Update 3.14

Hi!

Thanks for your prayers this week! It has definitely been the best of the three weeks when I've gotten both the Carboplatin and Gemzar. It's still been miserable but slightly less than the other two times. I head back in tomorrow (Monday) for the just Gemzar treatment. For many the "just Gemzar" treatment isn't too bad but my body doesn't like the "just Gemzar" weeks either so I know it'll be another hard week.

Last Monday I did have an appointment with my doctor Kent and got some questions answered. I will not have to make up the treatment that I had to miss because my white blood counts were too low; needless to say, Kent is now my favorite person on the planet! I had a couple questions about symptoms I'm experiencing (hair gradually shedding, significant fatigue, and super-hungry on non-chemo weeks) which he said are totally normal; the fatigue could easily least 6+ months after treatment ends and people can easily gain weight on chemo because of the significant hunger on non-chemo weeks (every two hours I could eat an entire cow!). I asked if we could tell yet if the treatments are helping and he said that we'd only know that over the long-term. Meaning, the blood tests to measure my cancer, even at the time of surgery when we know I had cancer, were just on the high side of the normal range. After treatment I will just have to go back in periodically to see if the numbers increase; if they do, that's a sign the cancer is still there. Obviously we'll hope and pray they don't.

This week has been significantly frustrating for me mentally and emotionally...really wanting to feel ok and be able to get out of the house or have a normal conversation. Yet I am often too fatigued to have a normal conversation and getting out of the house is hard physically. Plus the nausea meds (which I need for the nausea) make me feel bad physically. I would really appreciate your prayers for me not just physically this week but mentally and emotionally, especially because my counts will be really low this week so I'll be on germ restriction as well. One praise...I was able to sneak into the church and make it to my friends' Maggie and Mark's wedding on Saturday! I'd had a rough time late Friday night and Saturday morning so didn't know if I'd get to go but ran up there for an hour and was thrilled to celebrate with them!

Thanks, thanks for all the support and prayers!

Love,
Kathy