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Chemotherapy: Round 1
Today started out like a lot of days: my alarm didn’t go off, and instead of getting up at 7, we were up at 8. We rallied quickly and made it EARLY. First up is the blood draw. I opted for my arm – the nurses were very curious about this. The nurse at Mercy where I got my port placed told me I should do an arm draw while I still can, due to the port only being able to take so many pokes. Well, we’re not gonna opt for that again. We waited a bit for the labs to come back. Then around 10 we got into our…
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Chemo Round 1: Day 1
Yes, I am tracking rounds and days. I like tracking things. This is why I had a great excuse to buy some fountain-pen-friendly notebooks and soft leather covers that I just NEEDED for tracking symptoms. 😉 Anything that helps me track is probably a good idea. I do have multiple ways so that I can track them on-the-go. Symptoms Slept pretty well, woke up feeling pretty normal. Coffee wasn’t as delicious as expected. Water is really what my mouth seems to crave. I did rinse once with that dry-mouth rinse. Not sure if it helped or not. Drinking lots of water seems to alleviate that, at least for now. My…
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Day 2 After Chemo
All things considered, I’m doing pretty well. Heartburn/acid reflux seems to be the worst of it, next to the jaw pain (yep!). I’ll call the nurses tomorrow and see if I should just take OTC meds for this or get an ongoing prescription. I do have a bit of neuropathy in my left arm. Moving about seems to do the trick for now. Same thing for fuzziness – I do feel kinda dizzy if I’m stationary too long. I am tired and a little slow, but I did manage to check things off my list today. Drinking lots of water seems to help for dry mouth and hunger pains. Food…
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Toxicity Check
I’ve been hanging in there. It’s been kind of a rough week but I’ve been mostly on top of my symptoms. Today I went in for a toxicity check – yeah, they want to make sure the chemo isn’t killing me. Got blood taken from the port, which is a HELL of a lot better than from the arm. Had an enjoyable chat with the lovely nurse and then waited for a while to meet with another lovely nurse, who prescribed me a few things and then set the next round. Now let me impart the wisdom that the chemo nurse gave me: LISTEN TO YOUR DOCTOR. There are a…
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Looking Back at Week 1
Mental Health I haven’t been as forthcoming about the first week as I might have been with other things. Not like I need to disclose this, but I pride myself on being open and honest. But then there’s the part of me who still likes to keep the dirty laundry hidden. It’s not fun to talk about all the bad things all the time, even if I am feeling bad more often than not. My body going through chemotherapy is one thing. Getting cancer didn’t change what was going on before the diagnosis. Those stressors and issues are still there. And sometimes, they exacerbate one another. When I’m in pain,…
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The Hair
You know, I really wasn’t that upset about my hair. Evelyn was upset about my hair. I was kinda looking forward to wearing all sorts of colors that I’ve never had. It’s like when you tell people you have cancer and the first thing everyone says is “I’m sorry.” It’s a fine reaction but you get it a lot and usually, it’s said sadly. I get it. I’ve done it, in fact. But now I’m wearing cancer like a badge and I can only handle so many opinions before I fall apart over it. I mean, my kids were making fun of me in the bath when I walked in…
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Chemo Eve: Round II
I find myself thinking about a lot of things these days. This blog tends to be an outlet for me; but I’m also 36 with a career – a professional, if you will! – I don’t need to memorialize my struggles. I didn’t need to do any of this, or say as much as I say…but would it be me? It wouldn’t. So you’re going to get the not-so-great stuff, too. I try not to dwell, but I do process things through words. Writing…so you may be witnessing all my fun neuroses. I sort of apologize…just let me say THIS IS NOT SPONSORED BY MY EMPLOYER. LOL Am I absolved?!…
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Chemo Infusion #2
Today was unexpectedly good. It was a looooong night, however. Took me forever to go to bed and then I was awoken early from the little monkies. Worth it, though. My appointment was at 10, so Josh was able to drop off the kids at school. Evelyn had her first fundraising “opportunity,” so their class won costume-wearing today, and then they ran a bunch of laps for pledges. (Both kids have Cub Scout fundraising to do, so I’ll hit ya’ll up for that soon ?) Got Starbucks on the way to infusion, because PSL. Then it’s off to room #11 where one of my favorite nurses was mine for the…
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Post-Chemo Round 2, Day 1
So again…kinda like pregnancy…we count days post-chemo. The first week was the worst last time. Then you have the 7-10 days post-chemo where your white blood cell count is at its lowest. The nurse told me this is when I avoid foods made by people I don’t know (so take out) and try to stay away from unknown germs as much as possible. I kept notes about my symptoms from last time. Last treatment I had a really weird out-of-body feeling, the neuropathy contributing to it. I’ve got neither of those symptoms at the moment. Heartburn is still manageable, nothing like the last time. The one drug – called the…
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Tired
This week must finally be taking a toll on me. Usually by this point, I’m getting energy back. That has not been the case yet. I’ve been reluctant to give details on my mom’s health since I haven’t gotten her permission. She’d be mortified if I was talking publicly about her. But a lot of what I’m feeling this week is related so it’s hard not include snippets. That said, I’m being a bit vague about it and I apologize in advance. Since I got the phone call from my dad over the weekend, I feel like I’ve been walking in a fog. Not chemo fog, either. I admit to…
