Sorry for the hiatus, folks! I put together a lovely (if I do say so myself) photo essay for you to check out my last several days. Paulina came out on Thursday, so you can blame the lack of posts on her. hahahaha Just kidding…my mom and I really enjoyed our time with her, and we were so busy doing fun things (as you’ll see by the photos) that there was no time for updates. See, it’s a good thing! But I know you really missed me…so no worries, here I am!!

One of the coolest things Paulina and I did was to take a ride on a seaplane! It was a gorgeous day with perfect shots of Mount Rainier…all I have to say is, thank God for image stabilization so your photos aren’t blurry!! That little plane is not the smoothest ride, but it was wonderful! Our pilot was really friendly, and it was quite obvious that he loved his job. He kept saying that we really lucked out on the day because it was so nice out.

Friday night, Paulina, my mom and I went out to dinner with Holly, one of the volunteers I wrote about before (SCCA matched her up with me). After she, Paulina and I walked a little bit around Lake Union with her dog, Kona, she took us to “Norm’s”, a cool restaurant that allows you to bring your dog to dinner with you!!…yup, even inside! Surprisingly, the food was good too (I mean, if you think they’re focusing on the dogs, they’re not so much concentrating on the food, right?)! As I wrote in a photo below, Seattle seems like a great place to pick up a guy because they just come up to you when you have a dog (and yes, it works the other way for guys too…at least with me anyway)! One guy who was really good looking walked into the restaurant with his 205-lb (my mom and Paulina quizzed him later, trying to hook Holly or myself up with him! hahaha) Mastiff and Holly looked over and said “Hey, gorgeous!” I was teasing her because I didn’t know if she meant the dog or the owner! Turns out, by the way, the dog is a puppy and will probably gain 80 more pounds!! He eats something like 12 cups of dry food a day, 2 pounds of meat and 6 raw eggs!!! Paulina was so up-front, she asked if the dog slept in the bed with the guy! Good thing she didn’t go too far and ask if anyone else did. hahahahahaha

I’m really looking forward to hanging out with Holly, and also to meeting my other volunteer (she didn’t feel well on Friday…she’s 8 months pregnant!). The SCCA sounds like they made perfect matches because both are my age and have similar interests….speaking of which, maybe I should have the SCCA set me up with a date when this is over! They make good matches so far!

Paulina left yesterday, and it was hard to say good-bye, as it has been with everyone. To be honest, the last several weeks have seemed like a vacation because I’ve felt relatively normal, and I’ve been lucky enough to have been surrounded by love, and to have the opportunity to really explore Seattle and its surroundings. Fear is setting in a little bit more now, because the whole process is getting closer and closer. It’s pretty hard to feel like myself now, but to be fully aware of the challenges and difficult days I have starting next week (the 25th is my first day in isolation). I’ve noticed that the worry of dying crosses my mind a little more than it did before, but I’m not obsessive or anything. As I told Lori tonight, I acknowledge the thought, and then I tell myself it is what it is. I will do everything I can to prevent infection and to keep exercising, but whatever happens happens. I talked to my mom about it too after we dropped Paulina off at the airport, and she reminded me of a saying her mom used to say: “You gotta make hay while the sun shines”…very true, and I have been doing just that these past weeks and before I left Virginia. I think the knowledge that my test dose of the radio-labelled iodine was Monday (although it was later rescheduled for today) hit me after Paulina left. Here I am, having all this fun, but wait!—there’s lots of scary stuff ahead. Paulina, don’t be upset about this! It just reinforces the fact that I had a wonnnnnderful weekend, and I have lots of good pictures of us now (if you look at the gallery of photos below, you’ll notice I wrote about how we have no good pics together even though we’ve been friends for 8 years…you guys have to pick your favorite photo!).

Today, my mom and I went to the hospital to meet my clinical research nurse (who will be my nurse through the radio-labelled iodine and isolation). It took about 4 hours or so, but I slept the whole time! They gave me 50 of Benadryl (IV, which makes you more tired and slightly tipsy-feeling very quickly!), a couple infusions of hydrocortisone (steroids–which is probably why I’m still awake at 11:58 PM! I took my Ativan, but it hasn’t kicked in yet), tylenol, and the iodine. I did really well, except for the minor reaction I describe in the photo below (so you’ll have to keep reading!). We really liked my nurse, and she wore her dog shirt in my honor because she read on my social history that I love dogs. She also shared a story with us that made me feel good: her mom is an AML (acute myelogenous leukemia) survivor. She had it once, went into remission, and it came back 2 1/2 years later. She then had a transplant and she has been doing well for 15 years!!!!!!!!!!!! I thought the story sounded similar to mine, so I thought it was a good sign.

Now here’s a funny story….enough with all the serious stuff, right? My mom and I went to a yummy diner-like place for dinner (I had breakfast for dinner, always a good choice), and I noticed after being there a couple minutes that the knife was acting like a magnet…I tried to pull my spoon and fork away and it dragged the knife along with it! I asked my mom if hers did the same, and she started cracking up, telling me that it was because I was slightly radioactive…well, of course I believed her, and we spent half of the evening switching our utensils back and forth…at one point, hers seemed magnetic too, and then they both stopped. But seriously, don’t you think it could have been me? How cool would that be?! It would be a plus from this whole procedure, and according to Ronnie, I could make tons of money doing magic tricks for the masses. hahahaha

And speaking of radioactive, my nurse told me that I would be allowed to take my laptop to the hospital next week, but not my phone or much else…they have to clean off anything you take in there (if you touch it with your hands without wearing gloves) in this special room. She said they could do the computer right away, but the other things would have to wait…even a bra and underwear! I got to laughing though because I will obviously have a lot of time to fill, and I told my mom I’ll send out “hot” (radioactive) thank you notes, because I haven’t sent any yet! Don’t worry though…I won’t…or will I?! You might want to think about wearing gloves out to your mailbox from now on. hahahaha

Anyway, I’ve gone on and on, as always. I’m going to go read for a while and see if that puts me to sleep…I’m glad the steroids worked for a bit so I could finish this post! So all in all, everything is going very well out here. I have scans all this week to see how fast I metabolize the i131, and to make sure it’s going to all the right places in the body. It’s pretty cool, actually. After getting the test dose today, I had a Gamma scan, and you can see where the iodine is because it lights up on the computer screen….my spleen, liver, spine, sternum, pelvis, part of my skull, and parts of my arms and legs (wherever there’s bone marrow) lit right up (kind of like a Lite Brite…remember those?)….the liver is the only organ in that list that does not need iodine, but they monitor it for me to try and make sure it’s not damaged.

Anyhoo, I’m off to go rest so I can be up early for my scan and bone marrow biopsy (this is also related to the i131…from what I understand, the results will help them calculate the proper dosage for next week). I hope everyone is doing well!

Sending lots of love from beautiful Seattle. Enjoy the photos!