Almost Halfway There!

Friends,

How I have made it to week 6 truly amazes me. I will be very honest and say there are days I cannot imagine doing this for 6-7 more months. 1 month is enough for me. However, I have good days and bad days like anyone else. The bad days usually consist of lots of time in bed, in the bath or sleeping. The good days consist of runs to Target, car rides with family to various places to just leave the house and Chiloso tacos. Today is a good day. I say all of that because I have realized that the more I dive into chemo, the more of a toll it has taken on me to recover. Which is expected by probably everyone else but me lol. I thought I could keep going at my normal pace from last month, but that hasn’t been the case. The good part is that while at home I have been able to recover on my own time, in my own bed and still study to finish this semester at school.

After my 5-day chemo after Thanksgiving, my family and I were fortunate to travel up to Fayetteville, AR to see all my friends, church family, and so many more people. I truly believe that being able to do these kinds of things and see friends makes my recovery faster (that may just be my wishful thinking to see my people more). It was such a great time in Arkansas. If you haven’t been I recommend it because you will never want to leave. I hope to make a trip again soon.

This past weekend I had my 2-3 day inpatient chemo which went well. I went in Friday expecting to leave Sunday but was discharged on Saturday night because I was doing well. That way I was able to spend my 22nd birthday at home which was so great and we were able to go to dinner at my favorite restaurant, Bin 303. In the hospital, I tried a new trick during one of my chemo drugs (the glory of chemo is you try different things to keep the pain away), I ate ice for 20 minutes while I received drug D (also known as the red devil) to constrict the veins in my mouth so the drug wouldn’t reach my mouth as much. It sounds crazy and it was very, very cold but after having those once, I never want them again. So far, 2 tiny mouth sores. My counts are beginning to drop which means I am more likely to get them, but I pray they stay away and go away. I have also been drinking something called “Helios” which my doctor gave me for mouth sores. We have heard great things about it from other cancer patients and nurses so maybe this “ice-helios” combination will work. (If somehow you have tried Helios or been told to try it – I recommend drinking it cold or in slush form. It is not the most pleasant thing at room temp.)

Next up – I will go in Friday to my doctor’s office to receive a one-minute push of drug V and go home. That will finish up Round 3 and then we will be moving on to Round 4 which is crazy. We will know Friday when I go back into for Round 4 which will be the 5-day chemo (boo). It will most likely happen December 26-31 I believe and hope so I can spend more time with my family and Cole for the Holidays.

Prayers

• Mouth sores stay away and for good including the 2 I have
• I have no side effects from chemo on Friday
• The tingles in my foot to go away for good and my nerve function comes back to all of my toes
• My taste buds go back to normal – they always are bland after the 2-3 day chemo and I don’t like it

Thank you all for constantly praying and always checking up on me and my family. We appreciate everything – the cards, the dinners and sweet calls/messages we get.