Five Down and Three To Go

It always amazes me, when I look back on time, how quickly it passes.  It seems just like yesterday that I was going in for my first chemotherapy treatment.  I still remember the anxiety and downright fear that I felt, and now here I am, on the downgrade.  I've completed the first round of treatments, and had my first treatment of the second round.  

This new medication is called Taxol, and it's side effects are quite different from the Adriamycin/Cytoxin combo.  I haven't had the problems with nausea at all.  In fact, I've hardly taken any anti-nausea medication since my treatment on Tuesday, March 24th.  The one side effect that is quite disconcerting is the muscle and bone aches and pains.  The two days after the treatment, I had zero energy.  All I wanted to do was sleep.  Then, the leg aches hit.  It's difficult to explain how they feel.  It's not like having the flu when you just ache all over.  It's more like twinges of pain that strike whenever, and the only way to relieve them is to move. They also make my legs feel weak, and I sometimes feel like I'm going to lose my balance or fall.  I was told I would have feelings of clumsiness, etc., and it's true.  I haven't ventured out yet, but I can't hibernate, so hopefully by tomorrow (Monday), I'll feel well enough to get out and do something.  

I've been kind of down in the dumps this week.  I think alot of that is because of the side effects of the chemo, but I also learned that a friend of mine who is fighting colon cancer found out that the cancer had matasticized to her brain.  It just seems so unfair that this is happening to her.  She lost her husband to cancer this last July.  It wasn't more than two weeks after his passing that she was diagnosed with colon cancer, and now this.  The doctors have told her she probably has nine to eleven months, but they are treating it aggressively with radiation and she has a fighting spirit.  If anyone can overcome this, it's Becky. 

Then, Pat and I were having lunch at Huntsman while I was waiting for my chemo appointment

and one of Pat's friends stopped by our table to say hello.  We all said this was no place to run into friends, because it meant someone was in some kind of medical trouble.  It wound up being his son, who was diagnosed with a hodgkins cancer of the blood.  He was in the hospital for aggressive treatment and would be there for at least another two or three weeks.  He's only in his thirties and has two little children.  Again, I'm wondering why.  

I know life is no respecter of people, and there are no guarantees, but sometimes life seems to be too unfair.  I'm going to be even more thankful for all of my blessings, because I truly believe

that I have been blessed in so many ways from the very beginning of this journey.