Skip to main content

Ch ... Ch ... Chemo





I was ready. I was prepared.

 The potential side-effect list was long and one I'd had some familiarity when John went through his treatment. 

 So I gathered my arsenal. I had my compazine, zofran and antivan. I had my ginger chewables and chicken noodle soup. I was armed and potentially dangerous.

 So, chemo day with the toxic chemo cocktail starting to do it's job, I envisioned it as either PacMan, eating away at the cancer cells or a Chia Pet, allowing my good cells to thrive. With these visions, (that aren't quite Christmas Eve sugar plums dancing) and tired from the chemo, I went to bed early.

 Friday, under the watchful eye of my caregiving hubby, I slept most of the day away. Not really hungry but not nauseous either. I spent the majority of the day horizontal on the couch listening to my book on Audible (despite the sleep timer, I probably missed 1/3 of what I 'read'), dozing, answering calls and texts, and snacking. 

 Perhaps the highlight of the day, and the fact that this was a highlight just goes to show how mundane was the day, was when the Nuelasta OnPro thingy (not an official name in case you're wondering, though don't you wish the drug companies would create easier or more descriptive names, like White Blood Cell enabler for Nuelasta or Joy Ride for Viagra or Happy Day for Effexor?!) was scheduled to inject 27 post-chemo hours. John and I waited expectantly for the beeps and flashing lights and injection. I saw John check the time a couple times, since we knew it was to happen around 7:30 pm. And when the lights flashed and beeps sounded, we looked at the thingy and then resumed watching our show. An hour later our excitement was done when the injection was complete. We know how to live, you know what I mean?!

 Saturday, was a repeat Friday sans the excitement of the Nuelasta.

 Sunday, another repeat with a little more energy. And I finished the book, "The Woman Inside" by E.G. Scott. (Similar to "Girl on the Train" and "Something in the Water", suspense novel with the a married couple as protagonists). 

 Throughout the weekend, I took some of the prescriptions as a prophylactic and had NO nausea. Was it the medicine?

 Thank God!!! Prayers answered.

 The nurse practitioner, Alecia, from the High Risk clinic said that some people go through chemo easily and others have every possible complication. I pray that the rest of this round (next one February 7) go as smoothly!!

 Next on my list is the CT scan tomorrow and then blood work on Thursday. In the meantime, I will stay home start another book get ready for my WW Workshops this week and look out at the snow globe.

Labels

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

It's not a popularity contest, but ...

Parenting

I just read a post on Facebook regarding the dearth of parenting. The poster was describing a scene where two young girls were pelting rocks at some ducks in our little town and how he observed no parents around telling these girls that it was wrong to torture little innocent animals. Within hours, there were 15 responses - all alluding to a lack of parenting that is evident nearly everywhere today. Stick with me here - because that conversation reminded me of one I'd had recently that might not seem related to parenting at all. It was with my oldest son about his concern about the selfishness of our culture - most recently evident in the Wall Street meltdown. He believes that we are too focused on "Me" and not enough on "We" and if we had a little more focus on the total and just not our part, we would be in a much better place. Still there? Okay, here's the cement that will hold this together - those girls pelting little ducks with rocks weren't likely...
Post a Comment
Read more

When a small town is huge

  In the movie "it's a Wonderful Life", the protagonist George Bailey has longed nearly his whole life to 'shake off the dust of this crummy little town off my feet," to see the world. But Bedford Falls, that crummy little town, felt differently about George. And with the help of a quirky guardian angel, George eventually sees that his life and his town were pretty wonderful. Good lord, but I love that movie and it's characters and it's moral and that small town. I watch it every year at least twice and still cry every time. And I wonder too about the man that pushes the devious Mr. Potter's wheelchair and stands by his side- you know the man, he looks a little like Lurch from "The Addams Family". I wonder, what was he thinking as he listened and watched his boss ruin the lives of everyone he could. What kind of an Non-disclosure agreement did he sign, to keep him silent as he stood by and watched Potter pocket the money Uncle Billy was depo...
Post a Comment
Read more

Tough time to be a Pollyanna

Remember when 9/11 was just a date or a number you called in an emergency? Our lives changed dramatically post 9/11. For weeks after that September day, we seemed to walk around in a fog, like the haze that loomed over the now-fallen twin towers. I remember trying to minimize my obsession with the news, trying to keep the three little Piggins away from the enormity of the disaster. Remember when corona was simply a beer best served with a lime wedge? It now and forever will be instead associated with this virus that has upended our world in ways we could never have imagined. This tiny little, microscopic virus has brought the mighty to their knees. It has us quarantined and distancing socially (though I believe we've been doing this emotionally for years) and working from home. As anxiety peaks, our economy tanks. As toilet paper and hand sanitizer flies off the shelves, we are looking for new ways to stock our pantries. A good friend observed, "I never thought I'd...
Post a Comment
Read more