PRAISE THE LORD, I’M FINISHED WITH CHEMO!! I had my last treatment this morning and don’t have to return to the Cancer Center until my 4 month checkup. Woo hoo! After weekly appointments there since the beginning of October, that will be a nice change in routine. In three weeks I start the daily Tamoxifin pills for 5 years (or longer).
Let me say for the record that chemotherapy is hard. It’s hard on the person receiving treatment and it’s hard on family members. But I will also say that it is doable, especially when you are surrounded by a good support system. The absolute most important support for me has been the continuing prayer by so many people, including those that I don’t know and have never met. Do you know that people in Tanzania have also been lifting me up in prayer? We have an amazing God.
Usually I am a “glass half full” person. With 8 chemo treatments in all, I could imagine the first four as climbing up a steep hill, the mid-point of treatment would place me at the top of the hill, and the last four treatments would be the downhill stretch. Well, that’s not how it turned out for me. At the mid-point of my treatments I felt as though I was at the bottom of a very deep trough, so the last four treatments turned out to be my climb up out of the pit.
Towards the end of November and beginning of December, my energy level was so low that I often wondered what it would be like to feel well again. There were many days when folding laundry or cleaning up the piles of school papers, mail, etc. on the island in the kitchen was more than I could do. Sometimes on my better days I would start a project, only to leave it unfinished until another time when I had more energy. During most of my treatment weeks I didn’t leave the house, didn’t wear my contacts, makeup or wig, and my wardrobe could have made me a candidate for TLC’s What Not to Wear. There’s no sense in wearing nicer clothes when you crawl back into bed for 2-3 hours every day. The great thing, though, is that I didn’t get sick as I always seem to do during fall and early winter. Staying cloistered and sleeping lots paid off! I was always able to pull myself together for church on Sundays. Being able to attend worship was important, plus I work on Sunday mornings leading music time with the Sunday School kids. Even though I may have looked put together on the outside, I often felt pretty jumbled on the inside, and there were Sundays where I couldn’t wait to get home and take a nap.
The first four cycles of Adriamycin and Cytoxin were definitely harder on my body than the last four cycles of Taxol. Gradually in the last month I have started to feel well again. In fact, a few weeks ago I felt so good that I spent an hour leisurely shopping at Target by myself. I was so happy to be out and doing “normal” stuff again. Later in the afternoon I did take a 2 hour nap; probably would have been longer but I had to get up for supperJ
I was resting on the couch in the family room when Ben came home from school today. He burst in the door shouting, “Hooray, hooray! Mom’s done with chemo! Let’s celebrate! Where are we going out to eat?” Dinner out will wait a few days so we celebrated by making fruit smoothies with our new blender – Ben’s idea. That made my day.
It’s after midnight now and I’m feeling the extra energy burst from the steroid I got this morning. It usually kicks in during the late evening on the day of treatment. But what didn’t get done today can wait until tomorrow. I’m going to bed and hope I can fall asleep without too much trouble.
