Chemo #11

I started out this morning dreading chemo...I just hate the way I feel about 30 minutes in and I had been praying last night for our beloved family vacation spot Gatlinburg as the forest fires had become a huge threat to the place we love. I thought it only appropriate to wear my Gatlinburg sweatshirt because my prayers continue as the pictures of the devastation have started to surface online.

Mom joined me and as I look back on this last week (remembering that last week Michelle was with me) it feels like forever since I had been there (thankfully there have been no iron infusions or sick germs that have brought me back before today). We had such a great visit this Thanksgiving.

Chemo itself was pretty uneventful since about 15 minutes into it I got pretty droopy. Mom and I had both brought our JoAnn's fliers and we had been looking at all the sales coming up on Thursday and if anything we needed was included. Seriously...one minute I am talking irons with Mom and then the next I am staring at the flier and can't for the life of me get my brain to process what I am seeing on the paper. At that point I just reclined back and fell asleep. It is weird because the last couple of weeks I have been able to have full conversations with people and stay awake the whole time. I felt flush when the steroid went in the last couple of weeks but didn't today. So I guess I won't really ever know what to expect.

Pleasant surprise when I woke up hearing a familiar voice talking to Mom. Beth (Ross) Dunkel was in for some tests and has taken the seat next to me. (Praying for GOOD news tomorrow when she gets results!) That was nice to get caught up on how her treatment is going and chat about life for a bit. I still was a little groggy so I was not the best conversationalist. She isn't normally in on Tuesdays but again, a nice diversion.

So, I really thought I was going to be able to post yesterday but by the end of the day I was wiped out. I would have called it "I LOVE Mondays" and tell you all about what I accomplished on Monday in preparation for being down for 2-3 days after chemo.

I was able to go to Stacey's away game and she played amazingly so it was worth the trip. I did some laundry, darned a Zachary sock, cleaned up the rest of the weekend dishes in the kitchen and got supper ready to eat for our Monday "eat in shifts" schedule. I always feel better about leaving when they all have something to eat ready for them. I made up my 3 lb. tube of ground beef into meatballs and that felt wonderful. Then I mixed up gluten free and regular spaghetti (all the meatballs are gluten free because I had a ton of ends of gluten free loaves of bread to grind up into crumbs). I put the regular spaghetti into the crockpot on warm and the gf spaghetti into the oven after I finished the gf and regular cookies I baked when the spaghetti was done. (The cookies were frozen pre scooped fundraisers so not much work on my part).

It felt good to have a relatively normal day yesterday and as I went to bed I was smiling about my accomplishments. Kinda dreading Tuesday morning but it is done again for another week and we move on.

Here are a few things that have changed if you all are keeping up with me:

• I will be increasing my tummy medicine because it seems that I may have been eating a little too much rich food this past week and got me a case of gastritis (hmmm...wonder how THAT could have happened). Although common in chemo treatment, I think the yummy Thanksgiving food may have had a little bit to do with it, not to mention the increase of sugar intake with all of the scrumptious desserts that weren't all gluten free. I will let you know how this week goes getting that under control. It may have been totally worth it when all is said and done.
• I also have had a pretty big change in my neuropathy side effects this week. Waking up with numb feet, finger tip pain and my left toe is almost constantly numb and sometimes random pain shoots through it. We are bumping from 1 pill at bedtime to 2 pills at bedtime and then on Friday increasing to 2 pills at bedtime and 1 pill mid afternoon. Crochet has been hard because of the fingertip pain but because knitting uses mostly the forearm muscles I am able to do that much easier. I have been preparing Christmas cards and writing has become problematic. I am not great at keeping a pen in my hand and so I am hoping that with the increase of the meds I can get some relief.
• Sleep is not so easy to come by. Sometimes because of the neuropathy and sometimes because I don't feel sleepy. I haven't been napping in hopes that it makes a difference but sometimes it doesn't. I am a lover of bedtime and of sleep. I have struggled with this in other phases of life so I hope this to will pass and quickly!

Thank you all for your love and prayers. I need that to push through the next five weeks. FIVE more...I can start to see the light at the end of the tunnel. I feel your prayers and they aren't wasted on me! I appreciate you all SO much! 

And a little p.s. note to my friend Todd...prayers are going up for you throughout my day! Praying for peace as you wait for good results! Our God is SO much bigger than all of this earthly junk!