June 9th, 2015
So it's been 2 weeks since Sarah received her first chemo treatment....let me tell what....chemo isn't messing around! It certainly has been a roller coaster ride over the last two weeks...emotionally and physically....BUT I tell you what Sarah has been amazing over these last two weeks to the best of her ability not to allow the side effects get her down! For those of you that have never had to go thru chemo personally or watch a love one endure the process....it basically sucks...no way around it!
The first 4 to 5 days after the treatment was probably the hardest for her...she had bouts of nausea, headaches, body aches, sleepless nights and fatigue. Credit to her thru those 4 days she went to work every day and tried to maintain as much normalcy as possible...she was in bed by 7pm every night but that's to be expected! Saturday was probably the worst day as far as fatigue goes but by Sunday she felt pretty much back to normal. I think the fatigue came and went but overall she was doing well throughout the remainder of the following week after chemo. She was in good spirits and doing well until Friday 6/5 came and she had to go to the oncologist for her CBC test (blood draw to determine how low her counts were). The tests indicated that her white blood cell count was low and needed a little boost since she would be traveling to California on Monday
They needed to give her an injection of a drug (cant remember the name) that helps boost the white blood cells to help fight any possible infection, the only side effects are typically bone pain and fatigue. Yeah she ended up getting both.....go figure! She also had some striations on her left arm which presented as a possible infection most likely to the cording in the left arm and her immune system being low. Perfect storm in a way! So we ended up bouncing between nursing staff to the PT therapist back to a oncologist at the cancer center to determine the best course of action to address the infection. After about 2 hour they ended up determining that Keflex would be advisable. Sarah was in pain that Friday morning and knew something was wrong....in her words she said "it hurts like a bitch!!" I said "alrighty lets just tell the doctor that so they can address your pain and get your infection down." She didn't exactly put it those words but did alert them to the redness.
By Saturday the redness seemed to spread and was not longer in streaks but rather like a rash pattern....Sarah of course decided to consult Dr. McAllister (me) on what I thought was going on....which I replied "Um honey I'm not a doctor, lets page the doctor line" so Sarah decided to listen to me (not) and then google every thing else it could be....yeah great idea dear lets trust the internet to give the best medical advice. Awesome!! She finally paged the doctor on call and they wanted me to draw around the redness and if the redness spread beyond that line throughout the night to go to the ER for IV antibiotics. Fortunately that did not happen and the redness had subsided by Sunday morning. So that was pretty eventful! We got to go my cousins house for some pool time on Sunday which the kids thoroughly enjoyed.
I think Saturday night was my low point since we were supposed to go to U2 but couldn't....Sarah couldn't risk possibly getting sicker since her immune system was compromised (the doc said you can go to U2 but Sarah has to wear a mask all night long....yeah who wants to go to a concert wearing a mask all night long.... yeah the answer is no one!!)and things just really set in that our life is somewhat controlled by cancer and treatments to destroy it...letting go and realizing we are not in control is a difficult thing to accept...I felt envious of people able to go about their normal lives without having to worry about cancer. Was this what our lives had become and the worries that we have to consistently face?!?!? I tried to stay positive but it was difficult and felt exposed as being completely human in my feelings, frustrations, anger, disappointment, lack of control over the situation we were dealing with....at the end of my pity party I came to my senses and realized this is about Sarah and getting her well.....ONE DAY AT A TIME!!
Let's just hope that Bono and U2 weren't that good in concert....again if you went to the concert just tell me that it sucked! :)
Other than that for the eventful weekend Sarah made the decision to shave her head Friday night since she had her wig fitting on Saturday...as each of you could imagine that was very difficult for her and emotional! She compared it to hearing for the first time that she had cancer. I did my best to console her and comfort her but I don't know how successful I was in the endeavor....we certainly had some wait time before she said "screw it let's do it"....which I responded with "hold on let me get a beer"...yeah and of course I offered her a shot of vodka! There were some tears shed at the beginning and some "ouch stop pulling my hair" commentary but she powered thru and at the end looked strong and ready to kick some cancer ass! Some people even sent some photos comparing her to Charlize Theron from the new Mad Max...pretty nice compliment if you ask me!
She wore her Colorado head cap throughout the night since she said her head was cold (she wore her head cap that she got from Alex Gish so thank you Alex for the cap....it kept her head warm). The new wig looks good and she has a hat wig thingy that allows her to just but a cap on and it looks like natural hair around the hat. Either way with a wig or without and completely bald she is beautiful....thank you to everyone who text her (friends, family, coworker, etc) and called to tell her how beautiful she is...the support was amazing!
Sarah ended up making the trip to California for work with the stipulation that she had to wear a mask at the airports and on the airplane! She said that was a little embarrassing but understood it was necessary. I told her to make her coworkers wear a mask on the way back to Denver so she didn't feel embarrassed (time to step up Julie!!! HAHA)....she is rockstar in my book for still staying on task at work and traveling to California for her job!
Next treatment is in a week and we will see how this one goes...hard to say if there is a pattern or if each occurrence has it's own post-care concerns. The meal train is back up and going for the weeks of chemo so thank you to each of you have already signup...much appreciated!
Other than that we are hanging in there and just counting down the weeks until we can say "No more chemo treatments!" I can't thank all of you enough for the continued support and checking in on Sarah...that support has been so helpful and many of you have not waivered since we found out she had cancer....you guys are amazing too so please understand how important each of you are to this process and your love and support does not go unnoticed! I don't know how I will ever repay or tell you how much we appreciate it!
The support and words of encouragement mean so much..... they help Sarah keep up her spirits and will to fight so hard! Keep continuing to remind her to eat well, drink her water, exercise (walk) when she can, and rest when her body tells her too (she has a problem with the last one)....God bless Sarah and keep those prayers coming!
Thank you everyone...
Mac
"I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me!" Philippians 4:13
