Quick Update

Just wanted to give you a quick update on how I'm doing.

I checked in with the doctor yesterday and my red blood cells were definitely on the low side, which like last time, explains while I feel tired all the time. There is nothing really to be done for it, except maybe eat more beef, which I'm happy to oblige.

My brain has been clearing up too, though I haven't picked up on a few cues where a good teasing was intended; instead taking them too literally.  I did work in a good comeback in the end, but I'd already shown my hand at that point.  Luckily, it was a good friend and there was plenty of grace.

One of the fun 'benefits' of the chemo was that it would push me into an early menopause, I'm sure that's news the men blog readers are interested in; sorry, but it is one of the facts.  Since the tumor was estrogen receptor positive if I get helped along that path then it further reduces the risk of recurrence and that is absolutely a good thing and why I bothered to mention it.

I will spare you the details, but I think the most common symptom that the world is familiar with are hot flashes.  We'll I have had my share lately, thank you very much, and I've also been unable to sleep well because of it.

Last Tuesday night it finally dawned on me.  It is as if I've been thrown into the fiery furnace with Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, or Rack, Shack, and Benny if you are Veggie Tales fan; watch it here.

The good news is that while RS&B were in the fiery furnace they were not in there alone.  The account in Daniel clearly shows a fourth person in the furnace with them, commentators believe to be pre-incarnate Jesus.  The fire had not harmed their bodies, Not a hair on their head was singed, please insert your version of the lack of hair joke here. Their clothes were not scorched, and they did not smell like fire.

In the end King Nebucanezer  praised God too, that God could save the young men in a furnace that was seven times hotter than usual because they would not break the First Commandment, you shall have no other gods besides me.  We should fear, trust and love the Lord above all things.  That last part was J's memory verse this past week, so it's quite fresh on my mind.

The plus side of having no hair is that the sweat on my brow catches the breeze of the fan easily to cool things off.

I'm thankful that I'm not alone through this either, and that we have a well air conditioned house.

Checking In

Just thought I'd post a quick note to say I'm doing Ok and your prayers are again being answered.

I've definitely found that movement after this round has been beneficial.  I do still fell fuzzy headed today, but am feeling better as the day progresses.

Clayton reminded me after my last post that the reason I can feel good despite having cancer is JESUS.  He is really the reason for the hope that I have.

Thank you for the prayers.

4 of 4

Despite all the blog silence, I've been doing well.  I did mean to post an update in between, but just got busy with back to school and didn't get around to another post after Nurse Karen said, "No need to come back in before the next round.  If you are feeling good, just roll with it."  So I did.  

I grew enough corpuscles to go forward today with the LAST chemo treatment.  

Can I get a woo hoo!  Oh yeah!  Done and done!  

YOUR prayers have been so well received and answered by our great God.  I am truly grateful and humbled.  He is so good.  I can't believe that you can feel this loved, supported, fun-filled and generally good while having something as ICKY as cancer.  You are the best prayer support team.  Thank YOU!!!

By the way, I'm two-thirds of the way through the process of being someone who HAS cancer to someone who HAD cancer.  

Next up, tomorrow I am scheduled for my shots and went ahead and signed up for fluids too, since I've needed them every time anyway.  The dr's office is working on a short schedule this week trying to work us all in with the holiday on Monday, why I didn't have my final treatment then, and it might be more challenging to work me in without the appointment.  Today it was a full house in the infusion room.  

Bobbie met me at the dr's office today to keep me company and we had a lovely visit.  There were a couple of times where we thought I was finished, but I miscounted drugs going in the first time and then the second time they had an extra bag of IV fluids to add in. We were out of there and headed to eat by 1:15. We were starving!  Thankfully she packed a snack for us of cheese and square crackers. 

When you are finished with your last treatment, they bring a bell over to your chair (Clayton spotted that when we were in for Round 2) and you get to ring it three good loud rings and the rest of the room applauds for you.  That was fun.  

One of the family members that was there with her patient stopped by as we were checking out and said, "I hope I never see you again, and smiled." I thought that was nice.   

I received a Certificate of Completion.  I now consider myself a chemo grad-u-ate.  The drawn out 'graduate' word was tied to a joke my parents used to tell, and only the punchline remains.   

Plus I got the t-shirt.

Thought I would share some more funny cartoons from Steph.  I may or may not have used some of these at home and at work.

This one may be for a younger crowd, but it is still funny and Larry thought perhaps should be shared with those in Hollywood or with any amount of celebrity status.
 

for the record this is NOT one I've used at home or work.  

Prayer Requests: 

• That God will be glorified
• That the nausea will not be as serious this round
• That blood counts will be in the right zone
• That my bones won't ache too much after the Neulasta shot

Next Steps: 

• Visits each week for the next three weeks with lab checks 
• September 21st appointment will be to discharge me from the oncology section and send me off to be radiated.
• Radiation will start sometime after all the chemo is out of my system; about three weeks
• Radiation will likely be 30 treatments
• Schedule: Monday - Friday 
• Appointments are relatively short ~15-20 min each
• Grow hair 

Quick Update

Just wanted to give a quick update that I am feeling better!  Praise God!  Your/Our prayers are being answered.  Thank you.

I don't think the red blood cells are back, because my arms and legs are still weak and I don't have a ton of energy (there are plenty of dishes that didn't get washed tonight as evidence), but my head feels better and the nausea stage has finally passed.  YAY!

Yesterday, I made a serious point of sitting and resting.  Yes, it was hard for me, why do you ask?  That was also the day that I finally addressed the prayer card quilt that was falling down a few pieces at a time each day.

I took each card and removed the sticky stuff from the back of each card and took the time to pray for each of you that sent me a card.  I'll be saving the cards so Janet can look at them again in 50 years when she has to move me to a nursing home (it's a long standing joke between us).

Next update will be after Thursday's appointment when they will check my blood again.   Keep praying for those corpuscles.

End of Week Update

This week has not been all that great.

Yes, it was great to get chemo #3 out of the way, but I've felt terrible every day since.

Green around the gills.

No unicorns or rainbows.

I went back in for fluids on Tuesday when I got my shot.  That sorta helped, but only temporarily.

Blah.  Ehhhh.

Then today I went back in to see how things were going because I was just still not feeling great.

Turns out my red blood cells have gone on a late summer vacation; dropping from 14 to 12.  PA Patty was super sweet and said, "Yep, that's why you feel so bad. Your numbers have dropped two points in just a few days."

Well at least there is an explanation and it's not all in my head or in my gelatinous feeling muscles.

So I got some more IV fluids this afternoon and will have to hope that my corpuscles come together and get going in the blood stream.

Prayer Requests:

• Come on back red blood cells
• Feeling better

"The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do it."  1 Thess 5:24

75% Complete

I'm happy to report that I am now 75% complete with chemo.  I know this sounds silly to be excited that I'm 75% of the way done, but the half way point was really difficult.

Halfway points are difficult in general.  The most difficult point of a race are the middle miles.  The middle part of a project where the fun of the 'new' has worn off, but the completion is still a ways away.  That is exactly how I was feeling about the chemo being half finished.

I knew the 'day of' would be ok, and it was (a bit longer than the last time).  But the next few days are what I am not looking forward to just because of past experience.  Knowing what to expect in this case isn't a positive.

Dr. N and I met today before we started the infusion and based on the poor reaction I had last time on day 2 he mixed things up a bit and used a different anti-nausea medicine today.  Plus he made a change for day 2 and beyond anti-nausea meds as well.  Hopefully that makes the difference for a better experience this round.

I'll be going in tomorrow for my shot of Neutrogena, (really Neulasta) to help grow the WBCs.

I feel very blessed.

Work has been incredibly supportive, this week sending two cancer focused cookbooks, one that I whipped up some good soup (my favorite post-chemo meal choice) over the weekend.

I've had so many texts, emails, in real life conversations and phone calls with lots of encouragement.  I also know so many of you are still praying.  I just want to say THANK YOU!

Larry is doing better each day, but still has moments of 'fuzziness', which is to be expected.  Between the two of us we are quite a pair.  I can't remember anything because of the concussion, and Larry can't remember anything because of the chemo :)  (Yeah, I did that on purpose).

Prayer Requests:

• The new meds for nausea are more effective
• Larry continues towards clear head-ed-ness (that might not be a word)
• That I can work a full day on Wednesday; the first day of school for J

I forgot to include the picture of all the currently bald family members a few weeks ago. 

e decided it was easier to not grow hair.  

She knows her mom's solidarity of no sweets is a tough one.  

Steph asked if I was ready for some cancer jokes and Oh Yes, I was!  So I'm sharing my favorites.

Larry wants to know what was the point.

Knock knock.
Who's there?
I know it's not any WBC's.

Week of Blessings

This week I continued to feel better as treatment #2 was a more distant memory, though I was very tired as my red blood cells decided to be a little lower than normal.  This time the WBCs were just where they needed to be, but the red ones were low.  I used that as justification to eat beef several days in a row this week.

You know what the beef industry's motto is?  Seven days without beef makes one weak.  Well I didn't want to be weak this week.  :)

Larry was also feeling better and back to work.  Thanks to the concussion, he did still have periods where he got dizzy and was still fuzzy a good portion of the time, so we took it easy every evening.
The week was full of blessings though.  I received a lovely pair of earrings from a friend who said that I needed them to go with my new haircut.  ha!

Aren't the earrings cute???

I received another gift package from my co-workers.  They have been amazing with the fun stuff they have been sending. This week was movie night!

Then I also received a a tin full of popcorn.  If you sent that and you are reading this, thank you.  There was no card included, so I am not able to thank you properly.

Life can't be all good.  Of course my hair has fallen out, well there's that weird fuzzy layer left, but like my hair, my prayer card quilt has also given up on sticking around.  I've been picking up cards every day and trying to reattach them, but they just don't want to stick any more.

My hair definitely went through a patchy stage like this.  But if this is the worst of my troubles... I don't have any troubles.

I'm expecting to feel pretty normal all week this week.  I am hopeful that all of my taste buds come back to life.  I have figured out that soups and other foods that really fill my whole mouth have more flavor than drier foods.

Jake is on the tail end of summer vacation, and asked that we do something fun this week.  So he and Larry started off this afternoon with going to the movies.

Prayer Requests:

• Continued healing and clearing of Larry's head.
• Continued strength for me.