Today officially marks the tenth day after the start of my last chemo treatment. The guidelines for finally starting to feel normal after the start of this particular chemo are 7-10 days out. Based on how I'm feeling today, I apparently start to feel better on the tenth day – which is the reason there hasn't been an update in the last while.
Also, other than lying around feeling sick and tired, there really hasn't been much to report about my condition. I've lost about half my hair – but wonder of wonders – it fell out pretty evenly, so now it's just thinner, but still looks relatively good. Not that I had the most handsome coif to begin with, but at this point I'm pretty grateful for small favors. I'll probably have to go bald after the next chemo. I've always claimed that if I ever started going bald, I'd just shave everything off. But, I have to admit that the reality is much more disturbing than I had anticipated, although I'm not quite to the point of considering the virtues of a comb-over. What's worse, I've always HATED hats. Oh well, I'm learning to deal with lots of things I don't particularly like, so I guess hats will be added to that list.
As far as my condition – I go in later today for blood work. I should know by the end of the appointment how my immune markers are doing. Since blood cells and lymphocytes are some of the fast growing cells in the body that end up being wiped out by the chemo, everyone is concerned about me getting any illness since I may not be able to fight it off. I've never been prone to hypochondria before, but after being diagnosed with cancer and dealing with all the implications of chemo treatments, I'm definitely developing a paranoid streak. Especially since, in addition to being wiped out from the chemo, I've also had a mild bronchitis and cough for the last week. They gave me antibiotics, which have helped, but it will be comforting to finally get a look at my immune markers after the blood work today. (I'm assuming that my developing paranoia is not justified.)
The rest of the blood work – the liver markers they look at to see how well the chemo is working – won't be available until late Friday or Monday, and I won't have a follow-up CT scan until the middle of May. So we won't really know how well the chemo is working until then.
As for my family – we're beginning to settle in here in Utah. My parents, our new ward and various friends and relatives have really gone all out to make a place for us. Much of the basement needs to be finished so that we can have our own place here, so everyone has been working hard to make that happen. We're especially grateful for everyone who has volunteered their help with the work. My Aunt Lynn and her husband Don, for instance, came over to visit one afternoon and stayed for hours helping to get the insulation in with my dad and my brother-in-law Jason. There have been so many people willing to help in just this way – thanks to all of you who are helping.
