Overall, I’d have to say that
this has been a pretty good week. It’s
been a “draggy” week, but for the most part, I’ve felt pretty good. It started out a bit rocky. Last Sunday, I got up, got ready for church, and
went to Sunday school. During church, I
just had a hard time focusing and was very sleepy. I just figured it was the side effects of the
gabapentin, because I’ve increased it to twice a day, and I know the SE is
drowsiness. I couldn’t wait until lunch
was over and I could get to my recliner to take a nap! I slept for over 1 ½ hours. When I got up from my nap, rather than
feeling refreshed, I felt really weak and a bit fainty once. I was sure glad that Monday was a day to get
IV fluids. I’ve pretty much learned when
I need them now. I’ve found out that
taking chemotherapy is a lot more than just taking the drug. Fluids are super important and so is the lab
work that you get weekly before your chemo.
And it is pretty amazing how those labs can fluctuate. It would be nice if on your week off, it
really was a “week off.” However, when
you need the fluids, you really . need . the . fluids!l After getting them Monday morning, I felt so
much better. We went to eat at the Olive
Garden.
Tuesday, we did’t have to
drive to Hutch!!!! Woo hoo! So we went to Lyons to get tags for Guy
pickup. I didn’t really feel like
driving my car so we could get tags for it, so we just did Guy’s. Having come from out of state, we had to have
the vehicle inspected at the police station - $20 – cash! All he did was check the VIN to be sure it
wasn’t stolen. Then we went to the court
house to the treasurer’s office. You are
supposed to get your tags within 90 days after moving here. Well, who’s going to know when you
moved??? It had certainly been more than
90 days, but we had already paid for all the days until March (when our tags
are due) in Alabama. If we got Kansas
tags before March, Alabama was certainly not going to give us a refund! And then we would be paying double
taxes! So we put it off until now. I’m not going to do mine until near the end
of March, because I’m not going to pay any more than I just have to pay. The Kansas taxes are so much higher than Alabama
taxes anyway. ARGH! Thankfully, we are not driving new vehicles –
no more new vehicles for us!
Tuesday night we attended a
Bible study that is being taught by our pastor.
There was quite a large group in attendance. They are studying the book by Richard Foster,
Celebration of Discipline. That
is a quite old book that I read many years ago, but I guess this is an updated
version. I couldn’t begin to find the
old one, so I had to go to good ole Amazon.
Us and the UPS guy are getting well acquainted. And I just love it when I go to the post
office and in my mail box, I find a KEY with a number on it!! That means that there is a package that was
too big to fit in the little box. So I
take that key and go to the “big boxes” and insert it in the box with the
number that matches my key. The other
day, I got the mail, and as I started to leave, the post mistress said, “Oh,
Sheryl, you have a package here that I hadn’t got put up yet!!” And she handed me my package. Some days, it is just like Christmas!!
Wednesday was ladies Bible
study. I always look forward to that so
much each week. What a wonder group of
ladies we have! The oldest is the pastor’s
mother-in-law, and what a delightful lady she is. She always decorates the church for each
season or holiday – a table just inside the front door, our SS table, even a
little area in the ladies’ restroom. Everywhere
there is a table, she has something on it.
She is so talented and creative.
Once we get moved, she will almost be my neighbor. She lives in one of the independent living
apartments of the nursing home. She is
quite an active lady, and I just love her!
The youngest is maybe in her late 30s, early 40s. Anyway, it is a very spiritual group of
ladies, and most of them I knew when I
lived here during my growing up years.
While I was gone to the Bible
study, I got my first delivery from Home Chef.
This is a home delivery of meals that are all ready to prepare. Each meal is packaged with all the necessary
ingredients along with the recipe cards.
You can choose the number of meals you would like for the week, and you
can even edit what will be coming the next week, and choose from a list of
other meals. I chose the 6-meal plan. You can cancel at any time, and you can skip
a week of you want to. The first two
meals I’ve fixed from it were really good.
The first was a sirloin steak with garlic and blue cheese butter (I left
the blue cheese out of mine), fresh green beans and fresh tomatoes, and
fingerling potatoes baked in the oven.
It was great! The next night it
was parmesan chicken with mozzarella cheese and marinara sauce and steamed kale
and spinach with fresh garlic. That was
great, too! So far, so good. No more, “What’s for supper?” It figures out to be about 9.95 a meal. You can hardly go out and eat anywhere for
that amount anymore. And this keeps you
out of the grocery store where you will always buy more than you went there
for. You still have to buy soap and toilet
paper, ets. But for now, I sure like the
convenience of it – and the variety – because I get stuck in “cooking ruts.”
Thursday, it was back to Hutch
of an appointment with an ENT. This appointment
had been made by my primary care doctor when I had that awful sinus
infection. I didn’t figure by that time
I would need anyone, but I had been blowing out bloody mucus (sorry, my non-nurse
friends!!), so I thought it wouldn’t hurt to see one. The nurse squirted an afrin/lidocaine
solution in both nostrils. She said this
was because he would want to take a look in there, and that it would taste
nasty. She was right about the taste –
and made my throat numb, too. I sat
there wondering what “taking a look in there” exactly meant!! Just HOW FAR in there???? I had seen the LONG flexible tubing with a
camera and light in the end, and it made me just a bit nervous as I waited for
the doctor to arrive – who, by the way, could have been my grandson! Boy, they are looking younger and younger
these days! After he heard my story and
saw my scared head – which he was very interested in, because the ENT guys are
the ones in Hutch who do these kinds of surgeries – he turned on the little TV
screen barely inserting the camera to look in my nose. He determined that there was nothing sinister
going on – “I see nothing that would require any surgery”. THANK YOU VERY MUCH!!! The bloody mucus was most likely due to the
cold dry air of Kansas winters. Coming
from 85%-humidity-Alabama, the Kansas winters are indeed dry. I was to continue the saline spray I had
started to use and use Ary saline gel on a Q-tip several times a day. I has seen that in Walgreens right next to the
Ary saline nasal spray, so I knew right where to go. I picked up two, one for me and one for
Guy. Guy really likes it, too. He says it seems to make him breathe
easier. I’m not sure why, but if he thinks
it does, then that’s great. He has more
sinus issues than I do!
I could have got my other bag
of fluids that day, but I didn’t feel bad, and I thought I should get them on
Friday, and that way I’d for sure get through the weekend OK. Plus, I was schedule for lab work on
Friday. So, BACK to Hutch we went on
Friday. I got my labs done and got my
fluids. I don’t remember that I got labs
during my week off before, so thought that was a bit strange, but no one else
thought that, so I just went along with the orders. I guess it was a good thing I got them – many
of my counts had dropped considerably.
My white count was cut in half!
It went from 7.6 last week to 3.2.
I asked the nurse about that, and she showed me this little formula – 3.2
(x10) x 33 = 1056. The 33 was the
immature white cells. As long as the
number was above 1000, it was OK. This
formula had a name – some letters I hadn’t heard of. Maybe some of my nurse friends who learned
their lab values better than I did will know what I’m talking about. Anyway, she didn’t seem concerned about it
yet. My Hbg was 10.1 (normal 12.0-16.0) and
Hct 31 (normal 36-48). These are the
lowest I’ve had so far. I was even UP a
little last week on these two, so as I looked at those, I thought, “Well, no
wonder I felt draggy all week!” Except
for that one week when the Hbg went up 0.6, it has steadily been dropping. I really hope I don’t have to take any shots
for being anemic or for have too low a white count! What was strange was my magnesium level. It was 1.6, dropping from 2.2 last week
(normal 1.8-2.4). So they added some
magnesium to my IV on Friday. I had been
taking 250 mg of magnesium orally, and she told me to double that. I had been having some cramping in my toes at
night, and had been having the 1st fingers on both hands just lock
up when I wanted to bend them. I thought
that was really strange! I don’t know if
that was due to the low mag, but since they added mag in my IV, I have not
experienced that. One just never knows
what weird things are going to occur next.
Probably the biggest thing
bothering me right now is the neuropathy.
I definitely have that in my feet – the numbness and discomfort when
walking. I’ve tried several different
combinations of essential oils, and I can’t honestly say that anything helps
it. I just PRAY that the nerve damage is
not permanent! That is my biggest
fear!! Well, other than not being cancer
free….. Next Tuesday I have an
appointment with the oncologist. I haven’t
seen her for a month. However, the
nurses are in contact with her each time I’m there for fluids or chemo to tell
her my latest labs, complaints, issues.
They told me that she would probably be adding another medication for
the neuropathy at my next visit. I
wonder what that will be and what the side effects will be. Most of the time, with most meds that I’ve
ever taken, the SE are very minimal, but with these drugs they are having to
give me at this time, the SE seem to be a big deal. Adding another drug with more SE is not something
I’m looking forward to. BUT I don’t like
or want this neuropathy either!! I have
a whole month’s worth of questions written down to ask her.
Saturday, I was getting ready
to go out for breakfast to our favorite place in Lyons – Scrambled Sams. I was feeling OK and had slept well. All of a sudden, I had a weak spell, and just
had to sit down. I got some orange
juice, and after a bit decided to go ahead and go - thought I probably needed
to eat. As the day progressed, I did get
to feeling better. It’s just frustrating
– to not know from one minute to the next how you are going to feel – and it
can happen in seconds. Makes it kind of
scary to drive by yourself – which I don’t do unless I just have to right
now. I do drive around town to the post office
or the grocery store.
Today, Sunday, has probably
been my best day this week. I’ve felt
great all day. We had a pot luck dinner at
the church, and I always enjoy those. I
especially enjoyed it today because my taste is good and has been all
week. I hate it when everything tastes
bitter the days after chemo.
Tomorrow our Alabama house
closes!!! I got the contract Thursday by
email. I printed it out, we signed all the
papers in front of a notary public, and overnighted them back the same
day. Now we are just waiting for the
MONEY TO HIT THE BANK!!!! Then we start
on the closing here. I hope it only
takes the week our banker said it would take.
All the paper work is in here, and we are just waiting on our
money. Then we can start moving some of
our things. I can’t wait to get in there
and get spread out. This afternoon I was
looking through some of my quilt things – just itching to get that room set
up!!
Next week starts my 4th
month of chemo. I do hope that 4 months
will do the trick. If I have to go
longer, OK, but oh, how I wish it could only be 4 months – 3 more times. I’m so anxious to see my Kansas City doctors
the last week of March!! I want to have
those CT scans and MRIs!!!! And I PRAY
PRAY PRAY they are clear!!!!! just want this to all be over!! I want to be healed and get on with my
life!! I know God has a purpose in all
this, and I certainly do not want to step outside His will for my life, but……God……I’m
really tired of this…….I just want to be healed completely……I’ll continue to
serve you…..I just would prefer to do it cancer free….
And as always….I remain in
His hands….
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