Leanne, Ryland, Kaitlin, Jeff & Maryn

Thursday, August 23, 2007

On the downhill side of chemo!

Wow...Round 7 of 12 completed, and finally over the hump!

My blood work this week wasn't the greatest, but that is to be expected. This means the chemo is working! My red cells are coming down & my white count was down to 2.0 (they won't treat me if it goes below 1.0). I will receive Neupogen shots again on Thurs, Fri & Sat to boost the whites in preparation for next week's chemo round. If my red count continues to drop like it has been, I will likely need a Procrit shot next week as well.

The side effects continue to become a little stronger with each week. I woke up in the middle of the night last week with both of my arms buzzing, as if they were falling asleep. It was making me crazy...I was shaking them, trying to "wake them up," and accidentally woke Jeff up instead. Then I remembered that my Ativan prescription is for nausea, insomnia and anxiety! Since it was the middle of the night and I could definitely use sleep and my arms were making me crazy, I took one. It worked! I was able to fall back asleep, and stopped worrying about my arms. I've had numbness and tingling in all of my extremities at one point or another. One day, my right leg was numb from my knee to my toes, the next day, it was my left foot. My arms vary throughout the day, but I feel it pretty often in my fingertips and hands. I've also had tons of bloody noses this week, probably chalking up to a two-a-day average.

I have been pretty tired again, but I have been taking the Ativan every night at bedtime. Maryn is better with her sleep (Thank GOD!), but has still been waking at least once a night. I like the Ativan because I can still wake up to the kiddos, whereas with Ambien (the sleeping pill), I'm down for the count. It's some great sleep, don't get me wrong, but it scares me a little bit to not be able to hear the kids...the mommy in me will never escape! Last night, Maryn woke up seven times between 3:30am and 4:45am. Ugh! Over the last couple weeks, her vocabulary has completely taken off, so I'm hoping this is just a phase she's going through as she gets comfortable with her new words. She loves to sing & dance, and has been saying 3-4 word sentences pretty regularly now. It's amazing.

My appetite has been in a crazy state of fluctuation. I'm nauseous a lot, and as a result am not hungry. BUT, I could be nauseous because I'm not eating much. It really seems like a vicious cycle. Jeff thinks I need a babysitter in the house while he's gone to ensure I'm getting some meals in me...he's so sweet. He even calls me during the day to find out what I've eaten. Most days, I don't eat until the late afternoon - will have a bowl of cereal or something fairly light, then will be completely ravenous by dinner time. I can eat two full servings of dinner, an extra helping of cold fruit, and then will hit dessert. It's fair to say that I'm most likely getting my daily caloric intake, just over a 2-3 hour span in the evenings! =)

Other than that, there isn't much going on. Jeff's birthday is tomorrow, so we are going to celebrate! He's taking the day off work, and I'm going to let him sleep in. I'm taking Maryn into daycare, and have the neighbor coming over to watch Ryland. Jeff and I are going to see a movie together...alone! We haven't done this since seeing the 40-yr-old Virgin when I was pregnant with Maryn almost two years ago. It's amazing how much having kids changes your life. So, we will enjoy his 13th anniversary of his 29th birthday together. Then, it's off to the Oncologist's office in the afternoon for another Neupogen shot. I'll try to get Jeff to take a picture of my rapidly balding head for my next post.

Until then, have a great week! I hope this post finds you happy, healthy, and enjoying life!

Love,
Leanne

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