Tuesday, July 8, 2008

Chemo 2 (Round 2)

Hi all. I had my chemo round 2 treatment today. Only 2 of the 3 drugs, so the time spent there was a little shorter today. It was only just over 4 hours today. These drugs are really knocking me on my butt. My white blood count was pretty low today, but it was enough to get the chemo. I just need to be really careful about infections now. Tomorrow, I am having a shot (injection) to help improve the white blood cell count. I am also seeing someone tomorrow that will hopefully help me with my mental state. As you can tell, I have not been feeling to great these past few days.

Mike drove me to chemo today and he stayed for about an hour and a half. Then, Phil arrived from New York to be with me for a couple of days. To say that I owe my family the debt of gratitude would be the understatement of a lifetime. Please bear with me. I will endeavor to speak to as many of you as I can or at least be in touch by email. I just don't have the energy to speak.

Today is Max's (our dog's) birthday. He is 11 years young and still very handsome and in great shape (I wish the same could be said for me). He got a special birthday dinner with some droewors (South African dried sausage). I think he enjoyed it. Happy birthday to our little gentleman (a reference to Anchorman with Will Ferrell).

(Dictated but not written. Written by Robyn.)

Sunday, July 6, 2008

Weekend Update

Hi everyone. Sorry I have been so lax in keeping up with the blog but I have had a lousy couple of days. Wednesday and Thursday were particularly low days for me mentally and physically, I seem to have a lot of fatigue and different aches and pains. We are not sure if this is all a result of the chemotherapy but we are looking into it more at my next session.

Friday, Phil arrived from Boca Raton. She was there with her family visiting our mom and decided to come and spend a couple of days with us. It was really good to have her here. I'll be brutally honest with you, I'm not sure what I would do if it wasn't for Diana, Phil and Russ. It seems like one of the important things is for me to try and keep busy, even with the fatigue I am experiencing. So Friday afternoon, we all went to see WALL-E (the movie). It's another one of those Pixar animated movies and it was really cute. Since it was July 4th. we had a special Friday night dinner, complete with food from Chicken Out, Mike's former place of employment. Then later, we watched Rush Hour 3 on HBO, followed by the Macy's July 4th Fireworks display on TV, which took place in New York City. It was raining outside so we didn't get to see any of our own. Happy July 4th to all you "Mericans."

Saturday, we had another outing. This time, we went downtown to the aquarium. If you don't know this, the Baltimore aquarium is quite famous and really nice. Once again, Phil's generosity came through. We weren't able to get regular tickets, so she bought our family membership and we were able to walk right in. Little did we know that July 4th weekend, the Harbor would be completely insane. Should have known. At the infusion center, they have a really nice fish tank and it reminds me of the aquarium. We will visit the aquarium many times when it's not so buys. We will have lots of pictures to take (and dolphin shows to see). Saturday evening, the kids had lots of friends over and they went swimming. I had a really nice bath with lots and lots of nice bath salts and candles. This really seems to help relax me because the aches and fatigue are really shit!

Sunday morning, we watched the Wimbledon men's final. It's truly amazing. we don't the result yet, but its some amazing tennis. I would like to see Roger Federer win. At lunch time, Phil left back to New York on the train. I think she is coming back Tuesday for the next chemo session.

We have lots to discuss with the doctor on Tuesday, as the fatigue and aches and my mental state are really taking a toll. I'm sorry if I haven't talked to some of you on the phone. I promise when I'm able, we will talk. In the mean time, thanks for reading the blog. Love you all.

(Dictate but not written. Written by Robyn.)