Cycle # 5 Days 8 - 20

In an earlier posting I wrote that I had worn hats several years ago, here is a picture of April and I when she was in the fourth grade and as you can see I am wearing a hat. In fact, I still have that hat, and a brown wool hat; a white felt one; a very warm leopard print hat that I bought to keep me warm on our Alaskan Cruise; my favorite denium baseball hat with paint speckles on it; another baseball cap; and even a hat with The Bakersfield Californian printed on it (I won some kind of contest); a fancy peach straw hat that I wore on Ladies Day at the Santa Anita Race Track; a cute little straw hat that my mother-in-law gave me; and a big floppy straw hat and a little black hat to match my swim suits, I bought both of these hats for the Caribbean cruise. Of course I had to buy new hats because all but two of the hats I had were for winter or did not cover my bald head! I need a hat rack now.

It is the day before Cycle # 6 - hooray, only two more to go after tomorrow! Well really, only two more of the general chemo drugs and their icky side effects and isolation - the plan is for me to continue with Herceptin until approximately August 2007 (see the 5/17/06 post for further information about Herceptin).

So let's see what is there to report....

For the most part Taxol and Herceptin are much easier than Adriamycin and Cytoxan; I did not experience nausea and the fatigue, so far at least, is far less.

The worst of the icky stuff was the facial bloating, eye swelling, and gigantic headache on the second day following the infusion. The body aches are icky too but much better than the headache. By the time the icky stuff is finished - my days before the start of isolation are almost up and that's icky too.

I pre-medicate with steriods the night before the infusion - whew, the hot flashes are frequent and intense! With the first infusion it was only on the night I took the steriods, hopefully that will be true for the remaining infusions. Speaking of hot flashes, another icky thing is that I am now in a state of chemically induced menopause. The good news is that the chemo drugs are doing what they are supposed to be doing - the bad news is that I have hot flashes every day and every night. I probably need to read up on calcium so I can eat calcium rich foods and supplement if needed to prevent bone loss. One thing leads to another.....

The fatigue started on the 13th day but by the 17th day it was much better. It has been nice to feel like myself for a few days before the next infusion. It makes me feel like I am emotionally and physically ready for tomorrow.

I think my taste is back to normal - at least the salty taste is gone and thankfully I never had the metallic taste. Food tastes good but my appetite is off a little; I have had to remind myself to eat.

My hair is growing back - I now have a fuzzy head of gray and auburn hair and my eyebrows and lashes are starting to fill back in. Randy tells me that the new growth has a lot of auburn hair, well that auburn hair must mostly be on the back of my head or love truly is blind! ha

My nephew Josh was here for a few days - he lived with us several years ago for about a year so it was a homecoming vs. a visit. Before I could call out "You're home" when he came in the door he called out "I'm home". Home really is where your heart is and it is totally possible to have more than one home. I have never lived in Missouri yet when I go to visit my family I always say I am going home. Josh has three homes with the primary being with his wife Deana and the kids, the next his parent's home, and then ours. Daniel will eventually have three homes too when he returns to Missouri and gets his own place. Oh yes there is no doubt that he will return, you cannot take Missouri out of those boys!

Well that's it for now. I'm working on a couple more postings - follow ups to the posting of 8/9/06. I have posted a couple of times to the With Love, From Jan blog. It seems as though my writing comes in spurts.

Thankfully I am doing very well! Thank you for your continued prayers, notes of encouragement, and for checking in on me.

I have a long hand-painted sign that for many years has hung over the arch between our dining and living rooms, I will close with its message: LIVE WELL - LAUGH OFTEN -LOVE MUCH.