Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Because It's Chemo 11, and Because I Love You

Hello all, just thought I'd check in after Chemo 11. Boy, are the chemo-folk on Wednesdays old! All grannies and grampas today. I'll be glad to get back to the 40-60 year old range on Tuesday again...! I wish I had the energy to post my California pix etc, but not tonight. Sorry! OK... just one... and then bed...! Here's Carrie, Kelsey, and Sonja on the beach in Carmel, California!


So Chemo 11 went smoothly. The blood machine (yeah, I don't know what it's really called) was broken, so I went in early to have my blood checked out. Maybe because I had an extra day of recovery (well, probably because of this) or maybe because California and the ocean will heal all wounds (I prefer to think it's this), but my important white blood cell count was up to 2800, from 1500 last week. So that was good!

I talked with my onc nurse about nutrition today. It's a topic that's been weighing heavily on my mind. I don't ever want to have to deal with cancer again, and if my diet can play a role in that, then I'm all for it. However, I don't feel like my diet has been so crappy that it caused my cancer in the first place, and if I were to go crazy-raw-food-vegan-never-eats-anything-fun and then had a recurrence (ahhhh God forbid!), I would be super pissed. So I need to find a healthy balance. What Nurse A. said was to really try to follow the food pyramid, and keep lean proteins (so that means sausage gravy, right?) and whole grains and fruits and veggies of various colors in focus. I can do that. And she let me know that it doesn't mean you have to eat like a saint. Even those raw food nutsos get cancer! And as far as I know, we only live once on earth, so we may as well have some fun...

Speaking of which, even though I just got back, I wish I was going on another trip again! I had so much fun! You know what sounds great? Vegas! Although I have no idea how that would be sans alcohol. Hmmmm.

I slept long and hard today. I slept really hard through chemo, which is becoming more and more common. I actually get my best sleep there, when I've got all that Benadryl doing its thing. And then I came home and slept another three hours! I think I'm a little drained from my trip and birthday partying. Good thing there's Ativan! I think I'll have two tonight.

And I'm going to try a different antibiotic on my neck bumps now. I used to take these pills for my skin a while ago and got off of them because they're hell on my stomach. But I'd really prefer to try to have normal-looking skin, so we'll see if it works. It better!

So just one more Taxol and then I start the next phase, which will probably be AC. I hope! I'm glad to have a short week before my last Taxol. Please pray that my tumors are tiny or gone! I have some imaging on Monday, which I'm really excited for. And a little nervous. This is the first time we'll be seeing how the tumors have responded to chemo, and the radiologist will be measuring them on the ultrasound and mammogram. I wonder how many 25 year olds get to have three mammos in three months. I hope there's nothing to measure! Anyway, any thoughts, prayers, positive vibrations and good energies sent my way will be appreciated, as always!

And thanks to everyone who called, emailed, commented, and/or sent me a present for my birthday! It's so wonderful to have the support of such caring people, and I appreciate every single one of you. There's nothing like cancer to show you who your friends are.

1 comment:

tiddinmidd said...

Glad to hear number 11 is done and you're doing well. Fingers crossed for no more tumors!