Falling asleep...

First of all, thank you all for your prayers for my family's struggle with the flu bug.  They paid off.  Everyone had a solid night of sleep last night.  No one has vomited since yesterday morning (when Jean-Marc did on our walk). The older kids are both back to school today and everything looks good.  I was able to go to the gym today and do a pretty good cardio workout as well.   We are glad to have Eric back home too, and we are praying that he does not fall prey to the nasty bug like we did.

I've noticed something really strange over the past 24 hours when I sleep.  I've been paranoid about sleeping on my left side since my surgery.  At first, it was because I was just too sore to sleep on that side.  When I did sleep on my left side in the past, I would sleep on my left arm, which would be under my pillow. Now I am paranoid about lymph fluid getting trapped and not being able to drain.  Whether or not that is a valid concern, I don't know. But this strange phenomenon has nothing to do with me sleeping on the left side, because I just don't do it anymore.

Instead, I sleep a lot on my back now.  (Pregnancy got me out of the habit of stomach sleeping.) Yesterday during a nap and again last night, my left arm fell asleep while I was sleeping on my back. What is going on with that?  I'm not cutting of the circulation in any way, yet it feels like that.  I'm going to e-mail my physical therapist to see if that is normal or not.  It goes away when I turn to my right side for awhile.   Has anyone else out there had that happen to them?

I've been working a lot on avoiding lymphedema in my left arm.  I've been wearing my compression sleeve during the days, especially when I'm working out.  I've also been doing the manual drainage technique after each shower.  At the therapists office this week, she had me put my arms up to compare them in the mirror.  Think of a "muscleman" pose. Sure enough, my left upper arm had some extra "sag" to it.  I've been doing that each day as well to see if there is any buildup.  I *think* I am keeping it at bay.  But the nighttime tingles are a little worrisome.  Maybe I'll try wearing the compression sleeve at night tonight and see if that makes a difference.

The compression sleeve, as I understand it, will help the area not swell.  It won't make swelling go down. There are exercises you can do for that, as well as the bandaging (which I would like to avoid), and the manual drainage that can help with that.  Vigilance is key.  I need to keep it from getting out of control in the first place.  This is going to have to become a part of my "new normal."

Other than that, life is going on as usual. I'll have my next round of chemo a week from today.  After that, it will be just one more round!  Between now and next Friday, I'm working on healthy eating (lots of greens, cabbage and beans) and exercising. It's my "in training" week.

Round 5, bring it on.

Bug in the house

Well, we all have a stomach flu. The 3 kids and I have spent the last day in gross-ville while Eric has been out of town on business.

Isabelle was the only one who was able to eat dinner last night.  Just making dinner made me feel even worse. The smells while cleaning it up (broiled salmon) put me over the edge and I did vomit.  Olivier had done it just before me.  That was it--we were in bed by 8 p.m.  At about 9:30 p.m., Isabelle comes into my room crying saying that she had just thrown up in her bed-on the top bunk. Great.  It's bad enough to feel sick yourself.  But to clean up someone else's while you are feeling sick is beyond gross.  I managed to climb up on top of her bed, throw down dozens of stuffed animals and random pieces of clothing that she had crammed in little nooks and crannies, bundle up the sheets and take them off.  I just put them into the washing machine and shut the door on them. As Scarlett would say, "I'll think about that tomorrow."

Throughout the night, I heard the two older kids throwing up. Olivier came into my room several times saying he couldn't sleep.  Sorry buddy, I don't know what to tell you.  Wish I could help.  Not to sound selfish, but how does waking me up help you get to sleep?  (No, I didn't really say that.)

This morning, only Jean-Marc wanted breakfast. Olivier had spent several hours downstairs on the couch. It was cooler than his room.  Although he wanted breakfast, he still was funny about the food, not really showing much of an apetite, but insisting on "eat, eat, eat!"  It was probably more out of habit than anything. He did down 2 cups of milk and a cup of watered down apple juice.

After that, I put Jean-Marc in the stroller to take the dog for a quick walk. Things still need to be done, whether I'm sick or not.  We were halfway back up our street when he starts puking all over himself and the stroller.  Oh man.  Here I am, baby crying, dog on the leash, feeling yucky myself....can I just push a button and get home?  We got up the street, I took him out of the stroller, stripped him and left the stroller in the backyard.  I took a hose to it later.

None of us really have an appetite. We did have some "magic mineral broth" at noon along with some saltine crackers. Everyone kept that down. We're a little hungry, but nothing sounds good.

I checked my temperature, and at its highest it was 99.8 when I first woke up this morning.  I'm supposed to check in with the oncologist if its 100.5.  I haven't checked in, I don't know if it is something they would want to know.  I only threw up once, but I definitely feel tired.  I managed to nap this afternoon for about 90 minutes, which felt great.  We'll see how I feel tomorrow.  I still have to re-make Isabelle's bed and take the trash out.  I'll be glad when Eric gets home tonight so he can attend to some of these household tasks.

My prayer requests:

• That we all get over this virus quickly.  It is very hard to be a nursemaid to 3 kids when you feel like you need one for yourself!  I'm not sure how my altered blood counts will play into this. I do know that at this point of the last round of chemo, my white count was pretty low. 
• That this illness does not delay the next round of chemo, which is currently set for November 12th. 
• That Eric does not catch this illness when he gets home tonight. 
• That my mom stays healthy. She is flying out to see my sister and her family tomorrow morning. I pray that she was not around us too much this week that she would have caught this bug.