Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Tired today...but ever so grateful

Cooper and I had a terrible night last night - he woke up crying every hour from 8pm-2am til finally I couldn't take it anymore and brought him to bed with me. He kept whining and squirming so at 2:30am I remembered that the pediatrician said he might be that way from the shots he got yesterday (prevnar and flu shots) and to give him Tylenol to take the edge off - apparently the Prevnar shot goes deep in the muscle and causes a good 24 hours of irritation/aching and fussiness (joy! ;/). Once I did that he slept til 6am. Needless to say, I'm totally exhausted. The sitter was here from 8-4 today and during that time I had a bunch of things I needed to get done but only one thing on my list got done because my cell phone/blackberry decided to drink a couple drops of the neighbor's sprinkler water as we walked past their driveway last night on a short walk. Seriously, there were TWO OR THREE DROPS of water on the device which I wiped off immediately. Well, apparently that was all it took to kill the device. I spent about 2-3 hours this morning trying to solve the problem of what to do about getting a replacement. Seems like it'd be simple, right? Well, I don't want to waste anymore time expressing negative feelings about how this process went down today but I will just say it was ugly and disappointing at first. BUT, there's a happy ending - there's a Verizon wireless account rep named Robert who restored my faith in humanity when in my last ditch effort to find someone that would understand why it's not acceptable for me to be without a cell phone for a period of 1-3 weeks (long story about that time frame having nothing to do with Verizon) and Robert made it his personal mission to help ensure I got a replacement overnighted to me - he went out of his way to pull strings to make it happen. He understood that someone undergoing chemotherapy should not be out without a phone - what if I have sudden and dangerous side effects without warning while I'm out of the house on my walk? Besides, what if the sitter needs to reach me about an emergency related to Cooper while I'm at a doctor's appointment or support group? Thank you, Robert from Verizon! You are my hero today because by noon tomorrow I will once again have a functioning phone/blackberry that will enable me to leave the house knowing I can call for help if I need to. So back to the tired part...I was exhausted from the minute I got out of bed this morning. I wanted so badly to crawl back into bed when the sitter arrived but I knew I had to deal with the phone issue which then took hours to resolve and then I still had to accomplish SOMETHING on my list of things to do so I managed to do the little touch-up painting in the home office - filling in the little spots that got missed by the roller when my dad painted the room, and painting the strips of cable covers that are on the wall hiding the flat panel TV and under cabinet lighting cords so that they blend in with the wall better. It took maybe 20 minutes to get that done and I had to sit down and catch my breath from being on my feet. That worried me. I've been doing so well and then I have these days where I can't manage to eek out 15-20 minutes on my feet. But I'm grateful...because in spite of the fatigue and the frustration of the morning, I am not nauseous and I don't have mouth sores and I still have my eyebrows and lashes...these are small but happy victories that keep me smiling. And I'm grateful for the love and support of sooooo many people. This afternoon when the sitter went home, my dear neighbor and friend, Femme, came by to take Cooper for a walk so I could get dressed and take some deep breaths and rest before I go to a cancer patient support workshop tonight "Look Good, Feel Better" where I'll learn how to care for my skin while on chemo and radiation. I'm able to go to this workshop because another amazing neighbor and friend, Susan, will be watching Cooper for me while I go. Thank you, ladies - so much! Exhausted, but ever so grateful. That's my day today :). Here's to hoping that Cooper sleeps better tonight so I can sleep better and longer tonight too because I sure do need it. Blessings to you, Julie

5 comments:

Amy T. said...

I so wish that I lived closer and the Coop and Lauren could hang out every night so that you could get some alone time to catch up or nap or contact your inner warrior! They really do need to invent hallographic babysitters or something!

Beth said...

Hi Julie, hope you get some sleep tonight!! Poor little Cooper. My head just has peach fuzz now, all the prickly pieces are gone. Takes a long time for them all to go (3 months maybe?) My eyebrows are almost gone, but there is still peach fuzz underneath in the shape of my eyebrow, so I just use the eyebrow pencil (from LGFB) and it looks very natural. I don't wear mascara often because when I wash it off it seems like more and more eyelashes come off with it!!

Cára said...

Hey sweetie, sorry it has been a while. I am glad you got out to the 'Look good, Feel Better' Work Shop/Support Group. Knowing you, you probably made the ladies feel pretty amazing. I hope you are able to get in a nap today and some good sleep tonight. xo

Lissa said...

Yea you went to Look Good Feel Better! Like I said, as soon as I saw the article about it in the paper, I thought about you. But obviously you had already heard of it too! I hope you had an enjoyable time and feel renewed. And I also hope you did indeed receive your phone by noon today!

Gina said...

You always look good! I hope Cooper is feeling better soon.