Update for 7/6

Well, today I went in for a blood draw to make sure that I was okay in that department. My red blood cells, hemoglobin were low, but they didn't give me a procrit shot becuase they feel that it will bounce back up by next Wednesday when I have my chemo again. I definitely felt more sluggish today and now I know why. Guess I'll have to get back into the steak routine I was in. I had a big plate of sauteed spinach this afternoon and just picked up some iron pills. That ought to do it. One other strange thing is that the inside of my mouth feels really funny, like the top layer of skin isn't a part of me or something. It's just odd. It's also a little awkward to swallow. This is called mucositis anyway, and it just means that the cells are not replenishing fast enough because I'm doing this dose dense approach to chemo, so I'm not allowing my body to rejuvinate at its normal rate-which also attacks any fast growing cancer cells. So, I'll deal with it. It's a small price to pay :-)

I spoke with Tim Tyler on Saturday night this past week at church and he told me about another anti-nausea drug called emend that they use at Desert with patients who have problems with nausea due to chemo. So, I asked about it today when I was there and they said that I have to take decadron (a steroid that keeps you awake) with it. These two would be on top of the Iloxy that they gave me last time and the compozine that I'll take as needed. I really feel reluctant to take all of this high powered stuff. I mean, each one works on a different brain receptor for nausea but it makes me a little nervous to be taking all of that and have to deal with the chemo, too. I'm thinking that I might be okay dealing with a little bit of nausea and just having two drugs in my system rather than four plus the chemo. Yikes.
I think I'm going to call Tim and talk it over with him a little bit before and also talk to Rick. If any of you have experience with this, please let me know. I want to make a good decision, but I have to get the decadron prescription filled before I go on Wednesday. So, let me know before then.

I went out of town for a few days and it was great to get away and to be out of the heat. It even rained. I went to a ball game and saw a fireworks display and it was really fun. I also got to see my brother and Eric :-). One of the funny things wass that, Skip and Linda Osgood picked me up from the airport and I just had to crack up becuase each one of us had some kind of medical condition, yet they were carrying my luggage. Incredible. Luckily, they have handicapped parking privileges so that was nice. Then, I came home and my house had been cleaned by Amy Haven and Kristin and Debbie Geyer and it was sooo nice to come home to a clean house. You can't imagine what a blessing that was! Wow! I basically ate lunch and then crashed for a bit, then worked on a chart for church and then had to rush off to band practice which was really a lot of fun for all of us. I'm looking forward to Sunday Video Cafe service for sure. Saturday, too. I'm so glad that I can still do all ofthis. Unfortunately I won't be able to do the worship for Jacob's Well on Monday, but Elli Tourje is going to be able to do it, so that's great.

Today, all I did was relax, catch up on some e-mails, do some laundry, go to the doctor and take a nap. That was it. Oh, I almost forgot, I stopped by the McIntrye's on the way back from the doctor and she had this bag of goodies from Bath & body works. So, thanks to she and Dee James, I'm now going to be smelling some great candles at home and using some nice smelling moisturizer. During this time, it's just nice to have some uplifting fragrant stuff. That was so sweet. I'm looking forward to it :-)

It felt good but almost a little guilty to do practically nothing today, but I honestly didn't have the energy to do anything else...Oh well, just took an iron pill so tomorrow I should be back in the game I hope...

Hope this update finds all of you doing very well!
Julie