the outpatient treatments went pretty well. i felt sick for a few days afterward, but nothing too terrible. the last few days i have been fairly active. i made it into work on tuesday and wednesday. i got really exhausted on wednesday and slept about 12 hours last night. i still feel really run down. i was supposed to go have blood drawn today and get my levels checked but i didn't go. i didn't have a solid appointment. they just said come in before 3 pm. i hate it when they do that because i end up waiting for an hour or longer. since i have this port-a-cath that they access to take blood from, it often takes forever. there are certain procedures they go through to access it. having the port is a good thing but sometimes it makes visits take a lot longer. i guess i could have them stick a vein and get the blood, but i am still needle shy and would prefer to avoid getting stuck at all costs.

i am just going to continue to take it easy the rest of the day. tomorrow is my birthday, but i'll probably go in to work if i feel like it. i like getting out of the house if i can. i am just not used to doing anything but laying around so a day of being out of the house wears me down pretty quick. i am just going to have to build myself back up.

i have calculated when my last chemo treatment will be. as it looks now, if there are no delays, august 5th will be the day of my last chemo treatment. i will be in the hospital for a couple days with it. hopefully that will be my last hospital stay for a long time to come....

things are going pretty well. i had an inpatient chemo treatment last thursday and friday. yesterday i had a basic follow-up doctors appt. my blood levels seem to be holding up pretty well and i have had a decent appetite. if all goes well i will have an outpatient treatment this thursday and friday. i will go in for about 30 minutes. the chemo infusion will only take about 15 mins. i will have next week off. i am glad because my birthday is on the 18th. i don't want to be confined to the hospital or feeling sick on my birthday. that's about all for now. i'll post after i have my outpatient chemo and let you know how it went.

we took a trip to nashville for my 3 month checkup with the surgeon. i had some CT scans and x-rays of my leg and chest. you know you have a lot of metal in your leg when the x-ray technician says, "wow, you've got a lot of metal in your leg!" so i asked to see the x-rays and i was blown away. i didn't realize the metal went so far down into my tibia and so far up into my femur. the surgeon said everything looked great. i have asked her to email me the x-ray pictures so i can post them on my website. she wasn't really concerned that i have not started physical therapy. she said that usually doesn't begin until patients finish chemotherapy. the main thing right now is to stretch my leg completely straight and hold it for a few minutes at a time. this will keep the muscles loose. i am supposed to go back in 3 more months for my 6 month checkup.

tomorrow is chemo day as long as my blood counts are ok. i predict they will be up enough. i haven't felt too bad the last couple of days. the trip to nashville was good. we had dinner with a friend at a really cool sushi restaurant. we also stopped at the blackstone brewery for a nice microbrew. megan and i both really like nashville...