The Respite is Over

Life on the chemo cocktail of Gem/Tax wasn’t so great. I lost my hair…I lost my sense of taste…my bones ached and I was tired. It eventually attacked my lungs and Gem/Tax and I had to part ways mid-February. Granted, I was super sick at that point. A month of massive doses of steroids cured me and gave me the energy to get a lot done. I made 11 photobooks from recent travels that I had fallen waaaaay behind on doing. Thanks to Shutterfly, the trips and family photos are now immortalized. I made three old fashioned scrapbooks with printed photos as well. I currently have 4 more projects sitting in my home office awaiting my attention. I have gotten Lily set up on a schedule and calendar for her 9 classes she is doing online. Three weeks in, she is doing much better at organizing her time and prioritizing her work. That is a hard lesson to learn, but a valuable one. We had painters in our house for a week painting the upstairs kitchen, hall and living room. They also repainted the hall, stairway and living room in the basement. What once looked like a dungeon, is now a beautiful place to relax. Rich and I just finished putting up new family travel photos up on the walls down there and moved the furniture to their final spots. I have a few things to do in the apartment so it is ready for company if needed; that can be done today and tomorrow. It’s not like people are traveling much. I kinda feel like I am a pregnant mother nesting before the birth of her child….I am trying to get everything cleaned up and nice for when I am incapacitated with the effects of chemotherapy. I have talked to other cancer patients and it is kind of a common thing…trying to rush around and get things done before treatment begins.

I got the call about an hour ago. I will be starting chemotherapy (Doxil) Thursday morning. Everyone is so excited that I get to get back in the fight. However, I honestly have mixed emotions. Chemo is awful. No kind of poison that you willing pump into your body makes you feel good. I don’t know what to expect…and I know this is the kinder of the medications in this family of chemos, they have dubbed “the Red Devil”. Evidently the chemo is dark red. I will let you know on Thursday. The doctor forget to mention the other medication for my bones (Zomeda) to the nurse, so that was not sent in for approval to my insurance company. This was providential because I really wanted to space these two meds out anyways. So Thursday morning I start again. For all you military folks out there…it is back to war. My R&R is up.

Before I go, I want to thank in a very public fashion, my friend Julia Palma Law for the amazing care package I received yesterday. I met Julia when we both were stationed in Norway. She is now in Japan and sent me a huge box full of Japanese snack foods. It was AMAZING! My adult sons are both so jealous! I will say that Rich, Lily, and I all agreed that the Sakura (cherry blossom) sake kit kats had the most unusual taste ever. Thank you so much for the package, Julia! It brought back so many memories of our time living in Japan!