Bodily chaos

Progress is non-linear.  Every day is different; some days I feel pretty good, whereas other days I feel quite lousy.  I have learned that extra-strength Tylenol is quite helpful to take the edge off of "lousy", but the label says not to take it for more than 10 days and I'm swiftly approaching that deadline. 

My bone scan was all clear!  Huzzah!  The radiologist even compared it to my most recent PET scan (May 2018) and confirmed that they both looked great, with no signs of cancer.  Huzzah huzzah! 

BUT Dr. Oncologist doesn't like my fevers.  Dr. Google had suggested to me that fevers are a possible side effect of the steroid step-down, but Dr. Oncologist disagrees.  So at my appointment on Friday, which wasn't until 4:30, I had my blood drawn from two locations (arm and port) to rule out a blood infection, I had to pee in a cup to rule out a UTI, and I had a chest x-ray to see if I have a lung infection.  I am very grateful to the clinic employees who work hard for patients at 6:00 on a Friday even though all of their co-workers left well before them.  For example, the radiology department was completely closed, but the folks up in the oncology department thought that they were to be open until 7:00 pm.  Rather than go home without the x-ray, I happened to catch the last technician on her way out and she kindly agreed to administer my x-ray.  She turned on a computer, turned on the x-ray machine, and took my x-rays.  She was delightful!  Like me she has two daughters, and my daughters' middle names are also part of her daughters' names.  AND her wedding anniversary is my birthday.  It seemed so crazy to discover so much in common!!

I don't have any data yet on the outcomes of these tests, but I have an appointment at 9:00 on Monday to get the results.  Right now, my fever of unknown origin is more or less managed by extra-strength Tylenol so I'm not terribly concerned.  I figure if I had a blood infection, someone would have called me by now, lol. 

The sore spot on my chest that led us to the bone scan recently erupted into a rash, so perhaps that was what was causing the pain.  I have some ointments to calm the rash. 

The fevers have been majorly interfering with my exercise routine.  I have completely fallen off of the exercise wagon, for the first time since this whole ordeal started in January!  But I'm getting back on the wagon as soon as I finish this post.  The fever hasn't yet started today. 

My dear friend, R (not to be confused with M, lol), visited over the 4th of July holiday, and we had a lovely time.  She was lucky enough to be here for my daughters' Taekwando testing for their next level belt, and my oldest's next level will be first-degree black belt and my youngest's will be red belt.  We played games on the July 4th holiday, and the spouse made a fancy hot dog bar inside because it was too rainy to grill out.  We both wish we could see each other more often!  I think that we need to plan a road trip to Boston for next summer.  :)