Yesterday was the last chemotherapy for this round.
Seven weeks, six doses of chemotherapy, and I'm feelin' pretty good. Yesterday's session went pretty much the way they all have done. We went and got bloodwork done (my hemoglobin is a bit low but not terribly so), got the gemcitibine infused, and came home.
The slow release morphine that I started taking on New Year's Eve is sure helping a lot with the pain. I take one pill in the morning and one at night, and most of the day and night I am close to pain free. I still feel a little pain under my first few ribs on the right side, but I suspect that is still from the surgeon moving around my liver's bile duct during surgery. The surgical incision is well healed and isn't causing me much trouble. I have noticed, however, that recently the area around the incision clenches and stays clenched for a while - an hour or two - before it relaxes. It used to clench and unclench after a few minutes. It isn't what you would call painful; it's more something I am aware of and sometimes my entire abdominal area becomes hard from the clenching. It's annoying.
I have some medical appointments next week. On Wednesday, January 21, I go for another MRI at 7:45 AM, then on Thursday, January 22, I have a follow-up with Dr. Cutie. Keep your fingers crossed for me that the chemotherapy is causing some shrinkage of the tumor, or at least that it hasn't grown any. Since Charlene couldn't be cut out, the best hope we have is that we can make her sick and shrink her until she's small enough to either irradiate or cut out.
I'm sure most of you will give me an "Amen, sister" when I say I am sick of this extreme cold. I just checked the temperature: -35. Okay, that's just too bloody cold. If I get to stick my nose out the door today, I likely won't go much farther than a block from the house. I hope this weekend's warm up lasts more than a couple of days. I'm not asking for above-freezing temperatures, all I want is a week or two with decent daytime highs, say -15 or so, so that we can actually get out and enjoy the winter.
I wanna go have a visit with Bear.
-- Lori
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5 comments:
Hey LL,
The fellow from Cravings was dropping off some food yesterday and asked about how you're doing. Just thought I'd pass it along. Hope you 2009 is off to a good start!
Cheers,
Cheryl M.
Funny how sometimes the best comfort when you're sick is the love of an animal. Hope you get to see bear again soon.
Claudia
Good luck on Jan 21! We have warm weather today, so it will get to Winnipeg soon, I hope. Nice weather seems to help everyone feel somewhat happier.
Woo - Hoo Lori, on finishing your chemo. I bet it feels sooooo good to be finished that one. I love the pics of you & Bear, you're both extremely photogenic! Lovin' the color of his muzzle, when are you growing out your muzzle? You two could be samers y'know! Call me soon Lori!
Love always, Bev.
HI
Thanks for the update. Always look forward to your writings. I'm celebrating with you on the completion of the first round of chemo. Yippee!
Luv
CK
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