Kill Cancer, Take 4

When Becky was going through treatment for breast cancer, Micah always called chemo days Kill Cancer Days. I adopted the term and now here we are almost 4 years later starting my fourth set of chemo treatments. As a review:

• May 2011-September 2011: the terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad mix of Taxol, Carbo, Cistplatin
• September 2011-December 2011: the not-so-bad Gemzar
• July 2012-December 2012: the hotly disputed and very expensive Avastin with the milder Topotecan
• December 2014 - ??: the we-have-high-hopes-for Doxil

My very awkward attempt at an infusion selfie that did not involve a nurse walking in on me. Because, hello, embarrassment.

On the positive side, Vanderbilt has some perks when it comes to infusion. Not only do I have my own room with 2 recliners and a personal TV, they have snack and drink service as well as automatic Ativan with infusion. Score.

On the negative side, We were here before 8:00 this morning. It is now 10:46, and we have been to 5 different check-in points and I have still not actually started chemo. I have had the pre-drugs: a steroid (friends from back in the old cancer days might remember the steroid makes me very, very chatty), Ativan, and Zofran (for nausea). As I suspected, chemo days at Vanderbilt are going to be all-day events.

Brian brought papers to grade.

I may need to figure out how to do some scrapping on this laptop because it appears as if I will have time to do so on chemo days. Now that we're back in my own private area, my feet are propped up, I've got a little anti-anxiety medicine in my system and steroids to make me hyper productive. 

Last night I was feeling a little bit cranky about the whole idea of starting treatment again, and Camden said to me, "why are you upset? Look at all the things you have to be thankful for: friends and family who love you and pray for you; co-workers who pray for you; all your internet people who like you; church people who pray for you; daddy's co-workers who are bring you meals; God who pops verses into your head; good doctors to take care of you." 

I stopped him at that point because he. is. totally. right.

I unexpectedly have the rest of the week off work, which makes me feel good. I'm hoping it allows me time to rest as well as gives me a good idea of how my body is going to react to this chemo without the stress of work. Next week is a very busy work week so I'm hoping that these extra days off will actually make next week easier. 

Considering the bag of steroids that just went straight through my system, you can probably expect me back writing on a more regular basis over the next couple of days. :)

Thanks for the prayers, friends.