Getting ready for chemo #3

Dear Friends and Family,

I’m really tired tonight. Actually I’ve been tired since I got out of the hospital last week. I wake with energy but then about mid-afternoon I’m ready to go home and rest. So uncharacteristic of me.

I had my pre-chemotherapy visit with Cyndi (Physician Assistant) today. My blood count has improved but not everything is normal. My hemoglobin is slowing going down, which is probably the reason I fatigue easily and I have no energy to exercise. Cyndi prescribed more steroids because of the allergic response I had to Taxotere at the last treatment.

Tomorrow is Friday and its chemo day- I just don’t want to do it. I feel like a wimp every time I write that. It’s my third chemotherapy treatment out of the planned four. I have a lot to do tomorrow before my chemo time at 2pm. What I do the day of the chemo treatment is make notes to myself and organize my projects and paper work, so that I can remember where I’m at and what I need to do on Monday. After that first treatment where my brain felt like it had a veil over me for several days, I don’t assume that I’ll be 100% so I try to make it easy for myself with my notes. My office is at one end of the building and the chemo suite at the other. I can see that long hall way in my mind. It’s a walk I dread. Preparing to put the needle in my arm, inserting it and then taping the needle and tubing to my skin – it hurt’s! That takes about 30 minutes. Then they infuse more steroids. That takes a while. Then they infuse the Cytoxan. That takes about 40 minutes. Finally, they start the Taxotere. I’m worried about it. I hope it goes faster tomorrow.

I’m alone tomorrow for the treatment. David will be there but he’ll be busy with appointments and patient care. We are really supposed to be in East Lansing this weekend. That is what we’ve planned for more than a year. Dima is graduating with her PhD from Michigan State. Marc, Brian, Yanni and Brianna will with her to celebrate. I wish I could be with them. I’m so proud of her and I want to be with the family to celebrate. Cancer interferes with life.

love, Veronica