Cycle # 6 Day One

Yesterday was infusion number two of Taxol and Herceptin and overall the start of cycle #6.

I slept through a good part of the infusion yesterday and that helped the long day pass by more quickly. (The infusion of Taxol is three hours and Herceptin is one hour, add another hour for seeing the doctor and infusion prep time.) In some respects the day is harder on Randy because his chair does not recline nor is he given a pillow and blanket warm from the oven.

The intense steroid hot flashes Tuesday night were fewer and less intense this time so I slept well. I did however wake up with a "steroid buzz" very early Wednesday morning and I finally had to take Tylenol PM in order to fall asleep last night - well really to fall asleep this morning at about 1:30.

I will enjoy today and prepare myself for the next few days of body aches that will probably begin tomorrow. Sleep is healing to the body according to my dear friend Dana who is an RN, so I will sleep through as much of the icky stuff as possible. My prayer is that I will not have the horrendous headache, swollen eyes and face but if I do, that it will be less intense than it was with Taxol #1.

I may not post again until next week when I am feeling better. Today I leave you with some thoughts about endurance....

"The manner in which one endures what must be endured is more important than the thing that must be endured." ~ Dean Acheson (1893-1971), American statesman from Plain Speaking: An Oral Biography of Harry S. Truman.

"I asked an endurance swimmer, "How is it possible for you to swim for twenty hours? What kind of mental attitude do you have?" She said, "I believe that the water is a friend. It wants to help me. It does not fight against me and I do not fight against it. We are working together." I often think of that when I am in the 'swim' of life. The waves and currents and the tides hit us all at times, and it is not always easy to say, "The water is friendly." It requires an act of faith, a volitional act; it means work, but most of all it requires a will to believe. The more we use this will, the more it becomes a part of us and the more natural becomes its application." Marcus Bach, author