Day 71 - One Helluva Week

Last week was a very rough week and that's why it's been a minute since my last post. It started off with another week of extremely low platelets, low white blood cell count, and low red blood cell count (with a slew of other things being flagged as low, but those three were the most important ones). Because of that, chemo was cancelled again. Then, I spent a majority of the week throwing up. Morning, night, sudden afternoon projectile vomiting in the bathroom of the Smoothie place. Fortunately I was the only one in there. Fortunately I made it to the trash can and then the sink.

Cancer beating me down last week

The vomiting comes from the excess and abundant saliva and mucus that is a side effect of radiation treatment to my esophagus. Swallowing too much of it makes you sick, and it also creates a gag reflex that triggers vomiting. In fact, here are some of the effects of radiation treatment:

• Sore throat

• Excess saliva - like Niagara Falls. I have to carry a spit cup everywhere and it's the most annoying thing in the world (outside of taxes, Jar-Jar Binks, and getting the middle seat on an airplane)

• Extreme fatigue - like physically drained of all life force and all you can do is lay around in an exhausted heap as if you were a puppet and nobody was working your strings

Then, because I was throwing up so much of what I was taking in via my tube, my weight plummeted and I became dehydrated. My blood pressure dropped and I had to get IV fluids. It was a very rough week. Jess spent more time holding me up and helping me get through gut-wrenching bouts of vomiting and emptying spit cups and soothing my neck with cool towels than anything else. I'm easily out of breath and highly affected by the heat and too much sun. The week was just awful (outside of a nice visit at the beginning of the week from our amazing friends Cammen and Heather who flew out from Colorado and Minnesota to see us, and Katherine and Neil who drove over from their Virginia farmstead).

If you've seen The Princess Bride, I was essentially like Westley after he is put on "The Machine" and the dial is turned to 50. If we had a wheelbarrow, Jess would have been pushing me around in it. I was so drained I couldn't even get my head to work to concentrate on anything.

Cancer cranked it up to 50 last week

But this week has started off better. While certain levels are still low (like blood cell counts), they're not too low to hold treatments, and my platelets are back up. So, they gave me my chemo treatment yesterday, but at a reduced dosage. I've had more energy and no vomiting so far (fingers crossed). I've been losing SO much hair that I decided to just get ahead of it and so we went to Wellspring (the hospital's cancer support center) and they shaved my head for me and gave me an awesome Aveda shampoo product for my scalp and dying hair follicles.

We also got a better idea of what's next:

• Radiation ends Wednesday, the 19th

• Most likely (levels dependent) one more chemo treatment this coming Monday

• PET CT scan 4 weeks after radiation ends

• Meeting with the surgeon at Johns Hopkins 2-3 days after scan

• If surgery is a go (depending on the scans and his call), surgery will be 4 weeks after that

• Hospital recovery = about 10 days

The window to have the surgery done is eight weeks. It's a tight timeframe to go in and remove the esophagus before things start growing back. In those four weeks before the surgery, my job is to rest, stay nourished, keep my weight and strength up, and be in the best physical shape I can be for surgery. We also found out that the four weeks after treatments are done will still be a bit rough, as the chemicals are still in my body, with the third week being a likely crash - for some reason that's the cycle post-radiation. So even though treatments will end next week, I'll still have four weeks of contending with symptoms.

That's where we're at right now. We'll be listing our house in May and we're actively looking for a place to rent in Winchester. We can't do another winter in the woods. We're feeling optimistic about the surgery. The surgeon at Johns Hopkins is top notch and even though it's a huge surgery (like 8 hours of serious internal reconstruction), the end result will be worth it.

As always, your kindness, friendship, thoughts, notes, cards, surprise gifts, generous donations, jokes, smiles, virtual hugs, and all-around awesomeness are deeply appreciated.

Keep on keeping on!

-j