They don’t have a Mardi Gras style setting!

Written Feb 5, 2012 8:14am

Happy Mardi Gras!

Wish Caring Bridge had a blog style in the Mardi Gras colors of purple (justice), green (faith) and gold (power)! At least this style is colorful! And I have the cartoon work of good friend John Lucas!

Officially the Mardi Gras Carnival season kicks off on January 6th, 12th Night, which is also Epiphany–and my birthday. 🙂 However, last night was the Krewe du Vieux parade through the French Quarter which marks the unofficial kick off of the Mardi Gras parades–and the beginning of Mardi Gras 2012 for us. We went and there were lots of people moving about throughout the French Quarter. The parade itself, Krewe du Vieux, is a rather risque and lewd parade–not child friendly–although this year seemed a little tamer than the past two we have attended. This site: http://www.mardigrasneworleans.com/
has a lot of great information about the history and traditions that go with Mardi Gras, so feel free to explore.

We had a hard rain at about 3:00 PM that was predicted to go on all night, but yet again the Weather Channel was off in regards to NOLA weather. It ended up being a relatively clear evening with no more precipitation–but because of the threat of rain, I wore my comfortable, yet colorful, rain boots. Fun time!

So, still no news about chemo. Dr. Gurtler’s office called on Thursday to say that the Oncotype DX gene test company hadn’t gotten my tissue samples yet and so the test had not been completed. Yeah! Continued limboland! The nurse gave me the number of the company that does the test so I could call and voice my displeasure. I did and it felt good to vent. My comments to the customer service guy were along the lines of…”hello? my insurance company is going to be paying you $4000 for this test and you are blaming my doctors office in not getting the tissue sample to you? With that kind of cost, shouldn’t there be more efficient checks in place? It’s not like I can personally deliver the samples. I saw the form they sent you all and your company was supposed to contact my hospital’s lab for my tissue samples…”  We’ll see if it helps.

I did start taking the Tamoxifen on Wednesday. So far, I’m fine. However, the info on the drug and its warnings are pretty intense. I will probably be experiencing many of the reactions many women do to menopause. For the more serious stuff, I have no choice but to exercise daily for the next 5 years, basically, or I put myself in serious danger of a blood clot and stroke. Funny, I’ve lost 20 pounds since August 1, but I had basically plateaued, knowing that I needed to get serious about exercise if I wanted to lose and keep off the last 15. Well, now, I don’t have a choice. At least I have a goal that I can track.

On the surgery recovery front, things are going well. After the surgeon’s ok last week, I’ve been pushing myself more than I had and I’m definitely feeling progress in my range of motion. I can almost reach the top of my classroom’s whiteboard to write on!!! I am still really tired after working all day, but it’s gradually getting easier.  I actually had energy to start responding to individual messages yesterday which felt like a huge accomplishment!!

Anyway, need to run errands and get ready to go over to watch the game tonight at a friend’s house.  Things are getting back to normal, aren’t they?

Cheers,
JoAnn