Chemo #3 (Cycle #2A)

Day 3 of Cycle 2A and I'm feeling not so bad. I really think coming down with the cold last time made it much worse. Day of chemo as was as expected...sort of like a terrible hangover without the feelings of self-stupidity! So they used the port for the first time and this seemed to make it all go a it quicker and no funny vein spasms. Using the port also means I feel the effects much quicker. The Benadryl (pre-chemo meds) through the port was almost instant head spins and wooziness.....can barely keep an intelligible thought for a little bit and have trouble putting sentences together! It is pretty short-lived and by the time the 4 chemo drugs are in me I just feel tired and headachey.

I chatted with a few other patients this week. It's sort of like being on a plane on your own. It's nice to have a little conversation with your neighbour but then you don't want to feel compelled to keep up the conversation the whole time....especially if you just want to close your eyes. Heard about the "Cottage Dreams" program where people have donated a week of their cottage time to cancer patients who have completed their treatment. Interesting concept but I doubt we would do it as: 1) Steve's bro has a cottage we can use and 2) dogs aren't allowed :( Saffron would be sooo hurt!

Another interesting observation from my time in the chemo suite this week, there was a man who I believe was on his last and 12th ABVD treatment and he still had his hair!! His family (8 and 10 yr old sons) was there to see what dad had been through and how it all worked. We had thought that we may bring the girls to see in the summer when they are out of school. We'll see.

So my dad is here and has been dinner cooker for the last several nights and took Wynne to gymnastics on Tuesday. Steve had another open house last night so it's been great having him here. Today I had a follow up doppler ultrasound on my left arm. It feels pretty normal now so it must have just been some sort of vein irritation from the chemo into my arm. Hopefully it won't come back now that the port is being used.

Have had a few waves of nauseousness today and felt pretty wiped out this aft so I did have a nap. Hopefully tomorrow will just be more of the same or better!

On the lice front we have continued to wage war on them all week. Wynne passed the inspection at school on Monday but Avery didn't and I had to bring her home and pick more nits all morning and then again that night in hopes that she would be okay for her next day of school on Wednesday....and yeah...she passed! Steve is now a master nit-picker....way better than me I think. We figured that between the two of us we likely pulled off well over 100 nits from Avery. We think she was likely ground zero! The school has a bit of an epidemic with it right now from what we hear. Wynne's best friend also had them and another girl in Wynne's class got sent home....I think they should check Avery's class a little more closely! Avery announced after school on Wednesday that she told EVERYONE she had lice....great...at least she's not self-conscious! Hopefully we will be all done with them by next week after we do a second treatment on Saturday to make sure we catch any that have escaped the first treatment!