Chemo Treatment 5 - Day 6

 Happy 4th of July to whoever is reading this!

This week was pretty rough on her physically, mentally, and emotionally. 

She basically stayed in the same spot on the couch from Monday evening (when we got home from treatment) until Saturday morning. That is of course with the exception of going to the bathroom, going to hospital Wed to have 5FU pump removed, and going to bed. 

Other than that, I pretty much brought her food and drinks and stuff because she had zero energy.

She had several ups and downs because of this. She wanted to get up and do things around the house. She said she felt bad because I was doing everything. But she couldn't because she didn't have the energy to get up. I made sure she knew that this is what I wanted to be doing and that is was no burden on me and we had several long talks throughout the week about all kinds of different stuff. Each cycle seems to have a little longer recovery time (energy). I am hoping that we have kind of hit the maximum recovery time on this past treatment, and this is how the remaining 3 before scans will go (and not be any worse). 

This is not something she asked for, but these are the cards she was dealt. So I will make sure that this whole process is as easy on her as absolutely possible for anything I can do or control. I say that, because there is a lot of the stuff that I (nor anyone else) can control. Like her feeling weak or like crap, tingly hands and feet, having to drink lukewarm drinks, etc.. Those things nobody can fix, but if I can bring her meals and snacks to the couch, get her medicine, make her fresh drinks, clean up the house, then hopefully those little things help.

One other thing that is more than likely coming is losing her hair. We had been told it would happen and are prepared for that. It can happen to people at treatment 2, or it can just thin out and never completely be gone. Hers has been thinning little by little over the past 5 treatments. When she took a shower yesterday morning, she said it was coming out more than it had been. It still looks fine right now. 
We talked about that whole ordeal for a bit. It is easy for us (people not in her shoes) to say, "be strong, it is just hair, it is just a temporary thing, it will grow back". Yeah, we know that is true, but that isn't all there is to it. It is like she said yesterday, "I know it is temporary and it will grow back, not worried about that.. I just don't want to look in the mirror and not see myself, and instead see someone that now actually looks sick". That really puts it in perspective. The more we get into this thing, the more I am finding that this is just as much a mental battle as it is a physical battle. Lucky for her, she has a huge support team of family and friends and co-workers to back her up and help her in any way.

Now that we have covered most of this past week, lets move onto the good part.

Yesterday she was feeling much better. She was up and messing around with stuff in the house while I made breakfast. We ate, and went out on the back deck to enjoy the nice cool morning. We took the dog for a walk for the first time in a week. Then we went for a drive and got Little Richards BBQ on the way home. We ate dinner, watched some TV, and went to bed. She had a full day and felt great. So it looks like we are thru the hard part of this cycle.

Today, we are planning to go to Oak Hollow Lake Campground. Her sister Jen (and Steven & Annabell) are staying there over this holiday weekend with their camper. We are just going to go hang out with them for the afternoon. I have two racks of pork back ribs in the smoker, along with a tray of cowboy beans. Should be pretty good eating. So that should be a good relaxing time just hanging out there.

That is it for now. Wanted to let everyone know she is feeling better and getting back to her normal self.