Fifth Treatment

If you read my previous post, you will see there is no boo-yah to accompany this treatment.  I did it.  It's done.  Seven more to go.  Yayyyyy....not.

I did have a doctor appointment this week as it was the first Monday of the month.  They said that, "Everything looks good."  My iron counts are holding fairly stable, only borderline anemic, instead of actual anemic. I was approved for Chemo, so I assume that means the lymphocytes and all that jazz were acceptable.  They said the tumor may feel even smaller; something about the borders being less distinguishable.  So, that's all good.  Yay!  For real.

We talked a little bit about upcoming dates, tests, appointments, and more fun stuff.  I am anxious to get my surgery on the calendar, because if I can work it all out perfectly (and there's not a lot of wiggle room), I would finish Chemo on the 24th of March.  The kids will be home from school the week before Easter, so I would like to have surgery the very week after Easter (sometime the week of April 21st).  Then, with like five to six weeks to recover, I would really like to go to Portland with Heather the first weekend of June and meet Beth there as well.  Something to look forward to!!!  I was hoping to truly be able to look forward to this as of today, but alas, they want me to make it through all my February Chemos, without having to push any back, and then I can (I get) to have another MRI (an hour of lying on my stomach with my arms above my head while a machine makes the loudest most annoying clunking noises you have ever heard), followed by an appointment with the surgeon (who is truly very sweet and nice, so I will actually look forward to that), followed by the scheduling of the surgery, followed by the rest of my Chemos, followed by...the dreaded surgery, followed by recovery, followed by maybe going to Portland, followed by six weeks of radiation every day, followed by...freedom???  Is that possible?  So, I now have an MRI on the 4th of March, and an appointment with Dr. Kong on the 11th of March.  Gee, March is going to be fun!

In an attempt to now become a little more upbeat, I would like to say that I wanted to dedicate this round of Chemo (is that a weird thing to do?) to my friend, Denise Kostka, who provided me with these awesome cancer-kicking socks:

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Could those be any more perfect?!  I just love them!  Denise is going through her own thing, fighting liver cancer.  She is doing really great, but needs to gain some weight back, so she can have some more energy, so she can continue to fight this nasty cancer stuff.  If you would take a moment to say a prayer for her, I sure would appreciate it.  Denise is a wife, mom and grandmother to a new-ish young man, Luke (I want to say he is like 20 months old???), so she needs to gain this energy back to be there for these important people!

Finally, this week I was lucky enough to have four Kelly's Army members at Chemo this week - Jenny R., Heather,  Jen S. and Matt (taking the picture).  They helped me to "Suck it up, Buttercup!" and we had a nice time chatting.  I am so grateful to have such wonderful, committed, loyal, kind, caring friends!  Thank you girls!