Cycle Three

On Tuesday,I was leaving to go see my doctor in Santa Monica, dreading the drive by myself. Surprisingly, I went out to my car, Charlie was there waiting for me, to make it so I could use the carpool lane, he said. I was speechless...he remembered that I had an appointment and he remembered that I had mentioned that it would be nice to have someone else in the car so I could carpool. So I left to see Dr. Chawla, my onocologist, well, that's not exactly true. I went to get a CT scan with contrast directly downstairs from my doctor first. After over 2 and 1/2 hours, I went up to the fourth floor and checked in with Chawla's office. The people in the office downstairs told me that my doctor's office would have the results in 30 minutes. I was impressed! I told Chawla's office I wanted to wait for the results.

Doctor's Chawla's office drew my blood and then poked my finger to check my white blood cell count. I figured I would wait for the blood and the scan and start chemo the same day. Yeah, that wasn't going to be the way it worked out. First, my white cell was 93, 7 points below the level required for me to have chemo, so I had to go home, the vial of blood they drew would be good until Thursday, so that was good. I reminded them I wanted to wait for the results of the scan. It was then that the office told me that many others were told that Dr. Chawla would have results in 30 minutes, and that the likelihood of that was close to impossible. They said I should call them and complain, but I didn't...I just went home.

On Wednesday, I went up to Lomita to look at some rentals, and while I was in the area, I visited my grandchildren and invited my Granddaughter to come spend the night with me. I went home and was delighted to have the company of my 16 year old granddaughter.
We went to get movie tickets at Costco and went to see Knight and Day. I'm not a movie critic, but it was an excellent movie to my granddaughter and I....we fully enjoyed it.

The next morning, we awoken and went to Santa Monica for my results and chemo. When we arrived I talked to Vicki and she told me my scan result was stable. Stable...I felt confused. Kind of good news, and not bad news. I was torn in my emotions until I talked to one of my best friends, Terry (he was the best friend of my dearly departed husband, Dan'l). Terry knows some physics and he asked me if I wanted to put my car to go backwards, what did I do. I said that I put the car in reverse. He reminded me that I first stop the car from moving forward, then, with my foot on the brake, I shifted into reverse. What he was saying was that my tumors were moving forward. The chemo has caused them to stop, or become stable...next, they will start reversing. I thanked Terry for the analogy and changing my feeling of despair to a feeling of elation....in other words, I have hope!

After chemo, I thanked Madeline for accompanying me to chemo, and sitting next to me during the process, for going to the movies with me, and being a delight to have as company. She makes me laugh, and I love to hear her stories. She recently got a report card of grades that are better than she has ever gotten, and she is making better choices in her life and tells me she is getting along better with her mother, which made me so happy.

I picked up my Emend after driving home and took my pill immediately. I put the patch on in three days. I stopped and visited with my friend, Charlotte before heading home. I'm home now...feeling sick, even with the medication. I have work tomorrow, and will have to take a long lunch hour to remove the port. I'm going to check to see if Dr. Fink can give me the infusion of anti nausea meds and then return the pump and bag to Dr. Chawla's office on Tuesday so I don't have to miss an hour of work tomorrow.

Keeping my fingers crossed that I don't get too sick this time. This bag represents my third cycle....HALF WAY! Woo Hoo! I'm going to survive this and make some positive differences in my changes in my life when I do!

Keep the thoughts and prayers directed my way...also, anyone with information on 1 bedroom and studio apartments in Huntington Beach, Garden Grove, Westminster, Fountain Valley, etc., or in the South Bay, such as Lomita, Torrance, San Pedro or Long Beach...please let me know, I'm not looking move immediately, but if my situation changes, I may need to do exactly that without too much time to do so. Thank you all.