Day 16 - Educated

Henry woke up a bit earlier than usual this morning so we let him climb into our bed for a little while.  While he was snuggling/tossing and turning, he inched over really close to me and whispered "Mom, I love you."  I love that little guy too. More than I can ever describe. Hearing those words from him was the perfect start to my day.

Mike and I both feel very well-educated about the first chemo regimen that I will have.  I will start with a combination of two drugs that is commonly referred to as AC (and I will call it that because I will never spell the actual drug names properly). The nurse went through all potential side effects ranging from inconvenient to scary (but the scary ones are super rare), and I am glad that she painted the full picture for us.  She did say that they will load me up with anti-nausea medicines both via IV before chemo and via pill to take home so I should be able to manage the nausea pretty well.  She also gave me a huge list of other OTC meds to have on hand to deal with various symptoms.  I've gone from someone who very rarely takes medicine to having an entire box full of various pills and potions in my laundry room.

If you need something, hit me up.

We'll talk about the other chemo regimen as we get closer to the time. Why overload ourselves at this point when I've got the 4 AC treatments to focus on first.  I'll admit that I am a bit nervous about how I will feel on Tuesday morning. It's hard to say how I will react emotionally when I am actually in the chair getting hooked up to the medicine.  The logical side of me says "this is what you have to do so you will do it, and it is how you are going to be better."  The emotional side of me says "is this really happening?  Am I really having chemotherapy?"  I have a feeling that emotion will take center stage on Tuesday morning, but hopefully logic and reason don't step too far away.

I am healing nicely from Wednesday's surgery.  I wasn't horrified when I took my bandages off this morning so I consider that to be an excellent sign.  The bar is much lower than it once was.

I've got 3 full days of no medical appointments or tests and am going to take full advantage of them and enjoy a nice "normal" weekend with Mike and Henry.