Finally under 1000!

The nurse just called to give me my news of the week.  It is pretty crazy how much I anticipate that one phone call.  She gave me great news...."the count" is down to 919.  I am very excited. However, my white blood cell count is way too low so I am headed into the the Institute to have a little IV to get that more balanced.  It has been low for a couple of weeks but apparently this week it is too low to wait until Monday.  Oh well.

Another bit of good news, is that they are letting me travel to Montgomery this weekend.  I am very excited.  This weekend we will be celebrating my grandmother's 80th birthday and I did not want to miss it. 

I also want to tell you how blessed I have been by some friends.  As I walk through this journey, it has been great to have a community of people around me to be a support.  We have had friends fix meals for us weekly.  We have had friends that every Monday send us messages.  I have a friend who made me a basket of goodies and I open one each Monday (this week was silly string).  I have friends who have brought me my weekly supply of gatorade.  I have a friend who sent me personalized stationary to write all my thank-you's.  I have a friend who comes and walks my dog on my bad days.  We have been so blessed.  Thank you!

And for a few questions that we have been asked.....

Do you feel as good as it seems?

I have great days and days where I dont feel like getting out of bed.  The typical cycle is that Monday I go and get chemo and I am real sore from that.  The chemo is powerful injections that damage the tissue around the injection spots.  Tuesdays are a little draining.  Wednesdays and Thursdays are my toughest days.  By lunch on Friday I am usually bouncing back and that makes the weekends pretty good.  Then the cycle begins all over again. 

Why can't I travel?

The biggest concern is blood clots and infection.  With the location of my tumor, blood clots have been and will continue to be a concern.  And to be honest, I have not been up to traveling.  I think my bed time lately is about 8:30-9:00.  And no, I am not kidding.  I am pretty zapped of energy by night and so sleep is the best thing for me.  ****But, I am released to go to Montgomery this weekend so we will see how that goes.  

Can I drive?

Yeah!  I drive and many weeks even drive myself to chemo.  Michael meets me down there to go with me but I can drive myself.

Am I working?

I am still working full-time.  My schedule is flexible on some days and that makes things very nice.  I have used some vacation time and sick time to get me through a few of the weeks and I have canceled a few of my morning bible studies but we are back on now and things are pretty much back to routine.  I think I do better when I can keep as normal of a routine as possible.