Round 7 recovery

The past week has been full of the usual fatigue and nausea but worse than ever has been the pain in my ankles, knees and leg bones. It seems that with each round of chemo the pain gets worse and no amount of different pain killers seem to have an affect on the level of pain. Finally today, one week after chemo, I am feeling a bit better. I vowed today that once I am healthy and have my full energy levels back, I will never ever complain about fatigue.

Arie came out of hospital yesterday and seems to be doing reasonably. I promised my mom that I would go visit her as soon as my chemo’s are done and my blood counts are normal again. Dr L has said that I cannot fly until my blood counts have fully recovered.

Chemo round 7 Done and dusted!

As you all probably guessed, I got my dose of chemotherapy yesterday. Seven down and one to go! I am feeling quite excited about the thought of the last chemo session being behind me soon. The chemo nurse decided to use a vein in my hand again – how selfish they are as I am sure they have not needed to use the toilet with only one able hand! Down with my loose track pants, down with the panties and then the hoisting up episode again. I managed to only have to do this once and held my bladder until after all the tubes were removed. The last two chemo rounds I have been by myself for the bulk of the session. Anet dropped me at the chemo room at 09h00, she then popped around midday to give my feet and head a massage and then came to fetch me at around 15h30. Straight to bed at home, got up around 18h30 when Anet dropped by again with dinner for us. Felt really nauseas last night which is a first so early after chemo. Today I have been at home quietly and peacefully with Sanche dropping off dinner for us tonight. Thanks also to Anja acting as my boys taxi service.

My mom phoned me last night around 18h30. Arie, her hubby, had another stoke Tuesday late afternoon and was taken into hospital. At this stage he does not even recognise my mom anymore. I will phone her tonight again to get an update on the situation.

Chemo round 7 rescheduled again

This morning I was at the hospital for blood tests at 07h30 and we left for the chemo room at 09h00. Got to the chemo room around 9h30 and they said to wait a few minutes for the blood results so suggested we pop out for a cup of coffee. Whilst Ian was buying the coffee I received the phone call from Dr L’s surgery. My white blood cells are now just within range but the neutrophils are still too low to get chemo….. shit shit shit shit!!! (Actually want to utter the F word!). The good news is that my neupogen injection has been approved so that was administered at the chemo room. So, now I am back at home with some rest planned. Chemo is now planned for Wednesday (23rd) and I have just rescheduled my gynie Dr V to later this week as that was on the plan for Wednesday. The worst of all this is that Ian is leaving for Bisho tomorrow morning so I need to call in the support group to do all the driving around of myself and boys. All the rescheduling really fucks the mind!

Neupogen injection

Wednesday evening Ian and I had a lovely dinner with Sean opting to stay at home to give us “alone time”. Thursday I popped into the office for a few hours. It was lovely to see everybody again but exhausting to spend a few hours concentrating! I slept really well last night! This morning I phoned the oncology clinic and I am still waiting for the return call as the Neupogen injection is still not approved. (Neupogen is used to stimulate the production of granulocytes (a type of white blood cell) in patients undergoing therapy that will cause low white blood cell counts. Neupogen is used to prevent infection and neutropenic (low white blood cells) fevers caused by chemotherapy.) I actually doubt that I will receive the injection this round.

In this week I have been doing some thinking around the human body and its amazing ability to recover from injury and illness. It is truly amazing when you start understanding what happens when an infection hits the body and when you see how fast people recover from severe operations and therapy. The human body must surely still amaze the most dedicated scientists and we must be grateful for our bodies. When you are healthy you never think for a second about healthy cells, healthy blood counts, etc but once you know how you feel when your blood counts are not normal you get a new appreciation for healthy blood counts and look forward to feeling that ‘normal’ level of energy again.

Chemo round 7 rescheduled

I am surely psychic! The blood tests this morning revealed that my overall white blood cells and neutrophils are too low for chemo tomorrow. Once again I am on a week of medrol medication and a special request has been sent to medical aid for a 'blood booster' injection. I should get the approval by Thursday and then the injection Friday morning. Chemo is now rescheduled for Monday 21 April. Between all of us I am actually quite pleased that this round is rescheduled as tomorrow is our 20th wedding anniversary.
The second school term started yesterday (thank goodness) and Dylan left this morning for Grahamstown where there is a science festival for a week. Ian has been working from home for the past 2 months and it waiting for the go ahead for a six month assignment in Bisho. Once he leaves for Bisho we expect him to come home only every second week-end.

Monday blues

Hi All, I need to apologise for not doing any blog updates, but our home pc is on the blick! In fact, all 3 pc's (Dylan Sean and home) have given us problems in the last 3 weeks... can you believe that! So here is a quick update via a borrowed resource. The week has just flown by and I have had a fair share of visitors and have been feeling exhausted. We had a 'show house' again yesterday and I did very few preparations for this - the least I have even done and nobody made any comments so I will know for the future that less effort is also acceptable. The owners (Fam X) of the house that we have made an offer to purchase have come back to us asking that we extend the offer until 31 May 2008. This will give us another 6 weeks to try to sell our home in the worst market in years. We have said that is ok but are also pursuing quotes to do the renovations we had planned for our current home - with all these months of being at home I just want a complete change! Tomorrow is blood test day again - will let you know the results.

08 04 08

Anybody into numerology? Today’s date must have special meaning… and what about the meaning of 08 August this year… 3 eights…. Would love to get feedback on what you think?

The past week has just flown past. We, the family, went away for a few days. It was wonderful and I managed to get through 3 novels… that just tells you what I did in the week…. Absolutely nothing! The boys had a wonderful time as we stayed on a timeshare resort on the waters edge. They entertained themselves with waterskiing, fishing, tennis, squash, cycling, swimming and chatting up girls. The weather was great for the first 5 days so we cannot complain about the 2 days of rain at the end of the week.

I am feeling much better this week, though I am tired I am managing not to sleep in the afternoon but then do have a good 10-12 hours sleep at night. I can feel that my blood counts are not up to speed.