August 9th -- Chemo Round II

Mom took me to Chemo again today--- We had a nice dialogue with Mike and Kelly (Mike's wife). Mike and I are on the same schedule, so it is great to have others there to share the experience with. My mom had a great conversation yesterday with a Breast cancer survivor (I am unsure of her name), and it was great to see her positive attitude and hear about her individual story-- We are guessing that this nice lady was in her mid-forties. Her mother had died from breast cancer when she was 48, so it is great to see the great progress we have made in treatments and likewise our ability to find and cure this disease. Her prognosis sounds good, and I am sure she will have many more enjoyable years with her four kids once this treatment is over.
I also got a great letter from a family friend who is a survivor of colon cancer. Again, a great encouragement to those of us going through the disease. Also, it is great to see so much support during this challenging time. I hope everyone else who is going through this can feel the same level of encouragement and support!
On to my daily feelings . . .

Yesterday after returning from my "rest" weeks, I had a bit of nausea and fatigue. This is expected and Mike and I shared this feeling. I feel a bit better today, but definitely have had a bit more of an aversion to food than last week. I had a little bit of egg noodles and some teriyaki beef (extras from Sarah's lunch) and was not totally turned off by either food, but I was fighting off some light nausea while eating, so I was shoving stuff down a little bit. At least I don't have my aversion to cheerios yet!
On the positive sides, Linda (one of the nurses) said that my bald head looks great and gave it a kiss yesterday! Bald is cool!
Diana (one of the schedulers at the center) is a great personality and has given us some great advice for if/when we travel to Hawaii.
Hannah (our 2.5 year old daughter) seems to be a little under the weather today with a mild fever-- hopefully she will be better soon, and feel better. I also hope that any infection she might have will not travel over to me since my immune system is so degraded. Under the advice of the Oncology team at the Rocky Mountain Cancer Center I will be having a shot of neulastin (a boost for my white blood cell count) on Saturday. Apparently this one shot costs in the range of $6000-- thank goodness for insurance! What is up with that?? how can one shot be six thousand dollars!!?? I am sure it is a reflection of the litigious nature of our society and all of the costs associated with development of the drug, but who can afford this on their own! Enough ranting, I suppose, but it sure would be nice to have a good solution to rising insurance and healthcare costs!

One Day Closer to Cured!