July 15-21

It has been a busy week. So last I posted, on the 15th I had a full day of doctors. Monday night Jeff and I took off to Sacramento area to work on a house that needed tile work and a few other projects. We got up there, bought some of the materials and headed to the house. We were late getting away from our house since we were later than we had thought we would be with doctor appointments. We were beat. Jeff worked on one of the projects for the house and then we crashed. In the morning we got up and moving, starting on projects, when we found out painters were still working on the house. People were in and out. We had forgotten a few things from home so we packed up and headed back..that is one stinkin long truck ride! We we got home and I got a phone call from the pulmonary nurse. They want me to go in for a breathing test tomorrow. So glad we had come home so I could do the test. July 17th: Head to the hospital for breathing test. Now I had done a breathing test years ago at a allergy office and I thought it would be something like that..nope. First I had blood drawn. Not the usually place on the arm. This was the first time I had blood drawn from an artery in my wrist. Oopps..my blood pressure is too low. I have to drink a bottle of water..(I don't like water..) The lady doing the testing and the blood draw is amazing. She has to draw the blood by feeling where my heartbeat is. She has to so carefully insert the needle being careful not to go in to far. She is so careful and so gentle, it doesn't hurt while she is taking the blood. The tube is filled by your heart beating. SO COOL! Then lots of pressure and I can't do anything with my wrist for the rest of the day..no leaning on it, no lifting, nothing. After the blood draw I am put into a round booth that has a seat in it and it has a clear door that can close around you. A weird, how to describe it, arm with a mouth piece and cords is in the booth with you. You put your mouth on the mouth piece and have pinchers put on your nose and the door is closed. That is a weird feeling trying to breath on this contraption with your nose pinched off. You can hear the lady talking to you from a mic...she puts you through a series of breathing, hold your breath, breath in as much as you can, blow out as much as you can, in out in out really fast. Now doing all this outside of the booth would be easy! But in the booth with this thing you have to blow into..WOW..not so easy. Then she has be take 4 puffs of an inhailer. Wait Wait Wait..ok, lets do some more breathing test! I come out of that thing so tired! Who would think breathing would make you so tired?! Well, after the appointment we pack back up and head back up to the job. It takes us 3 days to prep and lay tile in 3 bathrooms. I am once again in awe of my husband and what he can do. He does a fabulous job with tile. Who would think of how much time and energy even that goes into doing this job. I learned really fast how to screw down backer board and how to run a wet tile saw. Two bathrooms were upstairs so there was a ton of up and down. I am finding that stairs are one of my Nemesis. I am getting frustrated how I feel, just slowly waking up and down the stairs. It takes all my energy and it is hard to breath. I actually started noticing it at work this past year, every time I walked the stairs at work I would be really winded. It is hard since in my head I hear, "If you do it more it will become easier!" But it doesn't. It gets harder. This week for some reason it was REALLY hard. I am finding that my energy only last for a short time now before I have to rest. I am also finding that I have to take naps during the day. WHAT?!?!? Am I that old now? I have been doing a lot of research on the internet and I have found that cancer literally sucks the life out of you. I don't feel the cancer inside of me. It doesn't hurt. I don't even know that it is there other than the doctors have told me it is there. The only thing on the outside to remind me is I have a bad itch on my breast. Thus when my energy level is so low I get really frustrated. I know I can walk up and down stairs!!! I have been doing it my whole life! Why is it so hard? It is interesting how the mind can tell you one thing but the body will fight the mind and win. Another nemesis is heat. I used to love being warm. Summer is my time of the year. Not this year. I am too hot! I can't breath in warm air. Being outside in the warm SUCKS the energy out of me quickly also. I so do not want to see my power bill this month. We have had most of our days this month over *100. I have two doctor's appointments on Monday. I am hoping/scared that we will set a date for surgery. I know Heavenly Father wantes me to learn something from this experience. He needs me to grow and stretch. The growing and stretching is always hard.