Not much to report for this week on the cancer front. I guess that is a good thing! I had labs drawn on Wednesday and saw my oncologist. She said everything looks good except my WBC count is low at 1.5. They want this number above 4. This wasn't too surprising as I was told it would bottom out sometime from last Thursday - Monday. They will recheck this before chemo on Wednesday.
On Thursday I met with my Radiologist Oncologist for my 4 week follow up. Everything is good as all my symptoms from radiation are gone or improving so he released me from care for now. I am set for chemo on Wednesday as long as my WBC count is up.
Friday I took Devin to his Endoscopy appointment. They didn't find anything. The doctor said everything looked good. He is making a referral to a Urologist. I'm hoping they can get him in soon as the abdominal pain comes and goes which makes it hard for him to work.
Prayers:
1. That my WBC count is in the normal range so I can have my 2nd round of chemo
2. That Devin can get in to see a Urologist this week
PS. I didn't have a pic for this blog so instead here is one of my favorite flowers
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
Thank you for your continued support and kind words of encouragement. I appreciate all of you!
This week was pretty uneventful. Which I guess is a good thing. I had radiation treatments Tuesday thru Friday. Each day left me more and more tired. I feel like all I do sometimes is sleep. But I am reminded that healing happens when you sleep. So for now I sleep!
Prayers:
- For our daughter, Kylie as she starts back in public high school after being homeschooled for the last 7 years. She is excited. This decision had come before we learned of my cancer diagnosis. In fact we signed her up to start this semester about 6 hours before we got my cancer diagnosis. God really does work in mysterious ways.
- For me to be less tired this week so I can get caught up on some things before I start chemo
Happy New Years Eve!
I wish I could say this last week was easy. It has been at times very trying. I do want to thank everyone for your thoughts and prayers. I really appreciate it!
I started my radiation treatments on Tuesday and had one per day through Friday. The treatments themselves are very easy & quick. I'm only on the table about 2 - 3 minutes. It's the rest of the day that has been difficult at times.
I slept all day after my 1st treatment & slept great that night too. I got up Wednesday morning and when I got out of the shower I almost dropped to the floor. I had lightening like pain shooting from my low back down my legs to my mid thigh area. After that the muscles felt really tight and stretching didn't seem to help. After my treatment that day I went to talk to the doctor about what I experienced. He said they call that a pain flair and he prescribed a new pain medication for me to try. He said that about 30% of the people who start radiation have these. It seems we "angered it", causing some inflammation. It should get better as treatment progresses. So I went to fill my new prescription and headed home to rest. I slept most of this day too.
Thursday morning I woke up feeling nauseous and dizzy. To say Devin and I were a little worried is an understatement. None of the doctors warned about nausea during radiation so we were a bit confused as to what was going on. I managed to get myself ready and drive myself to treatment and I told them how I was feeling. After my treatment they walked me down to the nurses station and I spoke with a nurse about it and she prescribed another prescription to take away the nausea. I was feeling so lousy at this point I was willing to try anything that would help. So off to get the new prescription filled and the pharmacist told me that the main side effect of this drug is migraines. I thought, "are you kidding me. I am prone to migraines and I sure don't need one of those in the middle of this." So that prescription is sitting on my counter unopened for the time being. Meanwhile I think I figured out the the new pain prescription was causing me to be dizzy and nauseous so I stopped taking it. I rested a lot that day and was able to keep the pain to a minimum by just lounging around. Most of my pain is when I am standing and walking around.
Friday I woke up feeling much better and only took 1 pain pill to get me to treatment and back home. I layed down to take a nap when I got home and woke up with a headache. I didn't want it to turn into a migraine so I took one Tylenol and slept some more. It was gone when I woke up. Other than being tired a lot and having pain when being up and about I am doing pretty good now.
Prayers:
- For the swelling to come down to relieve some of the pain in my low back/pelvic area
- For next weeks treatments to go much better - no nausea or headaches
- For my appetite to return
PS. I still have my hair. My good friend Valerie knitted me this hat & dropped it off today. I will most likely lose my hair with my chemo. So she is doing some knitting for me to keep warm!
