Surviving Cancer

I had an appointment with my oncologist today. We discussed how the last month of this new chemo medication has gone. Well the answer is, not well. Although I am very grateful and thankful I have not experienced many acute side effects, it’s the whole keeping my blood counts good enough to stay on schedule that has been the problem.

Today, I had what should have been my fifth chemo, but it was only my third. The most important number, my ANC was at 1,300 today. The cutoff my doctor gave me is 1,200. So I just barely made it. During my appointment we had a discussion about lowering the dose of my weekly chemo. This would not affect the time line or the number of treatments. My oncologist thinks this medication is a little harsher on my blood counts and doesn’t want me to keep missing treatments and prolonging the process. He is all about staying on schedule. Which I am all for. Except for the week of Christmas…

He REALLY wants me to stay on schedule and not miss any more treatments if I don’t have to. So trying to plan around Christmas has been a challenge. It’s still up in the air at this point. I will either skip chemo all together that week, which my doctor is not fond of, miss one of my family Christmas’s, or, rearrange the Christmas schedule of my entire family in order to accommodate me. I’ll tell you, I’m not real fond of any of those options. Guess we will wait and see. No decisions will be made until my appointment on the 19th.

An update on the kiddos; well they are doing great. They started a new daycare two days a week, several weeks ago, and they absolutely love it there. Their provider is so wonderful and they both light up when we drop them off. We still have our wonderful friend watching them one day a week. The kids absolutely love going there as well. Out of my crappy situation, we gained a life long friend. She is an incredible women; an angel on earth. I don’t know what we do without her. She has also come to our home a couple times and deep cleaned for us. She cleans, on a regular basis like I never have. The other two days of the week Josh is home from school and is able to help out with the kids if I need to rest. It has been a collaborative effort and has been working well for us.

There may be stuff I forget to mention, or explain well enough in my blogs and posts. Feel free to reach out me and ask questions if you have them. It doesn’t offend me in any way. I am an open book.

Continued prayers are welcomed and appreciated.

The fight continues.