Round 3 down...

Made it through round three chemo...full dosage cisplatin and 25% etopiside.  So far so good...litte to none nausea...just super sleepy.  The doctor has scheduled round 4 (and final) for August 13th...if my levels are up...fingers crossed.

Got to visit friends and have coffee and cookies with my fav crafty people at my fav crafty srore...off to a good start.

Lots of visits with family over the weekend...resting today then I want to start some crafty projects.  Getting bored!

Swimming.

Here we go again....

Blood work done on Tuesday and no calls from doctor or the chemo ward so...I guess it means my neutrophils are up and it is a go for chemo for today through to Friday.

Not looking forward to it at all...I feel so run down and crappy that I know it is going to get worse.  However, hopefully this will be the last one.

My favorite craft store is closing for the month of August and I have some projects I want to work on while that happens....advent calendars for the grandkids, a journal that I have been wanting to make, some cards that are crying out to be created and another Copic class I want to finish.

I can see the light at the end of the tunnel...just need to keep swimming.

Ouch...

Had a shower...made the mistake of looking in the mirror...I look like a beluga whale...white and hairless!

Blood work tomorrow to see what my levels are and if we go with chemo on Wednesday.

Swimming.

Not yet...

Just got a call from chemo ward...labs are in and neutrophils are still too low so...no chemo again for this week.  We will try for next week but, that is pushjng it for time frame.  Not good.  I guess I will hope that radiation and two chemos did their job.

Swimming sluggishly but, swimming.

Piss, Damn, Sh*t….

Went for blood work at 8:40 this morning and saw the chemo oncologist at 10:40…no chemo this week.  My neutrophils are only at .45 and should be in the 2.0 range.  No wonder I feel so lousy like I am coming down with the flu. 

What this means is…I had to make a phone call to my dad to tell him I would not be coming to Quesnel for Billy Barker Days as that is now chemo week.  It is really hard to not only want to sit down and cry because…one, I feel so crappy and disappointed and two, I had to listen to my father break down and cry and then try to be so brave for me.  Not happy with life at the moment.

I was given the option of saying, “No” to chemo as…according to the experts it would make a negligible difference.  I told my doctor that everyone I have talked to raves about his professionalism, his compassion, his integrity and most of all…how brilliant he is in his field and that if they were ever sick…he is the doctor they would want.  I saw how touched he was…I don’t think he was aware of how highly regarded he is.  I asked him…and he came back with, “If it was himself, he would have the chemo”. 

In spite of my disappointment…with lung cancer (the second deadliest form of cancer), I want every shot I have at beating this….negligible means a fighting chance…so, I chose round 3 of chemo.  I will be getting the full dosage of Cisplatin (that is the critical chemo for lung cancer) and 25% of the Etoposide (that is the one I seem to not be able to handle and keeps triggering diverticulosis attacks).  Hopefully, with no radiation to bring me down…I will handle this round better.

So…a week of rest…Nolan hugs on the weekend as Jim, Jen and grandson will be coming for a visit…yay!  Rhiann, Dez and Riley show up on the following Wednesday (first day of chemo) just for the night…more hugs and my sister and hubby at the end of the month.  Not being able to travel really sucks as I don’t see any of the family and I miss everyone.  At least, they are all doing road trips to me!

My eldest brother (sorry, but you are) and wife, Sharon came for a visit on the long weekend.  Ray (no. 2 son) and daughter-in-law, Amanda came too.  We had a house full with six people and four dogs.  Abby had to learn to share and ‘Jinks kept pretty much to himself under the bed!  Then…this passed weekend nephew Dave and fiancée Samantha came for a visit.  While they were here Samantha and I worked on wedding invitations.  We had fun looking at images and making up a mockup so she can show her mom.  Next stop…”Save the date” cards.  It is nice having something normal to work on for a change!

So…Bill and Sue, Gord and Judy, Terry and Donna, Gord and Linda, Ron and Kelly, Dad and Doreen…I will miss you guys and have fun this weekend with Willie, Sharon, LaVerne and Brigita.

I will be swimming while you are watching the parade!

My Last Date With You…

The title of a Skeeter Davis song except…I am not sad, or blue and I haven’t lost my true love…just, last radiation today.  Can’t believe how time has flown…I have been wrapped up in such a bubble of going to treatment…coming home and sleeping for six weeks.

I got to the floor and got called in right away…twenty minutes early too…walked into the room and gave a hug to “my big boy”.  Thirty days I have patted the machine as I lay down saying, “Hi big boy”…closing my eyes and visualizing the cancer getting zapped…when it is done patting the machine again as I left the room.

Some out there are old enough to not only know who Skeeter Davis was (Google her if you want to know) but, to know the movie Fantastic Voyage.  A diplomat is nearly assassinated. In order to save him, a submarine is shrunken to microscopic size and injected into his blood stream with a small crew.  In one of the scenes, they take a ray gun and zap the blood clot and save his life.  That was my image for the treatments…a Buck Rogers ray gun zapping the crap out of the cancer while I kept saying, “I am melting, I am melting”.  Today…I got to sing, “Ding dong the witch is dead”!

The radiation staff from Dana in reception to Claire and the girls…and even Omar…to Dr. Hsu and Dr. Gable are the best in the world.  I felt cared for and cared about.  As I got off the table Claire gave me my instructions for my next appointment and she tapped my appointment card, “You come down and see us after you are done”.  We talked about the fact that they never know the ending…all the people who come and go and they never know if they made it or not…that would be so very, very hard.  I promised I would be back to let them know my ending.  One of the therapists told me that when they met me and saw my attitude…she said to herself…that one is going to make it.  Believe…believe…believe.

Where do I go from here?  My radiation side-effects will taper off in two weeks or so.  The “cooking” of my chest and back will stop and I can put my necklace back on.  The radiation effects itself will continue up to six weeks.  I see Dr. Hsu on August 13th and then he will arrange either a CT scan or a PET scan to see where the cancer is at.

Monday…I go for labs and then I see Dr. Keith and we will discuss the next phase of chemo.  I am not handling well even the half dose of etoposide with feeling really, really crappy.  I have been spiking a fever for the past couple of days and they did labs and a chest xray on Monday.  Weird…I have never seen purple blood before and the urine sample was dark orange.  No message at the hospital or a phone call…so, I guess everything is okay.  However, feeling like this I don’t think my Neutrophils are up to snuff and we may have to postpone chemo again.  I guess I will know more on Monday.

Merrily swimming away.