Finally, Hallelujah!

S-l-e-e-p. I finally got some sleep. And I only had to get up twice. Hallelujah!

I actually couldn't believe my eyes when I woke up the last time; it was 10:50.

And I could've slept more.

Hopefully this is a sign that the steroids are starting to chill out. I think my body is freaking out, though. I was so jittery all day today, which isn't very helpful when I'm trying to craft. Regardless, I still got some stuff made today that I can put up for sale at the Hayden Marketplace. I didn't get everything done that I wanted to, so I'll have to work on the baby albums and the memory box after work this week.

And in 6 days... I'm going to be sitting on the beach, sipping something with Cruzan Rum in it.

Counting Down

Well, my steroid dosage is down! 2 mg in the morning, 2 mg at night. It doesn't seem to be going fast enough though. The side effects are really driving me insane. I'm so warm all the time. I have my window wide open at work, and I just sit there and sweat pretty much all day. And then there's the weird, sporadic sleep pattern, even the Ambien doesn't seem to help much.

On Sunday, I'm down to just 2 mg in the morning. My MRI is Tuesday morning, and that will be my last day of the devil drugs. They'll be FedEx-ing my MRI to Dr. Uhm at the Mayo Clinic just to check it out and make sure everything's breaking down the way it should.

Now to figure out how to detox my body so I "unpuff." I'd really rather not have this huge belly and moon face while trying to wear a swimsuit and take pictures.

Speaking of swimsuit, NINE DAYS...NINE DAYS...NINE DAYS. I cannot wait to get on the beach and just relax and hang out with Nate. And I'm still so pumped about our free uprade to the nicer cottage! It is literally steps to the beach from Charthouse.

Well, that is all I know for now.

Love Always,

Kaitlin

Nice Surprise

I just got an e-mail this morning that we've been given a free upgrade to a different cottage! So, when you check out that link, we'll actually be staying in Charthouse.

Happy Little Surprise :)

On another note, today I'm starting to knock down my dosage of the drugs. Hallelujah!

Love Always,

Kaitlin

Feeling Blah...

Well the good news is that I talked to Dr. Uhm, and I now have a schedule to start tapering off of these devil drugs. So, on Monday I'll get to knock down the dosage a bit, and I'll be all done hopefully on the 28th. I'm supposed to stay on a small dosage until my next MRI, which I'm hoping to schedule on the 28th. This will give plenty of time for it to get Fed-Exed to Dr. Uhm at the Mayo Clinic, and be all good to go before Nate and I leave for vacation on May 2nd.

Vacation and off of these steroids cannot come soon enough.

Speaking of vacation, this is where we are staying, in the Coco Palm cottage: http://www.caribbeancottages.com/index.html

The cottage is in Frederiksted, which is just right down the hill from Owen & Carol. We're so excited to go!

Not much else in news. I've started really advertising for my business, and I will have some of my creations for sale very soon. Check out my business blog ;)

Love Always,

Kaitlin

Closing Weekend

Well it was good timing, just as my parents were getting through security at the airport, Nate was getting off the plane. So I had a lot of company over the last 10 days!

Nate and I just mostly hung out, but we did go skiing on Friday. It was quite warm out, so the snow was a little slushy, but we had a lot of fun. Here are some pictures from our skiing adventures:

On the Christie Express Lift for one of our first runs. I needed a little run just to warm up!

View from the top On one of the easy runs. Oh who am I kidding, we only went on green runs because I am a chicken.

So... I put Nate on the plane this afternoon and now I'm alone again.

I finished my chemo for this month (first 5 days of the month on, 23 days off), and now I *should* be starting to taper off the steroids on Wednesday. I have to call my neurologist Dr. Uhm at the Mayo Clinic on Wednesday, and he's supposed to give me the schedule to start tapering off these devil drugs. While they do their job, I can't stand them! They make me a crazy person.

That's all for now.

Love Always,

Kaitlin

Birthday Weekend

Just a few pictures from my birthday

The flowers that Nate had delievered for me!
Out for my birthday dinner at Tequila's with my family and friends

Me and Lisa at Tequila's

More on Nate's visit later....

Love Always,

Kaitlin

What a Week!

Monday: I'm still sick, but manage to go to work somewhat. I don't think that the antibiotics have killed my sinus infection.

Tuesday-Thursday: I get to work, but I can't stand it for very long, so I manage to get in to see the PA that afternoon. Good thing I went! I got myself checked into the hospital and didn't get out until Thursday afternoon. Turns out it wasn't just a sinus infection (the constant throwing up might've been a clue). I got my head scanned, and my tumor is quite swollen from the radiation and breaking down. I guess when your head is swollen it makes you quite nauseated. I was also very dehydrated so getting an IV in was quite the time.

So... I got out of the hospital around noon-ish on Thursday and now I'm back on the steroid that I loooooooove so much. However, they've gotta control the swelling in my head until it goes down more. And, I'm not pleased about this either, I'm doing the pill-form chemo again. Dr. Uhm wants to be on the safe side.

On a good note, my company flew my parents out here! That was such a nice surprise! So Mom & Dad are here until Wednesday. They'll fly out on the same plane that Nate is flying in on!

Friday: Happy Birthday to Me! After an early morning doctor appointment with the oncologist...My friends Chris and Lisa organized this whole birthday party for me at Tequila's, one of my fave restaurants! I wasn't expecting so many people to show up, but there was 20-25 people there at one point or another. It was really great to see everyone and have everyone there! Thank you!

Saturday-Sunday: I've just been hanging out with Mom & Dad the past couple days. Nothing too exciting ;) I feel just fine, starting to feel "normal" again.. I'm just waiting for the awful steroid side effects to start up again. At least I got the doctors to agree to start tapering me down though.

That's all for now!

Love Always,

Kaitlin