Round 2, Cycle 1 Completed!

Round 2…
Yesterday went well, my blood count was up so I was able t finish my first full cycle of chemo! One full cycle down, and five more cycles to go. The past couple of weeks have been going well for me, as my energy has been pretty good except for a few days here and there were I feel pretty tired. I have been taking it pretty easy lately and just have been taking care of myself so I can stay on schedule as much as possible.

This past weekend was nice and relaxing. We were able to take advantage of the nice weather on Saturday and went out on the boat. I felt fine the whole time and even enjoyed some O’Doul’s. I hope the weather will finally break soon so we can get some more time out on the boat.

My hair started falling out a couple days ago, so instead of it slowly falling out, Rachel took the clippers to my head. She did a pretty good job except for the fact that she didn’t realize that the #1 blade protector had fallen off and continued to shave my head with no blade cover. She had to shave my head again because of the length difference. It really wasn’t a big deal because I will be bald soon anyways. It is definitely weird having a shaved head, but it is super easy to get ready in the morning, not like it was hard before.

It is so hard to explain how your body feels once the chemo has been administered. It doesn’t feel like any illness I have ever had, but my stomach feels weird and my body plays tricks on me. If I am stationary for a while, I feel fine. But if I move around, sometimes I get a little loopy. I have had hiccups three times since I got home yesterday from treatment. I slept most of the afternoon yesterday, and I slept in pretty late this morning. I think a good way to explain how my body feels is that I feel like I have extra weight pushing down on me, hopefully that makes sense.

I have never been a huge soccer fan, but I am enjoying watching the World Cup, it is nice having live sports on the TV in the morning! That and On Demand have been helping me relax lately, and I am super pumped that Whale Wars is back for another season. If I had the chance I would love to go on a six month expedition on the Sea Shepherd. If you have not seen the show, check it out on Animal Planet.

I am still continuing to work, and work is going well. At the same time, if you know of anyone looking to purchase or sell a home, please let me know. I am always looking for new business, and any referral is much appreciated.

Please feel free to ask my questions about my cancer, treatment or anything else. I try to respond to everyone and if I have not, I apologize about that. I hope to have a more humorous post in the near future, today I am just feeling a bit tired. I hope all is well with everyone, and it will be nice to see some of you this weekend at Brock’s Softball game.

Week 2...

Week 2 of Chemo…

This is a good week as I do not have treatment this week, but I do have lab work. I have to go to the oncologist for blood work to make sure my blood counts are up. I am sure they are up as I have only been in treatment for one week…So, this afternoon I will go in for a blood draw and I think that is about it. Overall I am feeling pretty damn good right now! I get tired by about 4-5pm in the afternoon and I find my self sleeping a bit more. I think the first few days were rough because of the steroids they put in my body and my body didn’t know if it was tired or if it wanted to rock out! Now, I feel pretty much normal except for the fact that all of my fingertips have this numb tingly feeling all the time now. I don’t know if it is the medication I am taking or if it is the chemo. We are thinking it is the Allopurinal I am taking for my liver.

Last Friday I had to meet with the Radiologist to talk about the chances of having to do radiation after my 6 months of chemo was completed. Well…it looks like I will have to do 4 weeks of radiation after I am done with my chemo treatment. I wasn’t surprised by this and what the doctors have determined is that the large mass on the right side of my neck is a cluster of lumps and is classified as “bulky” which means that most likely the chemo will break down the lumps but there will most likely be some residual of the lumps. The only way to completely get rid of it is to zap me! Honestly, the radiation sounds much more appealing compared to chemo, so I have no problems having to do 4 weeks of radiation after chemo. It would be 5 days a week for about 20 minutes a day. The side effects are not too bad and most of them are temporary, but I could have some permanent issues with my thyroid. But there is a very simple fix with medication for that, so I am not worried about that at all. When you weigh out the pros and cons and keeping the goal in mind to be cancer free at the end of the treatment it is a no brainer to move forward with the radiation treatment at the end. If everything goes according to plan I should be all done by mid January and hopefully skiing in Whistler sometime in February. Oh yeah, it will be nice to enjoy a cocktail then too!

This past weekend was great, Rachel’s parents flew in from Louisiana and spent memorial weekend with us. We had a great time just hanging out and doing a little work around the house. Actually Rachel put her dad to work! Mr. Randal ended up installing a TV in the guest room and also added a ceiling fan to the master bedroom. I am pretty excited for the fan because the upstairs of the home can get pretty warm in the summer. Rachel and her mom (Miss Verelda) enjoyed the outlet mall in Marysville and we all had a great brunch at Salty’s on Sunday. I put the chuck wagon on and threw down some good eats; I would love to eat that food every Sunday! Monday Miss Verelda cooked up some amazing food, Chicken something (I wish I knew how to spell it, but I think you would pronounce it like Free Cason, but I am probably way off) it is like a chicken gumbo, but a little thicker with potatoes and she also adds egg to it. Of course it is served over white rice and it tastes so good! We had a great time just hanging out talking about the wedding and just relaxing. I am very excited to be a part of their family and I feel extremely lucky that my family and Rachel’s family all get along so well.

Thank you all again for messaging, texting, calling and stopping by. I am amazed of how many people are keeping me in their thoughts and I will always be grateful of your support. I will keep you all posted!