And the Countdown is On!

Three more days! Three more days!

La la la la la la! *does a happy dance*

It is almost done. Thank God. I'm just about ready to hit my breaking point. Six weeks is a lot to ask out of a person.

Three more days!

Love Always,

Kaitlin

P.S. I'm so thankful Nate is here for the rest of the week with me. And I'm excited to see everyone for the early April Birthday party on Saturday!

Week 5: Radiation Vacation

This week drug on and on... and on. I couldn't wait for it to be Friday. When you want time to pass quickly, of course it doesn't. I just get so dang bored! I have things to do, but not enough energy to do them. But, one more week to go!! Just five more treatments, and I'm home free.

Grandpa came to deliver my chemo drugs this morning because my insurance company can't be easy. No... 'course not, it's health insurance! Instead of letting the specialty pharmacy at Mayo fill my prescription for the rest of my chemo drugs, they had to route it through some US Specialty Care crap and mail them to me. I had originally thought I was going home this weekend before I went to Madison, so I had them mailed there, thus the need for a delivery. So thank you, Grandpa :)

Grandpa came bearing gifts as well from Mom & Dad. More flowers :D

And then Nate came to pick me up, all the way from Madison. And he has to work tonight. Poor guy is going to be so sleep deprived. He really is the best!!

I'm so excited for tomorrow night. I'll be heading to Milwaukee to hang out with some of my girlfriends, potlucking it and going downtown to see a band. Should be a blast!

Now I just need to get through the next week. Luckily, Nate has some days off and can be with my for my final treatments.

That's all for now.

Love Always,

Kaitlin

P.S. Nate and I got our plane tickets booked this week for St. Croix, USVI. It is time for a REAL vacation! C'mon May 2nd!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!

Nate got me roses :) On our way to dinner at Sole Sapori in Mount Horeb
Dinner was absolutely delicious! If you're ever in Mount Horeb, definitely go to Sole Sapori!

Love Always,

Kaitlin

Week 4: Radiation Vacation

Coming to you from Madison, WI... I'm just chilling here by myself while Nate is at work (gotta love the night shift).

4 Things for the End of Week 4:

1) I got stabbed again. I hate blood draws. I really, really do.

2) I'm 2/3 of the way done. It's almost over!

3) I'm losing tons of hair. And today I found a spot that is starting to bald. Ugh...

4) I got four pretty Alstromeria's from Mom & Dad this morning.

Ta ta!

Love Always,

Kaitlin

Week 3: Radiation Vacation

... is not much of a vacation, lately.

I'm tired almost all of the time, and don't feel quite right. About two or three hours after treatment, I pretty much have to take a nap if I plan to function at all for the rest of the day. This then, of course, messes up my night time sleeping schedule. In the past two weeks, I don't think I've slept a whole night through. Dr. Uhm gave me some AmbienCR today, so we'll give that a shot and see if it helps.

I survived the first of many blood draws last Tuesday. Only a little hyperventilating and face spasms.

I was more than happy to take off Friday morning after treatment to go home and meet Nate there. That night we went out to dinner at Mama Maria's (YUM!) with my cousin Sasha, her husband Jason, and of course my favorite little guy Owen. He was pretty humorous throughout dinner, and it was really nice just to hang out!

Saturday, Nate took me to Treasure Island for my FIRST casino experience. It went quite well for me! I won $77 on slot machines. That's good enough for me :) After a stop in Roberts to see friends and little Ms. Lyla, we spent the night in River Falls hanging out with Nate's friends.

My hair is falling out my the handfulls, but there aren't any definite bald spots yet, so I'm not really sure where all the hair is coming from!

I definitely was not ready to come back to Rochester on Monday. I'm getting really sick of having to be here. And we're only 1/2 way done.... bleh.

Early Valentine's Flowers from Dad

Ta ta for now.

Love Always,

Kaitlin

Week 3: Hair Loss

I think my hair started falling out. My hand came away with more than just the normal shedding this morning while I was getting ready. And my head really itches, like the doctors said it would before the hair falls out.

*Pout*

Here's a few pictures of my room at the Hope Lodge.

And now I'm going to take a cat nap in the sun.

Love Always,

Kaitlin

Week 2: Radiation Vacation

Mom and Dad each got me a rose. Two roses for two weeks done!

Nothing really to report for Week 2, just 1/3 of the way done. No new side effects have surfaced, and I haven't lost any hair yet. Although I did find out where the bald spots are going to be: 3 on the top of my head, 1 on the left, and 2 on the back right. So... that means I'm going to be investing in some hats and head scarves, unless by some fluke I can have a real cute comb over. Ha ha ha.

Nate was here Wednesday-Friday, and we went back to Somerset for the weekend. After Nate went back to Madison for work, I spent the weekend playing with my pretty Cricut and making Valentine's cards. I even talked Mom into going to Archiver's and Michael's with me!

Onto Week 3, almost half way done!

Ta ta :)

Love Always,

Kaitlin