Friday November 6

Well the lack of sleep on Wednesday night finally caught up with me last night. I fell asleep at 8:00 and slept until 6:30 this morning. Best I've slept in awhile. I woke up feeling pretty good this morning. Steve had the day off and we needed to go to the grocery store so I decided that I would go with. We went to Kroger, Walmart and to lunch at Five Guys. We've decided the grilled cheese with grilled shrooms and onions is pretty good.

Steve went out shopping for my birthday present and I stayed at home and got a bit of knitting done. We tried to get caught up on some of our DVR shows but AGAIN I immediately went to sleep and didn't see any of it. Guess the chemo treatment was hitting me again this afternoon.

I made chili and cornbread for dinner. I ate some but didn't have a great appetite. Plus, the chili really needs to cook longer tomorrow.

Hoping to not have to spend my birthday tomorrow in bed as I did on the Saturday after my first treatment. We'll see how it goes.

Day 1 after Chemo

Today was a really good day. No side effects at all.

My biggest concern during this whole thing has been the probability of losing my eyebrows. I haven't really had a concern about the hair because there is always something to put on your head BUT the eyebrows are a different story. I also decided it would be smart for me to do this before they are gone so I at least could get something that is closest to the original color. So I headed out to the mall to the make up counter. They taught me how to measure where they should be on my face and how to draw them on. I also wanted lipstick so I got that also. They applied eye shadow as eyeliner (at the base of my eye lashes instead of trying to draw that straight line on the top of the lashes). They also convinced me that if I lost my eye lashes but used eye liner no one would even know I didn't have lashes. It looked pretty good so I left with that product also. Hopefully, I'll be able to do all of this. Guess I'll start practicing tomorrow.

Also ran errands at Crate and Barrel, DSW shoes, and Fresh Market.

I picked up some roses for a neighbor friend who underwent a surgical procedure yesterday. I stopped by to see her this afternoon. Good news is the surgery was a success and she was on the mend.

Paxton and I spent some time out on the deck in the sun today. It was nice until the wind kicked up and a cold front started to move in.

Didn't get to sleep last night until 12:30 and was awake at 5:00. I did take a short nap this afternoon.

Chemo Treatment #2

I was a big concerned about the WBC count today but according to the nurse, my blood work was "Fabulous". My WBC was 7 which is very normal, actually higher than it was when I went to the Emergency room. I was stoked.

Next activity was putting the needle in my arm. That was not easy! Two people tried 7 different places, and lots of different sizes of needles. We finally decided to try the right hand since the left was used the last time and also at the hospital. Apparently, the skin and veins were pretty tough. The eight time it finally worked and we were on the way.

I had an appointment with the Dr. today. He said that some people (me as usual) develop very sensitive places on the skin and that it would disappear with time. The only suggestion was to take Motrin and if that doesn't work to take some of the more powerful pain killers that he prescribed. I also told him that I had a knot at one place. I said, What is this knot?" His response, "It's a knot". DUH! What he meant was that it really is a knot. He said, 'You know all of that sewing up I had to do underneath there had to be tied off somewhere, so that is the knot". "Oh, I get it". It will dissolve, with time. He also said that I seem to be tolerating chemo pretty well. He told me I was being to strict with the confinement. Maybe we'll make some changes this go round.

This morning when I walked in with my hat on the nurse and I talked about the hair loss. Her first question was "Did your hair hurt?" "Whoa, yes, why didn't you all tell me about that.?" "Everyone tolerates this process differently. This doesn't happen to everyone. (me again) I guess they don't want to have people obsessing over something that may not happen. Understandable, but it would have been nice to know that it might happen.

Kathy stayed with me all day today. It's so great to have company. I can't thank her enough for spending her day off with me. Such a great friend. We spent the day knitting and visiting. The day was long 8:15 - 2:30. Afterwords Kathy wanted to go buy a couple of gifts so we went to TJ Max and I picked up a couple of more hats, and a jogging suit (which I haven't tried on yet.)

Poor Paxton was in his crate a long time today. He was SO happy to see me. Lots of jumping and puppy kisses. We took a long walk and visited with some neighbors.

One of the neighbors brought us dinner tonight. I tell you, I don't think we could have picked a better neighborhood to live. The people here have just been fantastic.

I'm hoping, I'll feel okay to do a couple of quick errands tomorrow. If things go like they did the last time my most tired days will be Friday afternoon and Saturday. We'll see.

A Wig in the Shower

Today I had just had about enough of the shedding. While in the shower this morning, I decided to get rid of as much of the hair as I could. All it really took was running my hands through my hair and using a hairbrush. The shower floor ended up with just about enough hair to make a wig, quite a large amount. There is still some remaining on my head, BUT it is really nasty looking. There is no way I could show up in public without something covering my head. I decided to start off with a knitted cap. I really felt like it looked pretty cute. I went to the knitting shop and did get a compliment on the hat. Maybe they were being nice? By the time I finished running around this morning it was noonish and the day had warmed up. The knit hat was hot so I came home, found a large scarf and tied it on. Not too bad. I was afraid of what Steve was going to say when he got home because he's never been sold on the hat/scarf idea. He actually thought the scarf looked nice, especially when I showed him what was underneath. He realized that it is time for some head gear and it doesn't look as bad as he had anticipated.

I bought a new hat today when I was out and it looks great with a scarf also. I also bought 3 pairs of large earrings. Trying to jazz up the hats and scarves. I'm looking forward to some fashion accessorizing.

Hoping that the WBC's are up tomorrow so that I can get Treatment #2 out of the way.

Monday November 2

Steve had the day off today. Always enjoy having him around. We both took Paxton for his morning walk. Was nice to do it NOT in the rain. Steve worked out, I took and shower and did a couple of odd jobs around the house. Same ole, same ole with the hair in the shower this morning. About the same out, obviously nothing new in.

We decided to get out of the house since it has been almost 2 weeks since my white cell count was low. Guess we are both thinking/hoping that it has gone up by now. We put gas in my car, stopped at Joann Fabrics to get 7 buttons for a bomber jacket sweater that I just finished. No luck, the most they had of any one button was 6. UGH. We then went to the west end to Whole Foods, stopped at Home Goods which just opened a couple of weeks ago, went to Costco and then stopped for lunch at Bogarts.

About 6 months ago, we purchased 6 LED light bulbs at Costco that were supposed to last basically forever. We gave them to Ross and Valerie for their kitchen but Ross told us we could have them back because "they made them look like vampires". We picked them up and put them downstairs in the weight room. "They were horrible!!' But, we were willing to put up with them because they were so expensive. WELL..... Saturday, we got a letter from Costco that said that the lifetime information that was printed on the packaging was incorrect and if for any reason we were not happy with the product we could return it for a refund. Off we went with our bag of 6 light bulbs. We ended up getting a refund of about $70.00. MADE OUR DAY and we got rid of the crappy light bulbs.

Treatment 2 just around the corner.

Saturday & Sunday

The thinning continues. Saturday morning shower generated about 1/4 cup volume of "lost" hair. Just a matter of cleaning the drain. The brush then collected an additional amount. Now I'm beginning to find hair EVERYWHERE. It falls in the sink when I brush my teeth. It falls out onto my clothes and Steve is picks it off. It comes out on my pillow which requires a good shake out prior to the next nights sleep. Ross and Valerie brought the hair clippers over, but Steve says "NO" to the shaving. "After all, how do you know that it won't all fall out?" I must admit that I'm a bit intrigued by this whole process. I keep waiting for the morning when I'll come out of the shower with no hair at all. But, who knows, maybe it will just get thinner. We'll never know if we don't keep waiting it out. Oh, by the way, there is no pain involved in this at all. It comes out just as easy as can be.

Ross, Valerie and JR came over on Saturday and brought us lunch. Chicken cheese steak! YUM! We had a nice visit, which was topped by seeing JR in his mighty lion costume. Talk about a cutie pie. We decided not to participate in the traditional Halloween custom of handing out candy. We actually only had the doorbell rang twice, so it was a good decision not to purchase a bunch of candy that we would only end up eating.

Sunday was pretty much a repeat of the hair loss story of Saturday. About the same amount came out. I've pretty much lost all of the body/lift that my hair style previously had. In other words it's pretty flat but still looks like a full head of hair, I think. I decided to wear a knit hat to bed tonight. Last night I turned over on my pillow and hair would get in my nose and tickle my face. Drove me nuts all night. I'm hoping the hat helps in that regard.

Didn't do much of anything today. It was such a rainy, dreary day. I'm reading one of Steve's books that is about ready to bore me to death but I will finish just to see how it ends. Also, am working on a linen summer sweater. I made some no bake cookies today that turned out pretty good; cocoa, oats, peanut butter, butter, sugar. Steve even likes them. It was a good day today.