November 7, 2010

This weekend I am officially a hunting widow. Strangely this is the first year that I haven't dreaded it. Is it because I have had someone with me almost 100% of the time? I don't know. What I do know is, I wouldn't trade Jamey going with me to every doctors appointment for the world.

Even though Jamey was chomping at the bit to get to the deer lease, he took me, and my Mom, to chemo on Friday and then left. :)

As I said my mom went with us to chemo on Friday and I was excited. We don't do anything while we are there but sit and wait, but it was nice to have my Mom there and for her to see what all chemo entails. Boring... Ha ha

Friday the 5th we had round 2 of chemo but before I get to that appointment, I must tell you how the last round of chemo made me feel since I haven't blogged about it yet.

After chemo 2 weeks ago, I felt great all weekend. Then Monday I had to go to Granbury to get the Nuelasta shot, that's when I started to feel bad. It felt like my legs were stretching to 8 feet long and my back was KILLING me. I found out my bone marrow was working overtime and that is why I was hurting. It lasted for 4 days. I still feel like I'm constantly out of breath, but I've become used to that I guess. My racing heart has slowed down a little. But since I complained about it my Oncologist scheduled me for an ECHO.

Friday between chemo, Oct 29th, I had to go to Granbury and get my blood drawn to check my levels. This was the first time I went to any appointment by myself. Jamey had to work and I thought "it's just to get my blood drawn, what could go wrong?" Well I guess that is what I get for thinking that because the girl told me I had a "critical value." My WBC count was 51 and she said it's usually not over 10. She asked me if I was sick. Really? Did you just ask a cancer patient if she was sick? HA HA HA I knew what she meant, she meant did I have an infection or a cold or something. I told her my back was hurting for 4 days so she took a urine sample to make sure it wasn't a bladder infection. It wasn't. So she calls my Oncologist in Fort Worth to report my "critical value" and he told her that my WBC count was so high because of the Neulasta shot. The purpose of the shot is to keep my WBC count from going too low, so I guess the shot is doing it's job.

Fast forward to two days ago for round 2 of chemo. First we get my blood drawn, then we see the doctor. While I had the doctors attention I asked him if I could skip the Neulasta shot this round since my levels are so high. He said yes!!!! I also don't need to get my blood drawn in between rounds again! So no more false critical value scares either! I couldn't believe it!
Of course after he tells me what I want to hear, I told him I would suck it up and get the shot and feel like I had 8 feet long legs for 4 days if it would keep me on schedule, he said I should be fine.

So on to the infusion room we go (after waiting for 45 more minutes of course). I did not get Nurse Ratched (Woo Hoo!) but I got Chatty Cathy, which was ok. She took longer than Nurse Ratched because she would stop and talk to all her patients, where Nurse Ratched was just straight to business all the time!
This round took about 3 and a half hours, which sounds like a long time, and it is. But remember, I'm in this comfortable recliner with a heated blanket and I can lay all the way back and sleep. My mom and Jamey are stuck in these straight back chairs, that don't lean back and are NOT comfortable (I hear). I guess they could go get a heated blanket if they wanted one, but they didn't.

So I have never heard how uncomfortable these chairs are from Jamey. How I finally put 2 and 2 together was, Mom and Jamey were talking about them to each other on the way home! HA HA HA HA
I feel kind of bad now...

Only 2 more rounds of chemo to go! Scheduled end date is still December 3rd!!!

Tuesday I have an appointment with my Plastic Surgeon. He usually fills me before chemo but he was out of town Friday so they had to move my appointment. The Plastic Surgeon doesn't know my chemo schedule has been shortened so we will see what he says about that Tuesday. Originally he wanted me to be 100% filled by the time I am done with chemo.

Also scheduled on Tuesday is my ECHO. Precautionary I'm sure...

Love to all,
Christy