Finally, a plan

The chemotherapy schedule has been established, and I'm not happy. I'd been led to believe that I'd be getting four rounds of chemo, once every three weeks. Nope. It's going to be twice every three weeks. Chemo, chemo, rest, repeat four times. Then we'll take a month off, followed by radiation five days a week for five or six weeks.

Yes yes, I know that everyone reacts differently to chemo, but it is a safe assumption that there will be at least a couple of days after each treatment when I'll feel lousy. When I anticipated that I'd feel bad one weekend out of three, that seemed manageable; two weeks out of three is a whole different ballgame.

Fatigue is an inevitable consequence of both chemo and radiation, and the effect is cumulative. Dr. K plotted a nice little graph for me showing that after each treatment I'll feel bad, will slowly recover, but each time I'll recover a little less and be a little further from my starting point.

Out of the many things that I've been lucky about throughout this, one certainly continues to be that we're moving into spring, not fall. No matter how bad I feel, I can be sitting on my back deck when summer finally arrives. Much better than heading into dreary, rainy, dark winter.

From the very beginning all the doctors have said that I'm healthy and have a good attitude, and will be able to tolerate aggressive treatment. I guess this is what they meant.

Lotsa Helping Hands

I haven't done much with Marcee's Super Strong Support site, but I imagine that's going to change. For those of you who live in the area and want to know how to help, start checking it next week and beyond, once I figure out how all this will affect me and what I'll need. Off the top of my head I can anticipate that I'll probably need meals and maybe rides. And if you like to poke around in gardens, there will be lots to do!