April 2009

Wow! For the first time I actually slept through the whole night since I have been diagnosed. I’m not sure if it is from the chemo that is making me so tired or if it’s from the months and months of not getting good rest. Either way, it felt good to sleep the whole night through.

The past couple of days that I have been home I have been fighting the feeling of cabin fever and wanting to do .. Read More

Yesterday afternoon, I had an appointment with Dr. Curtis Dickman, the Neurosurgeon that did my back surgery. This was a general follow up to the surgery to see how things were progressing. The stitches I had were taken out from the chest tube and we had a discussion about the newer pain that I have been feeling in my upper back area. Originally, he thought it would be a good idea to do the vertebrowplasty similiar to what .. Read More

Today is the first time in a long time that I woke up and started feeling the pains of the cancer. The chemo nurse did say that this does have a delayed reaction and sometimes the nausea and fatigue doesn’t set in until day 3-4. I woke up this morning shortly after 9 and realized I had to be out the door and on my way to physical therapy in 20 minutes! It took all my energy to .. Read More

Day 3 after Chemotherapy…nothing new to report. I still feel fatigued, but no nausea. It’s strange because I will feel perfectly fine and then all of the sudden my muscles will become really weak and I may feel like I need to sit down. I did notice that I have been having a slight burning type sensation in my throat and chest. I am assuming this is the side effect kicking in from the radiation the other .. Read More

Anticipation-That is what this whole week has been made of. The day finally comes for chemo and all goes as planned, but then what?

Last night’s sleep was nothing new. 3:30am wake up, and start doing misc items around the house and online until I hear the faint sound of Wes’s alarm. Then it’s time to start making breakfast. By this time it’s time to take the am meds and then try to go back to .. Read More

Following are notes from Kiera Skinner’s caregiver stay

It was so wonderful to see Melissa during my visit from April 16th – 19th. Melissa was discharged from Scottsdale Healthcare about one hour before my plane landed in Phoenix. We did not have to make any trips back to the hospital (with the exception of picking up an x-ray cd) during the weekend and Melissa was enjoying every moment of it…so was I!

Thursday, April 16th 7pm – Melissa and Wes picked me .. Read More

Finally, I have the second round of chemo completed! I am so excited to finally feel like we’re moving forward again. The oncologist nurse was able to reshedule me to come in this morning, but unfortunately I was not able to keep my follow up meeting with Dr. Kukinoor as originally scheduled. I will have to call tomorrow to see when I can get in there again next.

Chemo today started at about 11:30am and went until about .. Read More

Today was slated as Chemo day, but turned out to be quite different. I was up this morning since about 4am and as the morning progressed the pain in my stomach and middle back got worse and worse. The pain in my back was so bad it felt like it had back in January before I had started taking the pain medication. I called the Oncologist and the nurse told me she thought maybe I should go to .. Read More

It is now 3am as opposed to the traditional 1am that I am up on the computer and I only woke up once…I’m making an improvement! Tonight I did add in one of the new medications from Scottsdale Healthcare called Zanaflex. This med is supposed to act as a muscle relaxant. Who knows, maybe this tricked my mind at least for a couple of extra hours from the pain. Actually, yesterday I did sleep in until 10am. I was up .. Read More

Another success of making it through another day home without having to return to the hospital! This is the longest that I have been home since March! This morning I was up at the crack of dawn deep cleaning. I just felt this crazy energy surging through my body and each finish one task, another would appear. I even attempted to do my part in trying to pretend I have a green thumb (this is my part in .. Read More