We went down to Rochester on the 11th super early in the morning straight into a day of check ups, bloodwork, and consultations with pharmacy and hematology, then straight to his chemotherapy infusion.

His bloodwork looks like where it needs to be and where they had hoped it would be.  His wounds have started healing rapidly and we are hopeful that soon our wound care set up in the kitchen will be out of sight and unnecessary! It's working!

Unfortunately, Matt had a bumpy first two days of treatment. Again his Etopocide gave him a reaction, albeit less intensive, so we had to pull back, do more medicactions to quell the allergies and wait to restart and complete day one infusions.

After a very long day, however, we were rewarded with a very nice stay with our friend Joel's parents who live locally. They have offered up their place to stay during treatments so we don't have to travel back and forth everyday and we couldn't be more grateful for them and their hospitality. The biggest bonus for me was the photo books of Joel in his youth and Vickie is an incredible hugger.

Our comfortable stay was sadly abruptly halted when Matt woke up with side effects at 1am; intense chills and extremely enlarged lymph nodes. Having not dealt with these yet, we felt it best to go to the E.R.  the E.R. didn't do much for us but check for cardiac and pulmonary issues [all clear there] and wipe us out with little to no sleep for the next day of treatment at 9am, we got out around 7:30am. Thankfully, we now know what warrants E.R. visit and what warrants calming anxiety and waiting instead.

Thankfully, other than being very tired, day two went very well for Matt with infusions, and we ended up just sleeping the entire day and night afterwards until day 3, where he did extremely well!

We do believe part of this is because they have added a new premedication, nebulizer, and swapped his Etoposide to a different variation that they give to folks who are sensitive to it consistently. He feels a bit grosser on it, but hasn't had a reaction to it, so fingers crossed this stays this way! He got his Neulasta placed, and thankfully insurance did not fight us on it this time, waiting to hear about his new Etopside, apparently its more expensive, but I've become a pro at yelling at our insurance and getting what he needs, so we aren't too worried about it. That about sums it up for this trip. 

We are EXTREMELY grateful for our friends;

Justin, who helped tear apart our mainfloor bathroom to find the mold and try to get as much torn down and out of the house while Matt wasn't present. This is something I'll be handling myself going forward and trying to complete by June, if anyone knows of a good place for cheap tile hit me up. 

Stephanie, for watching and caring for our animal children and being the cleanest and bestest gal while we were away.

Joel, for making connection for us to his parents and being an all around supportive angel always.

David and Vickie, for the hospitality, hugs, comfy beds, incredible shower, and prayers. 

Thanks to everyone of you for the support you've given us throughout all of this. Matt is a trooper and we are seeing the effects of his chemotherapy in both the good and bad these days. We are SO excited to get past this phase of our lives, and are feeling it coming, only about 4 more rounds to go hopefully! 

Enjoy the weather, and you'll likely hear from us after the next round in the beginning of May. 

Love and thanks - Shelley and Matt