Chemo #3 tomorrow (I hope)

Well, tomorrow (December 1st) I'm scheduled for my third chemo treatment and I am anxious to get the show on the road. After that, I will have one remaining. To quote one woman going through cancer treatment, "Forward, forward, forward!" That's the name of the game. :~) I had a wonderful Thanksgiving with my family (mom, dad, brother, husband, daughter, and a friend from church) and all I can say is that it was another reminder of how precious life is and how blessed I am to be surrounded with the love and support of my family. Truly, truly, I am blessed!

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Best "Cancer Advice" I've received

Nearly two weeks out from my second chemo treatment and I'm feeling fairly close to normal. In case I haven't mentioned it, chemo and the associated drugs (steroids and anti-nausea, etc.) do quite a number on your digestive system. However, my system is getting back on track and, as Martha Stewart would say, "It's a good thing." :~) My eyes have been twitching a lot the last couple of days and I just thought it was annoying, but didn't associate it with chemo. It was nearly driving me crazy today, though, so I searched for "eye twitch" on the discussion boards on breastcancer.org and discovered that indeed, eye twitching is associated with neuropathy from the Taxotere chemo drug.

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Second chemo down . . . two to go

Sorry to keep anyone hanging by not updating my blog sooner. I had my second chemo treatment on Monday, November 10th and here it is five days later. I'm not sick, just more fatigued this time, so I was waiting until I had more of my mental faculties before I posted again. Not sure if the brain cells have returned quite yet, but I'm forging ahead anyway. :~) (By the way, "chemo brain" is real, I'm here to tell you.) Chemo treatment #2 was similar to the first, only this time my husband and I were only at Swedish Hospital for six hours instead of twelve. Still sounds like a long time, but they went pretty quickly, really.

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Miracles and healing

I’ve been doing a lot of thinking lately about healing and medicine. I regularly pray that God will use my medical caregivers and the drugs they are giving me as a means of my cure. I know that many people--myself included--think of chemotherapy as something against nature, something that is poison, to be sure. I’ve had people try to talk me out of chemo, to send me off for alternative treatment. And while I do believe that cancer is a malfunction of my immune system and that I need to do whatever I can to rectify whatever set it in motion in the first place, I also know that there are many people walking around today who have been cured from cancer by conventional means. In fact, I read a book called Cancer: 50 Essential Things To Do by an author who had cancer and was not given a good prognosis. He eventually beat cancer and then set about to find out what cancer survivors have in common.

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