Done with Four!

Whelp, as I argued with my mom on the phone today, I'm either a third or a quarter of the way though, depending on how you look at it. Point is, this first phase of treatment, which is said to me some of the most physically taxing is through!

Let me take a few steps back though as it's been a few days...

I might add, I realize I haven't blogged super-consistently as of late.  There's a couple of reasons for it, really.  One, I've got other stuff I do...like work, and second work, etc.  That's kind of a lame excuse I realize. Two, it seems sort of boring right now.  Life is kind of just rolling along, and I feel like that isn't really worth updating.

After returning from the wonderful time in Minnesota, I got back in the swing of things at work, which was a short week as we had Fall Break this Thursday and Friday.  Thursday was a routine follow-up with the oncologist with the following to report:

• Expensive Neulasta shots continue to do their job keeping white cell counts up
• Big Bertha has softened!  Not necessarily gotten smaller (as he might have hoped for), but softer, which is a good thing.
• Lymph nodes are no longer palpable (felt from outside, indicating cancer has receding from these)
• I start the next round (weekly treatments of Taxol) of treatment in 2 weeks, it'll stay on Fridays, and continue for 12 straight weeks, ended in mid-January.  It's said these are "easier" treatments than the current regimen.  

Thursday evening, Lynn, my old roommate from UD arrived from San Diego!  This lovely lady jumped on the chance to follow up the sisterly visits with a trip of her own.  Like I've said many times...I'm one lucky girl.

Wifey!

She accompanied me to treatment, is going to cook a delicious dinner tonight, has volunteered to do laundry, etc, and since she's had her own work to do (see laptop above), has encouraged me to do work as well rather than just lounge around! All great things!

Although, to help with the lounging around, I did get one of these:

Can't beat the price.

Pretty sure I'm going to be glad that I finally spent the $35 on this to avoid connecting my Kindle with wires, or failing to connect my laptops hdmi output, etc.  Can't wait to stream some of my favorite TV shows that come on too damn late in this god forsaken time zone to actually watch original broadcasts of.

Friday treatment was without any excitement, other than the "excitement" of it being the last one!  Definitely felt routine. Lynn hadn't been back to Dayton since we graduated in '07 so spent some time walking around before lunch with a friend then a committee meeting.  I got a fair amount of work done, then a decent flick (Draft Day with Kevin Costner...he has really got that role down...sort of suave, in sports, tortured relationship with parents, semi-funny guy) before bed.

Today, had a late start to the morning then met up with another old roommate and her adorable 9 mo old for lunch:

Blast from the past...of course we forgot to take a photo today...

Off to get the last booster shot after seeing Erin's lovely house, trip to Runner's Plus, stop by Walmart to switch out a RedBox and get a few necessities, and now we're currently pounding away on laptops and relaxing.

I'm sort of nervous for the next few days.  I feel good now, but Saturdays are always pretty good.  I'm slightly worried that the next few days won't be as great...sometimes I have to remind myself I'm in chemo.  That it's not really supposed to feel "good" and that I'm handling it far better than I think most (including myself) anticipated, so I should probably just be grateful and shut up :)  

The support continues to be overwhelming at times, but I'm super grateful for it all.  It's funny because I feel like "everyone" knows, but then there are still times when new people find out, at work, or friends, or family friends.  And, everyone is always just so damn supportive.  So thank you all.  

Another great gift arrived today, so I'll leave you with those words, which really, cancer or not, I think we can always probably use a nice reminder of: