When It Rains...

This past week has been one for the record books. A week ago yesterday I thought I might be dying. Not trying to be overly dramatic here, but I truly wondered if it all might be coming to an end a whole lot faster than I originally thought. I was weak as a baby, short winded, and scared. David called Highland's answering service at 6 am and Dr. Beck quickly called back. We ended up going in as soon as they opened and discovered my BP was super low, while pulse was racing. I was dehydrated. Ended up upstairs in a bed getting fluids and other stuff. They stopped me from taking the Xeloda and Afinitor, for now.

So this past week has been recovery time, which should've meant peace and quiet and no stress. Things don't always work out that way, though, do they? 

The night before my bottoming out, our plumbing decided to do something it's been threatening to do for years now...completely rot out. Suddenly our toilets were overflowing and tub and showers were backing up. Absolute total ICK!! And, of course this was happening after hours. Plumber came and got the lines cleared out, which bought us about  2 days of flushable plumbing...until it did it all again. This time plumber was back with the camera. He scoped it out and found a huge hole in the pipe about a foot under the middle of our main bathroom. It was time for excavation. No amount of roto-rootering was going to help this mess. 

So, thanks to the help of some teacher friends and their husbands, we were sent a nice, honest, fast working plumber who could take care of it. We had to pack it up and head to a hotel last Tuesday night so they could start first thing Wednesday. 

We spent 3 nights in the nearby Residence Inn (thanks to my sweet mom and dad-in-law), which really wasn't that bad at all. It helped that I was beginning to feel better. On Tuesday I had gone in for lab work, which I thought was going to be a quick in and out. My youngest son, Sean, was my driver and wheelchair pusher on this day. Yes, wheelchair. I was still too weak to remain upright and steady long enough to get very far. So he pushed me in to Highlands for this quick visit, and we ended up staying 3 hours. I was still dehydrated, and now with an extremely low white count and platelets and a weird rash around my abdomen and mouth sores and thrush. It seems I was bottoming out later than most do with this chemo, therefore was not given the magic shot that's supposed to keep all this from happening. My lab work of last week and week prior were deemed fine and good. 

Three years ago they gave me a shot of Neulasta following each heavy chemo. I called it my golden shot, not because of how great it was, but because it's unbelievably expensive. But this time nothing...until this week. I think this protocol will change next round. I've been to Highland's 3 times this week for Neupogen, which is the not quite so golden little brother of Neulasta.

So, I camped out at the Residence Inn for three days. I love hotels, and the fact that I did not see any more than the handicapped room in which we stayed tells you something. I hear the pool area, breakfast area, hearth room and lobby were quite nice. 

And, of course, as things go around here, we received a call from the plumber on Wednesday evening letting us know they could not find a decent section of pipe on which to attach the new plumbing and needed to dig under the vanity.          

Of course.          

Thursday morning a carpenter had to come in and remove the vanity, so David headed to the house after work to empty the very full cabinets out and remove the drawers.

Let's make a long story short here. I am back at home as of yesterday, there is a huge bathroom vanity in my front room, along with boxes of all the stuff from within said vanity. I have one bathroom that needs a floor and a sink, but we've got flushable toilets and showers that will not be backing up! Hot-diggity!

God has blessed us this week. We made it through, (though I realize we aren't finished yet) and things are calm and peaceful. I have been blessed by amazing gifts, both monetarily and otherwise, from sweet friends and family, and am counting my many blessings. I feel well enough to write this, so yay to that, too. 

Sure hope your week was better than mine, though.

My new bathroom.
 This is where we stand today. Just happy that toilet works!