Now that the holidays are over, it’s time for us to get back
into somewhat of a regular routine.
Jeremy went back to work on Monday and hit the ground running at
5am. No teacher planning day for him, as
students came back on the first day as well.
After being out on leave since mid-November and also learning that he now has a
new student in his class, he dove right in and is preparing for his
district evaluation sometime in the next week or two. Not to mention that he’s also getting started on his
next graduate course. No rest for the
weary! My plan is to ease back into work starting this afternoon, seeing 1 or 2 clients per day once I make arrangements to have
someone watch Ben, otherwise I have to wait until Jeremy gets home around 4pm and schedule appointments after that. Because apparently, Ben's not yet old enough to watch himself?! I kid, I kid. I gotta say I'm pretty proud of him at the moment because he slept for 5 hour stretches for the past two nights. That's his current record and it was heavenly and it was glorious and I hope we continue on the path to 6...7...8...9 (is this even possible???) hours.
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| Passed out in his typical sleep position. |
On Monday, I had my first taste of a full day home
alone with an almost 7-week-old. Things
went pretty smoothly, though I didn’t manage to make it out of my pajamas and
spent the better part of the morning on the phone with my insurance company, being
shuffled around to five different customer service agents who it seems aren’t
trained to do much more but repeatedly verify my date of birth and
address and then transfer me to another department (translation: put me on hold for another 20 minutes). After an hour of this nonsense, the call got dropped (%!*#) so I gave up and tried again in the afternoon.
I received a notice back in November that my health plan was still being offered as of January 1st, with a rate increase of $60 more per
month. Ok, I can deal with that. But then I learned that adding a dependent
child to the plan would be an additional $250.
So, we’ll immediately need to start budgeting an extra $310 per month…yikers! Unfortunately, despite the significant amount
of work I've missed over the past 6 months, we still make jusssst enough money to
not qualify for any subsidies through the Affordable Care Act, so we pay
everything full price out of pocket. I have to
admit that my fancy "platinum plan" with all the bells and whistles has been excellent though, considering how much I’ve needed
it lately. And the last thing I need is to change plans only to discover that all of my doctors are out-of-network, etc. So I’m sticking with it for another year and am confident that things will work out.
Weekly chemo continues every Tuesday. I've now completed 5/12 treatments, so almost halfway finished. This week my dad came
along with me, so my mom could stay home with the baby (thank you Nana &
Grampy!). My two favorite nurses were working today and I had no issues with my port and got just the right amount of Benadryl. It was a quieter day at the
hospital, and we both passed the time napping and surfing the internet.
My main side effect continues to be
muscle/bone pain primarily in my back, neck, and shoulders. I'm starting to notice that it hits a little harder as each treatment goes on, usually beginning on Thursday/Friday and lasting through the
weekend. I haven’t taken anything for it
yet (I’d rather just be stubborn and complain about it to you people), but plan
to talk to the oncologist about it at my appointment next week. One of the chemo nurses mentioned that a lot
of people with similar side effects were told to take OTC Claritin, which sounds
really strange but for some reason it helps them tremendously. I’ve considered getting a massage, but the
last time I had one a few years ago, I developed something called frozen
shoulder a few days later. I’m not completely
sure whether or not the massage “caused” it, but all I can say is that frozen shoulder is the
absolute WORST pain I’ve ever, ever experienced and now I’m terrified to
get another massage. In the meantime, my trusty heating pad and getting as much rest as possible help take the edge off.
In other news, I’m almost certain our household appliances,
which are all pushing 13 years old, are staging a mutiny. The ringleaders are the washer and
dryer, a stackable unit that have banded together to cause chaos in our kitchen (which is a really stupid place to install a washer/dryer unit in a two-story house but that's neither here nor there). They are SO. LOUD. One of these days I think they're going to
violently rattle themselves right out the back door. I’ve resorted to doing laundry during Ben’s nighttime
feedings so we don’t have to run the machines during the day. You seriously can’t hear yourself think when
they’re running, let alone have a conversation or listen to the TV. I’m
not one to throw away or replace anything until it’s absolutely necessary. But I might have to eventually cave on this
one because I’m slowly losing my mind. Sometimes being a homeowner is the worst!
I’ve just realized that this post has been a little heavy
on the whining, so I’ll end with a few positive things:
1. My sister starts radiation soon, going 5 days per
week for 6 weeks. She recently had a CT
scan, which will help pinpoint exactly where the radiation needs to be
aimed. She’s doing great and chugging
along one day at a time. Love you!
2. Our whole family is excited for an upcoming visit from a verrrry
special Aunt & Uncle. AL & US, can’t wait for
you both to meet Ben and enjoy January in Florida!! XO
3. It seems that lately, everyone I know has either just had a baby or is getting ready to have one soon. And I just want to say congrats to each and every one of you. Yay
for babies! Babies are great! Except for when they don’t poop for days. But don’t worry, it’s totally and completely worth
it :)
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| Fist bump for babies! |
4. I want to take a minute and direct your attention (and prayers) to an amazing person named Mollie.
Though I’ve never had the pleasure of meeting her in person, she’s a
fellow behavior analyst from the same FSU graduate program I attended. Mollie is currently battling a very rare form of cancer called Enteropathy-Associated T-cell Lymphoma (rare as
in 1 in 2 million rare). Like myself, she
was diagnosed last summer and was immediately sucked into the world of cancer. She’s been through pretty
much every hurdle that you could imagine.
And did I mention that she’s the mother to two adorable young boys who
both have special needs? She does it all
with a strength and sense of humor that will blow you away. And next up on her agenda is a stem cell transplant. If you're on Facebook, you can follow her
story by searching for #TeamMollie (it’s
a public group). You can also check out Mollie's GoFundMe page if you'd like to read more about her and possibly make a donation. Every little bit truly helps, so pay it forward if you can!
I hope everyone’s 2015 is off to a happy and healthy start. Thank you as always for reading.
-Dee
-Dee
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