July 18 & 19, 2017 Tuesday and Wednesday
Yesterday was another good, busy day in Roswell and it was fueled by steroids. I worked and just kept doing stuff, one project after another. The grandkids had swim lessons so I had time in the pool. It sure does take a lot of effort to keep up with Zoe in the kiddy/granny pool but I do my best. Coen does not require as much effort at the pool.
The last thing I did in Roswell was to get Frank to shave my head again – it seemed like my hair had gotten so long, so now I’m back to really short hair. There is still no loss of hair that I can tell.
I got back to Dalton just before midnight and I was getting a little tired so I did not write anything with the blog. I will mention that I had no symptoms of the plant allergy that caused me to have to get the steroids. I talked to the PA at the oncologist office and she told me to continue to take the rest of the steroid pills for the remaining four days to prevent the rash from redeveloping, so I will. I’m just very, very glad that the bumps, redness and swelling went away so quickly. I have a very few bumps on my hands but they are not itching too badly.
I think staying so active and working so hard did help me to sleep well last night in spite of the steroids. I woke up excited to be back in Dalton and planning to go to the pool with Sue and Paula. We got to the pool and no one was there – wonderful. However, within a very few moments, there were quite a few others joining us. By the time we left, there were many people, mostly small children, in the pool but everyone was very well behaved and there were no problems. The sun and water were wonderful. I am putting sunscreen on my scalp and face but I am somewhat concerned that I may be getting too much sun. I read the papers I have about the two chemo drugs I’m taking and they both say to limit sun exposure. They say use SPF 15 and long sleeves but I’m using SPF 30 and no sleeves. I’ll ask at the oncologist’s tomorrow to see if it’s okay for me to continue in the pool – I really, really love being in a pool, in case you can’t tell!!! hahaha I wonder what damage the sun could cause while taking the chemo – I don’t want to damage my skin or cause lots of dark spots or anything. I may have to think more about this.
I did get the results of the genetic testing and the results were negative. That means that I will not be passing breast cancer onto Zoe – that’s great news. However, it is causing me to reconsider the type of surgery I will want to have done after the chemo is finished. I had decided that if the results were positive, I would definitely have a double mastectomy with or without reconstruction. Since the result was negative, I still have that decision to make. I know that I will need to discuss this in detail with the surgeon before I make a decision, but I am leaning toward a double mastectony anyway. That way, there would definitely be no more breast cancer. I do have lots more thinking about this.
After the pool time, I spent time cutting fabric to take to sewing tomorrow and I have four blocks prepared to work on. Hope I get them all done. I also received my first bills related to the cancer treatments, so I set up a system in my Cancer Treatment Book to keep up with all the money going out to doctors and coming in from cancer insurance policies – it’s going to get interesting, I’m sure. I just want to be prepared to keep up with all the info so I can stay organized and find what I need when I need it.
I also mowed my grass and made decisions about my yard. Weeds had gotten bad in the monkey grass border in my front yard so I mowed it all down. I think I will just keep it mowed – it made my yard look larger to have that gone so that was good. I also decided to get rid of the many concrete border blocks that I have used, then removed and just stacked in the back yard and also the chain link fence I had installed to create my mini-bunny yard that I used to enjoy so much. When the fence and all those blocks are gone, it will be easier to maintain the back yard and right now, that’s important. I’ve been simplifying my yard for several years and it’s almost about as simple as it can get. Surprisingly I like it better simpler than more decorative. It’s okay that my taste in things like this change as I age – I do what I like!!!
As far as how I feel, I have lots of energy (due to steroids) and no other side effects that I can tell except that I may be getting a mouth sore. I do have some little scratches that are not healing as they usually would so I think that means new cells are not growing – good to know the cancer cells are not growing. There has been no more foot pain in several days so that’s good. In my reading tonight, I read that generally from 7 to 12 days after the chemo treatment is when the chemo is having the most dire effects (and side effects are worst) and that after the 12 days, I should expect to recover from it at least some. It also said that the severity of the side effects do not indicate whether the chemo is having an effect on the cells. Today was the 13th day after my first round of chemo. I have lab tomorrow so I’ll know lab results then and have one more week before another chemo treatment, the second treatment. I expect things will go downhill with the second treatment, but we shall see.
Morning weight – 211.0
Melanie's Journey Through Cancer 