Round Two Chemo

Yesterday I had a follow up with Dr Clemons and the indominatable Hazel. The good doctor was actually on time with his appointments (!) and basically we had a lovely visit. The good news is that, although the chemicals will accumulate, the first treatment tends to have the worst side effects re: nausea. As I really only felt hung over, Clemons figures I'll sail through the next three without major problems. After that the chemo switches to "T" and so all bets are off again.

The bad news however is that my white cells are so low they may not be able to give me the chemo tomorrow. The problem with that is that they really don't want to delay the treatment b/c they really want to knock the shit out of the cancer. Clemons said that they've already knocked me on my ass - and he was tickled pink by that thought. What a delicate balancing game. So, my job today and tomorrow is to grow white blood cells. Anyone have any suggestions? I'm currently at 0.4 and they won't treat me unless I get it up to 1.0.

To add insult to injury, in order to boost my white cells after my next chemo, they have increased the injections that I'm supposed to be giving myself from 5 to 7 and Clemons said not to be surprised if they boost that to 10 following the next round. If I have to do 10 of 14 days, I am going to have to learn to give myself the shot. Clemons is surprised that I couldn't do it. "Kids give themselves shots all the time!" he said looking at me like I was dirt on his shoes. "Kids are pliant to authority" was my response and Clemons burst out laughing: "You don't bend to authority at all I bet." Man! Am I that comletely easy to read? I have no mystery to me at all, do I?

Also, Clemons told me that my CT scan shows some abnormalities in my lungs and my liver. He thinks they are perfectly normal abnormalities (chew on that one Jane) and wouldn't have been caught even a few years ago on a scan. Apparently he had to convince Diane to let me into the D-sab trials! Hm. I'll have to explore that with him once all this junk is out of the way.

On a much lighter note I bought three different head coverings yesterday. There will again be no surprise when I tell you that one is turquoise, one teal and one purple:) They're cute enough.

My last bit of news is that the lymphadema has begun. All of a sudden on Monday I looked down and my right had was hugesly swollen and it's stayed that way since. Just one more thing to get on top of. Oh, and I almost forgot, I only gained 4 pounds over the holidays! Not bad for someone who tried to see how many spice cookies one had to consume before puking:) (The answer is more than it takes to give on heartburn).

Love to everyone.