Hello Super Fantastic Friends and Family,
Hope today finds you well and happy. It’s been a wonderful winter here in MN. Mostly sunny. Not too cold. Wonderful!
The chemo has been going quite well. (Understatement!) My tumor marker numbers have dropped from 354 to 234 and recently to 150, so it’s definitely working. I’ve been able to recover much more quickly than the previous chemo. I’ve completed 4 of the 8-10 sessions already. Yay! Still fighting the nausea. It comes more quickly—I usually leave my treatment nauseous—but it departs quickly, too. By Friday, I’m pretty good. It never fully leaves. But it’s manageable. They’ve been having me try numerous nausea drugs. But they only work a little and sometimes make me more nauseous or knock me out. (I slept through most of the last one—maybe they’re doing that on purpose to keep me quiet. Hmmm….) My Oncologist is checking into me trying Cannabis Oil (yep!). There’s a type that’s approved for chemo nausea. Hope it works.
I had a CT scan this Thursday. I won’t get the results until my next chemo (March 28th) but I’m expecting good results. Plus I looked at the CD of the scan and from what I can tell (which isn’t much) the liver lesions look smaller. Yay!
I still have my hair. Go figure. (God’s been very merciful!!!) It’s starting to come out more consistently now…a bit each day. Whether it will all come out or just get really thin is unknown. Guess we’ll see. I got it cut super short yesterday so it doesn’t turn into “comb-over” hair. Hate it. Oh well. At least I still have hair! Smile.
I found a cute wig. I went to a location sponsored by the American Cancer Society (ACS) …they let you have your first one free. (Yay!) Got one, then came home and didn’t like it. It was shoulder length. It’s strange to wear hair that long because mine’s been short for so long. It’s like playing dress up. So, I went back and traded it for a little shorter one. Plus, I didn’t cry while doing it. Success! In fact, it was quite hilarious. Some looked so silly on me even the lady helping me was laughing. Good times.
The ACS also has a free class where you receive a free skin care and make-up kit and they teach you how to draw in your eyebrows (because you become a naked mole rat and lose hair everywhere). I’m not the best artist. I still have my eyebrows and I’m practicing on them. I’m a little afraid I’ll look more like a Picasso painting than myself. But, hey, he was quite famous so we’ll see.
Oh yeah. My chemo brain is still ever present. Ditsy as ever! My short-term memory is horrid. So is my long-term memory. (If there’s a mid-term memory, that’s bad, too.) Really…I have no memory. Just kidding. Wait…what was I saying? Anyway, I do have trouble remembering things. Like words. It’s rough to not remember words. Conversations with me are mostly me just trying to describe a word trying to use other words that I can’t remember. Yet, I continue to talk. Too much. People just smile and try to guess what I’m trying to say. It’s like an annoying game of charades. I really should video one of my conversations. (Something for my future grandkids to laugh at.) Also, I “lose” my phone a lot. Usually it’s found hiding in my back pocket. Sneaky thing! [...]