Round 3--done

Well, I am officially half way through my chemo. Finished round 3 a week ago. This time, my body has definitely been beat down a little more. The actual chemo and lumbar puncture in the hospital were easy, but once I got home, my system took a hit. The first few days, it was hard for me to catch my breath, so I hung out in bed most of the time. Fine by me, but not much fun to get winded from just walking to the kitchen or making food.  I have a really hard time sleeping at night now, which is very different for me. I used to be a great sleeper.  My appetite has always been good, which keeps my energy up.  Some minor body aches from the Newlasta shot I get (to stimulate bone marrow production). Something new I do get is sternal and rib cage pain from the shot though, which is really painful and feels like heartburn. Luckily, taking just one Vicodin does the trick , and it goes away.  Not very fun, but now I know how to deal with it.  Up till now, each round of Chemo has been increased by 20% each time, since my body has been responding and doing well with that schedule. But for now, my doc thinks he will either keep my chemo the same for round 4, or decrease it by 20%. He said this is my "sweet spot" where my body is affected a lot, but just enough to not be dangerous to my system.  So if I can keep this amount, it will be perfect for me.  One of the chemo drugs affects nerves, so the tips of each of my fingers are numb. The feeling will come back though once I am done with all the chemo.  Since I am half way through now, they are doing another PET CT scan tomorrow to see how the treatment is affecting the cancer.  I am so ready for this all to be done and over with, I miss working. The hardest part of this has not been the chemo, it has been staying home. It is very isolating, and makes me really miss my old life when I was busy all the time.  I cant wait to go back to work.

Getting ready for another week at Hotel Mission

Well, I can honestly say I have been feeling pretty great.  Much more energy after round 2 than round 1 of my chemo.  My appetite and energy was much better, and I was able to do more around the house, study, take better care of Rhino, and even go to the gym.  This past week I had a little bit of a cold, but my blood counts have never been better, and my doctor is yet again increasing my chemo by 20%.  This is a good thing, because they want to give me the safest level that my body can tolerate without knocking me down too hard.  I will be going into the hospital for another week this Monday, so I am looking forward to spending time with Richie this weekend, and getting to see a lot of our friends for superbowl.  I really miss working, and cant wait to get the ok to go back. Staying at home all day has been the most difficult part form me, just because Richie is gone for 12 hours, and it makes for a lot of time to keep busy.  Im pretty sick of tv, so a hike with a friend, lunch dates, and just running errands is much appreciated since its nice to get out and just be around other people. One thing that is kind of different is the fact that now I get to wear fake eyelashes. They took a while to figure out how to work them, but they are pretty fun.