Yeah - #8 is done!!

I am sitting in “the chair” right now typing this with just another hour left of my very last treatment. Being a day later than usual, we’ve been talking to a new gentleman who has the same situation as me, and is on 3 of 8, it’s been nice to compare notes down to the nitty gritty. Things you wouldn’t mention anywhere outside this room. They added back in the Oxaliplatin which does make my fingers tingle, but all the doses have been lowered 25% so hopefully it won’t be too bad for this last one, and I’m not on deadline at the moment so I can sleep the next few days. I’m anxious to be DONE. Done with the loss of taste buds and appetite, dryness on the skin and in the mouth, the red, watery eyes, thinning hair, fatigue and weakness, the weight loss (somewhat : ) I’m done, I’m DONE! Other than taking the pack off Friday and more hydration from time to time, and check-ups down the road.

We brought the whole staff at the hospital a BIG box o’ chocolates as a thank you, and received a coffee mug that says "YIPPEE" on it, and a Certificate of Completion all signed by them. It just so happens our ol’ friend, Dr. Acker (my Radiation Oncologist), was here – he rotates hospitals when they need him - so we got to talk and thank him as well. Anyway, there will be a little down time the next week or more, but it’ll be uphill from there. And once I gain enough strength, I’ll be scheduling the surgery, at which time I’ll REALLY be done.

I opened my last gift from Sharon and it was about "Persephone" - Greek Goddess of Spring, which is so very appropriate, along with it was a ceramic piece with Spring flowers on one side, and "You are special to me" on the other. The feeling is mutual Sharon, thank you so much. And I've received a "goodie basket" from neighbor Deb W. with yellow roses, wine and cookies. What more could I want. And tonight, a salmon dinner will arrive from good friends, Stu & Ola. Mmmm. And I still receive wonderful cards, e-mails, Facebook responses and Blog replies. All this brightens my day and keeps my spirit soaring to great heights. Thanks, as always, to you all.

Delayed

Drats, all of our expectations of being done today were dashed because my white blood cell count was too low. Dr. Basche knew how ready I was to be done, but the risk of doing the last infusion today would mean that my ability to fight off infection could land me in the hospital. So, the solution was to give me a shot in my stomach of a drug that will boost those counts fast, and I can come in tomorrow for the last treatment — as long as the counts are good. It's just one more day, so I'm okay with that, except all of our infusion-room friends were there today, and won't be tomorrow. Meantime, I'm very tired and weak so I plan to sleep the afternoon away. I'll post again soon.

Hydration

I just went in today to have an infusion of fluids. I was supposed to on Monday and Wednesday as well but passed because 1) I didn't feel I needed it, and 2) I was busy getting all the newsletters to press. Which I DID.... on time!!! Yeah. But today I had no excuse, so I did. The room was pretty quiet, only one couple and a mom and son, so I was able to read quite a bit of New Moon (2nd book in the Twilight series, Andi made me do it! :)  

We're very excited that we've not only made plans this summer to come home to IL to visit mine and Doug's families, but also booked our long overdue 25th anniversary trip to Cosumel with friends. Our anniversary was last October, but due to these circumstances it got postponed - until now! I still need to get through this last treatment, then I can schedule the surgery to hook everything back up and remove my port, likely the last week of May. Then it's uphill from there.

Thanks to my old high school friend, Linda, who just got in touch with me after these some 29 years. Your message was inspirational, thank you. And you may keep those pounds, thank you. I had plenty of my own before this and don't wish to get them back. 

My love to all who check in from time-to-time, and who've done countless acts of kindness.

#7 Down, One to go...what a day.

Hi All,
Deb asked me to blog for her cause she's too pooped to blog right now. We have slain treatment #7 and have just one more to go. Back in August when we sat with Dr. Brown and listened, totally numb, to him tell us what we had ahead of us, I didn't know how we were going to get thru this. But here we are, close to the end of this journey. Of course we still will need to be on guard for quite some time, but this part of it is almost over for us. The one thing cancer has taught us is what a person is capable of doing in the midst of adversity. We are honored to have come to know some very special people who share our fight in the infusion room who also have shown us what a person can do under enormous odds.

Okay, about yesterday. While meeting with Dr. Basche she said it's time for a change. The treatments are just dragging Debbie down too fast. So she eliminated one of the three drugs in Deb's chemo cocktail for this treatment. It is the drug that causes so much numbness and pain in her hands (also probably the most aggressive of chemo drugs) and the hope is that Deb can get thru this treatment and function somewhat better since she's in her deadlines with work. Dr. Basche assured us that this is commom to drop it for one treatment since it's a very tough drug to handle. It seems to have worked, Deb can move around and function better than previous treatments. Tomorrow and Friday will be tell tale days as those are her worst after treatment. And since Deb is down to 113 pounds they want her to go in next week (our off week normally) and get an IV infusion Mon., Wed., & Friday. It's to keep her fluid levels up and keep her hydrated.

So, we get home in the late afternoon and about dinner time Tori starts having pain in her neck/shoulder. By 7:00 she is in agony and I call her pediatrition. He has me come right down and after examing her, calls 911, they show up and proceed to strap her to a back board, tape down her head and we enjoy a ride back up to Skyridge. I told her she looked like what they do to a NFL player after a hard hit. After 4 hours of tests they conclude that she pinched a nerve in her neck and the muscle spasmed severly causing the intense pain. She's home now resting and on muscle relaxants for a few days. I'm going to get her into Integrative Medical also for some treatments to help relax the neck muscles. I did pray to God and thanked him that it wasn't anything more serious (they were talking possiblity of liver, pancreas, or gallbladder before the test started).

So it was a very adventurous day to say the least. But Deb seems to be functioning better and Tori is fine so all's well.

Again, from my heart, thanks to all of you for checking in, emailing, calling, acts of kindness. It is our family and friends that keep Deb fighting to beat this beast!!

-Doug

Day before #7

I suppose I'm as ready as ever for #7 tomorrow. This past week has been harder than in treatments' past. Only able to be up and around for a while before I'm ready to lay back down. Luckily Dr. Basche has agreed to lower my dosage again for these last two so I can function and get my work done.

There's a medication I'm going to request that will help me feel hungry. Waking up at 113lbs. this morning does have me concerned because we've been told the chemo won't be as effective. And although it's hard to get it down, I'm eating as much as I can stomach, but still seem to be slipping away the pounds. We're getting so close, I can't wait to be done.

Between #6 and #7

Wow, these past few days have been very rough on me, bad neuropathy in the hands, and just laying in bed or sleeping. I seriously entertained the thought of opting out of the last two treatments. I was very emotional and it had me thinking that I could be done and on the road to recovery. But now that I've improved somewhat today, I realize Fridays are my worst days, and that I had better tough it out and finish the whole run. I will inquire with my oncologist to see what she thinks, and at the very least perhaps lessen the dose to allow me to function the few days after treatment.