So its been about a week since Mom's first treatment and so far so good. Lots of discomfort and headaches and fatigue, of course, but only a few major concerns. She went back to the treatment center yesterday for some follow up lab work. Most everything came back normal or low, but still ok, except for the white blood cell count, which as critically low. This is pretty typical, of course, and the after chemo shot is supposed to jump start the production, but I guess it just hasn't done its job very quickly.
As a result, Momma has been put a course of antibiotics to ward off any infection and now has to live her life for the next few days like a nurse would: wash your hands often! Other people are really germy! Tom joked that he was going to keep her from giving away too many Christmas hugs while she's on the antibiotics, but the nurses assured her that touching other people's hands is much, much dirtier than most any hug. So is being at the mall.
Other than that Momma has been feeling... ok. Lots of rest (good), lots of relaxing (good), lots of yummy food (good), lots of headaches (bad). At first we weren't really sure what was causing the headaches that seemed to last for days. Some theories were from the lumbar fluid extraction, others from the actual chemo itself. However, after Momma woke up last night with a lot of pain in her back and another headache after going to bed feeling fine, almost good, I think we may finally have a good theory for the headaches. It's her body making white blood cells. The doctor reminded her this morning on the phone that in addition to a white blood cell factory in the back, there are also white blood cell facories in the bones of your skull. So now we are thinking that the after chemo shot (which we were also told is on a sort of extended release cycle) is really starting to work. If we can just get through this achiness, and start understanding when it is going feel better, and believing it will get better, then we'll be good to go.
Can't you just tell us what to expect? Is that too much to ask?
So that's where we are. Taking it day by day. Like a toddler with tantrums, we are just trying to figure out our boundaries for when it's appropriate to pull the C-Card on your ass. Remember to post some messages for Momma on the blog, so that she can play the C-Card for you! You don't need to sign up in order to post messages, you can simply post anonymously and sign your name at the bottom. If she gets some messages, we can bait her into posting some updates herself. She really can tell these stories much better than I can, with details about everything the nurses said, and how funny they can be, and how funny some of the other ladies at the treatment center look. You get the idea.
Have a very Merry Christmas!
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