My last full week of chemo was long and grueling as expected. Tried to change up how I spend my time by buying the book Ready Player One on Monday night. I binge read it and finished the 370-ish page book by Wednesday.
I was looking forward to my sister Kimberly’s visit. The last time she was here was when I first got my diagnosis and because of the long weekend, she was able to fly back for a few days and make it to my last chemo session on Friday.
Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to make it to the MN state fair this year but she was nice enough to bring me back an order of fried pickles stuffed with cream cheese. I toasted them in the toaster oven, good but not as good as getting them hot and fresh.
Neulasta side effects kicked in on Saturday night where my ribs and legs started hurting. Sunday I spent most of the day sleeping because I just couldn’t get out of bed due to my bones hurting and I was so tired and fatigued from getting pumped full of chemo meds from the previous week. It’s annoying to be in bed all day and then being told to get “plenty of sleep” from mom because my body needs to recover. I’ve always lived on 6ish hours of sleep because I think sleep is boring and I’d rather be active and doing stuff.
Monday my dad was in bad shape where he had body aches all over and was in bed all day. He had a fever most of the day too and was pretty much out of it. He was feeling better on Tuesday but considering that he’s the one that usually drives us to Mayo for my chemo booster on Tuesdays, mom made him wear a mask in the car.
Herein lies the hipocracy of my parents rules: they don’t want me out in public because I could catch something from a stranger. My dad was clearly sick the day before but I’m stuck with him all day…I just don’t get it.
Lucky for me, my blood tests showed that my neutrophils count was at 33.3 when regular range is 1.5-6.45. Guess that $11,000 medication is definitely working.
I definitely have to testify that God has been listening to my prayers. Mom made me bone soup last week and forgot it on the stove while it was boiling away for +8 hours to the point where all the liquid evaporated and she was left with a burnt pot of bones. I haven’t had to drink that dang soup for 2 weeks now. Praise the Lord!
While at Mayo on Tuesday afternoon, there was a tornado warning and it was just pouring rain the entire day. The hospital was also backlogged because Monday was Labor Day and so I had to wait over an hour and a half to get my bandages cleaned up and almost an hour for my shot of bleomycin. We didn’t leave the hospital until at least 6:30pm. About half an hour before we were home, dad jokingly asked if I’m getting a fever. It was then that I noticed that the joints in my hands were getting achy….ugh
Got into the driveway and my shoulders and back were really tired. In the time it took me to get into bed, I had a temperature which just kept going up for several hours.
My fever topped out at 101.9f and I was burning up so bad for several hours that dad gave me an ice pack to cool down. At 2am my temp was down to 100.6f and I was able to go to sleep.
I seriously don’t understand why my body reacts like this on my 2nd week of a chemo round when I don’t get fevers on my 1st or 3rd weeks. Even though I was anticipating getting sick, it doesn’t make it any easier to deal with. In fact, I actually had the foresight to postpone celebrating my anniversary with Joanna because I knew that I was going to get sick.
Sidenote: Joanna and I had our 12 year anniversary of dating on Tuesday. It’s seriously crazy that we’ve been together for this long, more than 1/3rd of our lives. I’m hurting right now that I’ve spent 3 months away from her where I can’t play the support role that I’ve loved being for her. It also sucks that we only get to hang out once or twice a week due to her busy work schedule. When we do hang out though, I forget that I’m sick for just a few hours which is a relief.
Look how cute we’ve looked throughout the years!
A few weeks ago, I scheduled an appointment with a psychotherapist at the cancer center in St. Louis Park. I had a half hour intro meeting with her yesterday and it was really nice. I felt that I could talk about what’s going on with me in a different way than I would with a friend because I didn’t have to worry about talking too much, being negative, or misinterpreted. She specifically works with patients with cancer so she totally gets what I’m going through which was really helpful.
I have a first official appointment next week that will be 90 minutes and then we’ll determine how to schedule follow up meetings. The main thing is that I want to be validated with all the crap that I’m dealing with as well as have a 3rd party help me figure out how I can regain some of the independence I’ve lost while living with my parents.
