Update September 4, 2016

Family Fun:  Beautiful labor day weekend this year and yes I am HOME!  I was discharged on Wednesday and enjoyed a nice weekend with Jim and Emma.  We had our friends Glen, Kirsten and Jane over for dinner on Saturday.  Their dog Cash and Guinness are best buds and entertained us for the evening.  Today Jim gave Emma and I a nice diversion of driving up the coast (sadly we had to drive past the hikers and canoes instead of joining in but soon...soon...).  Tomorrow Emma and I get the last odds and ends before her first day of school on Tuesday!  Joe continues to do well at Bowdoin and may come home to see us later this month.  He lives in a house and seems to have a lot of "house meetings".  I feel like that is code for something but he assures me it is not.

Medical Update:  In my last update I talked about my recent week + hospitalization.  That was a doozy.  Basically one of the antibiotics I was taking turned rouge.  One of the rare side effects of this drug is an increased production of lactic acid.  This is what happened to me and I got very sick.  It took about 4-5 days for my lactic acid levels to get back to normal.  One of the Doctors told me it generally takes 11 or more days for the levels to come down - once again your prayers lifted me out of a very dangerous place and put me back on the road to health.  Now that I am home recovering I realize how exhausted I was for the last several weeks before they stopped the antibiotic.  I tried to fight it but the reality was I was light headed, had heart palpitations after walking short distances, and low blood pressure resulting in my needing to rest after going a few steps.  Scary...fast forward to now and I am feeling pretty strong at home.  I use a walker whenever I feel a little tired because my earlier fall scared the sh$% out of me.  But for the most part I am getting around on my own and both my resting and post 'exercise' heart rate are very strong.  I am thrilled to be back on track and fully appreciate how miserable it is to be, well, miserable.  In terms of treatment...I finished another round of chemo and those side effects are kicking in (low blood counts) - no physical side effects yet so we'll wait and see.  Still waiting on the sign off for my next round of treatment.  I have a feeling when it comes it will be fast and furious.  In the meantime, my job is to get stronger and fatter.  So off to get some ice cream.

Thanks to everyone who  continues to bring meals and help with rides to the clinic.  My family could not function without you.  God Bless.  Also Kate comes back on Sunday which will be awesome.  Both fun and super helpful.  I cannot have one moment where I feel bad for myself when I am surrounded by all this love.

Thanks for checking in.

Love Maureen