Update

I was asked to give an update since I haven’t written in a long time.  Please note that if I don’t write anything then things typically are going well, which is the case here.  Over the past few months I was finally able to visit my brother and his family in Seattle. Brent had never been and we did all the fun touristy activities, including being spoiled by my brother’s friend with a boat trip through Puget Sound. Aside from getting out a second time this year for something other than treatment I have returned to work full time.  I was still on a donated leave program last time I wrote, which helped me focus on my health. Although so grateful for all of my co-workers and friends who donated leave to me, I am now done with that program (hopefully forever) and happy to be healthy enough to work.

With my job I get opportunities to go out on wildfire assignments. I’m not on the line but instead work in a support capacity for all those tough/bad ass firefighters. This summer I was able to go to western Oregon as a liaison officer on what was called the Flat Fire. Many people commented what a bad ass I was as they had never seen anyone going through what I have been dealing with and still dealing with be at fire camp. Talk about giving me an inflated head, but it was such a great experience, not only to have the physical ability/badassery to be working 15 hour days, but to get to learn a new job, meet new people and see a part of the country I hadn’t visited since road tripping with my college buddy Halle our sophomore year of college. The cute little town of Gold Beach, OR is definitely on my list of recommended places to go. So not only am I physically able to work these hours, but I have my appetite back.  Which that served me too well while on assignment.  Amazing food trucks, restaurants and delis to feast upon.  Unfortunately I binged a little too much and upon returning from fire I headed up to Spokane to see my doctors and get treatment.  This was not great timing for two reasons – first I had to shave 2 days off of my allowed 14 on the fire so I could be home in time for those appointments, and two I had to weigh in at my appointment a day after finishing my free for all 12 days of indulgent eating. I am back on track of eating more restrained meals though and seeing the fire flab start to go away.  Good thing our apples, tomatoes and jalapeno peppers are all ready for the picking. Even was able to enjoy a couple peaches from our peach tree and am assuming the pears will be ready to go.

This blog wouldn’t be complete without me having at least one, two or sometimes more missteps with my health, and since it has been 3 months since I wrote, well settle in.  After 18 months of going in for chemo, having my port accessed and the syringe taped to my chest, my body finally said enough of this adhesive, we’re done with you, and I broke out in a rash.  So now I can add adhesives to the growing list of things I’m allergic to.  Fortunately regular Bandaids and a special tape they have (for sensitive souls such as me haha) works as a replacement.  After that little hiccup my doctor informs me that my cortisol numbers are really low.  I honestly had to ask what does cortisol even do. Well it is produced as a stress hormone from your adrenal glands. Why then is it a bad thing to have low stress hormones, I asked, I mean everything I’ve gone through I’m kind of proud my stress levels are low.  Well it can show that my long term use of steroids last year and immunotherapy could’ve damaged my glands. So because I didn’t have a big enough team of doctors and things had been relatively boring in my health life, I got to see an endocrinologist. First though, my oncologist put me on steroids to raise those number.  FYI, I hate steroids, they upset my stomach, give me headaches, make my muscles ache. So I go see my new doctor and she tells me that she wants to do another blood draw but can’t until I’m off of steroids.  So after just getting back on I have to spend 10 days weaning off.  Upon returning from my fire assignment, she was first on my list to check in with.  And great news, things looked great and I don’t need to do another blood test for another 3 months.  But my health journey wasn’t quite over for the month of August.  I woke up the day of that appointment with what I assumed was a bug bite on my hip.  That bite managed to grow into a massive rash by that evening, which then has proceeded to jump around my body from my hip, spreading up my side, jumping down to my thigh, then up to shoulder, and now on my head. It looks a lot like poison ivy but since I didn’t pick it up in OR and I came home to clean sheets, I honestly have no idea where I came into contact with it.  I’m sitting here with 3 different creams to try to alleviate the itching and hoping I wake up with it gone.

If you thought that was the end of the medical updates, you would be wrong. After returning from Spokane, both Brent and I fell ill on Sunday.  I with what felt like a general head cold, Brent with a little bit of the same with a lot of manflu mixed in.  The last time I had a head cold it moved into my ear and camped out for 2 months.  So to get on top of this Monday morning I called my local clinic to get some drugs asap so I could kick this in the butt, and some for Brent too.  Before prescribing us anything they first wanted to see us and amazingly could get us both in at 1030 AM that morning.  Around 930 AM I was just getting ready to head upstairs and do a welfare check on Brent who was still in bed (he is usually up no later than 5 AM) and he comes downstairs looking like death warmed over.  My head cold had me severely congested and losing my voice, but Brent’s infection was giving him extreme fatigue, fever and congestion. I got Brent to wake back up 30 minutes later and I drove us into town (kind of a nice change for me to be the one driving a sick person around, although we were both feeling poorly).  The doctor got us in, examined us both and asked if she could conduct a COVID test.  We both agreed, and after 3.5 years of trying to out run COVID, it caught us. So I am back to sitting at home, but I do feel well enough to work, while Brent is making small steps towards recovery.  The medicine they gave us seems to be working quite well and Brent has gone from sleeping 20 hours to being up most of the day.

So until I write again, that pretty well sums up my last few months. I’m hoping for one more fire assignment, but between new hires needing to be on-boarded, and now COVID, I’m not holding my breath. Hope everyone has had a great summer – I can’t believe we are almost at the end of it.