I'm Not Dead Yet.

It doesn't seem like that long ago, when I was making assessments about round 1 of my chemo.

And now, here I am; making assessments about round 15!!!!

Nausea? Manageable

Hair Loss? Yes.

Mouth Sores? Gone.

Drippy Nose? Constantly.

Weight Gain? 23 pounds up, at last weigh-in.

Eyesight?  Still Poor.

Chemo Brain?  More like, loss of brain.

Fatigue? Perpetual.

Diarrhea? Like a river.

Change in Taste?  Not as bad as it was.  At least water doesn't taste gross anymore.  But chocolate still makes me turn my nose up.

New side-effects of chemo?

Neuropathy in my hands.  I fumble and drop things.  A lot.  It is like my hands aren't getting the signals my brain is sending to them.  And they hurt (both my hands and brain :)

Playing the piano is out of the question.  And frankly, typing this post is not easy.

Also, my fingernails have started to peel off.

I took such pains to care for my toenails.  After experiencing runners-toe, and losing toenails to that, I really didn't want to go through it again, because of chemo.  I should have taken the same care to pamper my fingernails, because now they are breaking off above the quick, and the skin is turning dark brown and falling off in places around my nail beds.

For round 14, my long-time pal, Kris came to town from Seattle.

In the time before Chemo, she and I ate out at yummy restaurants; went to see a movie, and did some outlet shopping.

I love that girl.

At my appointment, Dr. Buys could barely find the tumor, to measure it!
That was the good news.

The not-so-good-news, was that the antibiotics I had been taking to clear up my UTI had given me a massive yeast infection!
If it's not one thing...

I realized it had been a while since I had, had an energy healing session.  So, I high-tailed it over to see RaJean, and she cleared my system.  I immediately felt better.  And I am so glad that RaJean helps me.

Since round 14 was a "long chemo day", I had my port accessed in the lab, and not in the infusion room.  Both of the girls that usually work in the lab weren't there that day.  So, a girl I've never met before set-up to access my port.
I thought she inserted the needle correctly (when it's done correctly, I hardly feel it), and she thought she had done it the right way too, so she started flushing my port out with saline solution.

Holy BURN!  I was dying!
Turns out, she had not inserted the needle correctly, and she was pushing saline in to the tissue in my chest!
She pulled the needle out.
I was so traumatized.
A Nurse came in to the room, and tried to access my port.
She missed.
I knew it, because it hurt.

I was on the verge of high-tailing it down to Nurse-in-shining-armor: Gary.
The lab nurse was asking if this was the first time my port had been accessed?
Um, no.
I agreed to let one more attempt be made.  And the third attempt worked.  But the whole ordeal left my port bruised black-and-blue.  That was more than two weeks ago, and my port site is still bruised.


Chemo round 15 was about two days ago, now.  My Aunt Vickie, and cousin, Chelsea took me.  It was pretty uneventful.  Which is exactly the way I like it.

I have one more round, on Friday; and then I get a six week break.

May I tell you just how excited I am at the prospect of not having any cancer treatment during the month of November?!
It has been six weeks since I last exercised!  Between that, and the steroids I'm constantly pumping in to my body- it's no wonder I've packed on the pounds.
I'm chomping at the bit to hit the pavement running.
Seriously.
I signed up to run a turkey trot on Thanksgiving Day.
I think three weeks should be enough time to train for a 5k?  At least, I hope it is.