Falling again....

I made real good friends with a nurse in chemo and learned today that having friends in high places works.  This morning while in chemo I found out that she could get "the count" a day early. I wished I had this info a little before now, but oh well!  So....I called her direct extension and got the number early.  I am back to falling again...Praise God.  The count is 10 which means I still have cancer producing cells but I am getting real close to not having any reproducing cells.  Just think...11 weeks ago "the count" was at 93,000.  I am real excited and feel like I am close to an end.  We are hoping that I will only have 3 more weeks of chemo.  I AM SO EXCITED.  We meet with my oncologist on Monday and are hoping to get a better direction from that meeting.  Please continue to pray.  Pray specifically that this chemo will kill these last few cells.  We are praying to have heard the word remission by Easter!  

I found this is my bed....

This morning it was pouring rain off and on in Mobile.  I opened the back door so my dog could sit on the back porch (where he loves to sit and watch it rain) and have the freedom to go in and out.  At about 7:30 this morning my wet dog brought me a present.  He dropped this in my bed and began barking.  I could not figure out what he was barking at but I knew it was most likely alive!  I quickly jumped up and realized it was a turtle.  A MUDDY TURTLE IN MY CLEAN BED.  Drake loves turtles and they will entertain him for hours.  I took a shower, went to the office and came back home and he was still in the backyard playing with his new friend.  I am just glad all the neighbors are at work because I know he barked for a solid 4 hours.  He is still in the back yard now asleep on the porch with the turtle next to him.  

Hope your dog will bring you a gift today....

No change...

I really dont have much to report.  I had hardly any change in "the count" this week.  I dropped from 21 to 20 which is definitely not what we were expecting or hoping for.  We talked to the nurse in depth and it seems like we are more concerned than her.  We are now in a waiting period to see how my body will respond this week.  Many have asked if I can tell physically how my body is responding that particular week and I can not.  I wish I did have some kind of indication but I do not.  

Please pray.  We are really wanting for the count to fall significantly this week.  Many people have asked how many more weeks and we still do not know.  Once I get to zero, I will have 3 more weeks.  So, this leaves us with at least 3-4 weeks now.  There has been a rumor that I am through with chemo and as much as I would love for that to be true, it is not.  I still go weekly for chemo.

Thanks for sticking with me in this process.  I will be rejoicing in remission soon!  

a little bit closer...but still not zero

Well my nurse called this morning with "the count" and it is not what I was hoping for. It is still dropping and that is the most important thing. The frustrating part to me is that I want it to be zero and it is just taking my body a little longer than I was hoping for to reach this point. I have never been a "patient waiter" and so this is really giving me fits. But, the good news is that it continues to fall and at least "the count" is going in the right direction.

I seem to be tolerating week 8 of chemo better than week 7. I have not had near the side effects so far this week so that is definitely good for my spirits. I hope I am not speaking too soon but last week, I knew things were going to rough by about Monday afternoon. I am counting on a great week!

Michael had a guys weekend with a bunch of friends from college days. He had so much fun and looks forward to this weekend every year. His main comments were about how good they ate. Since he was gone, I decided I was going to have girls time. My mom and grandmother came this weekend and it was great to get to hang out with them. (Dad...well turkey season opened yesterday and you can imagine where he was all weekend) My grandmother took a really bad fall a while back and broke her wrist and had to have stitches in her face and the last time I saw her she did not look too good. But, this weekend she was back to her spunky self and looked great.

that is what we have been up too....

Hope all is well with you and that you are able to enjoy the spring weather all week!

Getting closer!

This morning the nurse called to tell me "the count."  I knew it was going to be zero and actually my Oncologist for the first time yesterday said he thought it would be as well so I did not even call her.  She called first so I knew when I saw the caller id what she was going to say. I picked up the phone ready to hear the news.  I heard the count, but she did not quite say what I was wanting to hear.  Bottom line... I still have a count.  It did drop and I am now in double digits which is still good...still ahead of schedule....and still disappointing.  This count indicates that I still have active cancer cells.  Maybe this week will be the end of this.  

I had my 7th round of chemo on Monday.  I wish I could tell you that I know exactly what to expect but one thing I have learned through cancer is that I have so little control over my body.  I literally have no "EARTHLY" idea what is going on to happen.  Every week seems to be so different from the week before that I feel like I am on this surprise journey until Friday's.  Usually by Friday, enough of the drugs are out of body that I am feeling almost back to myself.  Weekends are so looked forward to in our home.  

And since weekends are so good let me share just a glimpse of this past weekend.  Last Thursday I received a phone call that a very special lady wanted to give Michael and me a weekend at the Grand Hotel. For those of you not from the area, this is about 45 mins away and is a little piece of paradise nestled on the Mobile Bay.  I was blown away.  Well, I ended up spending Friday night with some college friends for a girls night over there.  I was attending a Women's Conference with them and Michael thought it would be good for us to stay and have fun.  Fun....we had fun!  It was the latest I have been up in a really long time.  Michael came over on Saturday and we had an amazing time. It was so fun to feel well enough to really enjoy the Spring weekend!

So...where do I stand....

I am hoping that next week will be my week to hear zero!  If that is the case, I will have about three more rounds of chemo to endure after that.  We will begin more scans, ultrasounds, and test as soon as I get to zero and from that point I will hopefully receive a "partial remission" status.  I will continue to monitored and tested for a year and then hopefully hear that I am in full remission.  

Thanks for caring, and following this blog.

Still not zero, but still dropping!

Well, I am sad to report that "the count" was not zero today, but it did drop and dropped a lot.  My count today was 219 and that is still more than cut in 1/2.  We are praying that next week will be the week that I hit zero.  

I am still feeling pretty good.  I did have a lot of nausea last week but I have changed medicines and that seems to be working a lot better for me.  My mouth ulcers are still hanging around but over the weekend the mouth wash seemed to help a little.  Overall, my body is tolerating the chemo great.  

Thanks for staying in touch.