Bing! Bing! seconds away .... Round Two!

My second round of chemotherapy today took from 10:00-15:30hr; not bad! It was fine, actually. First they insert a needle into the port and take some blood for checking the White Blood Cell (WBC) and platelet levels. If these are too low you cannot undergo chemo that day. I was fine, so they proceeded with the first lot of chemicals and put the first cap on. I had a total of 5 caps put on, each for 35min I think (as soon as it warms up, it is replaced with another). They give you brain freeze and it can be a bit painful, but NOTHING compared to the gloves! OMG! Instant frostbite! I had to have 3 fresh gloves put on every 40min or so and it was so very painful one time I just prayed a rapid novena for little Lilah. It would be pain at the end of two fingers, then of another one and then somewhere else. After a while I watched some Dr Phil and that helped .....

I am home now and feeling fine (touch wood - last time I said I felt fine that didn't last long, did it?). I hope to take it easy in the next few days, drinking lots of water and eating lots of fibre. My vitamins and immunity boosters (plus school holidays) should help!

Thank you for your thoughts and prayers today. It works! It all went very well - and I could "feel the love"!

I hope you get to this okay

Evening Update: Thank you to everyone who came to check out my blog. Sorry to the few people who didn't already know of my cancer diagnosis - I realise it came as a shock to you, but it's been such a time-consuming rollercoaster that after a while I didn't quite know how to broach the subject ..... anyway, it did provide us with the opportunity to reconnect via email or phonecall, so thanks for that!

Midday: I've spent the morning getting my blog site ready, so that you can read it and perhaps catch up to where I find myself today. You are currently in the "Home" part of the blog, but please first read the linked pages listed to the right of this text. It explains how and when I got diagnosed, etc. Then you'd come back to "Home" and read the earliest post which starts at the bottom of this page.

Have a lovely day! It's a cold and sunny day here in Adelaide, and I really must take the dog for a walk before I attempt some housework ....

Love
Laura x x

A wee setback

Well, after I posted about how well I was feeling, I found I had a urine infection. This can happen due to immunity hitting a 'low' (nadir) in the second week. What I needed urgently was an antibiotic. I obtained a script the next day, but the bug was resistant so I needed stronger stuff. The second antibiotic came with a long list of precautions as bad as chemotherapy drugs - similar possible side effects like heart or nerve damage (not to mention spontaneous 'tendon rupture'! Yikes!). As a patient, you are torn between wanting immediate relief/healing yet needing to be aware and wary of the chemicals you are putting into your body. It's a bit of a catch-22 situation. I hope I haven't done some damage to my body by taking this norfloxacin (banned in Ireland) because I have a chemo onslaught again on Wednesday!

Feeling Fine

I've had a great day today, feeling fine. I visited Sacred Heart to let them know when I'd be available for relief teaching, and it was great to chat with the other teachers and the ladies in the library. Lovely to get hugs and words of encouragement. It was a cool day by the beach and, after a bite to eat, I went for a walk with the dog. She sleeps in the car while I'm out chatting with someone - I then went to see my another friend and we had a lovely long chat over a cuppa. Since I also had stuff to take to Mitcham Girls, I dropped in there and it was good to see all my old colleagues and friends. Left me with a warm, fuzzy feeling inside ....

(little did I know that was the beginning of a urine infection)