Hello!

Yesterday was a long day and I have some updates to share. 

I started the day with a virtual meeting with my U of M doctor, Dr; Burness. She is so nice and helpful. She's also really good at explaining things.  She was still concerned about my breathing which has been more labored in the mornings. I've noticed that as I've decreased the steroid, I've been having more times of needing to catch my breath. Thankfully, after we talked this morning she was able to call and talk to Dr. Batts to review all of this and make sure they were on the same page before we started treatment yesterday

• So, one thing she recommended was to increase the steroids (up to 100 mg for a week)
• She also agreed with  Dr. Batts about stopping the other two chemos so we can start the new one, Trodlvey
• She wanted me to start on an antibiotic that helps prevent a very common lung infection called PJP. I believe I have to go to the hospital for this once a month and it's some sort of breathing treatment. The hospital will call to set that up. 
• She wanted to make sure we are tracking tumor markers in my blood from time to time. Turns out Batts was already doing this. Basically, they look at the number each time and if it's going down the treatment is working, but if it's going up the treatment is not working. Mine were going up which is why we're changing treatments.
• The last thing is she wanted to make sure they continue to do an echocardiogram to monitor the fluid around my heart. I've had 2 of these so far and both have shown no problems, but she wants to continue to monitor it because it can get out of control quickly.

My platelets and hemoglobin were not as high as we'd hoped especially after an extra week off of chemo last week. My hemoglobin stayed at 8.7 (same as last week) and my platelets are 77 which is quite low (130-400 is the normal range). We'll continue to pray for these numbers to rise as we undergo the new treatment.

Because it was the first dose of a new med yesterday, they had to give me a lot of preventative meds for nausea and allergies. They gave me 50 mg. of Benadryl and I was OUT COLD. I haven't slept that well in a long time.  For the first day of treatment, they had to give the Trodelvy to me for over 3 hours so we were there a long time. I also had to have my bone strengthener meds. If I respond well to the Trodelvy, they can give it to me in 1-2 hours so I won't have to stay as long. 

So far today I haven't had too many side effects. I am dealing with some bloating again which means constipation. That has been a problem in the past and it can get really painful so prayers for that to work itself out would be greatly appreciated. I also have some tingling in my hands and feet which they said is a common side effect. I continue to have a harder time breathing in the mornings and then it gets easier as the day progresses. I'm hoping the higher dose of steroids helps with that. 

I can't think of anything else to share at the moment. A big shout out to everyone who's been helping us out lately with rides, lawn care, laundry, dishes, cleaning the house, etc. I couldn't do this without all of your support!

Love, Misha

One last thing: I'm looking for someone to be a consistent lawn mower for me. It needs to be mowed once a week. You may pick what day of the week, but my grass grows quickly and I don't like big clumps of dead grass on the lawn so you have to stay on top of it.  I'm unable to bag it because I don't have anywhere to put the clippings.  It usually takes me 45 min-1 hour to mow.  You can use my mower and I will provide the gas. Please reach out to me if you're interested in helping with this (you may comment below or text me).

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