Tuesday-July 8th

I had my pre-chemo visit with oncologist today. He really is a nice man and that really helps A LOT!!
My blood test all look good and I'm a go for my chemo treatment tomorrow. I may have mentioned this before, but they do blood test before every treatment to make sure everything looks ok. If my white blood cell count was way low or other things, they may postpone treatment, which just prolongs things and I hope I don't have to ever worry about that. They have lots of safety measures to make sure your body is handling things ok, or at least as ok as they can be while on chemo!!

He is going to lower my Nulasta shot from 6 to 2 (milligrams or whatever they use to measure it) . That's the shot that kicked my butt last time and gave me sever bone and body pain. Also my white blood cell count is still like almost 20,000 times more than it should be, so I shouldn't need so much of the shot and that means I hopefully won't feel so much pain from it. The shot causes my body to produce more white blood cells. Because I produced sooooo much from the shot and it builds up in the bones, that's what causes the pain.

I had to start my anti-nausea drugs today. I take 2 twice a day the day before, day of and day after chemo. They also give me some in my IV before the chemo drugs. The only issue I have with this drug is that it contains steroids and can make it difficult for you to sleep. I already have problems with falling asleep at night. I was doing well for a while but have slowly gone back to being a bit of a night owl and since starting chemo and especially with some of these drugs it's made it worse. I told the doc that sometimes the sun is coming up before I fall asleep!! So here it is 1:37 am and although I'm feeling a little tired and my back is hurting, I haven't even tried to go to bed yet. Maybe I will after I'm done with this.

I have some sleeping pills the surgeon gave me but I haven't taken them for a while. I seem to be taking so many pills these days and I wanted to make sure it was ok with my oncologist that I take these. He said that yes, I could take them, but I forgot tonight and it's way too late to take one now. I've got to get up for chemo in the morning!!

Ok, I've got to go. But I have to tell you . . . I found and bought a wig today. It's amazing how real the wigs look now a days. I absolutely love this thing. It's a style that I'd never be able to get my hair to do and that's what i wanted, something different than what I could or have been doing with my hair all these years. I don't really plan to use it all that much, but on special occasions it will be nice to have around. My sister took pictures of me wearing it this evening and she will be sending me the files and I will post pics as soon as I can.

Keep Smilin'
Hugs,
Wendy