December 12, 2011

Sunday 12/11/11

Today Matt and I were finishing the preparations for the concrete floors to be redone in our house.  After packing up and moving a house full of furniture out we were left with one task - removing some conduit from the baseboards.  The conduit was held in place with several small screws.  Matt and I were working together to remove the screws - of course Matt was doing most of the work.  While removing the last screw I felt something in my eye, but I continued to remove the screw.  When I was done I looked over at Matt and asked if he it looked like I had anything in my eye.  He looked at me with a shocked look on his face and said, “we have to go to the hospital now.”  I went to the bathroom to remove my contacts.  I was totally surprised to see my eye.  I had a very red spot in the lower left corner of my right eye.  I learned later it was a hematoma (bruise on my eye), caused by a very small metal shaving from the screws.  

We called the clinic for a quick consult and were advised to go to the hospital.  We got in the car and went to the Methodist Hospital (same hospital that did my double mastectomy and my radiation) since they already know me and I felt like I received good care when I went there in the past.  

We arrived to a very quiet ER at about 5:30 pm.  

This sign is posted in the ER

We were checked in and evaluated by the triage nurse.  This nurse was young, cute and funny.  She conducted a brief eye exam to test for any changes in vision.  She started the exam by saying, “we are going to test your good eye first”.  It was at this moment that I realized the young nurse was right I now have a good and a bad eye.  I was in minimal pain - but I still felt like I had something in my eye.  The ER doctor added die to my eye and looked at my eye with a florescent light and then a magnifying glass.  He said he did not see any puncture wounds on my eye and did not see any debris in my eye.   They then conducted a flush of my eye.  I don’t know what this contraption is called - but it was like an oversized contact lens that went into my eye and the flush is done by a saline bag / tube that feeds directly into the contact.  It was challenging getting the contact portion in my eye -- 2 nurses had to pull my eye lids over  the lens.  The saline bag was large - they used half of it to flush my eye.  This was a very strange feeling and while they were flushing my eye - I could taste the saline (gross).  We had to wait several hours to see the Opthamologist.  The opthamologist examined my eye and concluded by dialating my eyes.  He said my eye looked clean, the hematoma on my eye is a bruise from the debris and will heal over the next few weeks.  Just as a bruise changes colors - my eye will (eventually turning yellow - super gross).  We were finally discharged from the ER and arrived home at about 11:00 pm.  

Picture of my eye once we were at ER

Eye Close Up

My eye is being flushed (that tube is carrying the saline) Yuck

Close Up of Eye Flush - More Yuck

We changed rooms while we were in the ER
and this TV is so old it looks like it is from the future - WOW

So here is my thought about the dangers involved in living life.  Matt and I do adventurous / dangerous things; ride motorcycles, compete in races, downhill skiing, etc, and while doing these dangerous things I have been able to take precautions that keep me safe.  I hurt myself during ordinary activities - but that doesn’t mean I should or will stop be adventurous.  

Our Empty House

Close Up of Floors

Saturday 12/10/11

Today was the day of the Dave Boyd Adventure Race.  Matt and I went out to the park to see the race begin.   We said hello to everyone before the race and saw them off.  It was good to hear a short story from Coach Rick Sanders :)  As always it is great to see the competitors before an event.  As I understand it the race was very challenging.  I honestly miss the feeling you have after completing a challenging race - I hope that Matt and I will be competing again soon.  

Pre-Race Meeting 

Matt and I at the Pre-Race Meeting

After seeing the beginning of the race Matt and I met Troy and Angela at Broken Spoke for a burger (which was awesome - they always are).  After lunch Matt and I went home to do some more packing and moving.  We are hoping to be all packed up by Sunday afternoon.  We made a lot of progress and I am quite surprised at my physical ability .  I still notice that my left arm is weaker then my right arm - but I am gaining more strength as time goes on.  We made lots of progress today.  

Friday 12/9/11

I was feeling nausea most of the day from chemo - nothing too bad, just uncomfortable.

Thursday 12/8/11

This afternoon I had my first maintenance chemo (herceptin).  I will continue to receive one chemo medication - Herceptin - for 6 -7 months (one treatment every 3 weeks).  Today was also the first treatment I received without Matt (he is traveling for work this week).  The medication didn’t take long to administer, but made feel more nausea then I was expecting.  The benadryl they give me also made me feel quite tired.  I went home and rested - a very uneventful evening. 

Self Portrait during Chemo Maintenance

Wider Angel of Self Portrait (still getting chemo)

Wednesday 12/7/11

Today we decided to get our floors redone next week (since we are already displaced by the painting).  While we weren’t looking forward to packing up and moving all of our things - luckily we don’t have a lot of stuff.  

Tuesday 12/6/11

Today the painters who have been painting our house discovered that the painters tape they put down on our concrete floors pulled up the color on our floor (this isn’t supposed to happen).  After this discovery it became painfully obvious that we have to redo our concrete floors.  The contractor will get a quote to redo our floor and we will go from there.  

Monday 12/5/11

Matt and I are having the interior of our house painted -- the ceilings are high and doing it ourselves would take a longer time then we would like.  The contractor is expecting to be done with the painting on Wednesday.  

Friday 12/2/11

Today was our last day in Colorado.  It has been a fabulous trip, we were able to see my family and had several days with great weather on the slopes.  Colorado is a beautiful place and I must admit that I didn’t appreciate its true beauty until I moved away and I didn’t see it anymore. It is true what they say, “absence makes the heart grow fonder.”  But like any good trip it is always good to go home.   

You can see the various ski resorts from the freeway
(not the best picture - but where you see the cloudy areas they are making snow)

Thursday 12/1/11

Today was our final day of skiing and the weather to start the day was pretty bad.  We were expecting snow last night and we hear that it snowed in the city (denver) and in the surrounding areas - but no fresh snow on our mountain.  No worries they have been making snow for quite some time.  

Even bad weather on the mountain is beautiful 

These days I feel fatigued pretty easily -- I would say I have about 60 % of the energy / endurance that I used to have.  I did more runs today then I had in previous days - probably because I am feeling a little more comfortable on the skies and my endurance has improved in our short time here.  While I haven’t felt too exhausted from the high altitude I am sure it has affected me.  

Wednesday 11/30/11

I have taken the last 2 days off from skiing - so I am ready to hit the slopes tomorrow.  

Tuesday 11/29/11

Matt went skiing alone today.  He had a great time - and since I wasn’t with him I am sure he went a lot faster then he does when I am with him.  

Monday 11/28/11

So skiing is funny.  The slopes are graded using colors green (easiest) --> blue --> black (most challenging).   The easiest runs that are open right now are actually at the very top of the mountain - you have to ride 2 lifts to get to them.  But at the end of the day you have to make a decision - either ski down on the slope that is more difficult or you ride the ski lift down (also known as; downloading).  Today was my first experience downloading.  It was scary and awesome all at once.  It was much scarier then any roller coaster I have ever been on.  It goes slow so enough so you will not be too scared -- but it is so high and with clear weather as it was today - you can see pretty far.  I loved it!!  Matt doesn’t love it so much - he told me I shouldn’t take any pictures and told me if I lost a pole he wouldn’t help me.  I couldn’t help myself - I secured my poles and snapped a few pictures.  I loved it and asked Matt if I could ride the lift back up and down a few more times.  He said if I did - I would have to do it alone ... needless to say I didn’t do that.  

A great day skiing - and while my bruise still hurts I was happy to be outside on this beautiful day.  

I realized something today.  Fear at times keeps us from living our lives or being adventurous.  But as I look back on the last few days I realize that I love overcoming my fears - it makes me appreciate everything that much more.  

Professional Photo of Matt and I
(awesome day)

Stay tuned for more SuperMonkey Adventures,

Nancy

AKA:  SuperMonkey

I saw this quote on a co-workers’ out of office and really liked it - hopefully you also like it.

“The aim of an argument or discussion should not be victory, but progress.”

 - Joseph Joubert