As always, thank you for your continued prayers. We really do appreciate it.
I had my second chemo treatment on February 15th. I always feel pretty good for the first two days or so. Then the sleepless nights kick in. I start to experience intense bone pain from my knees down to my toes. One of my chemo drugs causes bone pain. It aches/hurts so bad that I can't sleep. I usually fall asleep from exhaustion around 2 am or so. This usually only lasts for three nights. It doesn't usually hurt during the day so I can take a nap to catch up on sleep. I do have prescription pain killers that I can take for the pain but unfortunately those leave me severely constipated. These are the realities of dealing with cancer. This treatment time was a little different. I had the same bone pain during the day on the third day as I do at night. I have tried all kinds of homeopathic remedies to alleviate this pain but nothing I have found yet helps, except the prescription. Which I don't want to take. I have ordered compression socks to try this next time around. We will see if that helps.
I really can't complain about having to deal with this for three days. I know it could be a lot worse. I am very fortunate.
Another side effect of the chemo drugs is that my fingers and toes always have a tingly feeling in them. Like they are asleep. I have also now lost most of my hair. This also includes nose hairs. I know now why we have nose hairs. So our snot doesn't constantly run down our faces. ;) Yep, that is a thing!
I am now in that phase (days 10 - 14 post chemo) where my white blood cells have dropped and I have to be very careful being around people. I call it my home quarantine. I actually don't mind being told that I need to stay home for 5 days out of every 21. I am a natural introvert so this works well for me.
The picture of my family is from last night as we celebrated Kylie turning 15!
Prayers:
- That the tingling in my fingers & toes doesn't get worse
- That we would get some answers soon about Devin's abdominal pain (it still comes & goes) He has another appointment at the end of the week
- That Kylie passes her drivers test to get her permit (Tuesday)
I can't thank you all enough for all your prayers and support through all of this. It really does mean the world to us!
Devin and I got away for a quick Valentine's Day lunch on Tuesday. It was yummy! Glad I have a forever valentine!
Wednesday I received my 2nd chemo infusion. It was very uneventful. Which is a good thing. They reran a CBC checking my WBC count and all was good to go. The count was in the 4.6 range. Since I get immunotherapy, 3 pre-chemo drugs plus an oral pill and 3 chemo drugs the whole process takes about 8 hours. Plus we have an hour drive time to and from the Cancer Institute. As you can imagine this is a very long day for us.
I have to admit that I am very thankful for the anti-nausea drugs they have me on. They really do work. I have felt pretty good since the infusion. Praying this continues.
Devin is still having some intermittant abdominal pains. He had a follow up appointment with the endoscopy Dr. He prescribed a new prescription for abdominal cramping and which seems to be working for now. He is also getting him a referral set up to see a urologist. Hopefully we will receive a call with the date for that soon.
Prayers:
1. That the referral for the urologist would happen this week. We need to get him healthy.
2. That I continue to feel well from the infusion
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
