Parker completed the mile swim at Boy Scout Camp with a smile on his face!

I haven't posted a blog entry since July 7! In the meantime I've spent a lot of hours at the doctor, emergency room, and bed. I missed 2 treatments due to my illness, drank Rachel's smoothies so I could gag some really big antibiotics down, finished reading "The Wednesday Letters" for September's book club, and didn't do much else. I didn't even feel well enough to do puzzles when I was waiting in the doctor's office. My fever got as high as 104.3 degrees, and stayed elevated for 9 days. My oxygen saturation fell to 89% from its usual 99 to 100%. In trying to diagnose my illness I went through every test known to man. I had several blood tests, urine tests, flu swabs, chest x-rays, a spinal tap, an EKG, and the test where they look at your heart with an ultrasound machine. After all these tests they concluded I had a rare kind of pneumonia that occurs in chemo patients. Apparently after ruling everything else out that's the only thing they could come up with. So they took me off the antibiotic I was prescribed in the hospital and put me on another type that's much huger and harder to take, plus I take six a day, as compared to one of the other kind.
I'm seventeen treatments into chemo and it's really starting to take a toll on my body. I saw my doctor yesterday and he deemed I was healthy enough to get treatment. I was very reluctant since I've felt horrible ever since my first Taxol infusion on the 7th. My doctor insisted my illness was caused by the Adria/Cytoxin treatments and not the Taxol. I made him promise the Taxol wouldn't make me sick before I agreed to do it, and he promised without hesitation, so I took his word for it and mentally prepared for another go.
When I got called into the chemo suite I had a nurse I was unfamiliar with since I've been going on Mondays and it was a Thursday. She accessed my port perfectly, gave me the Benadryl and steroids, and immediately came back with the Taxol. It's slower on Thursdays so the pharmacists are right on top of things. She asked if I had had any reaction to Taxol the first time I got it, and I told her no. So she just started the infusion at the regular pace and left to call in another patient. About 10 minutes into the treatment I started to feel a major reaction coming on! It felt like a spike was being driven into my lower back, my lungs seemed to shrink and refuse to take in air, and the closest nurse was tending to another patient a few chairs away. I tried to wait until she was done talking to him, but I couldn't stand it anymore, so I raised my hand and said, "Excuse me, I think I'm having a reaction to this medicine." Immediately I was surrounded by 3 nurses, a pharmacist with Benadryl and morphine, and a nurses assistant taking vitals. The morphine took 5 or 10 minutes to work--a very long 5 or 10 minutes--and I was finally able to relax and get a breath again. My nurse went to ask Dr. Montgomery if she should restart the treatment or send me home, and of course he told her to restart it. She did say he felt bad for promising me whip cream and cherries. I wonder how he's going to motivate me to do it next week. So like a lamb to the slaughter I sat there and watched her restart the poisonous drip that had caused me excruciating pain just minutes earlier, but she stayed nearby this time, slowed down the drip, and made sure I was tolerating the medicine before she left, and the morphine and Benadryl got me through. Ironically I didn't take anyone with me this time since I wasn't sure treatment was going to be happening, so no one got to share in my pain.
And today I have an itchy rash all over my body that I have to take more Benadryl for. I'm pretty sure I'm allergic to Taxol, but my doctor seems determined to give it to me. It may be a long 10 weeks!
I need to say thank you to Rachel for the exceptional video tribute she made for my 43rd birthday. It was creative, funny, heartwarming, and professional. You know how much I love gifts that take time and planning, and that project took hours and hours to film and edit. It was great to have so many friends there to watch it with me. It's something I'll treasure and watch again, Rachel. Thank you so much for the tribute!
Thanks to all my friends and family for continuing to support us with meals, laundry and cleaning. It's been invaluable the last few weeks while I've been down. Greg's having a hard time working 12 hour days and then coming home and doing everything I used to do, but it's a great relief to him when he doesn't have to cook dinner or throw in a load of laundry on top of it.
Well, I have to take the Benadryl now, and that's likely to put me to sleep for a few hours, so I'll wrap up for today. This LONG treatment is beating me up, but it helps knowing prayers are being offered on my behalf, people are fasting for me, and sending positive vibrations my way. I'll keep on putting one foot in front of the other, take it one fever or rash at a time, continue to trust my doctor, and eventually get through this.