Jan 30 update

My titles are getting less and less creative, bleh. 

Today had its ups and downs. 

Ups
- My oncologist emailed and said my bone marrow looks great and there are no problems there!  I'm still not sure what stage that makes this cancer, but I'm sure we'll know soon.
- Damien and I are more sure now in our choice of treatment here in Austin.  I discussed our decision with our oncologist and he's open to the idea of us getting a second opinion at big name hospitals in Houston.  However, he's sure that the course of treatment will be the same as what he is prescribing according to NCCN guidelines.  Treatment for Hodgkin's is pretty standard and it's been treatable since the 70s.  I have great confidence in Dr. S.
- My portacath was used for the first time today to give me IV iron.  I put some lidocaine cream on the port 30 minutes before treatment to numb the area. The area is still swollen and the nurse used a needle that was too short at first (3/4").  It resulted in saline being pumped under my skin rather than into my vein.  There was a ton of pressure in the area and she immediately stopped. She switched to a 1" needle and this time, the saline went into the vein and there was no discomfort at all.  I barely felt the needle pricks of the Huber needle, yay numbing cream!  There was a lady getting chemo there and she was reassuring me that I wouldn't feel a thing over time.  When her treatment was done, she completely forgot to let the nurse unhook her line from her port and started walking out while dragging the whole machine with her chest port. Like NBD.
- I found some slick hoodies at Costco for cheap to wear to chemo.  One of them has the sleeves with the thumb slits! I'm excited.

Downs
- I had a blood draw and ultrasound for the fertility treatments that I'm going through today.  It turns out my follicles aren't increasing in size and my estradiol levels are dropping.  I've been injecting myself daily with follicle stimulating hormones to up the number of follicles that will be ready to retrieve eggs from (and in turn, upping estradiol).  The doctor and his partner have no idea why my body isn't responding to the FSH drugs.  They've upped the dosage of the meds and we'll rinse and repeat and check again on Sunday.  It's disappointing..  Especially since I postponed chemo 2 weeks to attempt this.  But priority 1 is to get me healthy again, not make babies!

I'm totally ready for the weekend to come.  Tomorrow, we're watching the last 2 episodes of Game of Thrones on a true IMAX screen at the Bob Bullock museum.  Can't wait!