Another Good Friday

It does appear that I need about 10 days to recover from each chemo round. I guess that means I get about 10 good days a month. I feel almost myself today, but a bit winded and still fighting the same cold. I will be using the next few days to play catch up on shopping, banking, cleaning and other errands before I go down for the count again.

On a pleasant note, our children come home today from camp grandma and grandpa. They have been in Colorado for almost a month. I know they are ready to be home. The question is "am I"?

I do want to continue to thank everyone for the kind thoughts and prayers!

The Fog is Slowly Lifting

I am starting to move around again albeit more slowly than before. The chemo has a cumulative effect and thus after each treatment it takes me longer and longer to get back to normal (if there is a normal as a cancer patient). I talked with my nurse yesterday who assured me that this was very normal. I get winded easily right now and thus spend more time on the couch than up, but at least I can get a load of laundry done (OK only 1) or prepare dinner for Mark and I. The children come home on Friday and I am so excited to see them, but also apprehensive as I do not have the energy to keep up with a family of 4. Thankfully my mom is coming the day after my next chemo round and she will be staying for the round after that as well.

The coming Wednesday will be my last round of AC. I will start Taxol after that. Apparently, many women do better on the Taxol but my nurse is not so optimistic with me as I appear to get every bad side effect. With Taxol I should no longer feel queasy (‘should’ but it is possible), but I will get severe muscle and bone pains that require a narcotic pain killer for up to 8 days after treatment. In addition, I will be on heavy doses of steroids and thus am worried about more “out of body experiences”.

In general I am in pretty good spirits. I defiantly am not my usual bubbly self but it is hard to feel bubbly when you are nauseous, weak and in minor pain most of the time. I do want to thank everyone for their continuous outpouring of love support, cards and gifts. Wow is all I can say. I never knew that I was loved this much until now.

Chemo 6, Cheryl 0

Yup, that score is correct, Cheryl got doubly hammered this go around. Third chemo treatment, third set of palliative drugs. This round, they tried her on Zofran, a very expensive anti-nausea drug. Stops the nausea all right, also provided bloat, headaches, and that wonderful out-of-body experience we all know and love. For future reference, if a drug has a possible side effect, Cheryl will find it.

She’s also much weaker this time, and seems more fatigued. The oncology nurses at Hopkins seem to think that this is part of the accumulative effect from the chemo. The only good news is that she only has one more round on this particular cocktail, and then they switch to another. We’ve been told that most women tolerate the second chemo better, but if they don’t, it’s much worse than than side effects of the current one.

We’ll let you know more as the week progresses.

Not Another Cold

For some reason I managed to catch another cold. I went into my first chemo session with a bad cold and it took three weeks to go away. One week later I either got another cold or the same one came back. I should not be surprised as my immune system is shot to heck these days. The only concern I have is how these will affect my blood counts. If they are not within a normal range I can not have chemo this week and will have to delay a week. Let's keep our fingers crossed.

On a fun note for me, my dear friend Kim is coming in from Atlanata today to spend the week with me. We get about two days to play and then she gets to babysit me the rest of the week.

Friday is My Lucky Day

My body seems to think Friday is its luck day. Like last time, I woke up this morning and feel like my old self. I almost have as much energy as I did before all this started. I say almost as I get winded more that normal. At least I get 5 days of normalcy before I get snookered again.

One nice thing about chemo is I do not need to shave during this summer heat - OK I had to find a plus somewhere :-)

The Worst of Round 2 is Over

I seem to be over the worst part of chemo round 2 and am slowly getting my strength back again. The hardest part for me is the nausea, which I am told not everyone experiences. Apparently, the drugs do not work as well for me as others cancer patients. Since I need to eat and drink to get the chemo drugs out of my system – I struggle to do so due to being queasy 24/7. At least it goes away in about a week and I get a few days of feeling OK.

My brother came in for a quick visit from Japan to see me over the weekend. It was wonderful to see him. Unfortunately, I did not leave the couch very much, but I know he understood.

Well back to the couch for me..

Chemo 2, Cheryl 0

Cheryl is having another difficult time with this chemo round. She is eating some and drinking (alot), but she is still suffering from severe fatigue. The doctors have taken her off two of her medications to try and head-off the depression that accompanied the last round, and, at least, that seems to have worked for now. She is significantly more lucid this go around than the last.

Hopefully, with the consumption of the extra liquids, we will be able to get her up and moving earlier than last time. Last round, it was a week before she left the house.

Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow

I did it! I decided to beat the chemo gods to the punch line and removed my hair before it came out if big clumps this week. Here is a few photos my daughter took of the experience. Me with my hair, with no hair and then with my new fun wig. I have two wigs as my mother's friends got togther and bought me a fun wig for going out on the town. So to answer all your questions, my every day wig is brunette, but my fun is auburn. Sinead O'Connor eat your heart out :-)