I am due for an update especially since the last time I posted, it was a real downer. I would like to assure everyone that I am not in a pit of despair even though my last post was not as light hearted as some of my other posts. Sometimes I have bad days and that post certainly landed on one of them. Cancer treatment is not fun or easy or cool (nope, no teenagers are doing my chemo pills recreationally for funsies). This treatment is no different. So although I may have waves of days where I am sad or frustrated, please rest assured that homegirl loves a comeback story and I can and will bounce back into my normal groove. 

This whole thing is just a collection of battles.

Things that have remained the same since I last posted:

• The commute to and from Boston still sucks. I will pay someone any amount of money to speed up the development of teleportation. 

• My feet and legs still get swollen regularly- although I don’t think I mentioned that last time.

• I get nauseated about the same as I did before. It’s not everyday but at least a couple times per week. Luckily my arsenal of nausea meds, Zofran/Phenergan/Compezine, take care of it promptly. 

• I’m tired all the time. I’m sure you are too.

Things that have changed since I last posted:

• My stomach aches are a little more infrequent. I would say that when my stomach gets torn up less than 50% of the week now. This is in large part due to the mass amounts of Imodium that I put into my body. It seems to be working well so I’ll keep taking it. I am basically going to put everyone’s children through college who work for the manufacturer of this medication. 

• My acneform rash is almost entirely gone from my face, chest, and back! I took myself off of the acne pill that my doctor prescribed because it was tearing up my stomach x100 in collaboration with the chemo. Luckily the Clindamycin gel did the trick. I know it sounds vain and ridiculous in light of the more serious issues I have faced but the rash was a huge contributing factor to feeling so down. It represented a powerlessness that I felt at the time. 

• I have more of an appetite. This ties into having stomach issues and nausea less often. When I’m nauseated I do the best I can and try to eat what I can tolerate. When I have an appetite I feast. You do what you can do. As always my diet has been supplemented with lots and lots of Ensure, the official beverage of cancer patients nationwide.

   

  Little by little I am getting used to the treatment (for the record I still hate it but I’m getting accustomed to it). There is no definitive end date for this so let’s hope that as time goes on the side effects impact how I am feeling less and less. I still have no baseline for my progress as the protocol does not call for a CA125 or a CT scan yet. I think I will have more peace of mind once I know if the study drug is helping me or just liquifying the contents of my stomach on the regular. As soon as I have some shred of information I will post. If I get good news I will shout it from the rooftops of my blog (which really just equates to size 72 font and bold lettering).

  Final note: Last week I saw Jay Z and Beyonce perform in Foxboro and it was AMAZING. My stomach did not act up at all that night (I guess my stomach knew to bow down to Queen Bey). I was able to enjoy the show with a whole crew of excellent people. Our seats were scattered throughout the stadium but had seats in the nose bleeds with my girl Stacey and it was everything I imagined and more.

  Actual final note: Happy 62nd Birthday to my Mama! I was so happy to celebrate with her this weekend on the Cape 🙂