Another Anniversary of Sorts

Tormorrow is the one year anniversary of starting chemotherapy. I have done 26 doses of chemotherapy in the last year. It is interesting how it has changed. I am on the same drug, but was doing a higher dose in shorter intervals at the beginning of the year than what I am doing now. My bloodwork is lower between doses requiring a shot to bring them back up.

Today I had a thoracentesis where they drain fluid from your lung cavity. Everything went well. They drained 600 ml of fluid. Think of one of those half liter water bottles is 500 ml. It would be 1 water bottle and 1/5 of a 2nd water bottle. This should help the pain go away hopefully. Keep your fingers' crossed and the prayers coming.

Thank you for all your prayers and support.
Michelle

Happy New Year

We had a great Christmas. My parent's 50th Wedding Anniversary is in May. Christmas was the only time when all of the kids were out of school at the same time. So my sisters and parents decided to get together in Colorado. My parents arrived December 23rd while we were having a snow storm. They drove up from Phoenix. Both of my sisters flew in on Christmas day. One from Detroit, Michigan with their daughter and one from Los Angeles with their 2 boys. We had a nice Christmas morning opening presents with my parents. We took my parents to the Melting Pot Restaurant for their anniversary. It is a fondue restautant. Both my sisters' kids and Kelly went skiing up at Snowy Range in Wyoming on Monday. Everybody left on December 30th. It was a nice get together.

All during the visit I was having pain. On Tuesday, December 29th I had my 25th chemotherapy. I also got my shot on Wednesday to boost my white blood cells. The pain it caused Wednesday and Thursday was horrible. I was ready to go to the ER. It was hard to get a hold of anybody with Thursday being New Year's Eve. I did reach my doctor and had an xray done. Monday I have a CT Scan. I am feeling better today.

I wanted to wish everybody a happy new year.

Anniversary

Yesterday was a big day. Tuesday, December 8th marked a year since I have been diagnosed with cancer. It has been a long year, but one filled with many blessings. I have found many new friends and rediscovered many others. There has also been the prayer circles which have been a blessing showing God's true grace around friendship. We experienced another wonderful prayer circle on Monday.

Yesterday was also my 4th treatment out of the 4 scheduled for this round of chemotherapy (it has been my 23rd treatment total). My blood counts have been good for each one. It has been amazing what prayer and visualization can do to help blood counts.

Yesterday, I also found out my cancer blood markers have gone up from 238 in October to 425. So that isn't good. That may mean a new kind of treatment. We meet with the oncologist on Thursday, December 17th to talk about what all of the numbers mean and what we are going to do next.

Remember the time for the true Christmas season and don't get too crazy with "holiday stuff".
Michelle