Day 11

It's Sunday and we are nearing the end of what I have to say has been a really great weekend.  Starting on Friday, I woke up feeling almost normal.  Thursday was a decent day (comparatively), but I still had the stomach bloat and pain, though it was a little more intermittent.  I was able to nap for a couple of hours, so that was good.  I had a good night of sleep finally on Thursday night so that helped a lot.  My brother and his wife arrived in Georgia Thursday night, so the timing could not have been better!  I was able to have my parents and my brother and sister-in-law over on Friday and we didn't really do anything, but I was comfortable to visit and really enjoyed our time together.  I was so happy to have my stomach be an almost normal size again that I took a chance and we made plans to meet friends out for dinner on Friday night!  I avoided the salad I would have usually had on the side, still not trusting myself around anything green or raw.  But...I was out to dinner on a Friday night!  I was in shock!  So, what I learned in hindsight was, for the First Round, it took 8 full days for the Adriamycin/Cytoxan chemotherapy "cocktail" to work its way through my system.  Maybe that will happen again, or maybe it will take longer.  I guess it would be too much to hope that it would go faster, based on everything I have read/learned.  Everyone says that it wears your body down over time and it takes longer to "bounce back" each time.  We shall see.

All of the chemo appointments that I have are on Thursdays except this 2nd round.  I have to go back on Tuesday and of course, I am dreading it.  The only other "news" is that I have not yet started losing my hair.  I have an appointment with Jennifer, the hair lady, tomorrow.  It was intended to be the appointment where we do the final wig fitting and she cuts down my hair.  However, unless a lot happens over the next 12 hours, we will just pick up the wig and have the preliminary fitting.  I don't see why she should cut all of my hair off quite yet.  I guess it really shouldn't matter since it is supposed to happen this week anyway, but it just doesn't feel right.  I am going with that.  I called to ask her about it on Friday, and she advised that the estimate of 10-14 days after this particular cocktail is pretty standard.  Friday was Day 9 and she acted like she would have been surprised if it had started by then.  I am sure these people know what they are talking about.

So, all in all, I am feeling good right this minute, but nervous about the week.  Chris starts to travel again this week.  It will be the first "real" week back to school.  Round 2 is an unknown.  The hair thing is stressful.  But, so far my mantra of One Day At A Time has worked, so I will keep it up.  I remain incredibly thankful that for anything that comes up, I have a body of people to call upon for help.  I plan to do a few things differently this time...eating being the primary change.  I know to avoid the salad/veggie stuff for the first week at least.  I know I need to start some helpful things on Day 1 (prune juice, and the like).  The only upside is that at least this time I don't have all of the port issues to deal with.  That area seems to be mostly healed.  I still have some discomfort laying on  my side, but it is much better and I have pretty well figured out how to arrange pillows to be comfortable even on my side.  I will be prepared for Days 1-4 to bring the shakes, weakness, tiredness, intermittent nausea and beginning stomach issues, and Days 5-8 to be the worst as far pain and bigger stomach issues, with shakiness, weakness and tiredness lingering.  At least the first time anxiety is behind me.  :)

I guess everyone who visited the blog saw the new countdown I put up.  It feels like a lot of days until the last treatment, but time has a way of marching on.  At this point, I am simply looking forward to the number being a two digit number.  That will be cause for celebration.  I will close with adding Caroline's special note of encouragement for me.  She loves to use our craft supplies, and this beautiful sign hangs proudly on our pantry door.