My Life's Journey with Melanoma

So right after I had surgery to remove the lymph nodes, my shoulder started hurting.  Initially, I had a lot of pain that ran down the back of my head, through my neck, and into my shoulder.  I thought it was a nerve that was aggravated from the surgery.  Problem - it never stopped hurting!!!  I then have been working hard on the remodel of my house which probably hasn't helped the pain in my shoulder. I went to sleep the other night and my shoulder hurt so bad that it kept me awake.  I could not get comfortable.  The pain was incredible!  I woke up in the morning and told Nicole what was happening.  Later that day, she had an appointment for me at the doctor.  I met with Dr. Mortenson who talked to me and decided that we should inject my shoulder.  Dr. Mortenson injected it and it felt almost immediately better!  Well, so I thought.  A few hours later, though the sharp pain had gone away, my shoulder felt like someone had at...

On Wednesday I went to Huntsman for my second infusion.   Nicole and I took my two oldest daughters, Mariah and Ally, with us because they had not been to the hospital.  We went a little early so we could have lunch.  My brother's wife, Staci, ended up having her little baby girl Wednesday morning so we also fit in a trip to the hospital to see both of them as well. We decided, do to the time, to eat at the hospital.  There is a small bistro upstairs at Huntsman but there is also a full restaurant as well.  It was nice to have some choices as to what to eat and the view from the restraurant is incredible!  You can see the whole city and valley.  Wednesday was really stormy as well so you could watch the dark clouds roll across the valley as well. We checked in and went to the lab.  They drew the blood samples and started the IV.  This time they had no problems starting the IV until they went to flush it the final time.  The nurs...

So,  Nicole and I are in the middle of remodeling the house.  I go to work all day and come home and do work on the house to get ahead of the remodelers.  All weekend it is nothing but working on the house.  We are getting down to the end but we are also getting to the hardest part of the job.  The girls were gone all week and that made it nice with the house being torn apart.  Now that they are back, we have no rooms done for them.  We are all staying in our bedroom downstairs.  We put one bed in the room for the girls.  Problem is, that is the next room to get done.  We won't get carpet, most likely, until next week, so we are trying to figure out what to do.  My sister, Kim, offered her trailer and my brother, Justin, would most likely let us come stay at his house for a couple of days.  What to do!  What to do! Lately, probably from not stopping, I have gotten tired real easy.  I am used to pushing myself a...

So what a day yesterday!!!  The infusion was suppose to start at 8 am.  We were told to get there early so Nicole and I arrived at 7:30 pm.  We were sent to the lab to get blood drawn and an IV put in for the infusion.  The lab tech tried twice to start an IV in my left arm.  I asked for the left arm because last time I got an IV in my right arm in really hurt when it was left in all day.  The lab tech, Julie, asked the Charge Nurse, Stephanie, to start the IV.  Stephanie was able to start the IV in my right hand.  Luckily, it did not hurt and was fine all day. Nicole and I went back to the Clinic to meet with the doctor to get the final "GO AHEAD" for the infusion.  We were told that Dr. Grossman was suppose to be in a meeting so we would be seen by his Nurse Practioner, Julie, and then Dr. Grossman would see me right before the infusion would start.  It took some time for Julie to make it to our room.  When she came in, she bega...