Second Chemo Down

I am just home and the "pre-medicine" steroids are keeping me up and helping me feel good. They'll all wear off tomorrow so I most likely won't post. Just a very quick update from today:

Very similar to the First Chemo - except that I met with my doctor (Dr. NP) before treatment to go over my bloodwork and vitals. Just for background, they run tests on the patients' blood before administering anything so that the doctors can see how the previous chemos effected the patient. If certain levels are low or elevated, this can change the course of treatment and even cancel or reschedule cycles until levels are normal.

Everything was great with me. I have very low blood pressure, but this is normal for me. But, because nothing can go without a splash of hilarity in my life, Dr. NP told me that I am losing too much weight. This might not be funny to you, but as a woman whose one dream as a teenager was for someone to tell me I needed to start drinking shakes and fatten up, I just started to laugh when Dr NP mentioned it. She asked, "How much weight have you lost?" and her male intern went to my file to check. Student Dr. "young-but-serious-looking" mumbled, "Five pounds."

Five pounds? Seriously? But Dr NP said, "You cannot be losing weight during chemo." And she was stern. My literal response was, "I have never in my entire life had a problem with putting on weight. I honestly don't think it will be a problem."  I really think she was under the impression that I'm losing weight on purpose! Like this is some type of "death or weight loss" reality show! She ended with, "I want to see those 5lbs back on by the 22nd (my next chemo treatment)". Thankfully, a couple of our best friends and their youngest son are coming to visit and I will use this entire conversation as an excuse to drink wine and have a large piece of chocolate cake in honor of her birthday. I will simply look at the rest of the cake and any beer Shawn consumes and I will gain back 7lbs just because I know my body and it will be making a point (and because that has been my life experience so far).

After fat-camp, I started my three chemo drugs. The only little blip was that I experienced a tingling in my hands (not feet, though) and my mouth felt like it was coated with something yucky. My nurse assured me that this was a side-effect of Oxaliplatin (my most intense drug). I was given Benedryl and then another steroid to keep the effects at bay. This is all standard procedure and was very mild and was gone (or very faint) after I finished the Oxaliplatin. [Side-note that it has platinum in it and Shawn and I always joke that our wedding bands are "platinum shackles" -- but now I know what a real platinum shackle is like.]

This moment, I am exhausted while also being hyped up on steroids, so I'm going to go sit down and watch bad TV. And probably eat a cookie (gluten-free with natural sugar). Working on the freshman-five (of chemo).

Still in the Hand of God. Praying for the father who sat next to me in treatment while his wife and  three toddler/preschool aged kids waited in the waiting room. Please add in an extra prayer for them. I didn't get his name, but I do understand the outline of his story. And God will know who we mean.