I went in for bloodwork this morning at 7:30 and was able to get in very quick. Last couple of weeks the person there was fantastic and this morning she was not there. As soon as I saw who it was, my heart sank and I had a feeling of anxiety. Sure enough the first needle, yes I said the first needle she missed and was digging around trying to make it work. I have a high pain tolerance, but this was painful and I involuntarily reacted and moved my arm while she was digging in there. She asked if she could remove it and she said she would try with a smaller needle. This is the part that I do not understand, most of the people in the cancer center have bad veins and they need the smaller needle. If she is there next time and she does this again, next visit I am just going to walk out and come back another time. I do not think it is worth it as there are so many that are not as painful as she is. I have gained 3lbs in the last couple of days which I suspect is some ascites build up. The weird part is that the initial build up starts and then it slows down. My absolute neutrophil count (ANC) is 1.5, which is in the lower range of what we want. It is an indicator of white blood cells and if it drops too low then I can not do treatment as chemotherapy will drop the levels even more. This week I am fine, but testing next week may prevent further treatment while we allow the levels to increase to acceptable levels. Testing on the fluid that they extracted resulted in no new growth, indicating that there are no cancer cells free floating in the space. I am pretty sure that all of this is from all of the prayers that everyone does and my collection of rosaries. There is a statistical correlation between the number of rosaries someone has and the effectiveness of prayer on whatever type of stomach cancer I have. True story. I had my preassessment phone call today and there was a new question that popped up, am I sleeping during the day. I told them that I am not so fatigued that I require a nap, but on the weekends I do enjoy a good nap. Naps are awesome and sometimes I just enjoy them. I know that things are going well because I am not having issues sleeping and I am getting a solid 6 to 7 hours which is pretty good for me. I am a bit concerned for what I am going to bring for food tomorrow while I am there. My thoughts are that I am going to take some miso soup and drink that while I am there. It is a pretty safe meal for me and I will bring some pudding of yogurt. If I really need to I can make a phone call or two and my friends can help me out.
This evening Mel and I meandered through Costco without the kids after we dropped off Xavier at his kickboxing/BJJ training. We had purchased some golden kiwi and they were moldy so we returned it, and the guy had said that this was the third package that was returned so far since his shift started. We could not find any suitable golden kiwi while there. I need a new cell phone soon and while waiting for Mel i looked at some options that I had wanted. It is between the Fold 8 and the Fold 8 Ultra. I was a bit surprised that Iiked the form factor of the smaller phone and can see myself getting that one. We will wait and see which one I end up getting. I still do not know if Xavier will be competing this weekend and I am going to be out of it tomorrow so hopefully he follows up with it, otherwise we will show up at weigh in and see what happens. We have discussed changing hotels so that we are closer to Vaughan instead of Whitby. That will be decided tomorrow night.
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