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.