Thank you to all who sent cards, presents, and well wishes. My birthday was Sunday and I finally made it through all the cards today. I think we counted over 70 cards! I appreciate all of you! They made my days!
My parents came into town to help me celebrate and apparently it was too much for Devin to handle. The morning of my birthday Devin started having severe abdominal pains. They got worse as the day went on. He had these one other time about 19 years ago and it turned out to be Eosinophilic Gastroenteritis. Needless to say our dinner plans got scrapped and my Mom and I took Devin to the ER where we spent the evening. The Dr gave him 2 prescriptions and said he needs to see a Gastroenterologist this week. He has an appointment today. The prescriptions have helped him keep the pain away the last two days.
So, we finally went to our favorite restaurant Epic Chophouse to celebrate me, last night. It was delicious!
On the chemo front, I seem to have some different symptoms everyday to deal with. The good news is the anti nausea drugs they gave me seem to work. That was a symptom that I haven't gotten. Mostly it is tingly and numb fingers and toes. I did have about three nights where I had some leg pain that kept me up but that thankfully has passed.
Starting tomorrow through Monday I will be hunkered down at home as that is when my white blood cell counts will be at their lowest. I will be the most susceptible to infection and disease.
My next scheduled chemo infusion if my blood work is good next week will be February 15th.
Prayers:
1. That they can figure out what Devin needs to stop having these abdominal attacks
2. That I can stay healthy during my low white blood cell counts
So yesterday I had my first chemo treatment. It was a long day. I had to get up at 5:45AM to get to Charlotte by 7:45AM. Chemo started at 8:00AM and we finished about 4:15PM. The hardest part was that they had to stick me twice to get the IV in. Other than that everything went very smooth.
They gave my the Immunotherapy drug first, then all the pre chemo drugs and then finished up with 3 chemo drugs. If you are interested in the names refer back to my first blog post called How I'm Beating Cancer.
So far I am feeling really well. The best I have felt in a month. No nausea or anything. I have only been taking the anti nausea drug that is taken on day 2, 3 and 4 in the morning. They gave me 2 other anti nausea drugs to use as needed but so far I haven't needed them.
I've been told to expect my hair to fall out about day 7, so we will see. I have a few hats ready just in case. Also my white blood cells will bottom out at about day 10-14. Then they will rebuild until my next chemo treatment on February 8th.
Prayers:
- That I continue to feel well.
- That I stay healthy while my white blood cells bottom out. I can't ask my husband to not work during that time as he is our sole bread winner right now.
This week Monday and Tuesday I finished my last two radiation treatments. Just in time for some the radiations symptoms to kick in. I'm left with some irritated skin, irritated bowels and very tired. So rest has been my friend this week.
On Wednesday I had several appointments, one was with Palliative Care. They are helping me to manage all the many symptoms that I experience. In the afternoon I went and had my pre chemo blood work run and all of my labs looked great. After that we had an appointment with Dr Brown my oncologist. She reminded us yet again that this is going to be a marathon and not a sprint. She had me set for chemo to start on 1/17. I went home to rest after all this as I was exhausted.
Thursday afternoon I got a call from Rose. She is Dr Brown's coordinator. They have to push out chemo another week, so now I will start on 1/24. The reason for this is that 2 of my 4 chemo drugs are very expensive and they need to have insurance prepay for them before they can be ordered. Since we have Samaritan Ministry a health share program we are classified as self pay. So they are trying to go through the individual manufactures to cover the costs. Apparently the paperwork is taking awhile to go through.
The rest of the week has been spent resting!
Prayers:
- That they would get the costs covered by the manufactures so I can start chemo on 1/24
- That my lingering radiation symptoms would clear up
