Month: March 2022

I’m feeling good today although still tired. It’s like yesterday’s walk tired me out for today too. Sven and I did some meal planning. I picked out recipes from this great cookbook and Sven wrote out the grocery list.

When it was time to work I put my hair into the world’s messiest bun. I’m afraid to brush it too much in case that makes it fall out faster so I’m rocking the Marie Antoinette. If I have hair long enough to go gray since I’m not dyeing it, I’ll really have the look complete.

Jeff tested out my ice gloves. I got these for the next Wasabi to prevent nerve damage to my fingers. The nurses are going to think I’m off my rocker. The ice socks were a lot for them to take in last time.

Jeff didn’t think the ice glove helped the tendinitis in his hand. But it didn’t not help either.

I continue to feel good! Today we went for walk in Parque Omar. The flowers above spell it out correctly, I just didn’t fit the “P” in.

I got this great SPF 50 shirt from the store Columbia. It’s a great shirt but looks both sparkly and vinyl in the sun.

Here’s a closeup. All these little dots reflect the sun but in a crazy way. The shirt, hat and glasses made me look like wanna be spy.

But it was a great walk. And I saw this cute door when we waited for our Uber to take us home.

Now that I’m done with antibiotics my stomach is finally better. Instead of a half mug of watered down coffee I had a normal iced coffee.

I’m still tired. Walking a block to the drug store wore me out. But that’s what naps are for. Otherwise I’m feeling good.

I look bald in this picture but I do still have my hair, at least for now.

The idea of listening to your body and taking it easy works great if you are low energy and healing. But I’m always pretty low physical energy. I’m always the one sitting down at a party, sitting on steps to wait for an Uber or lying in the couch vs sitting.

Now that I’m feeling back to myself I had to push myself to go for a walk. I put on all my sun protection clothing and headed to the park.

It was great. I saw my favorite little tree that someone tried to cut down a few months ago.

I saw a street protest.

And I got swarmed by birds. There were a whole bunch flying above my head.

After the walk there was still time to take a nap by the pool before work.

Sven like to sleep on top of our lamps because it reminds him of being in the trees.

We got this new crazy lamp yesterday. It was marked down to $60 because it had been a return. I told Sven he could sleep in it but before he got on top of it Jeff yelled out, “noooo” apparently not only was it a return it was extremely wobbly. Sven may have knocked the entire thing over.

Hope everyone has a great St Patrick’s day!

Not only am I feeling better. We bought a waffle maker. This was my first non medical outing in weeks. The Panama Costco is called Pricesmart and is exactly the same as Costco except the workers are not as nice or efficient. But it is as big. I was able to walk it all with breaks. I probably didn’t completely even need the breaks but between the yogurt aisle (I hate yogurt) and a recliner, the break seemed better.

I would say I’m 90% back to normal which is darn nice. I’m not the most energetic person so at some point needing breaks and taking naps won’t be due to the Wasabi but due to my personality.

First off, I was off on my days. Today is day 12. That matters because they track your days to your symptoms.

They gave me this at the Wasabi place. It shows which days my blood counts are the lowest and when I start to recover. So today being day 12 I’m literally in the upswing.

Today’s blood test was at the lab vs ER. This is where all my doctor’s offices are.

It’s really similar to the Poly Clinic in Seattle. And it’s a ten minute walk from our apartment.

This is the view from the waiting room which I spent a lot of time in because I also had an appointment with the doctor that installed the port who took me late.

This was the view from his office. I was like before you examine me. I’m going to spend a few minutes in this view.

I only had one tiny fever today and it went down on its own without Tylenol so that is great!

Next question is, will I lose my hair? If so it will start in these next days. My scalp is feeling tingly weird which is the first symptom before it falls out. So we’ll see.

At this point I will be ok with it. I haven’t dyed my gray roots or gotten a haircut because Murphys Law and I’m not sure dye would be bad for my scalp. So my hair looks crazy and I’ve gotten some great beanies, and a wig. So I’m ready. We should know in a few days.

Happy to report things were good today. My new antibiotic seems to be doing the trick. It was nice to just rest today.

Due to covid and all this cancer stuff I haven’t been out on a Saturday night in a long time. So this was exciting although not really where I hope to spend another Saturday or other night.

I realized this must be the urgent care part of the hospital. It’s a giant modern hospital. This can’t possibly be the ER where an ambulance would take you. When you type the address in Uber they don’t freak out and drive fast. And the people in the waiting room looked like me. Sick but not desperate.

It all started with a fever and text exchange with my doctor. Even at 6:00pm on a Saturday night he was willing to text with me.

Two minutes after this text it went up to 38.

While Sven is a sloth around town this was his first Uber ride.

In the waiting room he insisted on coming out of his backpack.

After more blood draws and urine samples we waited for results and Sven has a quick checkup as well.

And then it was back home with a prescription for different antibiotics and an assurance that my white blood cells are plentiful enough to fight off the infection.

This is the reason for the concern. After a Wasabi dose your body stops making red and white blood cells for a little bit. So an infection is a big deal and they have to check that you have enough to go home.

Not to brag or anything but mine were ok so I got to go home vs stay overnight.

I now have several lab reports from different days and another one I get in two days. The data geek in me is super excited to pour over the data.

A Power Point presentation on my blood cell progression coming soon. Hahaha.