a lot of pain and/or my tumour markers don't go down after two months, then we'll look at another treatment. My CA 15-3 tumour marker actually dropped from August (58.8) to October (48), which surprised me, although 48 is still above normal. So that marker would need to be 48 or lower in two months.

She was actually happy about the bone scan results, because she said that the scans get worse before they get better. And she said that I did the right thing by calling them when I did. I feel a bit better about calling even though the scans didn't show anything.

So overall the appointment went well. I'm happy with the outcome; I wasn't prepared to wait three months to see if this would work, but two is a good compromise. Plus that means that I won't have switched treatments before I go to Las Vegas :) And who knows - maybe the pain really will go away and I'll have a more normal, stable life on Femara for a while.

Later on during curling, I wore my pink shirt and used my new pink curling broom. Apparently they were a very attractive combination when I fell. Yep, I fell on the ice tonight - it doesn't happen very often. Reports are that I bounced; what happened is that is slipped on my slider foot, fell on my knee, and then fell again on my shoulder. I didn't fall on my head, thank goodness. I have a goose-egg on my left knee, and I pulled my right shoulder a bit. We'll see how stiff I really am tomorrow, of course. Silly me :) I'm fine, though, really. I was a bit shook up after falling, but I'm fine. :)

We bought some things today.....

We bought new curling brooms today! One is a Performance Carbon Fiber Handle in pink with a blue head. The other is a Performance Fiberglass Handle in white with a red head. Both handles have a 1" diameter. The carbon fiber broom is lighter so it's easier to sweep with. I'll use it on Fridays and Sundays when I am sweeping. On those days Ian will use the fiberglass broom since he's usually skipping and doesn't need to sweep nearly as much. Ian will use the carbon fiber broom on Thursdays, when he's sweeping. I'm so excited about these new brooms!!!! I can't wait to try them out on Friday. :) :)

In a plug for my favourite cosmetics, Physician's Formula has introduced a line of mineral-based cosmetics for sensitive skin. I'm going to try out their foundation. It turns out that I'm one of the 3% of people who don't match the foundations that are supposed to match 97% of people. Sigh. I hope the Physician's Formula foundation works. I love all of their other products, and would like to love their foundation, too.

BTW, I have posted pictures of the top and skirt that I wore on Saturday here. I look kinda dorky in one of the pictures, but whatever. I look kinda dorky in real life sometimes, too :)

Sunday movies and curling

We saw Pan's Labyrinth today. Both of us thought that it would be all "Alice in Wonderland", but there were only a few parts that were like going down the rabbit hole into an alternate universe. There were certainly fairy-tale structures; our protagonist has three tasks that she has to complete, and she makes a mistake while completing one of them. Also, the movie is very dark, like older fairy tales - there is no Disneyfication here. The majority of the movie takes place in Spain in 1944 just after a civil war in a mill under command of a captain. Pacing-wise, the movie may feel slow, but really, a lot happens in every scene. This movie is subtitled so be prepared for that.

In many ways, I think that the movie is a very deep, multi-connected, multi-textured movie. Watching it is like reading a classic novel with lots and lots of interconnections, where it's exciting to find each one. After watching it, I wanted to figure out all the similarities and differences between the captain and Pan. We talked for quite a while afterward about it, dissecting various parts of it. I wish I could talk more about it here. This is a fantastic movie, and we highly recommend it.

We took some pictures of my modified curling pants and curling clothes. They're here. The clothes I wore last night are in the laundry right now, but we will take some pictures of me in that outfit on Tuesday.

A little sleep, and a big day

I was up (comparatively) early today - I managed to get up at 11:15am. That's much earlier than the last few days :) First we watched Lucky Number Slevin. It's great! We both really liked it. It's got a lot of funny bits and a lot of puzzles - nothing is quite what it seems, which makes for a fantastic, spellbinding movie. We'd highly recommend this one as it's quite entertaining. I also especially liked the wall coverings everywhere.

We spent a few hours at a baby shower for one of my dragonboat teammates - she had a son a couple of months ago. He was very cute - but then, he slept the whole time we were there :)

I didn't hold the baby, because I'm not ready for that, but I did look at it. I didn't even cry afterward, which is a big step. You may recall that the last time I saw a baby, I was very, very upset. I guess that since I was less upset, I must either be getting better or the antidepressants are working. Either way, it's a step in the right direction.

When we got back to Waterloo, I curled. We'll be curling on Sunday nights. Normally we'll only curl 6 ends, which is manageable for me, but tonight we curled 7 which was a bit much. I ended up pretty exhausted afterwards. Now I'm worried that I won't be able to do both Well-fit and bellydance tomorrow - that it'll be too much for me. I'll just have to wait and see tomorrow.

A little bit more sleep

I woke up at noon and managed to stay awake until about 10:30pm. That's pretty good :)

I managed to get out and go curling tonight. That was fun, even though I wasn't very good. I'd read that the medications that I'm taking might interfere with my balance, but I don't think that that was the problem; I think that it was more that I'd forgotten how to curl. Oh well.

After that we went out to dinner with some friends..... and now I'm tired. I think it's bedtime, even though I have to be up at midnight to take my clodronate.

Finished!

I have finally finished the purse. I was supposed to curl for Ian today, but skipped it to finish the purse - a good thing, because the party is tomorrow. I didn't want to be working on it tomorrow, as I wanted to spend the day relaxing or getting ready and not rushing with the purse.

I'm mostly pleased with the way it turned out, as it still looks like I thought it would in my head. I like the chain I used - I think that it modernizes the purse a bit, and prevents it from looking too old. I'm also very pleased with the beadwork, as I think it looks fantastic (especially for someone who's never done this before). If I were to do it again, I would make the lining neater as it looks a bit messy near the top. Also, I'm not thrilled with the way that the zipper went in. I think I should have lined the fabric on the zipper strip with buckram instead of plain interfacing to give it more stiffness - I relied on the shape of the purse to force the zipper into the correct shape, but it didn't work perfectly. I'm not taking it out and redoing it, of course - I'm finished :)

Overall, I like the purse, and I'll be happy to wear it with me tomorrow. Yes, I am going to the party, if only to show off this purse :)

You can see the final pictures here.

Curling and my purse

We saw the final of the curling tournament today. It was pretty good - a close game, for sure, although the game had been pretty well decided by the 6th end. One thing that I didn't like was that people really treated it like a hockey game by yelling at the players. Sigh. We had started out sitting on one side of the arena because they'd told us that we wouldn't get good visibility on the other side. However, after the first end, we decided that the visibility would be fine - and there were fewer people on that side, so Ian wouldn't be crushed by this big guy's water bottle.

I spent part of the rest of the day working on my purse. I've finished the silver-only bands already - I can do each band in about 40 minutes, which is pretty fast. You can see the purse, as always, here. My technique has improved, and I don't have to figure out all the angles again (they'll be the same as the first one), so I think this second side will take less time to do. After that, I'll have to do the band and then put it all together. That's good, because I have less than two weeks to finish it :)

Shopping and more curling

We started today off with a little shopping. We have those cards from Mark's Work Wearhouse where you can save $10 on any purchase of $50 or more. I was looking for sweaters, so I thought I'd go there. I was pleasantly surprised to find that they now have their own line of petite clothing. Ian thinks I've just missed it all this time, but I'm pretty sure I've never seen petite clothing there. I bought two round-neck cable sweaters - one in dusty rose and one in apricot.

Later on, we watched curling. We saw the quarter- and semi-finals of the WCT Grand Slam. In the semi-finals, one of the skips appears to have injured himself, and so his team lost. They had an announcer there that seemed to think that the crowd was watching a hockey game - loud music, and he wanted everyone to get up and dance. The game was televised, and so he did this every time an end finished so that the station could air commercials. Considering that the average age of the spectator there was north of 45, he didn't have much luck - the crowd was very unresponsive to his attempts to get it moving, yelling, and clapping. Some might say that curling is slightly more refined than that kind of loud behaviour. We'll see the finals tomorrow afternoon.

A little curling, pain, and beading

We watched some more curling today. It looked like there were several groups of kids there watching Gushue play - they had tambourines, of all things, and were making quite a bit of noise. We sat as far away from them as possible :) We actually only watched part of one draw today, because we were much too tired to watch any more. It's important that Ian not get sick in the next week because of his surgery, and when he gets cold (as when he sits in a cold arena), he's more prone to being sick. So we took it easy today.

Unfortunately, I was too tired to even curl tonight :( This is because I was up last night with pain. In fact, I've been experiencing a lot more pain lately. They'd told me that as the treatment started to work, I might experience more pain. This is exactly what seems to be happening - the pain is much like it was before I got it under control. My knees are also hurting right now, which may be a consequence of the new coffee table and the laptops' position on it. Finally, I also have a spot on the back of my left thigh that is hurting in a similar way to my sternum. I hope that this new pain decreases soon.

I finished the first side of the purse!!! You can see the pictures here. I'm really, really pleased with it; it looks exactly like I thought it would (which is always a pleasant treat). I think that the purse will look really good. The two sides will be attached to a band in the middle that will give the purse some depth, so now I just have to bead the other side of the purse and that middle band.

Pre-op and curling

Ian had his pre-op appointment at the hospital for his surgery next week. The procedures surrounding the surgery are quite different at this hospital compared to the hospital where I've had my surgeries. For example, we have to bring a bag for Ian's stuff that is clearly labeled with his name (at the other hospital, a bag was provided and they had labels with my name on them). He also has to bring his health card on the surgery day, which is something that I didn't have to do for mine.

The hospital has a video that they show people that outlines the general sequence of events. That's kind of cool, because it shows people the actual rooms that they'll be in - this would be very comforting to many people. I know that when I'm confronted with something unfamiliar, I like to know how things will happen. This gives me a measure of control over the situation - yeah, some have called me a control freak, but it's a coping technique. If I feel threatened or scared, I get more controlly.

We also watched a lot of curling today. The last end of the last game we watched - Martin against Menard - was very, very good. Ian taught me how to time the rocks when people delivered them; that's something that I didn't know how to do. Yes, I know how to use a stopwatch, but I didn't know where to start and stop timing. I hope that this will help my curling.

Catching up and curling

Ian's surgery is next week and he had one of his pre-op appointments today. I'd planned to go with him to all of his appointments, but I'd already made plans to meet with a friend of mine. I went to University with this friend, and I haven't really had a chance to sit down and talk to him in ages - I've missed him a lot. Luckily, we were able to meet today :)

Ian and I also went to curling tonight; the WCT Masters of Curling Grand Slam draw tonight. We have tickets for each day of the event, although we won't be able to go to every draw. Still, we're happy to be going :) It's a chance to watch some good curling for a reasonably inexpensive price.

Curling again

I curled tonight, for the first time since the surgery. It went ok. I was pretty tired by the end, but I still felt pretty good. Yay :)

Afterwards, we had dinner and then went to a Halloween party. A friend of Ian's has a bash every year, and they go all out - they decorate their place and wear amazing costumes and everything! We didn't stay long, but it was fun.

Along our travels, we noticed that one of our headlights on the car was burned out. We'll take that in tomorrow, if we can, as neither of us knows how to change it. I'd have thought that the headlight would last longer than 2 1/2 years.

Cancer, curling, and culture

I did see the oncologist today, and we are starting me on the bisphosphonates and Femara (aromatase inhibitor). I took the prescription in to be filled but the drugstore didn't have the generic version of the bisphosphonates. I'll pick it up tomorrow. I'm to start on those right away, and I'm to start the Femara a few weeks after surgery when I'm healthy. If I have any problems with either of these drugs, then I can call and get in to see her. The nurse was there and nodded her head when I verified this. Otherwise, I won't see her again until January.

One of the tumour markers - CA 15.3 - was slightly elevated the last time I was there. She said it was up by about 20 points, which isn't very much (I think normal is under 35). It looks like this will be the marker that we monitor as we re-did the test again today. I'll be curious to know whether or not the number is higher now, since I suspect more cancer now because of the lymphedema symptom.

Speaking of lymphedema, I also asked to get into the lymphedema program that they have there - the wait is 8 weeks, but it'll be worth it to see them, I think. She's also going to see whether or not I should redo the genetic testing. I did the testing back in 2001, and they've found two new genes since then, so it might be worth re-doing it. I'll see what she says.

Tonight was also my first night of curling. It was fun up until someone fell and hit her head on the ice :( She got a cut on her head which bled like crazy, as head wounds do. She's going to have a big bruise there - unfortunately, I think it was her head that broke her fall. She's apparently doing fine, though, and has someone watching over her tonight.

On the culture front, we saw Gene DiNovi in concert tonight. He's a jazz pianist who performed a bunch of Gershwin and other tunes from that era. It was amazing to watch him. We were able to watch his hands which are very elegant and graceful when playing. He also told stories about what it was like in that environment back then. It's really cool to hear some of that - there's definitely a lot of history there. The music was wonderful. I didn't recognize much of what he played, but I definitely enjoyed all of it.

This was a very full day, as you can probably tell. I'm going to wrap the gift for tomorrow's wedding and call it a day, I think.

Winter hobbies

I was thinking about my winter hobbies today. Last year, I curled in two leagues and also took bellydancing. I could easily fit all of those hobbies into my schedule this fall. Part of me still wants to be able to do all that, but I think it might be better to not overload myself. Also, the fees for all of those activities are due in the next few weeks, and I've only got a guaranteed income for the next couple of weeks. If my long-term disability is approved, then I won't receive a payment until mid-October.

Anyways, I've decided to only curl on Fridays, although I won't send in my form until after I get the biopsy results on the 14th. I can probably pick up the Thursday curling league in January, since they're almost always short of people. I can also take bellydancing again in January since there will be more courses offered then. If I had to choose between a second curling night and bellydancing, though, I'd choose bellydancing for some variety :)