May 19, 2015

Ikat, Chevron and Navy All Over

Happy Tuesday!  Wow, I cannot even begin to describe how wonderful this day has been.  I am not going to lie.  The last three weeks have been a blur.  I’ve been a complete recluse and my mind has been anywhere but in the here and now.  If you read last Thursday’s post you have a little insight into my recent health scares.  Almost three weeks ago, I had a mammogram and two ultrasounds on a lump that came back benign.  That was the most amazing day ever.  Until today.

The day following my mammogram results, I got a call from my doctor.  The blood work that had been taken at my initial appointment came back abnormal.  I know very little about medical terminology and more specifically, blood cell counts.  I answered the phone and all I heard was “your white blood cell count is a 3.3 and the doctor wants you to see a hematologist as soon as possible, we have sent in a referral already and here’s the number to call…”  I am literally walking out the door for a relaxing Mother’s Day girl’s weekend and I call the number.  “Thank you for calling the Cancer Institute…”  The what?!?  I definitely feel as though I should have gotten a little advanced warning about that!  Relaxing weekend, here’s the exit door.  I am not going to lie.  I got a little bit, well maybe a a whole lot bit, freaked out.  I had no idea what white blood cell counts meant and I am praying that I had called the wrong number.  I then ask for the doctor they specified and she says “hold please…”  My heart is racing and I honestly felt like I was going to throw up or pass out.  Of course, it is 4:45pm on a Friday and it goes to voicemail.  So I did what logically comes next, I Googled the hell out of “low white blood cell count”.  Results… “leukemia…leukemia…leukemia…”

Needless to say, I spent the following two weeks doing a whole lot more of the same.  I did switch search engines several times.  Maybe Google got it wrong but Yahoo will say something different.  Something way better.  Wrong.  The day finally arrived and my hematologist appointment was today.  Almost two, looooong weeks later, I finally got some answers.   My sweet mom who had also been researching like crazy for me and my hubby who had been listening to me freak out for the last nine days were by my side for the two and a half hour appointment today.  After a wonderfully long explanation of white blood cells, their purpose, normal counts, my abnormal count, and everything in between, she gave us the next steps.  First, more blood work.  Next, if it comes back low again today, bone marrow biopsy.  Ouch.  And scary.  More bloodwork was done and after a heart pounding two hour of waiting, my white count was back up to 5.5.  Halle-freaking-lujah (spelling?).  We still aren’t sure why it went down so low but there are a lot of factors.  I will spare you all the details unless you are in a similar situation and would like more information I would be happy to share!  So, I am relieved.  So so so thankful and ready to stop burying my nose in my phone.

On a happier note, I am super excited to be back full throttle into my little blogging world.  It is my little happy place.  I love to share fun ideas and I love that so many of you are adding a little color into your world.  I recently added a little more color into my breakfast room and I couldn’t be more in love with the results.  This room has stumped me a little.  It is more a space between my kitchen and living room than an actual room so it is a little more difficult to truly design.  There aren’t any walls to paint, no room for artwork or console tables.  The design is in the furnishings and lighting.  Once I stumbled upon this beautiful navy ikat chevron print I knew it was the missing link to my breakfast room!  I had my upholsterer re-cover the backs of our end chairs and wow what a difference four yards of fabric can make!

BEFORE

IN PROGRESS

AFTER

SHOP OUR BREAKFAST ROOM:

SHOP OUR BREAKFAST ROOM:

XOXO, Brittany Hayes