I don’t like cancer. I don’t like it one bit. Admittedly we had a sort of downer day with cancer. We certainly are continuing to be positive, and won’t let one bad day dictate the rest, but we have our moments of frustration. We are wearing down a bit, and the constant appointments, appointment confirmations, insurance calls, blood draws, and wondering what’s next can get exhausting. I remember the day of Tom’s diagnosis, our nurse (who is now one of our favorites!) said to us both, “right now you are at the bottom of Mount Everest”. She was so right, and once treatment started we sort of started to feel like we knew how to tackle this and make progress. We are approaching the mid-point of chemo and I think we are at this point where the beginning now seems like it was a long time ago and the ambiguity of the end seems unrealistic so we feel sort of lost in the middle. But…the middle is better than back at the beginning so we are grateful…
We went to the doctors this afternoon and had a great talk with our doctor and got Tom’s blood work done. His blood levels were great which means he doesn’t need a blood transfusion – which is good news! We had a discussion with our doctor about the upcoming surgery and we will get lots more information about that next week while we are in the hospital. As anticipated, it will likely be either the last week of December or the first week of January. Tom is eager for his last few “good” days of the chemo cycle and ready to knock out week three. I must say this second cycle has been significantly better than the first and really helping us get through tough days like today.
In my attempt to remain positive I’ll finish tonight’s update with a funny story. I’ve been having a hard time sleeping. In addition to that, when I’m stressed it usually takes a toll on my body, and often times my back/shoulders. So this morning, I woke up and my neck/shoulders were totally locked up and painful. Now, I think it was a mix of stress/sleeping but nonetheless not very pleasant. I had been trying to rub my own shoulders all morning (that’s a beautiful mental picture for you) and stretch my neck/shoulders with no success. This afternoon we were waiting in one of the chemo chairs/stations for Tom’s blood work and results. The chemo chairs are all lined up out in the open so there are lots of people/and friends family around. Tom saw me wince in a bit of pain when I turned my head and offered to rub my shoulders for a second. Since we had nothing else to do while we waited and I was sitting right next to him I said alright….it took me all of 5 seconds to burst out laughing and tell him never mind as I realized that to all of these people it looked like this poor cancer patient was giving a shoulder massage to the healthy one! It gave us a good chuckle and the folks around us got a kick out of it too once we explained ourselves :) Shame on Tom for being such a nice guy! More to come…
We went to the doctors this afternoon and had a great talk with our doctor and got Tom’s blood work done. His blood levels were great which means he doesn’t need a blood transfusion – which is good news! We had a discussion with our doctor about the upcoming surgery and we will get lots more information about that next week while we are in the hospital. As anticipated, it will likely be either the last week of December or the first week of January. Tom is eager for his last few “good” days of the chemo cycle and ready to knock out week three. I must say this second cycle has been significantly better than the first and really helping us get through tough days like today.
In my attempt to remain positive I’ll finish tonight’s update with a funny story. I’ve been having a hard time sleeping. In addition to that, when I’m stressed it usually takes a toll on my body, and often times my back/shoulders. So this morning, I woke up and my neck/shoulders were totally locked up and painful. Now, I think it was a mix of stress/sleeping but nonetheless not very pleasant. I had been trying to rub my own shoulders all morning (that’s a beautiful mental picture for you) and stretch my neck/shoulders with no success. This afternoon we were waiting in one of the chemo chairs/stations for Tom’s blood work and results. The chemo chairs are all lined up out in the open so there are lots of people/and friends family around. Tom saw me wince in a bit of pain when I turned my head and offered to rub my shoulders for a second. Since we had nothing else to do while we waited and I was sitting right next to him I said alright….it took me all of 5 seconds to burst out laughing and tell him never mind as I realized that to all of these people it looked like this poor cancer patient was giving a shoulder massage to the healthy one! It gave us a good chuckle and the folks around us got a kick out of it too once we explained ourselves :) Shame on Tom for being such a nice guy! More to come…