A fabulous scan and Gozer

I saw my oncologist this morning to get the results from last week's bone scan. The results are fantastic! The spot we radiated is less active meaning that the radiation therapy worked!!! There are also no new spots of different activity so the cancer is under control. I'll be staying on the current treatment - femara or letrozole - because it seems to be working to keep the cancer under control. Yippee!!!

This great news has capped off a difficult few days. On Wednesday evening, Gozer became very sick. She'd eaten bunny poop in the backyard in the early afternoon and some other kind of delicious-to-her poop on our walk through the woods. After dinner she began vomiting (which is the grossest thing I've ever smelled because of the aforementioned poop). She looked dopey and her head was rocking back and forth; the second time she vomited she didn't move away like she normally does. And then we saw that she couldn't walk.

I freaked out a bit, as I will do, and called the emergency vet. I described the symptoms and they said that if I was worried I should bring Gozer in. So we did.

When we got there, she vomited again in the lobby so they took us into one of the exam rooms. (They do have a wonderful spray that neutralizes even the worst smells, which made the lobby bearable for the other people there). In the room, I sat on the floor and gozer sat beside me; when she's got up, there was a puddle of pee where she'd been sitting. She didn't know she'd peed. She tried walking around but was wobbly on her feet and her feet kept spreading out under her.

I was so scared. I thought Gozer had ingested a poison and was going to die.

It turns out that she did ingest a poison of sorts. Based on her behaviour, the vet said she'd ingested marijuana. There's no blood or urine test that can tell for sure that this was the cause but her behaviour was definitely consistent with marijuana ingestion. There's nothing that can really be done for it, either; the dog has to ride it out.

The vet did give Gozer an anti-emetic and liquid charcoal and Gozer didn't vomit again. She did get very sleepy and slept hard throughout the night.

We ended up spending about two hours at the emergency vet's office, and when we came home around 11pm we stayed up with her for about 35 minutes before taking her out for a short walk.

It took about 24 hours for Gozer to return to normal and she's completely fine now. I did get quite a scare (even though I overreacted a bit) but I'm feeling better now, too.

We don't know exactly where she found the marijuana, but it was either thrown into our yard or it was in or near the poop she ate. I don't object to marijuana, as a rule; I know people who take it and I don't much care. But if you do take it, please dispose of everything properly and keep it out of reach of your pets. Don't make a pet owner go through what we did.

Gastroenterologist appointment

Have I mentioned my stomach issues? I don't remember. Apologies if I'm repeating myself.

A bit of background: I have degeneration in my lower back at L4-L5 and L5-S1 which causes pain and the pain was worse after my ovaries came out in 2007. To deal with that pain, I took Celebrex (a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug, or NSAID) starting in late 2007. I didn't really take it properly because I didn't always take it with food; taking it with food is strongly recommended because NSAIDs can cause stomach problems. However, my stomach was fine. Then in late 2014 I heard about a new painkiller that would help with headaches (I grind my teeth and get headaches from that even though I wear a night guard). This new amazing painkiller was Naproxen (Aleve) and wow did it work. It worked faster and better than Tylenol and so I took it occasionally.

What I didn't realize is that Naproxen is also an NSAID and, like Celebrex, can cause stomach problems. In the summer of 2015 I started experiencing severe stomach pain almost certainly due to the combination of NSAIDs. The pain was so bad that I couldn't stand up straight and I almost never wanted to eat. I was taken off of the Celebrex and stopped taking the Naproxen... but the damage was definitely done.

My family doctor put me on 60mg of Dexilant per day plus Gaviscon and the combination worked to reduce the stomach pain. I still had occasional problems but I could stand up straight and eat. I also started to gain weight; I put on over 20 pounds.

Then early this year I started experiencing a new pain in my stomach. My family doctor doubled the Dexilant dose and referred me to a gastroenterologist in Oakville.

The gastroenterologist said that my stomach problems are probably related to too much acid there and that my Dexilant dose is very high. I have no idea how to reduce the acid level (I'm sure we'll deal with that later) but he wants to try to reduce the Dexilant; apparently it can be increased or decreased without any problems or side effects which is great. Before we do anything, though, he wants to see my stomach so I'm scheduled to go in for an endoscopy on the afternoon of May 3. He'll look around, take some samples (ie biopsy a few areas) and test me for H. pylori.

He also said that my recent weight gain may be related to my other painkillers, which are known to slow down the intestines, and that reducing the amount I take may make it easier for me to lose weight. (In addition to some dietary and exercise changes, of course!)

Speaking of reducing that painkiller, my family doctor is apparently going to be away for six or eight weeks starting in May. There's no way that I will do this kind of reduction without his supervision or the supervision of a doctor to whom I'm referred so that will wait until summer. I'm quite sure I'll be fine.

In other news, getting to yesterday's appointment was a bit of a production. The original plan was for me to take Gozer to Ian's parent's house so that they could visit with her, but neither they nor Gozer were feeling well. Gozer was groomed on Monday and had mild diarrhea afterwards. She's getting better but I didn't want to impose Gozer (and the possibility of an emergency diarrhea walk) on people who weren't feeling well. Also, I didn't think it was a good idea to take Gozer on a long drive, so the new plan was to take her to Ian's work.

Then I found out that a good friend of mine went into residential hospice yesterday. She's been receiving palliative care at home for about a year but has declined significantly in the last few weeks; she has metastatic breast cancer with brain tumours and she's out of treatments for them. The tumours are growing and causing additional cognitive and physical difficulties and she could no longer be cared for in her own home. At this point it isn't known if she'll be able to receive visitors.

I was and am devastated to hear this. She's lasted an incredibly long time: she wanted to see her kids start school last September and she did! Plus she was here another six months or so! But she's close to the end now and I'm grieving... there are many, many tears and that tight feeling in my chest that makes me want to curl into a ball in a dark corner. I told Ian what was happening and we decided that since I was crying so much and was so weepy, it wasn't safe for me to drive to Oakville. Driving while crying really isn't safe for me.

So instead of taking Gozer to Ian's work so that she didn't have to do a long car ride, the new new plan was that Ian came home and the three of us drove to and from the appointment. Fortunately, Gozer was just fine during the drives and we didn't have to stop for any emergencies. Ian took her for a nice long walk during my appointment and she's doing better.

What a day, huh? I'll keep you posted with what happens with all my upcoming appointments and stuff.

Was feeling sick but I think I'm getting better

For the last couple of days I've really felt "off". I was really tired at the beginning of the week and then on Wednesday I started to feel not right. Over the last two days I could only eat half of my breakfast and couldn't drink my coffee; I couldn't eat anything else through the day. I felt queasy and the thought of food wasn't appealing at all.

I was also exhausted and weak and having chills and shakes (although I didn't have a fever) and I was having trouble with woogly back (like restless legs, I guess, but all over my back). I couldn't stop moving and I couldn't get comfortable at all so I was ending up in these awkward half-upside-down positions while moaning and whining. Sometimes having a very hot bath followed by a nap helped but other times nothing helped.

Gozer knew that something was wrong and she tried so hard to comfort me. She tried licking my face and climbing on me but I couldn't bear her weight. When I slept, she curled up very close to me (often taking my blankets) and carrying around my stuffed monkey. Ian wasn't happy to see that Gozer was on the bed but I liked having her there.

I thought that the problem might have been that I was constipated since my diet was different during our trip. The only thing that calmed my woogly back was percocet which would also have calmed my intestines - which wouldn't help if I was in fact constipated. Still, last night I was so desperate to stop the woogles that I had to do something. I asked Ian to get me some Ducolax (in case I was constipated) because I figured that would offset the effects of the percocet.

I also wondered if there was something wrong with one of my painkiller patches. I wear two of them and alternate changing them so that I don't have to go through withdrawl symptoms. Since the percocet helped, it's possible that the patch that got changed this morning was faulty or had been changed incorrectly beforehand or something. But then, what I was feeling wasn't quite the same as the feeling of opiate withdrawl that I've had before, which for me always involves a crazy amount of sweating. I wasn't experiencing that this time around.

I slept twelve hours last night and woke up feeling a LOT better. No woogles, I was hungry, and I wanted coffee. I had some jam on toast and had my regular morning coffee, and I had some toast later on in the day. I was even able to go outside and do some very light yard work, which I couldn't even have thought of doing over the last few days. The Dulcolax did achieve some results a bit later in the day but I wouldn't say that I was actually constipated. Or maybe I was, but I don't know if that was what was wrong and causing such terrible woogles, queasiness, and chills.

I still don't feel 100%; I don't want to eat all that much and chewing gum makes me feel very, very queasy. But I feel so much better than I have over the last few days. I think I might even be able to walk Gozer tonight, which is something I haven't done this whole week. I hope I keep getting better but I wish I knew why I've been so sick this last week.

Sick with a side of whine

I don't know why but I'm feeling like crap today. I'm exhausted, I've got a headache, and my stomach is queasy. I hope I didn't catch anything while I was away.

I'd thought about going to Toronto on Thursday for the Society for North American Goldsmiths conference - it's for metalsmiths in North America and it's held in different cities each year. Having it practically in my own backyard is an opportunity that's almost too good to miss. However, the conference goes from 8:30am to 5pm which means that I'd need to be awake at 5am and wouldn't get home until 9pm.... and I'm not sure I'm up for that.

If I hadn't been away last week or I wasn't feeling quite so sick today, I think I could probably do the conference without exhausting myself too much. However, I'm worried that if I do push myself to go, I'll end up even more exhausted and it'll end up taking days or weeks to recover.

But I really wanted to go. It's a little frustrating to run smack into my limitations. The grown-up thing to do is to accept that I have limitations and not go to the conference on Thursday. Sigh. I can travel to the conference another year.

Our cute dog and my lymphedema

Gozer has been hunting chipmunks and mice in our yard since we got her. Last year we caught her with a stiff, dead mouse in her mouth and then a floppy, newly-dead mouse. At that time we weren't sure whether a cat had killed the mice and she'd just taken them or if she'd killed them herself.

Whether she killed those mice or not, we now know for sure that Gozer hunts and kills mice. This morning I watched her follow something through the grass with her ears forward to catch all the noises. I turned away for a couple of seconds and when I turned back she was coming towards me with something in her mouth. She dropped it, picked it up, and ran towards me with it before dropping it in front of me. It was clearly freshly killed by her.

No wonder she eviscerates her plush squeaky toys, and I'm grateful that she didn't get the chance to do that to her kill today. Her new nickname is "The Huntress."

In other news, I feel awful. The physiotherapist did the lymphatic massage on me and I've been feeling awful since then: exhausted, incredibly nauseous, bad heartburn, terrible gas, and smelly evacuations. It's great that the massage did something but I could do without these side effects.

Happily, my compression sleeve and glove have arrived and I'll be picking them up tomorrow. This means that I won't need to wear the compression bandaging all the time and that is some kind of thrilling. I'd feel more thrilled if I didn't feel quite so awful. I hope I'm better tomorrow.

Adventures in (non)healing

For the last few days my left arm, underarm, and breast have all felt heavy, achy, and sore and I was having a hard time lifting my hand up high because it hurt in my underarm. I figured that the biopsy and my previous surgery taking out lymph nodes caused a buildup of lymph fluid in those areas so I massaged them. I'd been taught how to do the use massage to move the lymph fluid and get it flowing better way back when I had the lymphedema in my arm. I'd noticed that the area around the stitches was a bit warm and a bit red but I figured that this was related to the swelling and buildup of lymph fluid.

Imagine my surprise when I was having a bath and I noticed that the area around the stitches was bright red and there was that particular yellow crust around the stitches that signifies infection. My dermatologist had told me to call if anything looked strange and so I called right away. He would have liked it if I could have gone to see him this afternoon but he was leaving in an hour and it would have taken at least an hour and a half to get there because Ian had the car.

He told me that in this case, I should go to the emergency room and have them look at it since he couldn't prescribe something over the phone. I asked if I could go to a walk-in clinic and he reluctantly said yes but preferred the emergency room.

I called Ian right away, told him what was going on, and he came home to take me to the emergency room. I was worried that I'd end up there for at least six hours... and I almost did. The main treatment area was not moving at all and was really backed up. They were able to get me into the minor treatment area where I was seen by a nurse practitioner. She took out the stitches, gave me a prescription for Keflex, and we were on our way in just over two hours.

If the Keflex doesn't work I need to go back to the ER and they'll put me on IV antibiotics. That's one outcome I'd like to avoid but if it does come to that, it's actually a good thing that I went to this ER - the one associated with the cancer center. As much as I'd wanted to go to a walk-in clinic, going to this ER meant that they had more information about me and my cancer treatment. Ian was right to make me go to the ER even though I was whining about having to be there for six hours.

I see the dermatologist on Monday. He expects that the infection will be cleared up and I hope he's right.

Gozer and my stomach

My stomach has settled back down and I'm not feeling nauseous anymore. I'm wondering if the nausea and tummy problems were related to our Brita water. We buy the big 18.9L (5Gal) jugs of water for drinking but it's expensive so we use Brita-filtered water for coffee, my morning oatmeal, and other cooking as well as when we run out of the bottled water.

We noticed this past week that the bottom of the Brita jug was green with what appeared to be algae. I didn't know that algae could grow in a Brita jug but a quick showed that algae can definitely grow there, especially if the jug isn't washed regularly and sits in the sunlight. We don't wash the jug as often as we should and it does get to sit in the sun from time to time . We're not the greatest housekeepers, although I foresee us cleaning the Brita jug out more often from now on.

I don't know if algae in the Brita jug gets poured into the water or if it can cause tummy troubles in people with sensitive tummies like mine but I haven't had problems since we cleaned out the jug. Coincidence? Maybe... and maybe not. If the nausea comes back then I'll know it wasn't the algae, right?

Yesterday I took Gozer to the vet's for her final behaviour modification appointment. She's done so well at that program: she doesn't show any signs of separation anxiety when she's left alone and she doesn't bark nearly as often. She's off the Reconcile (doggy Prozac) and we've seen a noticeable difference in her behaviour: she's much more rambunctious, excited, and bossier. She barks (ar-roo-roo-roo-roo-roo) when she wants something which she never did before. Her character is more obvious and now that we see it, we're happy that she was on the medication. It calmed her enough so that she could take in the training and get over the anxieties she felt. She is such a happy dog now.

After we left the vet's office, I'd planned to take her for one of our regular walks. She had other ideas: when she wants to go a different way, she plants her little feets down and pulls away from the leash. While I can do a few leash pops and force her to go into another direction if I wanted, I allowed her to decide which way we went. We ended up at Ren's Pet store for reasons unknown. When we left she had wanted to walk along another path but I decided that we were going home.

Several times this week Gozer has led me to the vet's office so that she could have a visit with the staff. Gozer was even happy to see the groomer when no one else was there! This seems kind of crazy, doesn't it? I spoke with the vet and she said that they encourage their animal patients to stop by for a visit so that the animals see the office as a good, happy place instead of a scary one. The staff are more than happy to give the animals a bit of attention and a treat if they're not busy. If they are busy, Gozer has a chance to meet other animals which is a very good thing.

I'm lucky that my tummy is better so that I can go on these crazy long Gozer-directed walks. She definitely enjoys the time and I like being able to spend that kind of quality time with her.

Who's sick in this house?

I didn't call my oncologist today. I kind of knew that I wouldn't because I was supposed to meet up with a friend to go shopping and I wouldn't be home for them to call me back. Then I ended up feeling really nauseous and postponing my outing until tomorrow. So while I could have called my oncologist, I didn't because I felt so awful.

I'm feeling better now. I have no idea what was wrong; maybe constipation? something I ate? who knows. I'll call my oncologist on Monday, however. I noticed this morning that the left breast has changed shape a little bit, probably because of the reddish-purple bumps which are probably sarcoidosis, and that's something that I've been told not to ignore. I'm not going to stress about it but I'll definitely call on Monday.

We also noticed a bump on Gozer's chin that we haven't seen before, and I noticed a bump on the roof of her mouth right behind her teeth. I'm seeing the vet on Friday to finish off our behaviour modification program but if the bumps are still there on Monday I think I'll try to get her in to see the vet early on in the week. I don't want my little furbaby getting sick!

I'm looking forward to going out tomorrow. I haven't seen this person in ages and I'm not going to miss it tomorrow no matter how I feel.