A Rough Night, A Hopeful Morning

It's about 4:30 in the morning and I'm having a really rough night, waking up with major shoulder pain. Now it's on the right side, but it was on the left side the other day. Whatever's causing this, maybe referred pain or whatever it might be, there's some significant nerve discomfort. The other thing causing me great discomfort right now is waking up in a pool of sweat when I'm not even hot. I'm not sure what any of this means, but it's very difficult to get comfortable. The pain has been so significant in my shoulders and upper rib cage area that I'm taking these Norco pain medicines that are causing all kinds of other problems. I woke up this morning crying, just feeling really sad that this is happening so fast. I hope today will be a better day. I just plan to rest because I don't have any doctor's appointments until tomorrow. As much as I'm really terrified to start my chemo, I'm also really hopeful it will be helpful and alleviate what feels like a rapid onset of unexpected symptoms. One thing that really made me smile last night is my boss, Laura, sent me a beautiful compilation of all kinds of different notes collected from our team, and it just had me smiling and laughing. I really feel blessed to have such a wonderful Google family. Here are a few screen shots, I love my Google family.

Quick update on scheduling. My liver MRI has been moved so we can prioritize starting chemo, with the hope that getting treatment going will help relieve this abdominal pressure I've been feeling. The new MRI date is May 21, but I'm on the urgent wait list in case something opens up sooner. Fingers crossed for an earlier slot.

One more milestone. Tomorrow, May 1, is my first OFFICIAL day of FMLA from Google. Stepping fully into treatment mode.

Chemo pump schedule. Cycle 1 starts Monday May 5 (46-hour infusion pump), pump removal Thursday May 7 at Northwest Cancer Center. This repeats every two weeks: pump on May 19 / off May 21, pump on June 2 / off June 4, pump on June 16 / off June 18, and so on through the cycle.

Second event tomorrow (Friday May 1). Oncology appointment at 1:00pm to draw baseline labs and prep for the all-clear on Tuesday before chemo starts.