And We're Back...

Keith and I are back from a quick trip to the U.P. to see his family.  I was a little nervous about travelling so far given all that is going on with me, but it went fine.  Getting out of the city and visiting with family was just what we needed.  We rented the same cabin we rented at Christmas time.  It's a comfortable place tucked in the woods.  We both really appreciated getting out of our own heads for a while.

It was great to see everyone and I'm happy to report that Keith's mom is doing a lot better.  She has more energy and strength.  Almost a year after all this started, she isn't back to her old self, but she is making progress!

I'm feeling ok, my headaches aren't any worse.  All the sitting around I've been doing lately has made me stiff and sore.  (I'm not confident enough to do really long walks given my Tykerb gut - sorry if that's TMI).  I think I'll be able to figure out a routine now that I've been on Tykerb for a couple weeks.

Just another tidbit about my lame radiation oncologist- skip ahead if you're bored with this storyline:  I expected a call to schedule the brain MRI while we were away, but no...So on Wednesday morning I called my radiation oncologist and left a message.  I hadn't heard back by the end of the day, so I emailed her directly.  On Thursday she emailed me saying that her staff were having trouble getting me in.  The only appointment they could get was at the end of May and she was hoping to figure out how to get me in earlier.  Seemed weird to me, but ok.  I thought I'd wait and see.  Fast forward a couple hours...

I had an appointment with my medical oncologist yesterday and for the first time I saw her nurse practitioner instead.  Since I didn't have anything big to discuss it was fine and actually she gave us a lot of good advice.  She also took charge of scheduling my brain MRI after I mentioned it.  She ordered the MRI and on my way out I sat down with the scheduler.  It took a fax and a phone call, but I'm now scheduled for my MRI next Thursday afternoon.  It amazes me how efficiently some offices work while others are just a clusterfuck. I'm finally learning that I should just avoid dealing with the radiation oncology folks unless necessary.  After seeing the nurse practitioner and the lovely scheduler we went upstairs for my Herceptin drip.  That went smoothly- my new port works GREAT.  I love it!

To top the day off we headed over to the Off the Grid on Stanyon.  For those of you not in the know; Off the Grid is a gathering of some of the local food trucks.  Keith is sick for the Chairman Bao truck and yesterday I tried a bahn mi and some sweet potato tater tots from the Little Green Cyclo truck.  Keith's food was great as usual, the tater tots were really yummy and my sandwich was just ok.  It was a gorgeous and sunny early evening.  We loved topping off our afternoon of medical appointments with something treatful before we headed back into traffic to get home.  (Keith is getting pretty smarty-pants about lane choices prior to the bay bridge.  I don't know if it actually helps much, but at least we seem to keep moving forward...slowly...)

Animal update:
Diesel is fine.  She was back to her spunky self right away.  It was clear when I rescued her that Red had had his mouth on her (she had saliva on both sides of her rib cage), but he must have just mouthed her (thank goodness!).  I can't believe we have a dog that won't leave our cats alone!  When we adopted him they told us he would be fine with cats with a little work.  Well, we've tried.  If one of us is around we can keep it under control, but when left to his own devices, instinct takes over.  Ugh!