Monday, August 10, 2009

Hot, hot, hot

Varenna on Lake Como in Northern Italy
Manarola-One of the Cinque Terre towns that we will be visiting in 2 months

Yesterday it was unbelieveably hot here. I woke up at 4 am because of our elderly, fecally incontinent pug was having a breathing episode and panicking because he couldn't get enough air. He was running around panting so I had to calm him down as the running was making things worse. I didn't think he'd survive the night but eventually his breathing slowed down and he was able to sleep. We kept the air conditioning on to keep him cool. With the heat index over 100, running for me was out of the question so to the Y which has good air conditioning. I ran this morning. With the heat index over 80, it wasn't pleasant but it helped that I had fresh legs. Still I was sweating profusely for an hour afterwards.
Shanna et al should be back home. She will have an ultrasound tomorrow to see where the baby is hiding out though it appears he is engaged already. We have to get things ready to take off in case he comes early, which I feel is a strong possibility. Harold is still with us and we have a good time just hanging. We went to Josh's last night. His wife was holding a bachelorette party in Manhattan for her friend but she's flying home tonight.
Tomorrow I go to my first post treatment check-up with the onc. No tests of any kind are scheduled so I am not sure what will be done beyond a node feel and breast lump check. The scar tissue is hard, lumpy and sometimes painful, all 'normal' but if there was something growing there (most likely spot), I am not sure how anyone could tell. From what I have read, with TNBC, the first year is when recurrences (both local and distal) are more likely to occur but after the 3rd year, the incidence drops drastically. Past 5 years, it is less than the estrogen driven kind. Almost one year is over, just have to sweat it out for 2 more years. I am able to not think about this for increasingly longer stretches of time but I am aware of the odds and they are scary.

3 comments:

Hua said...

hi,

Those pictures are gorgeous! I have always wanted to see Italy. Hope its helping your healing.

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Beth said...

Oh to be able to go for a long sweaty run (just to sweat all this evil chemo out of my body)... good luck with the follow up tomorrow, that is exciting you're almost at a year!!

Teri Bernstein said...

Healthblogger network! Wow...even more wow are those Cinque Terre pix. Can't wait!

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