Chemo Treatment #3 and Hereditary Test Results

Today was Chemo Treatment #3 at the  Cancer Treatment Centers of America in Tulsa.  Mark and I arrived in Tulsa on Thursday evening, checked into the hotel right there in the hospital and then went down to the Clinic to give blood.  This makes it nice for Friday when I see the doctor, they have all my lab results ready for them.  CTCA also has a web portal that I can login to and view my lab results myself. I can even download the results so I can put them in an Excel document and graph them in a chart. That's the nerdy things I like to do.  

Things improved this week:

• My protein counts were up, so I did good with the protein drinks.  Not sure I ate any better, although I did have a lot of peanut butter sandwiches in the morning with my Vitamin D pills.  
• My other counts were still good, a few were down, but not anything alarming to the doctor.
• The results of my hereditary test came back this week.  I don't have the printed copy yet, but talked to the genetic doctor and the 26 points that they test all came back with no heredity factors, so that was really great news!

I had gained a couple of pounds, but that is to be expected because of the steroids that they give me in my IV.   I need to try to walk more.  That's been really hard for me.  At work, I get up and walk up the stairs to the shop.  When I do, my legs get really tired and I'm short of breath.  I still do it though but just rest.  When I get home from work, I'm drained and just don't do much at night but rest.  I think that's good for me, so I'm not too worried about that.  But what I am going to start doing is when I get up in the morning, when I'm feeling good and not so tired, I'll walk on my street for at least 15 minutes.  Mark's going to be my coach and keep me focused.  It might put me a little late for work, but I can always make it up at lunch time.  I am not very happy about gaining weight, but it makes me feel better to know that the medicine is doing that to me and I certainly want to keep eating.  

This is the chemo room, it's a private area.  They have a lot of these rooms in the infusion center, I think close to 50 of them.   

Do you like my hat?  My friend Barbara made me 5 different hats and I love them all.  She has more material to make me some more and I bought some fabric at Joann's this week too.  I really didn't like the wig I had and just decided to wear these.  I am going to get a different wig in maybe next week and I'll try it to see what I think.  

Here's the view out the window.  Not all the infusion rooms have the window view, it's really nice.  It was pouring rain in Tulsa Thursday night and Friday.  

The rooms all have TV's in them with movies and TV channels.  We watched a movie called Lost and Found.  I would score it about 6/10, but was entertaining.

Here's Mark in the picture, taking my picture.

It takes about 4 1/2 to 5 hours to get all my chemo meds.  They give me an anti-nausea medicine, Benadryl, Pepsid and the 3 chemo meds.  The Benadryl makes me sleepy.  The last thing they do is put the Neulasta on board device on my stomach that will give me that medicine on Saturday evening.

It was pouring when we left the hospital, Mark got the car and picked me up under the awning.

It rained all the way home on us too.  It sure is nice to be home.

All in all it was a good trip and I'm feeling pretty good.  The last 3 weeks after Chemo #2, were easier than the first 3 weeks after Chemo #1.  I wasn't nearly as tired and learned how to manage my sleep and tiredness better. No sickness with either week, which is great.

Thank you for all the prayers and well wishes, I keep hearing them and they mean so much to me.  I have received a lot of cards and emails from people I haven't heard from in a long time, it's really great to get them, they brighten my day.

We had a guest speaker at a meeting at work this week from the Lebanon Community Cares Program. DT Engineering is starting a payroll deduction program for employees to give to this program.  All the money stays locally to not-for-profit agencies.  I signed up to give and I know many of our employees signed up.  They only ask for $1 from each employee per pay period.  We are so blessed. I feel so humbled by all the help I have received, once I get through this, I'm going to find more ways to give back.  This is a life changing experience for me and I know those that have been through this, understand it in ways only cancer survivors understand.

Kelly