Happy belated St. Patrick's day! I did absolutely nothing for it.. Unless you count going out to sushi with my brother a celebration.
Kevin came down Sunday through Tuesday and spent the first part of his spring break with me. We both worked from home and watched many hours of House of Cards and Brooklyn Nine Nine. It was great spending time with him, chilling, and chatting. He did leave the my sphere of boringness and went downtown to SXSW for a night and had fun.
Yesterday, I went into work to clean up and pack my desk. No freaking out! I wasn't fired and I didn't quit! We are moving offices to a bigger better place. I went in because my desk is embarrassingly dirty and dusty. I've missed being at work and around my coworkers. They're wonderful caring people. I do talk to them when I work from home, but that's not a substitute for hallway chats and face time. Many of my coworkers also chipped in and got Damien and me wedding gifts too!! Totally unexpected and so so touching. We received a Roomba (how have we lived without it?), an RC quadcopter with camera, a gift card to Travaasa Resort & Spa and a generous amount of cash. I'm totally touched by all the other wedding gifts I've received from friends too - crystal toasting glasses, cute oil candles, ring holder, gift cards to amazon (the only place I shop nowadays), a gift card to Uchi (my favorite!) and the standard Chinese wedding gift - cash. I didn't really tell many people in person or personally that we were getting married because we didn't want the attention. The blog entry was really the only place at first. Also, telling people that you have cancer followed by telling them you got married makes for some very awkward reactions in person haha. People have extremely conflicted feelings to these pieces of news obviously. I just want people to be happy! But it turned out to be joyous! I'm really really empathetic (it's actually my top strength, says the book Now, Discover Your Strengths. You NetQoSers should know all about that) so it really makes me happy to see people happy for us.
Oh, so back to my visit to work. It's been 2 months since I saw everyone. I've been worried about catching something from a sick coworker. There have been many times I've wanted to go in because working from home, while awesome, makes me start talking to my pets and then I start making little decisions based on their "input". What should I have for lunch today, Tesla? Oh you think this smoked salmon smells interesting? Alrighty then! Our CTO gave me a tour of the new office (it's in another building of the same complex and we walked over). I have a window desk overlooking a field, yay. I thanked him for being so supportive while I was going through this cancer thing. He was so comforting (because who hasn't thought they were going to get fired when a long-term health issue comes up and you can't pay attention to work for days on end?). He told me to look out for #, to focus on getting better, and to not worry about work. My direct manager told me the same thing when this ordeal started and it's nice to hear it in person from our CTO. I packed up my desk. The things I've accumulated for the last almost 3 years at this job include 3 balloons-on-a-stick (Get Well Soon (which was sent for my birthday), Happy Birthday and Seasons Greetings), 2 teddy bears (1 of which cries and snores) and a few vases that hold other random junk. I only spent 3 hours at work but between the packing and walking, I felt wiped out when I got home. It's a tiny bit frustrating to have something so minor make me tired on the last day of the cycle (a good 17 days after my 2nd cycle) but I will learn to accept this as normal...for now.
Today 3/20, I had my 3rd chemo session. My oncologist is taking me off of Oxycontin since my chest pain has been nonexistent for the last month. We're going to lower the dosage for the next month. He warned me about narcotics withdrawal symptoms (anxiety, aches, diarrhea are just a few of them). I'm supposed to deal with the symptoms by taking a short term painkiller until I'm completely off oxy. The chemo infusion itself lasted 2 hours. I didn't nap, but got increasingly sleepy. I could taste the drug more this time as they were going into my system - they taste like hospital cleaner and metal. The metal has lasted all day now and it just make me nauseous. I've been rinsing with biotene and that helps for a few hours. I took a 2 hour map but I'm still fatigued. I'm afraid these chemo recap posts are going to get repetitive soon. :\
So.. Picture time!
Hi Karen! :-) Keep up the fight! Know that we love you and pray for you. 😊 Will be praying for more strength for your upcoming chemo treatments. Thank you for blogging as well. CONGRATULATIONS!! So happy to hear that you and Damien tied the knot! So happy for you both!
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for the prayers :)
DeleteI hope you start wearing your wig out and take some cool pictures! Long hair dont care.. even if it isn't your real hair :D
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