How Are You Doing?

There has been a lot of things going on around here lately! Meanwhile people have been asking how I am feeling after the first treatment of this new protocol that I had last Thursday. I hate being a whiner but I may whine a little bit today.

It was time to fill my daily pill organizer today. I got everything out and started. I had put it off for a couple of days and it is so annoying to have to pull all of the pill bottles out every time it is time to take meds. The convenience of the pill organizer definitely saves me time. I got everything sorted as I waited for the doctor's office to call me back.

Now you may ask "why was the doctor's office calling you?" Funny you should ask. After the infusion on Thursday I was surprised at how "normal" I felt. Things went great Friday as well. Jump to Saturday morning and not so much. I woke up with throbbing knees and sore calves. I walked around a bit, got my breakfast and took my oral chemo pills with my other morning meds.

As the day went on, I was distracted by all of the framing activity and I kept busy with a quilting project. I could not believe it but at the end of the day Saturday 10,000 steps registered on my Fitbit. What? Up and down the stairs more than normal just checking on the progress. Then, most of the quilting was done standing, so I must have moved around enough to add steps!

When I got into bed my legs were just throbbing from the knees down. I found that without distraction it hurt so bad that I was sobbing. There was no way laying there was going to be good or cause me to fall asleep so I went to the living room and turned on the television. Somewhere in there I must have fallen asleep because I woke up to the tv on the menu screen and the clock that said 4:16. I crawled into my bed and slept til my alarm went off.

Waking up because of the pain, I was a little concerned that this was going to continue. Saturday I had looked up that this is a side effect and then looked up and found it was a side effect of the infusion and not the oral chemo. So, maybe this would go away in a day or two. I did at several times wonder if I should call the oncologist on call for the weekend but I usually end up in the hospital when I do that. I rode it out. 

Sunday I found that Tylenol worked a little and it was good enough that I would be able to function. I also found that Ibuprofen did nothing to touch it. If I could just hang on til Monday morning when the office would be open. Last night was terrible. At 2 a.m. I was able to sleep some but lets just say right now I am super tired and will get into my bed when I am done here.

So, while I waited for the doctor's office to call back, I was organizing my meds. My doctor upped my Gabepentin to the max and told me that she was going to put me on Cimbalta to help the nerves that were extra sensitive and causing me such awful pain. This takes about two weeks to start to work in our body so I have also received morphine pills to use as needed.

This afternoon has been so much better. The pain has lessened so much and I have been able to relax. I have also heard from a couple different people that Cimbalta has helped either them or a loved one so I have high hopes.

Do I have specific prayer requests? Yes...

• Total healing
• That what we are doing in the protocol is kicking the cancer!
• That the pain will go away in my legs.
• Good sleep (for me and Zach...he has been having some trouble sleeping lately)
• Return of strength for the rest of this cycle.
• Joy in the Sloan house.
• Continued work on the basement without injuries.

Thank you all! It really is so encouraging to hear from you whether it is in a note in the mail or a Facebook message, or any other way that you have reached out. I feel the prayers holding us up.