The "P" word

After having a fever of 101.9 the majority of yesterday, I decided I should go to the doctor just to be safe. After getting a chest x-ray, turns out I have a touch of pneumonia. I definetely got hit worse than Joe. He was only sick for one day and now he's (for the most part) back to normal. I'm still miserable. I remember my oncologist saying people with NHL are more susceptible to pneumonia, but how in the heck did I get it?! I was fine on Monday and Tuesday! It happened so fast. Hopefully I didn't expose anyone at work on Wednesday. That's the day I started feeling pretty crappy.

I was so lifeless yesterday I didn't even have the energy to turn on my laptop. It was horrible! It was all I could do to get to the doctor. I thought I was going to have to take a nap before driving home!

I'm remaining under quarantine today, hopefully the high potent drugs will kick in soon and knock it down before it gets any worse.

Happy Friday? Not so much for me! Hope everyone has a good weekend!

Sleepless night....

There's not many nights when I wake up dreading to look at the clock for fear that it's not time to get up. This is one of those nights. I was probably asleep by 8:30 (Nyquill), but just woke up totally miserable. I just looked and saw that it's only 12:42 am and feel like crying. Or at least getting some sympathy but Joe is working so I have to resort to this! I am freezing to death. I've been waking up periodically since about 10 because I was shivering so badly---I finally had to do something about it. Not wanting to take a bath, I decided just to put more clothes on. I am now laying in bed with ski socks, sweat pants (tucked into the socks---to avoid any air leakage!), t-shirt and a hoodie. With the hood on. Oh ya, and a heating pad that's on the hottest setting it has.
Needless to say, I am SICK. WhenI cough it sounds like I've smoked all of my life, my nose is running, my throat is sore and my ears feel like they're going to explode. Nooooooooooo!

Ok, enough about that. Hopefully morning will come fast. I'll go to work for a few and come home and park it on the couch with Subie for the remainder of the day. Assuming I feel like I feel now in 6 hours..

Time to go watch TLC. It's a show about extreme dwarfs. I suppose life could always be worse!

Stay healthy!

The flu has struck us....

Joe is SICK. He's got the shivers, the sweats, sore throat....he's not doing too good. It started Sunday night and has gotten worse every day. I was up at 3 am because he was coughing/moaning/sniffling/shivering the majority of the night and now I feel like I've been hit by a truck. Every part of my body is aching, I feel like I have a load of bricks on my chest and I'm exhausted. Ughhhh......if this turns out to be the flu, my mom is never going to let us live the fact that we didn't get a flu shot down! I've never really had the so-called flu, but it seems like I end up getting pretty much anything I'm exposed to now days. Again, thanks cancer! :/

Subie loved laying around with Joe all day. And good news for him, he got the club off today! And his stitches taken out!

Things I'm excited about. In pictures.

Now I'll explain! Super ripe bananas. I've been waiting for what seems like weeks for these 2 bananas to get ripe! It's hard to keep bananas around without Joe eating them, but these two managed to make it. Now I can finally make Marlene's Chocolate Chip Bran Muffins. YUM!

The two salads are our dinner. Delish! Avacado, fat free feta, a few almonds and Johnny's Jamaica Mistake Light. I'm patiently waiting for Joe to get off the phone with his dad so we can eat!

And last, Jillian Michael's 30-Day Shred. I really despise Jillian. I believe in pushing people, but I think she's a total biotch on The Biggest Loser! I've heard great things about this DVD though.....like walking will be hard the day after......so I thought I'd give it a shot. It got shipped today and I'm really excited to get it! I'll probably really not like Jillian after we work out together! :)

I started this post out of boredom waiting for Joe to get off the phone and I thought he'd definitely be off the phone by the time I got done posting this this but they're still going strong. He talks on the phone more than I do!

Hope everyone is having a good week!

Sweet Sophie

This is one of my favorite pictures of Sophie. Isn't she precious?! Just had to share!

The infamous club

Joe and I call the splint on Subie's leg the "club." It's big, bulky, makes a lot of noise when he walks around and when he hides, we can always see him because the club is hanging out from where he's hiding so we can always find him fast.

Anyway, Joe called me when he got home from work last night to report that the club was off and Subie was walking around on his leg and his wound was exposed. Of course it was after hours, so Joe called the emergency vet in Vancouver and they told us to bring him down so they could re-splint it. I happened to be on my way home from Portland, he called as we were passing through Kalama, so he waited for me to get home and as soon as I walked in we packed up and left.

We returned home from Vancouver with his new club on at around 11:30ish. We were watching Jay Leno and fell asleep on the couch. Next thing I know, Subie is jumping up on me and I wake up to find out that his club is off. AGAIN. He took it off!! We have no idea how he's managed to do this twice. There's no tear marks, no bite marks...it's bizarre! Anyway, when he woke me up it was almost like he did it to show me that he had it off. Like, "Hey mom, guess what!? I got the club off again!!" Ughhh. I called the vet and reported the news. They said to put his e-collar on, keep him in his crate and come back down in the morning.

He hates his e-collar. We did as they told us to do and I was going to wake up during the night to make sure he still had the club and e-collar on but didn't wake up until 6:30. I jumped out of bed to find that his e-collar was totally off and he was sitting upright and putting weight on his leg.

Joe had to work this morning so I jumped in the car and ran him down to Vancouver. They re-clubbed him and now I'm watching him like a hawk. They couldn't believe he managed to get it off either. When there's a will there's a way I suppose!

My dad was complaining that I hadn't posted anything new in over a week so I had plans of posting about our wonderful dinner out last night. Joe had to work till 8 so I went to the Ringside in Portland with my mom, dad, Kim, George and Sophie. A Valentine's Eve dinner! It was so good and Sophie did really good too!

Sophie at dinner

Happy Valentine's Day! Last Valentine's Day I was just getting out of surgery. I just read my post from this time last year. Thank goodness that's all behind me!

Portland Auto Show

Joe and I are going to the Portland Auto Show this morning. I'm excited but a little nervous at the same time. You see, one of Joe's biggest obsessions is cars. Actually, anything that has a motor. But as far as cars go, he's really obsessed. And I can guarantee he can tell you anything you want to know about any make and model. Even if it's something he's not really interested in (mini-vans), he can tell you anything about every make. He's kind of like a walking carclopedia!

Anyway, this morning we decided we'd check out the Portland Auto Show. At first I had no hesitations. It's going to be a nice day and I love getting up and going somewhere in the morning just the two of us! However, after I started thinking about it, I came to realize that we might possibly get there before the doors open and be forced to leave when they close tonight at 10! My Subaru is a lease and we'll be done with it in October 2010. 2010. Joe started researching our "future car" about 9 months ago. And not only that, he talks about and researches our possible next car every single day!

Oh, Joe---just one more reason I love him so much! He is so passionate about so many different things! I wish I could be more like that!

Wish me luck! We're also going to go to NW 23rd to look at wedding invites (he doesn't know this yet, I'm sure he will be thrilled though.... ;) ) and have lunch/dinner before heading home to give our Subie his evening pain meds/antibiotics. Now that I think of it, I know we wont be at the Auto Show until 10......he is so devoted to Subie. He wouldn't miss giving him his meds for the world!

Happy Saturday!

Flashback Friday

This time two years ago my mom, dad, Kim, George, Joe and I were at Disneyland! My mom and dad surprised all of us at Christmas with a mini-vacation to California. It was the most exciting Christmas I think I've ever had. They had all 4 of us open packages at the same time and inside was a picture of an Alaska Airlines plane and it said something like, "We're going to Disneyland!" I felt like a little kid when I read it! It was a wonderful trip---it's always so much fun when all 6 of us go somewhere together!

We got back on February 6, the day before I started my job at Bud Clary's. That means I've been working at Clary's for two years on Saturday already. How can that be?!

This time a year ago I was in a wheelchair and making trips to see Dr. Conrad at the University of Washington. Definitely opposite from the prior year when we were at the "Happiest Place on Earth." Never imagined a year later I'd be getting ready for a biopsy to determine if I had cancer.

It's amazing how different life is this February 6. We know have a new member of our family, Joe and I are planning our wedding----nothing but good! Except for Subie being a total invalid!

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

25 Random Things About Me
I've been "tagged" with this several times on Facebook, so I thought I'd do it on my blog instead!

1. My real name is Katie. Not Katherine or Kathy or any other variation!
2. I didn’t like cats until Subie came around
3 I don't like sleeping in and if I do, it puts me in a funk for the rest of the day
4. I hate it when Joe calls his mom “mother.” It sounds so harsh and formal!
5. I am addicted to projectwedding.com
6. If I don’t reply to an email as soon as I read it, I often forget---or reply days later
7. I’ve always thought delivering mail would be fun!
8. I LOVE people watching and wish I could do it for a living
9. I wish I would’ve tried harder in college. All-nighters in the kitchen at AXO didn’t equal good grades for me.
10. I haven’t used a hair dryer in 10 months and have so much more free time as a result!
11. One of my favorite feelings is taking off ski boots after a long day of skiing
12. Joe and I have 2 embryos waiting on stand-by in Portland in case chemo makes it impossible to have kids
13. I am so excited to be a mom and have a family with Joe
14. Everytime I hear a Modest Mouse song I think of Alicia and Pullman
15. My family is the world to me
16. I’m not very good at backing-up and backed into my parents house a few years ago
17. Sometimes I have to remind myself that I just recovered from cancer treatment, it seems surreal
18. I love the smell of Pine-Sol---it means I have a clean house!
19. I worked at Burgerville for 1 day in high school
20. I think it’s weird that Joe hates Facebook and MySpace
21. I love to read blogs and sometimes check for updates more than once a day! Especially yours, Joanna!
22. I think "chit-chatting" on the phone is the biggest waste of time ever.
23. I still sleep with a teddy bear
24. I am passionate about spreading the word about Fertile Hope but don’t really know how to…
25. If I could do anything right now I would drive to Vancouver and spend the day with Sophie and my sister.

Stirring up trouble in the Radiology community....

Since my story on GMA aired last weekend, I've gotten lots of emails from people, most of whom I've never met, wanting to know who the doctor was that read my MRI to make sure the same thing doesn't happen to them.

I also received a couple emails from Dr. Bradley, the doctor that was on the segment with me. Here is the first one:

Katie,

I was one of the people on the GMA segment with you last Sunday.

I seem to have stirred up a bit of a firestorm in the Radiology community over this piece. Someone has raised a good point, however. do you know for sure that the person that read your MRI was even a radiologist? I have copied all the ABC people on this in case that information is "privileged".

thanks. hope you are doing well.

Bill

My response:

Hi Dr. Bradley,

The radiologist who read my MRI works at Longview Radiolgy. His name is Dr. Hicks. Here is the link to their website. http://longviewradiology.com/our_team.shtml I believe he is the 4th one one the list---all of his information/schooling is listed next to his name.

When I went to the hospital to get the films for Nicole, we saw the first dictation that he did. It basically said everything was normal but then after I saw Dr. Kretzler who said it was in fact not normal, Dr. Hicks covered his tracks and added an addendum to the original dictation. It was frustrating to see that because I really think it was only because my parents called Dr. Gibb, their neighbor and another radiologist at the clinic, and told them Dr. Hicks really messed up and we needed to get the right dictation asap so my insurance company would refer me to the University of Washington.

We have all been pretty fired up after hearing your remarks on Sunday. How many other readings has he messed up on?? Pretty scary.

His response:

Thanks Katie.

It is really the first dictation that counts. What would have happened if you had not challenged his reading? I hate to think...

So he was reasonably well trained but there was clearly a screw up. Hopefully you got your treatment in a timely fashion and will not suffer as a result. I hate to ask but is there a lawsuit? if you still got treated in time, I doubt there will be anything to be gained by a lawsuit.

The GMA segment has raised a firestorm in the radiology community - which is ok by me. We need to curb the readings from the Dr HIcks of this world.

You now have my email address. If you have any new MRIs please get them to give you a CD and send it to me. I will get it to the best Bone radiologist in the WORLD (Don Resnick) who is on our faculty.

Bill

William G. Bradley, Jr, MD, PhD, FACR
Professor and Chairman
Department of Radiology

There wont be a lawsuit, but hopefully no one else will have a totally misread MRI again. I understand people make mistakes, but the fact that it was so obvious is the frustrating part. Thank goodness for the pain I was in!