Tuesday, October 8, 2013

Round 5 Chemo DOWN!

I made it through chemo round five, just barely.  This morning my neutrophils were 1.55 if they are below 1 I can't have chemo.  My platelets are 200, which is lower than my 400, and my white count was 2.8 lower than normal and ever; if below 1 I can't have chemo.  So thankful I was able to have chemo and not have to wait another week.  I now have 2 weeks for my counts to go up before my last and final chemo round.  I must admit chemo was awful today.  I felt nauseated even before I started the chemo, I am horribly uncomfortable and I didn't eat lunch because it made me nauseated and I couldn't taste it.  My nurse said it gets worse the longer you have it.  I was reminded last week that this does happen.  My friend sent me a card that encouraged me to keep fighting.  She had told me that her mom's treatments for breast cancer last year were worse towards the end.  I needed this card and her encouragement.  My friend Sylvia took me today so that my mom could have a break and her son Darin who I grew up with came for lunch and a visit; he even gave me his delicious lemonade from chick fil a, which I love and enjoyed!  It was fun to sit and catch up with him since it has been a while.  It seems the only time I run into him and his wife is in Winco, once a month when I shop for Relief Society.

So now I wait for what feels like the gallons of fluid to absorb through my abdomen and hope my nose stops running, because it is getting quite raw from me wiping it; I'm pretty sure I have a cold or trying to get one.  Although my mom keeps trying to prevent it and heal it by putting all of her doterra oils all over me.  The Nurse Practitioner that I saw this morning suggested neutropenic precautions, meaning stay away from anyone who is sick given my counts and immune system are low.  My brother had the nerve to walk into our house with his cold sore and his cold, mother quickly shewed him away.  Lets hope by this weekend that I will be able to find some clothes to wear and that I don't feel or look fat from this lovely fluid.  I said to the nurse today how funny it was that as health care providers we are usually trying to remove fluid from people, but in my rare case we just keep adding it.

***Happy News:  Southwest has major deals check them out!  Only good through Thursday.  Round Trip from Boise to Raleigh $318 and Boise to Disneyland $210 of course you can only fly limited days Dec. 4-18 and January 7-February 18.  But hey, I have the time off and I need to make up for lost vacations over the past months, so it looks like I might be making some purchases, even though I was told today that I have to pay a $500 deductible each time I have a hospital stay which was in June and will be in December when I have Hank reversed; what's another $1000 on top of the rest of it all?

2 comments:

  1. Keep thinking of November!! Listen to the song brave by Hilary Weeks because you are so brave!! Love AL

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  2. I just heard a quote that said, "The future doesn't belong to the faint of heart, it belongs to the brave." Loved it and yes, I am BRAVE!

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