Back in the chemo saddle again

Well, I am sitting here, at the infusion sweet, watching Holly rest while getting her fix. The extra week off was very nice, gave Holly and the family a bonus semi normal week. Holly spent the week enjoying being normal and I spent the week working on a used hot tub procured via Craig's list. Last night we both noticed that neither one of us was feeling quite normal and today at lunch the feeling intensified. I finally figured out that mental toll this process takes also takes a physical toll, but we will suck it up and get through this.

Doctor Dahbi told us that in two weeks, Holly will need an ultrasound to determine what the tumor is doing. If the tumor is the same size, or smaller, Holly will commence with the Taxol the following week. If the tumor has grown then it is straight to surgery. That means if all goes well she will begin the taxol in 3 weeks.

We met with nurse Julina today, whom I would like to personally nominate for nurse of the year, she is very patient, kind and helpful. She speaks normal English, not that medial dialect that doctors talk in and is always in a good mood. She gave us the lowdown on what to expect with what I refer to as phase two, Taxol. The good news is that nausea is less common and not as severe a side affect with Taxol. The pre treatment drugs they give Holly, prior to the actual Taxol, ar administrated to avoid allergic reactions to the Taxol and will cause fatigue, which will probably put her to sleep while they give her the Taxol. The Taxol takes about the same amount of time as the round one combination of drugs takes, so time wise it will be the same as round one. According to Julina, Holly will feel flu like, with not as much nausea, and be pretty wiped out for the first couple of days after treatment. She will be getting treatment every week, for 12 weeks, so by the end of round two she will be pretty wiped out. This means her pre surgical treatment is going to last pretty much the entire summer followed by surgery, followed by five weeks, of five times a week, radiation treatment. With any luck we should be finished before the Christmas holidays.

John

Getting ready for Friday

Holly here - thought I would post the blog this time.

I have had a wonderful week off from chemo. Feeling normal for 2 weeks in a row was amazing! I did such things as shopping at Costco, cooking dinner, took a short walk, and did some laundry. I know those things don't sound that wonderful, but believe me - it's so much better than sitting around feeling sick. Seriously!

I'm a little nervous for Friday, but the good thing is it will be the last treatment with the yucky chemo drugs that make me feel sick. Next week, we are supposed to switch it up to Taxol, so hopefully, that won't make me as sick.

I know most of you already know this, but I just want to say how much I love my choir. The people there truly treat me as family. All of the hugs, smiles, kind words, and teasing (yes, teasing) is just amazing. And there's music too! It's just the best way to spend a Tuesday night. If anyone from my choir reads this, I love you all!

Thats it for now. Thanks to everyone for caring about me.
Holly

Time for a little break...

Holly is doing much better, she has gone to work downtown for the last two days and seems to be getting some of her strength back. We were scheduled for another treatment on Friday but Holly decided to put it off one more week so she could have a week of feeling better. Since it is the last treatment using these chemotherapy drugs, the doctor agreed. Holly will have to have her white blood cell count checked on Friday but we are not expecting any problems. One more to go, then we can move on to the next round.

John

Back to work

The week has been getting slowly better. Holly has been able to work at home with a few nap breaks here and there. Her energy level is still quite low and she feels "a little off" but overall making slow progress. She went into the office today and put in a pretty good day, came home, crashed on the couch and is looking a little more alive this evening.

Holly is a bit apprehensive about her next treatment, talking about delaying it for a week but we will figure that out next week. She is very slowly regaining her strength.

Chemo, round three

Sorry it has been a while since my last post, things were rolling along nicely during the second week after the last chemotherapy session. I will do my best to get you all caught up and tell you how Holly is feeling today.

Last Friday was treatment number three of four in round one of Holly's chemotherapy treatment. Following a less than pleasant second treatment, Holly was bit apprehensive about this one. We had a good visit with the Oncologist prior to the infusion and he changed the medications up once again. For this round her infused anti nausea medications were doubled, Emends, another oral anti nausea medication, was added along with a steroid. The doctors goal was to get her through this round without throwing up and he seems to have succeeded. The other change to this treatment was a change in the white blood cell booster, the long lasting one Holly had been taking was working a bit too well so it has been replaced with a shorter lasting version, the down side is it must be injected three times instead of just once.

Friday night Holly was a bit tired but managed to actually have a meal and generally felt okay. Saturday and Sunday were about the same. Sunday night she started to feel nasty and by Monday morning she was crashed on the couch. She has been able to continue to eat in small amounts but generally feels lousy and tired. Holly did not work on Monday and I am not sure she will be up for much today. My plan is to keep a close eye on her for the next couple of days and spoil her as best I can.

I will do a better job keeping the blog updated from now on and apologize for my lack of posts or the last week.

John

Wednesday night post.

Holly here again. My next chemo treatment is this Friday, and I'm not really looking forward to it. After the 1st treatment, I felt sick for 3 or 4 days after. After the 2nd treatment, I felt sick for 6 or 7 days. I sure hope this isn't the trend. I'm sorta hoping my body will just realize this is the norm, so perhaps, I can bounce back a little quicker. Maybe I'm dreaming, but dreaming is good, right?

My hair is definitely falling out like crazy. I can't seem to bring myself to shave the head clean, so I'm letting it fall out as it will.

Now for some very exciting news! As most of you know, I sing in a choir called Sno-King Community Chorale. Last year, our choir performed a concert with the Brothers Four as our guests. I just found out that the Brothers Four is putting out a new CD and guess who their guest artist is on the CD? You know it - my choir! How cool is that? I'm pretty excited about it (just ask John), and available to give autographs.

That's all for now. I am appreciating the continued thoughts & prayers.
Holly