"Fourth Down...And It's Not Football!"

Forging on...or can I say..."Fourthing" gone! Today went pretty well, white blood cells were a little high along with some elevation in my blood sugar, which they think is coming from my steroids. Red blood cells a little low. I will be having my "Neulasta Shot" tomorrow, and I'm not looking forward to it! All in all it was a pretty uneventful day of chemo. Our appointment time was a little later than usual and the treatment room was more crowded than ever. A couple in their 30's were sitting adjacent to me and hubby. We didn't speak but to say "hello," but I overheard the lady telling the chemo nurse about her breast cancer, which sounded eerily like mine. As she finished up her treatment before me, the husband stepped over, leaned in to me and asked politely if he could ask some personal questions, I said "of course," knowing that it would be about his wife's treatment. He began by asking how long after the first treatment did I lose my hair, as this was her first treatment. I opened my mouth to speak and hubby's voice came out...each question that was asked to me, hubby would answer. It wasn't long until he had taken out my cell phone and began showing him pics of when I had my head buzzed and the end result...bald! As the couple left the room, you can imagine that I cleaned Hubby's "plow!" I must say, he has been a jewel to me through all this, and I suppose if he has a need to speak for me, I'll allow it for now. I look at him often as we sit through the long 4 1/2 hours. He reads his Bible and all the Christian literature he has brought with him. Thank you God for a husband who loves me and you!

"Minor Inconveniences!"

Third chemo, first week...down! Tomorrow begins my first week of the remaining two weeks, that I get to flirt with "being normal." I'm becoming all to familiar with the routine now. You start out with filling your body with miralax, then drink enough water to float a boat, take your day of chemo, three days of disgusting powder supplements and pills, drink enough water to float an ocean liner, next day, get your Neulasta shot, which will hit you like a ton of bricks by the day after, your stomach will bloat until you think you'll explode, the battle of constipation continues, butt and mouth rashes appear, last two days of the first week, unloading of your body waste via all the laxatives you've taken occurs, making you a prisoner in your house for fear to go anywhere...finally, experience two pretty good weeks and then start all over again. From speaking to friends and strangers who have been on chemo, this routine I have described, is a breeze compared to their stories, so I praise God for it all! I try to refer to it all as "minor inconveniences."

"Elephant or Elbow?"

Busy dreading my treatment tomorrow...I happen to notice a little muffled "ta da" in my right ear on Sunday. Not thinking much of it, I ignore it at first as it wasn't doing it all the time. That night, I began to notice it more. Thinking it felt as if a piece of wax was near my eardrum, As I have experienced in the past, I hurry upstairs in privacy to clean my ears out "with a bobby pin!" I know to most of you that this is absurd, but, for some reason, I have done this for many, many years...Reaching in to give it a whirl, I hit the jack pot, a chunk of very hard wax! I then take a tissue and see if there may be more, but only come out with a spot of "BLOOD!" Now if my husband had known what I was doing upstairs, he would be very upset with me, so needless to say, I didn't say a word other than my ear was bothering me. The next day, my ear continued to do the little muffled noise, so I discovered some ear drops which probably expired 3 or 4 years ago and dropped them into my ear. As it hit my eardrum, I jumped as if I had hit a "jackpot!" I was hardly consolable. I rushed out to hubby in tremendous pain, telling him my sob story...minutes later, my ear stops up...Dealing with it the remainder of the day and night, I am anxious to call my oncologist office to see what to do, since I would be having Chemo tomorrow. The nurse "Willie" is prompt to return my call, instructing me to go to my GP and see what the story is. Off I go, having to confess every sorted detail, and receiving the news that my ear was as clean as a whistle, with no wax or infection, but seemed to have a tiny puncture in the drum. My doctor told me that usually these things heal by themselves, but that I would have some uncomfortable days. He advised me not to put anything else in my ear so it could heal, and that there is a possibility of having to visit an Ear, Nose and Throat specialist, and I sure don't want that! My boss gave me a piece of advice as well as I returned to work. He told me as the old saying goes.."Don't put anything in your ear...smaller than your elbow!" I thought for sure, he was going to say "smaller than an ELEPHANT!"