Hi All,
Well, this week we confirmed what we've been told - taking chemo treatment is hard.
The treatment Steve is taking is given in a 3 week cycle and we started week 1 on Monday by spending the day at Strong where he received 1 of 2 chemo drugs. When that was finished, a pump with the second chemo drug was installed that continuously delivers it over 96 hours. Along the way you get to have extra fluids via IV (Mon, Tues, and Wed) plus the antibody treatment on Wednesday.
The first few days I think we enjoyed the honeymoon phase because besides for being tired (not a lot of sleep for either of us) and Steve having hiccups (even harder to get sleep), it wasn't as bad as I think we had expected. They give a number of different medications to control the potential nausea side effects - so those did their job. The one he took the first 3 days has a side effect of hiccups (go figure....).
Anyway, we celebrated Christmas early on Monday night with my son. We had fun and Steve enjoyed teasing Matthew because he found some old Christmas pictures from 2005 on his digital camera and inquired how much it would be worth to Matthew not to post them on Facebook :-).
We also got a nice shot of the 3 of us in our seasonal headgear for this week's photo. I told Matthew he was lucky that I wasn't willing to spend the extra $5 to get the elf hat that has the big pointy elf ears attached.
Thursday, Steve enjoyed not having to go anywhere and Friday the Medical Service came and unhooked the chemo pump. Shortly after that the honeymoon was over and Steve felt really bad most of the evening. Saturday, we were back at Strong to get the scheduled shot that stimulates the production of white blood cells that helps battle infections. He felt a little better Saturday and today, but no where near normal. Suffice it to say there was no biking this week.
Friday, we received a lovely Christmas arrangement from Steve's family and it is sitting on our hearth for us to enjoy. We're looking forward to Sarah and Mike arriving for a quick visit on Monday. The next 2 weeks of treatment is only antibody infusion on Wed, so hopefully it will be less hard. We hope everyone has had a nice holiday and enjoyed time with family and friends.
Take care,
Zelma
