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I am a wife, a mom, a daughter, a sister and a friend.
I've learned that who you have in your life matters more than what you have.
Thank you for stepping in to my world!

Sunday, September 7, 2014

Kicking cancer's ass - day 375

One of the weapons in my kicking cancer's ass arsenal is Tamoxifen.  Tamoxifen is a drug that blocks estrogen, which is a good thing since my tumors were estrogen-receptor positive.  That means my cancer basically ate estrogen for lunch.  I actually started this medicine back in February, but I've had to stop and start it several times (I couldn't take it during radiation, when I flew in July or when I had surgery).  My body hasn't had more than a month or two on Tamoxifen at a time, so I really don't know how it's going to be in the long run.  What I do know is that one of the side effects that hits me immediately is restless legs.  I don't know why, but Tamoxifen exacerbates my restless legs syndrome to the tenth degree.  I started back on it Friday, and both Friday night and Saturday night I had to rely on another medication to combat the effects.  I've never taken so many pills in my life.

I'm still on exercise restrictions from surgery, but I think I might have to start riding my exercise bike a little bit each day in hopes on combating the restless legs.

In other news, please keep my dad in your prayers.  Medically he's stable, but mentally he's having a really difficult time.  Insurance is requiring him to be moved from the acute rehab (hospital) he's at to a sub-acute nursing facility.  The place we want him to go to has a bed available, but there's some red tape and paperwork we have to get through first.  I hope to get through it all tomorrow so he can get settled where he needs to be.  He's had a couple of falls lately, too, so we're all worried about keeping him safe while trying to get him well.  His stroke was very severe, so there is a lot of work to do, and a lot of the time he doesn't want to cooperate.

Pray for his health, pray for his safety, pray that his transfer goes through, pray for improvement in his motivation, his cooperation and the ability of his therapists to work with him.

1 comment:

Lori said...

Will be praying for your dad! (and you too...I know you've struggled with the restless legs for years, so to have that even increased must be so hard!)