Day 201 - A Day In The City

Well, today was quite the day. I spent a good portion of the day panicking about all these little things that kept popping into my head… ‘What about this?’ ‘What about that?’ ‘You forgot about this.’ I was pretty much driving myself crazy.

I had a MUGA scan at 1030. A MUGA scan is a scan done to your heart to see how well your heart is functioning. Basically they inject you with a radioactive substance & then scan 2 sides of your heart with a gamma camera. They make a lovely little video of your heart & see what’s beating. It was certainly the lesser of any scanning evils I have had done so far.

As I will be having Doxorubicin as one of my chemo drugs (AKA Red Devil), I needed to have a scan of my heart. Doxorubicin is particularly known for weakening the heart muscle. I’m going to have to muster up a lot of love & keep this ticker strong! :o) I was a little concerned that the MUGA scan might interfere with the fertility program, but after many calls, I was finally told that the Doctor looked it up online & I should be fine. Um, so he googled my potential health risk? He didn’t know before hand? Comforting, real comforting!

The folks at the Nuclear Medicine department were friendly & easy going. I’d been there before for PET scans, but I was in a different section today. I visited with 2 of the technicians about orthotics, camera gear, children, falling in love on a cruise ship & few other things. They had me out of there with 6 minutes to spare until my appointment at the fertility clinic.

I had no idea there were so many infertile people in Calgary. It must be an epidemic! It was crazy busy in there! Both with staff & patients! I waited for about an hour until I finally met with the Doctor. Talk about the wind coming out of your sails. I am one day late to start IVF treatment, which means I will have to wait 5 more weeks before I can start chemo. ONE DAY. ONE DAY=5 weeks of postponed treatment. I’ve had time to deal with it, but I was pretty upset at the time. If only the bloody Doctors had responded to my emails & questions from the ship, I wouldn’t be sitting at this table hearing this crummy news. Ahh. Or if I had a few more hours notice about the previous day’s appointment! But! The good news is, they can help me & it can be done relatively quickly. Most people wait 1 year ++ for treatment. They are pulling a lot of strings to fit me in & I am very grateful for that. I have no idea what my Oncologist will say when I tell him it’s going to be another 3 weeks, but I suppose we’ll just have to work with it.

I’ll ask now for any prayers you might have to offer – that the IVF treatments go smoothly & swiftly without complications & that my body can keep the cancer under control for 5 more weeks without jeopardizing my health any further. Thank you!

I am coming back to the Fertility Clinic on Friday morning to discuss the plan. Fingers crossed!

I left the clinic & headed to Planet Organic for a few goodies. Then I stopped at Jugo Juice for a smoothie & then it was home time. The little doggies were very happy to see me! We spent a bit of time outside & then headed in to get comfy for the night.

I was quite tired by 2100, but I was still up at 2300 when Mom finally made it home from her long day in the city. We watched the dogs play for a bit & then hit the hay.

Here’s to a nice relaxing day tomorrow with nothing on the agenda…

Puppy dog tails & kisses,

Maria & Valentina

xoxoxoxoxoxoxo

Sisters sharing the bed!