Chemo #6 - Hopefully my LAST chemo...

Sorry for the lack of posts the past couple of weeks. Here's a breakdown, though:
**Chemo #5 was a doozy.

**My neutrophils (the emerging/immature white blood cells) were 0.03 at my nadir labs a week after. They're supposed to be at least a  4.0. I had been feeling pretty awful, and my infusion nurse, Sharon, said that was definitely why I felt so bad. I probably shouldn't have gone to work all week, but when I don't work, I don't get paid. It's hard to negotiate the gap between work & my health at this point because I'm so tired and it takes my body so much longer to bounce back from each chemo treatment.
I got lots of shots after my nadir labs to help my white blood cell count. They cause some bone pain, but since I switched to a different allergy pill, the pain is much more manageable.

**This past weekend, I slept. I woke up on Saturday morning, ate some breakfast and drank some coffee, then took a nap. I woke up in time for lunch, and took another nap. Then I woke up in time for dinner, and took another nap. I finally just got in the bed... Sunday was a repeat of Saturday. Sadly, I didn't really feel rested for work on Monday, and could have easily slept all day again, but I went to work anyway.

**Christmas Eve and Christmas Day were spent with the family. It was nice, and everyone got along well... We had so much delicious food for Christmas Eve dinner, but I didn't have the best appetite. I ate as much as I could though, because who can pass up beef tenderloin, roasted garlic mashed potatoes, mushroom/sherry cream sauce, and crepes? Not this girl.


Hopefully, I get an extra infusion for my white blood cells today during my chemo treatment so that I don't have the overwhelming fatigue I had after the last treatment. Hopefully, I can get out and walk some this weekend so I don't feel so home-bound and lazy. Hopefully, I can blog about some things over the next few weeks other than how I feel so tired and sick. Keep your fingers crossed!!

Chemo #5 - Penultimate Poisoning

Good news! My CT scan was full of truly, genuinely great things. My bones show signs of healing. The 2 lymph nodes - one under the muscle in my breast & the other in my armpit - are both significantly smaller. The tumor in my right breast is getting smaller also!  My oncologist, my aunt (Nurse Practitioner Extraordinaire), and I are completely thrilled especially because the results are so much better than expected. It's always wonderful to get such news from my oncologist. Let's hope it continues.

Mediocre news... The CT scan picked up some spots on my liver and a cyst on one of my ovaries. I say this is "mediocre" news because my oncologist is not concerned with either issue, but I'll get a MRI next week to confirm his suspicions. The cyst on my ovary isn't at all a concern, because it's plainly not cancerous, and it probably has been around for a while, and it likely caused much of my horrible painful cramps throughout the years. The spots that showed up on my liver would have clearly lit up on my PET scan before treatment started if they were cancerous, and they did not. It's highly unlikely that they sprouted up during my chemotherapy treatments when all the rest of the cancer cells have been responding well. 

My oncologist & aunt both said not to stress over either thing, and we'll do another MRI just to be certain.

Bad-ish news... I had Chemo #5 today, and one more left to go. I wasn't lucky enough to get to skip anything, but I'm really not even that upset about it considering the great news I got. Yes, I'll feel like crap for another week or two. Yes, it'll suck just a little more than last time. And yes, I'll get through it just like I did the previous 4 times -- by being my normal bad-ass self (with a little less cancer.)