A LONG Treatment Day, A Short Summer

My little friend Kate turned 8 on August 6, my last treatment day. How I love and appreciate this happy, energetic, excitable, enthusiastic, and loving girl and how glad I am to have her with me each day! She's an angel!

At this point you may be growing tired of my treatment day stories. What used to take about 3 hours now takes all day. Cindy Whiting can tell you--she spent a little over 8 hours with me last Thursday at MSTI, while Tadman and Kate split time between Chrissy Rich's and Justine Powell's houses. So what takes over 8 hours, you must wonder. Unfortunately, my body still dislikes Taxol, and therefore it takes a lot of time to administer it to me.

When Cindy and I left my house Thursday morning with Tadman and Kate it was raining for the first time on a treatment day. A nice change of pace, I thought. My appointment was a little later than usual, at 9:45, and MSTI was already hopping when we arrived. Cindy was a great help with the puzzle while we were waiting. The first big disappointment of the day came when the nice man who supervises the parking lot came in and told us that some of the pieces to the puzzle we were starting were missing. Luckily we were still just starting the edges so we didn't have to live through the horrible reality of being unable to finish a puzzle because of missing pieces. Poor Cindy had no idea of the long day she was in for at this point, because in no time Nurse Jacque--the same nurse that treated me last week--was calling me in to get my blood draw.

Then, like every treatment day, the next step is waiting for the doctor's appointment. This treatment day I was seeing one of the nurse practitioners instead of Dr. Montgomery. I believe Dr. Montgomery was out of town, so Cindy didn't get to meet him (bummer!), but there's lots less waiting when he's not there. And Cathy his nurse was there, so between her and the nurse practioner they had all the help and information I needed. The nurse practitioners down there are actually very knowledgeable and completely different in style from the doctors. Generally they ask a lot more questions about your health and well being and give lots more advice and information about how to feel good and keep living your life during cancer treatment, so it's a nice supplement to the doctor visits.

After seeing me and reviewing my blood counts, I was deemed fit to undergo another round of Taxol. I was happy to have a little time with the puzzle again while waiting for treatment, although it really wasn't because I was scared for the Taxol. Now that I know what to expect, and know that the pain is intense but short lived and that it won't kill me or stop my breathing or put me into cardiac arrest I'm okay with it. I can handle a little touch of intense pain!

Nurse Jacque called me again, I picked a comfortable chair by the window, and Cindy settled into uncomfortable little chair (actually she initially sat in the "incorrect" chair and was asked to move so that the whole place wouldn't fall apart!). She didn't know she was settling in for the next 5 hours. Seems when you react to the medication everything slows way down. First of all, they have to give me extra medication before getting started, the pharmacy also has to prepare extra medications, and that takes more time. Then the nurse has to wait an extra time period for the extra medications she gives to be absorbed before treatment can begin. Then when the patient still reacts, as I did like clockwork about 12 minutes after beginning Taxol, protocol dictates that the drip must be stopped, additional medicines given, blood pressure, temperature, pulse rate, and oxygen absorption levels taken and recorded, and then the doctor or nurse practitioner has to be consulted before the nurse can continue the treatment. And during all this is when my back is killing me and I'm gratefully accepting a little more morphine. It's usually a half an hour or more before all of these steps have been followed and the drip restarted, and then it is given at a very slow rate to try to prevent a further reaction, and then before you know it it's 5:30 and you're closing down the place. So much for going out to lunch!

Cindy was so great! She was a kind, engaging and patient companion throughout, her kids only called her twice through all that time, amazingly!, and she went for hours without food until we finally gave up on lunch and got a sandwich from the back room at about 4:30. She also fetched me drinks, crocheted baby burp cloths, and empathized with my pain. Thank you so much for your kind and patient companionship, Cindy!

Other than treatment day, I am feeling pretty good, and so much better than a few weeks ago. My energy level is pretty good, I'm not as traumatized by the steroid emotional roller coaster, and I occassionally have a pretty good appetite. Unfortunately, sometimes I eat and regret it soon after--there are still some digestive irregularities--but the remaining side effects seem pretty minor.

Feeling a little better comes at a convenient time as my kids have had several things going on the past week. Hunter had the good fortune to get his wisdom teeth out. His dentist referred him to an oral surgeon, probably because our dentist is a little guy, and it's probably a little intimidating to inflict pain upon a big kid like Hunter. After several days of milkshakes and ramen and pain medicine Hunter seems to be doing fine. He scared us with a few weird nosebleeds, but he seems to be a little better every day, and I think he'll be ready for football two-a-days a week from tomorrow.

While Hunter was suffering at home, Rachel was up in beautiful Sun Valley at a music workshop. She left last Sunday after church and Kate, Parker, Rachel's friend John, and I picked her up on Friday evening. While we were there we got to hear the final concert of the workshop and it was excellent. Rachel and two other cellists opened the concert and played the first 2 pieces, and then the orchestra she was a part of closed it with several short, but very professionally done pieces. It's always a joy to me to see and hear her play. I am so happy she decided to pursue music and put all the time and effort it takes to be good into it. I think it will help her throughout her life no matter what she decides to pursue.

And then at the end of the week we celebrated Kate! She was thrilled to see our door decorated with hearts and a necklace when we finally made it home after Thursday's treatment. Since I could do little to make her actual birthday fun, I was so fortunate to have that decorated door, cupcakes with Justine, and an ice cream cake from Greg's mom to offer her. She was excited, happy, and satisfied with those offerings and didn't complain about my lack of preparation at all, the sweetheart! Then on Saturday she got to go to Monkey Dooz and have a glitter and glamour treatment with nails, hair, makeup, and a foofy drink to enjoy. She was so excited, and it turned out to be the perfect thing for her this year. Then she got to go to dinner with Greg and I with her hair all done up and her eye makeup and sparkly nails and she thought that was great. I am so happy and relieved that she had a memorable and happy eighth birthday. I don't take those little things for granted anymore. Now everything seems like a big deal! Thanks to all of you who helped make Kate's birthday happy.

I would love to see summer go on for a few more months, for surgery and recovery to take place before my kids have to worry about practices, games, and studying. Although this has been a difficult summer, and sometimes things are chaotic and messy at home, I am more happy to be with my kids than ever before. I love them so much, am so concerned for them, and am so glad to get to spend unstructured time with them. I am going to try to relish it as much as I can before it's gone.

Thank you for your continued support, cards, words of encouragement, meals, and service. Things are better for me, but this experience, this treatment, this change of lifestyle, is tough on my husband and kids. The things you do to ease the stress really do make a difference. Thank you!