@Beth Gallagher - first- good heavens at the adversities you are going through with others as you battle your own health issues. It has to be hard trying to stay positive. If you could speak with your friends sisters perhaps you could ask them to at least take things slower. They should not tell her everything they intend to do yet. Get her settled in a assisted living place, then do the other necessary things. they have dumped too much on her too soon. And yes, some positive thoughts about the move from you could help her ease into the change. Huggies to you
I guess it's just called life, Gloria. Everyone is dealing with "stuff," and it doesn't slack off just because I've got the Big C. I need to call and check on my friend today and I'm hoping she is settled down a bit. Another friend's 15 year old grandson has been in the hospital in the medical center for over three weeks with some kind of intestinal infection. They had to remove his ENTIRE COLON a couple of days ago and I am still wondering how on earth that's even possible. So everyone has some kind of crap to deal with. Thanks for the huggies, and right back atcha!!
Ugh, each passing minute brings me closer to Tuesday... AC chemo #3 and my 15th chemotherapy. I guess I need to take an anti-anxiety pill to see if that might help my dread and this "anticipatory nausea." I just want this hell to be done with and I can guarantee that I will never go through this again. I'm afraid my oncologist is going to get a full emo breakdown when I see him on Tuesday morning. Weird to consider that I have spent six months in treatment already, and still have so much unpleasantness ahead of me. I'm such a barrel of laughs these days.
It's really been 6 months??? It seems so fast and it seems like a lifetime, all at once. This is next-to-the-last chemo, right?
Yeah, this party started in January; diagnosed on 1/12/21. Time flies, huh? And yes, thank goodness this is the next to last AC, if I can hang in there. Then I get a few weeks off, then surgery. When that's healed a bit, radiation. They say cancer treatment is a marathon, not a sprint. How clever "they" are.
@Beth Gallagher But where would you be without these horrible treatments ? As bad as you will feel before this is over with, you will feel much better when it is over and done. And, you will be alive and able to spread the word of your remarkable recovery.
I finally heard from my friend who has Parkinson's; her sisters moved her to assisted living yesterday. She is still quite depressed over the situation but I think she is relieved that the facility is quite nice and she has her own little apartment. Her sisters had moved her bedroom furniture in and bought her a new recliner, and put pictures and personal items there so it wasn't cold and stark when she arrived. She and I had a good cry together about the turns our lives have taken. I guess we never thought we'd get old and have to deal with so much crap that we have no control over. I contacted the local florist and sent her an arrangement in a tea cup. She loves tea so I hope she will enjoy the cup and saucer when the flowers are dead. It's supposed to look something like this... I hope it will lift her spirits a bit.
I spent today trying to get things done to keep my mind off of tomorrow. I got a grocery order and changed sheets, etc. My husband brought a portable electric icebox cooler from the garage and put it upstairs for me, so now I can have cold water and drinks without going downstairs when I'm feeling shaky. We bought it to use in the RV for extra drinks, etc. and can be a fridge or freezer... I'm also going to bring a little Keurig (the one without a water tank) upstairs, too. Then I can have coffee if I want and not have to get out of breath carrying it upstairs.
I have a hankerin' to go on a trip in the RV. Unfortunately it needs 6 new 22.5" tires and a roof inspection before we can go anywhere. We should sell the RV since it hasn't been anywhere in the past couple of years except for running up and down the interstate every couple of months to exercise the generator and burn the old gas that's sitting in the tank. Of course I can't go anywhere right now but maybe by the fall we can plan a short trip someplace.
I started out having a pretty good day. I feel almost normal, coffee tasted good, I'm getting a few things done around the house, it's a gorgeous sunny day. Then my phone started lighting up with messages from MD Anderson...ugh. First, a lot of confusion around getting an echo-cardiogram scheduled, so that might not happen this week after all due to no scheduling availability. Then two appointments for mammogram and breast ultrasound scheduled by the surgical team on July 28 and 30... which coincidentally are one and 3 days after my last AC chemo. I know I will be sick as a dog then, so I have sent a message asking to bump those scans at least a week unless they want me throwing up on their equipment. Now my stomach is churning and my nerves are on edge... again. Every time I think of the upcoming surgery I get a panicked feeling of dread and my anxiety goes through the roof.
The final challenges are always the scariest. I am surprised they didn't give you at least a week. It sounds like a gamble whether to risk vomiting or suffer dread from a longer wait.
The surgeon's nurse messaged me that they will delay the scans for a week so that worked out well. Hopefully I'll be feeling like the 2-hour round trip car ride by then. The surgery is supposed to be 4-5 weeks after my last chemo to give me time for my blood counts to recover. That will mean late August or early September. I wanted to be done with everything by the end of the year so my insurance OOP doesn't reset. I'm not sure how long after surgery the radiation treatments will be, or how many of those I'll have to endure. What a year.