It's Friday!!

Woo! And I am so ready for it! These last couple of weeks of school have kept me busy and I haven't had a chance to get back here for an update. There's really not much to report from me so I think we'll keep this post short.

Weekend plans include studying and de-stressing via college football games, pizza, and beer. Sounds like a fabulous weekend to me.

It's Monday Again

And I just want to lay in bed all day. I got the call Saturday morning that the IUI was a big fat fail even though the timing and everything was perfect. So we're back at CD 1 today but we'll be benched until at least December since I can't take time off from class to make all the monitoring appointments. Right now we are looking at IVF and getting that process started so we can jump right into it in December.

As for me right now I'm going to just try to focus on school and get through that and try to ignore the 5 people in my class that are obviously pregnant. I have a big skills test tomorrow so I'll probably spend tonight and tomorrow morning practicing for that. My biggest issue is always time so I'm not as worried about the skill part but could use as much practice as I can fit in. Fingers crossed that I pass the first time so I don't have to worry about doing this again!

Is Today Over Yet?

Because I am so done with this day. I actually have zero complaints about school stuff - I'm pretty stoked to get going. No, my complaint is with my lab draw today and the cluster fuck that has been. This morning I got up early to go to the health center and my progesterone level drawn before class. I walk in at 7:30 am when they open and am informed that they no longer draw for quest. I was there less than 2 months ago with the exact same paperwork and they did the lab no questions asked. But today as I was filling out the sign in sheet they straight up told me no they won't do it. WTF?

I didn't have time to argue so I went on to class with the intention of calling my OB/GYN's office to see if they could do the draw. They said they'd do it so I drove to the other side of town after class got my blood drawn and went back to the campus for work. About an hour ago I got a voice mail from them saying that the place they sent it to screwed up and didn't spin the sample down right or something and the lab can't run my progesterone now.

They said that they need a new sample but they are closing at 4 today and won't be open again until Tuesday and I should come in to get another draw then. Did I mention that this test is time sensitive and has to be drawn on this specific day in my cycle? Oh and my cell phone is dead so I can't call anyone right now so I have an e-mail in to my clinic asking what to do. Since it's nearing 5 pm and I've yet to receive a reply I highly doubt I'm going to get a response today. Awesome. I have one other place I *might* be able to go if they're still open once I leave work but I'm not holding my breath.

Long Week

It has been busy in our household this last week.

On Thursday I went in for a monitoring appointment and found I was in the middle of my LH surge and I had a nice big follicle so I was able to trigger that evening and go in on Friday for the IUI. If my first IUI went off with ease this one was a little more uncomfortable. The clinic I go to usually the nurse will do the actual IUI but for whatever reason my RE wanted to do mine. I showed up at 9 am with a full bladder and due to a scheduling issue I had to wait for quite awhile. I ended up emptying my bladder twice while waiting and was still too full when I finally got called back so I got to partially empty it. Have you ever tried to stop peeing when you've really got to go? Not easy but I managed to do it and I probably could have let out more and I would have been more comfortable. So doc comes in and after double checking everything he gets things ready. Apparently my cervix was really hard to find because he must have moved that damn speculum about 5 times trying to get it in a good position. All this while I have a half full bladder and having pressure on my abdomen from the ultrasound wand. Thankfully once he got it in place everything else went quickly and after a short wait I was able to finally pee. So today I am 6 dpiui and I'm going to *try* to wait until my beta draw before testing. We'll see how much self-control I have.

On Monday M got released from the hospital and we made it back home late that evening. He's doing really well and is actually having a lot less pain than I expected at this point. He goes back for a follow-up with the surgeon next week and then sees the oncologist again in 2 months. He's been relaxing at home this week and watching Hell on Wheels.

As for me I started my last semester of nursing school. WHAT! I can hardly believe that in a matter of months I will be taking boards and working as a RN. Crazy. But I'm so excited to get started. I'm going to try to stay up to date on this but I apologize now if my posting becomes more infrequent as my final projects and tests come up. The next couple of weeks will be stressful as we have a big skills test coming up and shortly after that the first written test. I got this though - I'm going to rock it this semester!

Reporting From the Hospital

 M had surgery on Wednesday and everything went perfect. They ended up doing an open RPLND because the surgeon they were trying to get from the Mayo Clinic was unavailable and M's surgeon here at MD Anderson doesn't have the experience on the robotic lap. It's sucks that he has this huge incision and his recovery will be longer but the important thing is that they got the lymph nodes they were going for.

He's in some pain which is to be expected but they are allowing him to eat regular food today and he'll hopefully be discharged tomorrow or Monday if he's tolerating his diet and his pain is controlled. His epidural has been disconnected and the nurse just took off all the IV fluids which is a big step in him getting to go home. Today is another day of walking and rest for him. Poor guy has been through a lot in the last few days but it's getting better and I'm sure he'll be back to himself in no time.

The 'C' Word Part Two

I already told you the story about my mother and I promised I would do another post to talk about my husband.

In late January of this year we moved into a new house and in the process my husband had to move a rather heavy treadmill. Seriously, this thing is a beast.While moving said treadmill he started having some pain in his groin and figured he just pulled a muscle and wrote it off. Fast forward 2 weeks and he's still having the pain and it's more localized to his testicle. Getting worried about it he decides to make an appointment with the urologist for the following week. I did not accompany him to the appointment but I was less worried than him because I knew that tumors are typically not painful and he was experiencing a fair amount of it. Based on what he was telling me it sounded a lot like a hydrocele. Imagine my shock when he calls me after the appointment and the doctor is wanting him to get an ultrasound that same day because he felt a lump. At the ultrasound I couldn't believe what I was seeing. I'm not very good at looking at them but even I could tell that there was a very clear mass on his right testicle. Two hours later M got a call from the urologist and wanted to see him first thing in the morning to discuss the results of the ultrasound. What the doctor said  5was that he couldn't be sure it was cancer but if it was up to him he'd have it removed immediately. So M scheduled outpatient surgery for the next day.

That afternoon we were at the hospital getting all the pre-op stuff done and getting his instructions for the next day. Friday morning we were at the hospital at 5:30 am for an 8 am surgery time. M was pretty calm but I was a wreck because every possible bad thing that could happen was running through my mind. The surgery went smoothly though and his testicle was sent off for a pathology report. We were home by 1 pm and spent the rest of the day relaxing and recuperating. The pathology report took about 2 weeks to get back and confirmed that it was indeed cancer and that there was already some spread into the lymph nodes. During the time we were waiting for the pathology report to come back we discussed if he would get treatment here or get a referral to MD Anderson in Houston. We decided to get the referral and it was the right decision for us.

Now we're into March and meet with M's oncologist for the first time. He had several tests done before the meeting so the oncologist would have a baseline on everything and I was blown away by how incredibly large MD Anderson is and by the fact that every patient in the place is dealing with some form of cancer. You never really realize how many people it affects until you walk through that place. Anyway, back to the meeting. Dr. P is awesome. When he rolled in (he's wheel-chair bound) he greeted us and got straight to business. He explained exactly what type of cancer M had (embryonal carcinoma) and what stage he was (stage 2) and what his treatment plan would be. The typical regimen for his cancer is 3 rounds of BEP. BEP is three chemotherapy drugs called Bleomycin, Etoposide, and Cisplatin. Before starting though Dr. P wanted M to do a baseline pulmonary function test because the Bleomycin is toxic to the lungs and he wanted to make sure it would be appropriate before going forward with it. We met back with Dr. P a week later after the test and he did great so he went in to start his first round of chemo.

For his chemo treatments he was admitted to the hospital and stayed for 5 days. Dr. P said the other option was to get a medical port put in but since he was only getting 3 rounds it didn't make sense to do that so the best option was to be admitted. His hospital stays were pretty uneventful and M did pretty good with the treatments but don't get me wrong it was hard on him. He was sick a lot and he was pretty miserable throughout the treatment but he responded really well. By the time he got to the third round his tumor markers were almost back to normal.

After the last round he went back for another round of tests to see if his lymph nodes had shrunk back down to normal. The results were that they had gone back down but they were still a little bigger than the doctor was comfortable with so he recommended surgery to remove them. And that's brings us up to now. M has surgery on Wednesday and that's all we're waiting on. There is another lymph node that is 'suspicious' in his shoulder but since the surgery he has to do is so intensive his surgeon has decided it would be best to go back on another date to remove that node.

M is in pretty good health right now and has been back at work on light duty for about 2 months now. He's glad to be able to work and do things without getting fatigued so quickly. And I'm happy because he's out of the house and out of my hair during the day.

I know this was a pretty quick synopsis of his treatment so if anyone has questions please feel free to ask and I will be happy to answer them!

Here We Go Again

Last night I got my meds from the mail order pharmacy.

 I only ordered the Menopur and Ovidrel from them this time since I still have enough of the progesterone suppositories to last me for my next two week wait and if it looks like I will need more I can still order those with plenty of time before I run out. The pharmacy I'm using has a quick turnaround time and I get my meds within 2 days of ordering them so I'm not really worried about running out.

Right now I am on day 3 of Femara and on Monday I start Menopur injections. Each vial of Menopur contains 75 IU and my RE has me taking 150 IU daily so that means I have to mix up 2 vials in one syringe. I'll do that for 3 days and go in on Thursday for my monitoring ultrasound. Depending on how well I am responding I'll either trigger with Ovidrel that night or get more Menopur and go back in a day or so to check my follicles again. The good news is that I responded really well last time and that is great because this shit is expensive.

I feel like I'm in limbo right now because I won't have any new information until next week and there really isn't anything more I can do. I can't figure out if waiting to ovulate or the two week wait is worse right now. At least for this next two week wait I'll be back in school and have something to distract me from testing everyday.