It's quick! It's easy! You, too, can lose 10 pounds or more in 2 to 3 days!!
Oh, wait.
I lied. It is quick, but it is not easy. And it is really not something I would recommend to anyone!!!
It's called Chemo!!
Well, that is a sort of depressing start, isn't it, now? So, to go to positive -- as is my nature -- I will change my tack now.
I had my final chemo - round 6 - on Thursday July 21. 2011. HALLELUJAH!!!
The usual MO for chemo has been I feel okay on Thursday and mostly okay on Friday but by Saturday. No, no. Well, with round 5 AND this round 6 I felt okay (that's at best) on Thursday and part of Friday....
Friday evening - oh great - it is output only, shall we say. There is almost nothing going in. Certainly there is nothing going in that is not going to come right back out in the wrong direction. >Sigh<
At any rate, by Saturday evening on this round I was able to get a little bit in and just feel miserable. I had, by Saturday morning, however, thrown up enough that my throat felt like acid had been poured down it. Oh wait!! That's wrong!! Acid had been thrown UP my throat!! I asked my sweet husband if he would kindly go get me some Chlora-septic spray. Which, naturally, he happily did for me. Attempting a warm salt-water gargle did NOTHING except attempt to provoke more regurgitation - well brushing my teeth does that too. I am hyper sensitized at this time... The Chlora-septic did help some. Some. Mostly it is now just a matter of letting time heal and eating and drinking mild and soft items. I ate one half of a banana this morning and it was all I could do to swallow it, as it was too "hard," so later I made a nice soft scrambled egg.
And!!! YAY!! That was the last Friday evening I will spend dumping my lunch out the wrong way. And the last Friday night I will spend dumping what little I could get down for 'supper' and the last time I will feel that bad!! YAY YAY YAY YAY YAY!!!
I still feel somewhat weak, very fatigued, and at the same time I feel so jubilant to be finished with this part of the process!!
I had a MUGa exam (heart volume test) Tuesday before chemo and it was the same results as the first one I had in March. This is good news. It means the herceptin, the drug I must take for a year and which can destroy heart muscle - temporarily - has not done me any harm to date. Dr. Rassam has advised me that should the next test not be good enough volume wise in his estimation, that we would take a hiatus from herceptin to allow my heart to recover and then restart, as many times as necessary.
Now I am going to take a LITTLE break before I start radiation.
I know there is plenty left ahead of me on this ugly journey. I have radiation, I have the hormone treatment, I have some sort of surgery to smooth out and improve my physical appearance, I have to go to the "image recovery specialist", I need to go to some support group because there are SO many issues related to this cancer that you simply cannot begin to wrap your head around them all. I know that the treatment requiring one to 3 week visits to Dr. Rassam will not be over until what, April of next year.
I do intend to celebrate. Publicly! Maybe with a dance! And absolutely with food. Because I will be able to live in food reality that is not based merely on theory. I will be able to actually taste and enjoy everything again. I mean, come on, when applesauce and tapioca are about as far as you can go.... yeah, that is living in food theory. Perhaps more accurately, it is living in hopes of food theory becoming food reality!!
This week - I hope to go for scallops. Yum
No comments:
Post a Comment