I started an entry to this blog the day before treatment #4 (1/22) and planned to complete the morning of treatment before we left. Well, things did not go as planned---you'll read more about this below.
Here is what I wrote to post before my January 23 treatment:
It's been a couple of weeks since I've posted to this blog. I am now taking the Taxol treatments, one every Friday. I must say, this drug is a LOT easier on my system than those last ones were. While this still makes me weak/tired, at least I can eat some normal things. I have had 3 of these treatments (every Friday) and went today to have the blood work (which they do every third week). I will have treatment #4 (of 12) on Friday.
This drug was originally developed from the Yew tree but I think is now synthetic. But the pills I take 12 and 6 hours before the treatments (wrote about last time) are steroids to keep my system from rejecting the chemo. This chemo can cause hives, rashes, swelling, etc. if your body rejects it, so they have also been giving me Benedryl (a full vial) before each treatment. Believe me, that makes you sleepy!! After 3 treatments, the nurse said they can cut that back, so I will have 1/2 a vial on Friday. Yeah!!
My two sweet sisters came up last week to take me to the chemo treatment on 1/19. Becky of course had been, but Cynthia had not seen the place and wanted to be with us. They both came on Thursday and we had such a good time together. Cynthia had to leave on Saturday, but Becky stayed until Monday. Sunday was my birthday, so we celebrated while they were here. And Becky cooked us a couple of her recipes while she was here. She is a GREAT cook!!
We did not get an official "sisters picture" while they were here but I did snap a "selfie" as we went into the Hope Center on Friday. Here is that shot: (OK, I cannot find where I filed this shot from my phone. Trust me, we did take a "sisters picture." Ha! It's hard to remember to take one with just 3 of us and Connie was usually the reminder to do so.) Ed Note: Here finally is that picture. Too close up and not the best quality, but it was what we got.
Anyhow, the night after I wrote this entry, I was to take my 10 steroid pills and I mistakenly took 5 at 10:30 pm and then 5 at 4:30 of the Ativan "mild-to-moderately sedating" pills. Frank found me by the bed the next morning, the morning of treatment 4, calling to him that I could not get my legs under me to stand up, could not get into the bed. I was totally "out of it." He called the Hope Center to ask them what to do. (You are to take 1/2 to 1 of these pills every 6 hours and I took 5, twice in a row.) The nurses at Hope were very concerned and told Frank to keep me awake until at least 2:00 p.m. and if he could not, to take me to the ER. Well, he had a day of it. I remember NOTHING of that day. He walked me around the house, fed me lots of coffee and hot tea, had Becky call me about 4 times during the day to give me something to do (talking to her), etc. I do not remember eating lunch, not showering, not supper, none of it. Of course I could not go on Friday to have my treatment, so they moved it to Monday, 1/26. From now on my treatments will be on Mondays each week. What a scare for Frank!! Me, I was in LaLa Land. When we went in on 1/26, all the nurses administering chemo at Hope were aware of who I was and what I had done!! One said in her 15 years of work, she only remembered one patient taking 2 of those pills at once by mistake but never of anyone taking 10 of them. She said if I were older, in poorer health, or a much smaller person, the result could have been fatal. Thank goodness I had my sweet Frank to see about me that day. I'm SURE I could not have called 911 by myself, had I been alone. So on the night of 1/25 and also last night (2/1) I was much more careful when measuring out and taking my pre-treatment pills!!
Other than that one mishap, January was a good month for me. I did OK with the treatments and am now finished with #4 treatments of this drug. I can tell it is affecting my mind a little more (I make more typos in messages that I do not catch and get dates of appointments confused) but I refuse to use the term "chemo brain" that so many seem to wear out!
On January 2 Frank and I also celebrated out 37th wedding anniversary---on a day we had chemo, so we went to lunch at Carrabbas after that treatment. I said to friends it was not way of choice to celebrate an anniversary, but since we are wanting to add years to our life together, maybe it was the ideal way to celebrate! Here is a shot of that celebration:
As I said, I had a birthday this month and my delightful friends who are in what we call a "Birthday Club" celebrated with me on 1/27 at Jaime's in Brevard. Here is our picture this year.... I try to keep a file of our pictures as we have been doing this for many years and I try to snap pictures at most of our luncheons. (We will someday be like those old women jokes who cannot even remember all the restaurants we've eaten at and will revisit some thinking it's a "new place" for us. Ha!!)
Front row, Sandy Case, me, and Pam Moll. Back row Pam Winstead, Mimi Hodges, and Helen Barker. Absent was our dear friend Marge Woodruff. I just love all these women dearly!! Friends are like sisters we select for ourselves and we 7 have been through so much together.
On Sunday, January 25 my grandchildren and their mom came to celebrate by birthday with me. They brought a cute card and some of my favorite Lindt candy!! Yummy. Here is a shot of Dillon (age 16) and Jessica (almost 14 in March) with me. We had a fun time just talking and visiting and of course Frank cooked us a delicious birthday lunch!!
So this catches you up to today, when I go for treatment #5. It's hard to believe I am over 1/3 finished with this last drug. Yesterday Frank and I thought back over November and December and let me tell you, I just did not realize how very hard those 4 treatments of those drugs were on me! I am so glad I didn't have to take 6 of those!! This Taxol is much easier on my tummy, but I am losing the rest of my fine, very shortly cut hair on my head, some of my eyebrows and eyelashes. I so wanted to keep my eyelashes throughout treatments, but what will be, will be. It will all come back so I am taking it in stride. People keep telling me how good I look and I assume this means "as good as can be expected without hair! Ha! (Actually they are very kind and I am putting words in their mouths!) The good side is how much time it saves not to have to do your hair each day. Wow, when packing to go to my dad's at Christmas, I was amazed at how much less I had to pack, leaving all the hair products home (dryer, flat iron, shampoo, condition, brushes and combs, hairspray, product for lift, etc.). No wonder going hairless saves time!
I continue to be so humbled and comforted by all of your email messages, Facebook comments, cards, hugs at church, food you bring, and the many, many expressions of your love. I know I don't deserve it all, but let me tell you---as I said in my first entry, you all are holding out lanterns of love that are lighting our way through this tunnel of the unknown. We still don't know how much/how long the radiation will last--that's another bridge we will cross in a couple of months. But we are confident that all of you will be with us. We are on prayer lists at churches and in home devotionals all around the country---amazingly far from our NC mountains--and the prayers make all the difference. So continue praying for us as we are praying for friends when we get news that they are just starring this journey we are on!
Frank and my love to you all, Laura
