Sunday Update

Ahhhh… Sunday mornings, my time to catch up on blogs and contemplate life. It's also one of the rare times I have alone. Our nanny goes to church (yes, really) and my son sleeps a little late. It's just me and the cats, by ourselves for a little while.

I had yet another thorocentesis this week. Yep, the needle in the back. Another liter and half of beer-looking fluid. At least this time it took 3 times longer to accumulate. And wow... this was the most painful recovery from it to date. I'm still sore. When I breathe in fully it hurts and still makes that crackly sound.

I scheduled the talc pleurodesis for the 26th. I'm hoping for a short, 3 day hospital stay; but I know I have to prepare for longer. So the next couple of weeks will be a lot of work for me. And yes it's true; I will be continuing the tradition as a member of the Child family hospitalized at the end of September.

I also blew my knees out last weekend. I have off and on had problems with mild arthritis over the past 10 years or so. Last weekend I was thrilled to feel somewhat functional and I spent the two days playing with my son. We played soccer, tag and continuing with his entrepreneurial enthusiasm, he offered to wash the car—for a small fee of course; a job that required a lot of my help. He was thrilled to have his old Mom back.

When I woke up Monday me knees were swollen up to the appearance of a medium ripe cantaloupe. I hobbled around all week. I iced and elevated when I could. Today they are much better. During this problem I recalled what I used to do before to "fix" it; a lot of ibuprofen.

Being cautious I searched and found that ibuprofen isn't recommended with my medications. During that search I found a wonderful article on Zometa. Something I hadn't read before. An Austrailian test found that use of Zometa, in the same protocol that I am on, reduced the reoccurrence of metasitic breast cancer in pre-menopausal women (got all that...that's me!) by 2/3rds. 2/3rds!!!! Now that is a statistic I can get behind. Awesome.