Virginia Rigby

The blood clots aren’t getting any better and my P/T tests continue to fluxuate from water to sludge. I can rarely get one in between. Currently, I’m on the watery side of the scale.

My oncologist ordered a stress test for me. When I went to the cardiologist, he asked if I could work the treadmill. I told him that I thought so, so we scheduled the test for another date. I wasn’t very happy about it, but when I was contacted about the test, I learned that the cardiologist had ordered a “nuclear stress test.” That means they will inject my veins with a radioactive isotope…something inside my head said that it was too many times in a year for me to be that intimate with radioactivity. Remember, I’ve had two PET scans in a very short period of time, so I am deferring until after I talk with my oncologist this afternoon. Since I don’t think there is a problem with my heart, I really don’t think this is necessary. If I was having problems, then yes, I think it would be appropriate. But since I am not, I don’t think it is worth the cost either to my insurance company nor to me.
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I feel like writing “It’s been a quiet week in Lake Wobegon…” but that wouldn’t exactly represent what has been going on. Once the cancer treatments subsided and the blood clots were sort of under better control, my work load increased exponentially . The library had not one, but two retirements in less than a month. The director retired and hasn’t been replaced. And, the Acquisitions librarian retired, leaving us two librarians short. Well, someone has to take up the slack and it fell basically on three of us, four if you add in the temporary replacement we received for another librarian who departed to be Director of another department. Scary, huh?

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I can finally write and let you know the results of my PET scan and the final CEA. I’ve been waiting until I had all the information before I wrote, but the CEA machine broke and no results were given. The doctor preferred not to be too optomistic until he had all the facts, and that is probably the best way to go. So now the results are officially in… and…

I am officially in remission!!!! The PET scan showed that all the problems exposed during my previous PET scan have been resolved and the CEA count is 2.2, well within normal range!!!
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These are the hats Jill made me. The one on the left looks like the Mad Hatter’s hat with a psychodelic twist. The ball cap Jill made me currently sits in my office waiting for a bad  hair day. They come quite often these days. I absolutely love both of them. Jill sent me these images from her own blog, http://jillthinksdifferent.blogspot.com/. Take a look.

I need to get pictures of the crocheted and knitted hats Nina and her group made me. They are also wonderful and I have worn each of them several times. I just keep rotating them. I also need to take a picture of Frank and me in the hats Paul and Betsy sent us. They will be great working in the garden and hiking (WHEN I can hike again, that is!).

I will be going in this morning for another PET Scan. If you want to know what they are like, here is the  link to the other discussion I wrote about PET Scans: http://virginiarigby.net/?p=22. The only difference this time is that after they put me through the machine head first, they flipped me around and I went through again feet first. When I get the results back, I will know if I can have the Port-a-Cath removed or not, and whether there are any traces of the cancer left in  my body.

 The blood clots have really messed with my psyche. I notice that I am not as optomistic as I have been in the recent past. And I think a little humility has entered the scene. Patience, which has not been one of my strong virtues, is now teaching me some very interesting lessons. For example, I have learned that I can tolerate a great deal of chaos in the physical layout of the bedroom, but not in the other areas of the house (except the sewing room, which has really become a storage room). Every morning I wake up thinking I’ll be well enough to put everything that is laying around away, only to be reminded by the pain in my leg that I probably ought to wait another day or so. Poor Frank has to live in that room, and his tolerance for chaos is less than mine by a long shot. He should receive a commendation when all this is over.
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Ginny has finally been able to begin populating her gallery. Please check it out! Please note also that you can send any picture as an eCard by following the link in the left navigation bar.

I’m quite fond of the mountains piece.

Edit:  http://gallery.virginiarigby.net/ (since I forgot to include it before).

There’s also a link in the left nav, but only on the main page.

I guess celebrating the completion of a great task with too much conviction brings its own disaster. Or God and the devil have a wager about when I’ll crack. That is all I can think of that would affect my recovery with such negative consequences.

On Tuesday, I noticed that my right leg was beginning to swell. Odd, I thought, if it was too much salt, why didn’t the other leg swell also? I must have slept wrong, I thought, and let it go. By Wednesday, I could visibly see the swelling in the right leg and went to the clinic for blood tests. I showed them the discrepancy with my legs and the nurse fairly jumped over the counter to get me into a chair. “You probably have a blood clot in the leg,” she said. She also added that nearly 90% (which may be an exaggeration) of all chemo patients contract blood clots because of the manipulation of the blood chemistry.  She contacted the doctor and set me up with an appointment stat with the doctor on call at the clinic. He immediately admitted me into the hospital across the street for tests on the leg. They did what they called a Venous Dopler.
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Tuesday I went in for blood work and Wednesday I saw the doctor. We decided to up the chemo another 10% rather than the 15% we had originally discussed. That means I am getting 95% of a full dose, and I am not upset about that and the doctor said that it was a very respectable dose. As we discussed what was going on in my life, I asked him what the next step was for me. I told him that I knew this was just the first step and I wanted to stay on top of everything.

He looked at me and said, “This is it.” We will do a PET scan Sept. 10th and if it is clear, I can have the port removed. I was stunned and in a way I still am. I will have to go in for blood work every week for a while and PET scans a couple of times a year, but that I should be able to continue with my life.
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By the title, you can probably guess what this post may be about. Yes, that will be there, but there is a lot more. We’ll get to the wig later. There are other more pressing things to discuss.

This morning on NPR there is a story about colorectal cancer. I have added a link to an article that gives similar information to the NPR story.

http://www.newslocale.org/health/hnews/western_diet_may_lead_to_colon_cancer_relapse?_20070815399.html
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Chemo course No. 11 is now history. I’m unhooked and everything from all of it. But there are some transitory side effects I am dealing with. First the good ones. My hands and feet seem to be getting better. The doctor told me they would, but with the increase in my chemo from 75% to 85%, I thought I wouldn’t see this for a while. This is probably transitory as the new mixture circulates in my system I’ll probably see a drop in my ability to walk and use my hands. Now I have a very hard time turning pages in a book and I can’t pick up coins from a table, I must scoop them into my hands.

I also don’t have the fatigue I did with the last chemo at this time. I suspect it will sneak up on me a little later on and glue the mattress to my back for a while. But now, I am enjoying not being as down as I have been. Why, Risa and I took a side trip to Spring to the yarn shop, Twisted Yarns, right after my visit to the clinic. My voice continues to be normal. There is very little hint right now that I’ve had chemo. Usually, chemo brings out the sickness in my voice and I sound like I’m dying of some foreign disease, or a cold, or the flu. But the only thing it is really gauging is how I feel at that moment.
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