Day 2 of Chemo

FYI - If you receive this via email you didn't get my song link in the last post.  Oops.  At the bottom of the emails there is always a link to my blog page that you can click on and go to the web page.  The song link does show up there!  It was Kutless - What Faith Can Do.

It has been a tough few days as you might imagine.  I have hopeful moments, then periods of fear.  There are so many verses in the Bible that tell us not to fear, but it takes a lot of mental energy to turn your brain off sometimes and just focus on the now.  Right now I am feeling about as cheerful as the weather outside (gray and raining all day), but I am happy that all those new plants at our house are getting a good soaking!

Brant has taken off work and driven up to be with me Tues, Wed, Thurs.  It has been a very nice to have him with me in clinic.  On Wednesday we met with one of the other doctors.  There are four, they work as a team, but each has a little different style.  Dr. Toor broke the news to us on Monday.  Dr. Chung followed up on Wednesday confirming the game plan.  There wasn't too much new, but he did emphasize the positive and said this is early and we have a good chance to wipe it out.  I started my chemo yesterday.  It is called Vidaza and only takes 20 minutes to infuse.  Today was my second dose and I will take it for seven days. It is pretty mild and they don't expect me to feel many side effects.  I am hoping I keep this lovely bit of hair that has grown back.  Brant says I am at the Sigourney Weaver in Aliens stage right now.

All of my cultures and tests came back negative for any type of infection or virus.  So I am off of the antibiotics again.  Dr. Chung is pretty sure that the daily fever spike is related to the influence of the pre-leukemia cells working on the marrow.  He went thru that pretty quick and I didn't really understand it too well.  Something about things being released into the bloodstream that can cause a fever.  I have also been very achey thru my lower back and my thighs.  It is like I had a big workout yesterday and the muscles are sore.  Dr. Chung thinks it is a bit of GVHD where the donor cells are attacking the connective tissue around the muscle fibers and irritate them.  It is manageable with Tylenol.  They actually want to see some GVHD so they know the donor cells are doing some attacking.  Tomorrow I go down another 25mg on the immunosuppressant so those donor cells will have more freedom.

Thanks for all of the comments and texts and emails and messages sent my way.  I was reminded by my brother that this is a gift to realize how many people love and care about us.  I'm fighting each day to stay strong and positive.  The army of support I have makes it so much easier!  Thank you.